Pachisi

Pachisi is a cross-and-circle race game played on a cloth board. Race all four of your pieces from the outer yard, around the board, and into the central Charkoni (home) square before your opponents.

1. Roll: Click "Roll Shells" to throw 6 cowrie shells. The number landing mouth-up is your move value (0 up = move 25).
2. Enter the board: A piece leaves the yard only on a roll of 6 or 25.
3. Move a piece: After rolling, click a highlighted piece to move it forward by the roll value.
4. Capture: Landing on an enemy piece on a non-castle square sends it back to their yard.
5. Castle squares (chequered gold) are safe — no captures, any piece may coexist.
6. Blockade: Two or more same-colour pieces on a square form a blockade — enemies cannot land or pass through.
7. Bonus roll: Rolling 6 or 25 grants an extra roll. Make use of it!
8. Home: A piece must enter the Charkoni exactly — it becomes home and cannot be captured.
9. Win (2P): First player to bring all 4 pieces home wins. Win (4P): First team with BOTH players' all-4 home wins.

Pachisi (from the Hindi word for "twenty-five," the highest throw) is one of India's most ancient and celebrated board games, with evidence of play dating to at least the 4th century CE and possible roots stretching back to the 6th century BCE. The Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great famously played a life-sized version in the courtyards of his palace at Fatehpur Sikri, using slave girls as living game pieces.

The game was played on a cloth board (ashtāpada) shaped like a cross, with cowrie shells as dice. Each player raced four pieces — shaped as conical or dome-topped pawns — around the board counterclockwise, attempting to capture opponents and reach the central Charkoni before all others.

Pachisi spread globally through British colonialism in the 19th century, spawning simplified derivatives like Parcheesi (USA), Ludo (UK/Germany), and Sorry!. The original four-player team variant, played with cowrie dice and the full rule set including blockades and castle squares, preserves the strategic depth of the authentic Mughal-era game.