Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders is pure luck, which is exactly why it works for families. Every player has the same chance, whether they are six or sixty. Roll, move along numbered fields, shoot up ladders and slide down snakes until somebody reaches the final field.

This version is drawn in clear black and white and runs in a normal browser tab. Two to four players share one device, and any of them can be run by the computer. You can choose the full 100-field board or a shorter 50-field one made for small children.

How to play Snakes and Ladders

Tokens begin off the board and come on with their first roll. The fields zigzag upward from the bottom left, so each row runs the opposite way from the one beneath it. Press Roll and your token walks forward on its own.

Stop at the bottom of a ladder and you climb to its top. Stop on a snake's head and you slide down to its tail. The status line names each ladder and snake you hit, and a small table below the board lists recent moves with the roll and the start and end fields.

Setup lets you pick the board, the number of players and how many are computers, who starts, your token and the finish rule. Choose whether extra pips past the end are simply lost, or whether you need the exact number to land on the last field. The 100-field board holds eight ladders and eight snakes.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Mouse	Touch
Roll	—	Click Roll	Tap Roll
Advance a computer turn	—	Click Continue	Tap Continue
Set up a game	—	Choose board, finish rule, players, computers and starter, then New game	Choose options, then New game
Show setup mid-game	—	Click Menu	Tap Menu

Tips

For a young child's first game, use the 50-field board. It is short enough to finish before attention runs out.
Turn on the exact-finish rule when you want a closer game. Needing the right roll at the end gives players who are behind a real chance to catch up.
Set computer moves to wait for a tap. Pressing Continue gives kids a moment to see where the computer's token went.
After a long slide, read the move table together. Counting from the start field to the end field is good practice for early readers.
Token shapes are easier to tell apart than colors, so let each child choose a shape they will remember.

If you like Snakes and Ladders, try these

Ludo
Rolling for luck and racing to the finish carry over, plus the fun of sending rival tokens back home.
Senet
Egyptian sticks replace the die in this race of five pieces, where certain houses help or hurt much like ladders and snakes.