Parcheesi Game Rules

Parcheesi is a classic board game from India, where players must move pawns around a board by rolling dice.

Setup

Each player places four pawns of his color in the home circle to his right.

Starting Out

On your turn, roll the dice. You must roll a five in order to move a pawn out of your home circle onto the dark space on the board to the left of your home circle. This can be a single five on one die, or a total of five between both dice.

Pawn Movement

Once a pawn is on the board, you may use your dice roll to move one of your pawns that many spaces clockwise around the board. For example, 10 spaces if you roll a 10. You may land on a space occupied by one other pawn but may not pass through any space occupied by two pawns.

Doubles

If you roll doubles, you get to use the two numbers showing on the dice to move, as well as the two numbers on the bottom of the dice. For example, with double threes, you would also get double fours. In addition, after a doubles roll you get to roll again.

Center Track

Once your pawn reaches the square it started in, having gone around the board, it may use the special track leading to the center. A pawn must reach the center by exact count. For example, if there are four spaces to the center, you must roll a four, and cannot move in on a six.)

Game End

The first player to have all four of her pawns in the center is the winner.