The game resembles a board game more than a card game; cards are dealt to form a board, each card representing a square on the board. Markers move from square to square, along a path, and try to reach the finish line. Different cards allow markers to perform different actions. Since the board is dealt differently for every game, each game poses different obstacles and allows for different strategies.

Shuffle the deck of cards (which includes two jokers).

Deal the three leftmost and three rightmost cards in the following diagram first. If a face card, ace, two, or joker comes up for any of them, reinsert the card into the middle of the deck and replace it.

Once these six cards have been dealt, the rest of the board is dealt. There are no restrictions on what any of the other cards can be.

Sample Board Starting Square

The three leftmost and three rightmost cards are called wing cards. The upper-right wing card is also referred to as the finish line.

A safety refers to either a wing card, a joker, or the imaginary starting square.

Although it is not strictly necessary that your dice consist of one red die and one black die, they do need to be distinguishable from each other. Prior to the game, all players must understand which die corresponds to the red suits (hearts and diamonds) and which die corresponds to the black suits (spades and clubs). Hereafter in these rules, the dice will be referred to as the red die and the black die.

The cards on the board represent a zigzagging path, which starts at the imaginary starting square space and ends at the finish line (the upper-right wing card). In the above example, the seven of spades is the first card on the path. The path goes to the left, following the bottom row to the ace of spades, then up to the nine of spades, then right along the next row, from the king of diamonds to the three of diamonds, then up again to the six of hearts. The path continues in this fashion, back and forth, until it reaches the finish line card.

The object of the game is for players to navigate this path from start to finish with all three of their markers.

Players start with their markers in the starting square. Players take turns until someone has moved all three markers to the Finish Line card, and that player becomes the winner. If desired, the remaining players can continue to play, to see who comes in second, third, and so on.

Each player's turn consists of three stages, which involves moving markers and possibly performing special actions based on where they end up.

A player begins his turn by rolling both dice.

The total value of the dice is the stop value. What this means is that any marker that moves during the turn may not move beyond a card with that stop value. For example, if the dice show a five and a three, totalling eight, then no marker may move past a card with a rank of eight on that turn. A stop value of 11 corresponds to a jack, and a stop value of 12 corresponds to a queen.

The player chooses one of his markers to move the number of spaces specified by one of the dice. Then he chooses a marker (the same one, or a different one) to move the number of spaces specified by the second die. Remember that markers cannot pass cards with the stop value. For example, if, on a player's first turn with the board above, he rolls a six and a two, totalling eight, he can move one marker two squares to the ace of hearts, but while moving a second marker (or the same marker) six squares, he hits the eight of diamonds and must stop there.

The stop cards inhibit movement even if you want to use both dice on the same marker. For example, if you roll two fours, totalling eight, and you use one four to move a marker up to the eight of diamonds, you cannot then use the second four to move that marker further.

Note, however, that a marker that starts out on a stop card may proceed beyond it; stop cards only affect markers once they starting moving.

Markers must reach the finish line exactly. In the above example, if a marker is on the ten of spades, and the player rolls double sixes, he cannot move that marker to the finish line -- in fact, he cannot move that marker at all. On the other hand, if he rolls a three and a four, totalling seven, he can move the marker to the finish line, because even though neither die would get the marker there by exact count, the stop value of seven would halt a marker right on the finish line, since the finish line is the seven of hearts.

Once a marker has been moved to the finish line, it's out of play and cannot move again. Once one player has all three of his markers on the finish line card, the game is over, and he has won.

After both dice have been used to move markers, the following steps must be followed for each marker that moved during the turn, starting with the most advanced marker. No action is taken for markers that did not move during the turn.

If the marker landed on an ace, king, queen, jack, or two, then the two dice are rolled. If the die corresponding to the color of the suit of the card is higher than the other die, then the card is activated, and the player performs the action listed below. If the die of the color of the suit is the same or lower than the other die, no action is taken for the card.

• Aces represent chutes. If the card underneath the marker is an ace, and the ace is activated by the dice roll, the marker falls down the chute. If the ace is on the bottom row, falling down the chute means moving the marker back to the starting square. Otherwise, it means moving the marker to the card below it.

  Note that if a marker falls down a chute and lands on another special card, it does not get a chance to activate it.

• Kings represent ladders. If the card underneath the marker is a king, and the king is activated by the dice roll, the marker gets to climb the ladder. If the king is on the top row, this means moving the marker directly to the finish line card. Otherwise, it means moving the marker to the card above it.

  Note that if a marker climbs a ladder onto another special card, it does not get a chance to activate it.

• Queens allow you to pull another of the player's markers forward. When a queen card is activated, if the player has a marker that is not as far along the path as the queen is, and that marker is not on a safety (wing card, joker, or starting square), then the player can move that marker up to the activated queen. If the player has multiple markers that are not as far along the path as the queen and which are not on safeties, the player must choose the most advanced of these to pull up to the queen.

  Note that if a marker is pulled up to an activated queen, it does not get a chance of its own to activate the queen a second time (as would be the case if two markers arrived on the same queen via a dice roll).

  Also note that if the player does not have any markers eligible to be pulled up by an activated queen, then he does not need to bother rolling to try to activate it.

  As an example, suppose, using the sample board above, that one player had markers on the three of hearts, the six of hearts, and the five of spades, and he rolls the dice and gets a one and a six. He moves the marker on the three of hearts six squares up to the queen of spades, and the marker on the five of spades one square to the king of hearts. Since the queen and king of hearts are both special cards, he rolls to activate both, starting with the queen. If the queen is activated (by rolling the dice and getting the red die higher than the black die), then normally the marker nearest but less advanced than the queen would be the one pulled forward. But that marker is on a safety (the six of hearts is a wing card) and thus cannot be pulled. So, instead, the die on the king of hearts is pulled forward to the queen of hearts, and now there is no die left on the king of hearts to activate it. If the queen is not activated, then the marker on the king of hearts stays where it is, and the player rolls to try to activate the king.

• Jacks allow you to yank an opponent's marker backward. When a jack card is activated, if an opponent has a marker that is further along the path as the jack is, and that marker is not on a safety, then the player can move that marker back to the activated jack.

  If there are multiple opposing markers that are further along the path as the jack and which are not on safeties, then the player may choose the least advanced marker of any opponent. For example, let's suppose one player has landed on the jack of spades an activated it, and suppose that one opponent has markers on the eight of hearts, four of diamonds, and king of spades, while another opponent has markers on the two of hearts, ten of spades, and nine of diamonds. The player who has activated the jack can choose to yank back either the marker on the four of diamonds or the marker on the two of hearts. He may not choose the markers on the king of spades, ten of spades, or nine of diamonds, and he can't choose the marker on the eight of hearts anyway because it's not as advanced as the jack is and therefore out of consideration entirely.

  Note that if there are no opposing markers further along the path than the jack that aren't on safeties, the player doesn't even bother rolling to try to activate the jack.

• Twos allow you to switch your marker with an opponent's marker, provided the opponent's marker is in the same row or an adjacent row and is not on a safety. If a two is activated, the player switches his marker with any such opposing marker of his choosing.

  Note that it can be perilous to land on a two when the only opposing markers to choose from are less far along the path: if the two is activated, the player will have to switch his marker with one behind it, hurting himself and assisting his opponent at the same time.

After the above steps have been completed for all markers moved by dice rolls in stage one, stage two is over. Remember, you only get to roll for a chance to activate special cards underneath markers that moved in stage one: you don't get to roll to activate a special card that your marker was already sitting on, nor do you get to roll to activate any special cards your markers might be sitting on as a result of activating other cards in stage two.

After the player has completed stage one and two of his turn, the following steps are performed for each marker that moved by this point during the turn and which now occupy the same non-safety card with one or more opposing markers. Basically, each such marker gets a chance to boot the opposing markers off the card it shares.

To boot opposing markers off a shared card, both dice are rolled.

• If the two dice match, the opposing markers get to stay.

• If the die corresponding to the color of the card's suit is lower than the other die, then the opposing marker(s) move backwards that number of squares. For example, if the shared card is a five of diamonds, the red die shows a two, and the black die shows a six, then the opposing marker(s) move backwards two squares.

• If the die corresponding to the color of the card's suit is higher than the other die, then the opposing marker(s) move down to the card below it, as if those marker(s) had fallen through a chute (ace). If the shared card is on the bottom row, then the opposing marker(s) move back to the starting square.

Note that if two of the same player's markers wind up on the same card with opposing markers, each gets a chance to boot the opposing markers off, so if the first attack results in doubles, a second attack is attempted. This frequently happens when a marker lands on a queen also occupied by opposing marker(s): if the queen activation works out, there are two markers that can try to boot the opposing markers off.

Also note that attacks frequently occur on jacks: if a jack is activated successfully and an opposing marker is yanked back to the jack, it is subsequently attacked and possibly sent back even further.

Finally, if an opponent's marker is attacked and moved backward onto a square occupied by another of that opponent's markers, it is not attacked again. Attacks only occur to opposing markers that occupy the same square immediately after stage 2 ends.