Two to four players, four pieces each, one die and a track of 40 squares. Whoever brings all four pieces home first wins — and whoever lands exactly on someone else’s piece knocks it out.
You can play on your own against one to three computers (three strengths) or with two, three or four players from the arcade. A game takes ten to twenty minutes.
A walnut games table with a cross of pale stone set into it. The 40 squares of the track run around it. Each corner holds a home with four hollows, next to it your coloured start square (with a small arrow showing the direction) and, towards the middle, your home lane of four squares.
The colours are copper, petrol, ochre and moss. So you can tell them apart without colour vision, every piece has its own head: a ball, a plate, an acorn or a battlement. Your own colour is always at the bottom left, whichever corner you sit at.
At the start all pieces are at home. A piece only comes out with a 6: it moves onto your start square.
⭐ Three throws: as long as none of your pieces is on the track, you may roll up to three times to get a 6.
⭐ Every 6 gives you another throw — even if you could not move with it.
⭐ Clear the start square: if you roll a 6, still have pieces at home and one of your pieces stands on your start square, that piece has to move first — otherwise nobody could ever come out again.
If you roll 20 times in a row without success while none of your pieces is out, a piece comes out by itself — as if you had rolled a 6. Then it is the next player’s turn. This is the same for everyone at the table, the computer included.
After the roll the pieces that may move with that number glow, and a dashed ring shows where they would land. Tap a piece to move it — it glides square by square. If only one piece can move, the game moves it for you after a short moment.
Land exactly on someone else’s piece and it flies back home. You may not land on a square with one of your own pieces.
⭐ There is no blocking and there are no safe squares. You may always move past pieces, your own and others’ — you just may not land on one of your own.
If no piece can move with the roll, the game tells you and the next player is up (except after a 6 and in the three-throws case).
After a full lap the piece turns into your home lane. You have to reach it exactly: if the number is too high, that piece cannot move. And nobody jumps in the home lane — if one of your pieces is in the way, you cannot pass it. Only your own colour enters your home lane; nobody can knock you out there.
Whoever has all four pieces home is done. With two players that decides the game. With three or four the others play on until only one is left — that gives places 2, 3 and 4.
In multiplayer games you get 10 points for a win, 4 points for second place (from three players) and 1 point for taking part.
When you play with others, the server rolls, not your device. Tapping the die only says “I roll” — the number comes from the server and is the same for everyone at the table. Nobody can cheat, and nobody can predict the next roll.
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Easy | almost always moves its leading piece and only knocks out now and then |
| Medium | knocks out whenever it can and brings pieces home |
| Hard | also works out who could catch it with the next throw and keeps out of harm’s way |
Rundlauf is a dice game: even “Hard” loses to “Easy” now and then. Games against the computer are practice — they show in your record but give neither points nor milestones.
Games against other players count. Your level ⭐ is the number of milestones reached plus one. There are five, the same in every game of the Duel Corner: your first game against another player, your first win, playing against 3 different people, 5 wins and 25 wins against other players.
Your practice record also counts how often you knocked someone out and the most sixes you rolled in a row.
Above the board you find on your own · 2 · 3 · 4 players. Tapping a number opens a table straight away. While it is open, nothing is set up; a seat nobody has taken yet says “🪑 free” — the computer never sits down by itself. Table code, inviting, move time, chat and scoring work as everywhere in the Duel Corner (guide 🎯 Duel Corner).
Results and settings are saved — at the end of every game. A solo game in progress is not saved. In multiplayer the game lives on the server: you can close the page and carry on from another device while the move time runs. Playing alone against the computer also works offline once you have opened the game with a connection.