Description
You shake your cup, set it down on the table and carefully peek under the rim. You know your own dice; the others' you can only guess at. In Perudo you bet on what is hidden under all the cups at once, bluffing a little when you need to. The rules take a few minutes to explain, and after that all that counts is a straight face and a bit of nerve.
How to play Perudo
Everyone starts with five dice of their own colour and a cup. At the start of a round, all players shake their dice at the same time and hide them under their cups. The first player bids the minimum number of dice showing a chosen value under all the cups together, for example “at least five threes”. The next player raises the bid or challenges it. You raise with a higher number of dice, or with a higher value for the same number of dice. The toucan, which appears on the dice in place of the one, is wild and counts as the value that was bid.
When someone challenges, everyone lifts their cups and you count the dice. If there are at least as many as were bid, the challenger loses a die. If there are fewer, the bidder loses one. A player with no dice left is out. The last player who still has at least one die wins.
Why you'll like it
- Every bid is a small bet. You can say something likely, or bluff and hope your neighbour believes you.
- You can switch the bid to toucans. Half the previous number is then enough, while anyone who wants to go back to a regular value has to bid twice as many dice plus one.
- Whoever loses a die plays on with one fewer. It pays to keep count of how many dice are still in play and who has them.
- Once you know the game, you can add two optional rules: the last-die round, in which toucans are no longer wild, and a call with which you bet that the bid is exactly right, which can win you back a lost die.
Who Perudo is for
Perudo is an easy game for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up, and one game takes about 30 minutes. There is no text on the dice, so language is no barrier. According to player ratings on BoardGameGeek, it is best with five or six. The dice are rolled by chance, but what you bid and whom you believe is up to you.
You should know that a player who loses all their dice is out and only watches until the game ends. If you don't like waiting or bluffing, you will enjoy Perudo less.
What's in the box
- 30 dice (5 in each of 6 colours)
- 6 cups (one in each colour)
- 1 lid
- 1 storage bag
- rulebook
