Snakes and Ladders is pure luck, so play it properly

Let us get the honest bit out of the way. Snakes and Ladders has no skill in it. Not a little, none. Every player rolls, every player moves, nobody makes a decision at any point. The outcome of a game is fixed the moment the dice fall.

This is not a criticism. It is the entire reason the game has survived for centuries and why a six year old can beat an adult without anyone letting them. But it does mean that the interesting question is not how to win. It is how to play.

The board is doing more than you think

Even without decisions, the board has a shape, and knowing it makes the game more fun to watch.

The long ladders early on are the ones that decide games. A ladder in the first twenty squares can jump you most of the way up the board, which is why a player can look hopeless for ten turns and then be leading. The snakes near the top do the same thing in reverse, and are the reason nobody is safe until they actually land on 100.

That final stretch is the cruel part. You need an exact roll to finish. A player sitting on 97 needing a three can watch two other people go past while they roll fours and fives. That is not bad luck, that is the design, and it is what keeps everyone in it until the last turn.

Four players is the right number

With two players it is a coin flip that takes ten minutes. With four it becomes a spectator sport, because there is always somebody climbing and somebody falling, and the swings land on different people at different times.

If you are picking a mode, pick the one with the most people in it.

Which mode to actually use

Snakes and Ladders Jim gives you four ways to play, and they are genuinely different experiences rather than the same thing with different labels.

• Private room is the good one. Make a room, send the code, and it is your group only. This is the version that feels like the board game, because the banter is the point and you are playing with people you know.
• Online with strangers is fine for filling five minutes but there is nobody to laugh at when you hit the big snake, which is most of the entertainment gone.
• Pass and play on one device is the closest to the real thing. One phone on the table, everyone leaning in. It works far better than it sounds.
• Against the computer exists for when you want the game and there is nobody around. It is a fine way to pass a queue.

Playing it with children

This is the game's real job, and it is worth saying why it is good at it.

A child can play Snakes and Ladders on completely equal terms with an adult on day one. No handicap, no going easy, no explaining. They can win properly, and they know it was a real win, which is a different feeling from being allowed to win at something harder.

It also quietly teaches counting to a hundred, taking turns, and losing without the world ending. That is not nothing.

The short version

• There is no strategy, and pretending otherwise spoils it
• Early ladders and late snakes are where the swings come from
• Four players is much better than two
• Private rooms with people you know is the best mode by a distance
• It is one of the few games where a small child competes fairly with an adult

If you want a game you can get better at, we have a Ludo one. If you want twenty minutes where nobody has an advantage and everyone shouts at a screen, this is the one.