Rules
How to play
It is a race. Each player runs seven pieces down a shared track and off the far end; the first to bring all seven home wins. These are the rules reconstructed by Irving Finkel — the ones this game uses.
The board
Each player owns the outer squares on their own side and shares the long middle lane with their opponent. A piece travels its own 14-step route: down the near column, along the shared middle lane, and out through the far column. Use the buttons to trace it.
The dice
You throw four tetrahedral dice — little pyramids, each with two of its four corners marked. Count the marked corners that land up: your roll is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. Because it is four coin-flips added together, 2 comes up most and 0 or 4 are rare (odds of 1 · 4 · 6 · 4 · 1 out of 16). Roll a 0 and you simply forfeit the turn.
Roll 0: 1/16 1: 4/16 2: 6/16 3: 4/16 4: 1/16
Taking a turn
Throw the dice, then move one piece forward by exactly that many squares — either bringing a new piece onto the board or advancing one already on it. You can't land on your own piece, and if you have no legal move, the turn passes.
Rosettes. Land on one of the five flowered squares and you take another turn at once.
Capture. Land in the shared middle lane on a square held by your opponent and their piece is sent all the way back to the start — except on the rosette in the very centre, which is safe: no piece there can be taken.
Bearing off. To take a piece off the board it must reach one step past the last square on an exact throw; overshoot and you wait. First player to bear off all seven pieces wins.
A few tips
Grab rosettes when you can — the extra roll adds up fast. Hold the safe centre square to block and shelter. And watch the shared lane: a piece sitting just ahead of an opponent is a piece about to be sent home.
These rules are a scholarly reconstruction by Irving Finkel based on a c. 177 BC Babylonian tablet; the exact original rules are not known with certainty. See the history for the full story and sources.