Forget Wordle. Play Perudo

A descendant of the South American game ‘Dudo’ – more commonly known today as Liar’s Dice – the multiplayer dice game has continued to draw in audiences from across the world for centuries. Consisting of luck, skill and deception, all you need to get started are some dice and cups – no board, no setting up, and no complicated rules. 

Put your Perudo skills to the test at White City House’s mini tournament next Monday with games master, Orson Fry. Watch the video above to get clued up or read the rules below.

The rules of the game 

Perudo can be played with two or more players.
Each player starts with a cup and five dice.
Players throw one die to see who starts.

To begin, each player simultaneously shakes the cup and then upends it onto the table using it to conceal their dice from other players.

Having looked at their dice, the first player makes a call based on how many dice of a certain number there may be under all the cups. They have to bear in mind two factors:

1. The total quantity of dice on the table. For example, if there are six players (total of 30 dice), the law of averages suggests there should be at least (for example) five twos. The odds for the other numbers are the same. What you have under your cup can dictate what you ‘bid’. So, if you have three fives, that means you can call heavy on the fives. But then of course you can bluff.

2. All ‘ones’ are wild, so they can be used as any number. This means that when the dice are being counted at the end of a round, ‘ones’ contribute to the number of whatever call is in question. This factor, along with the open license to bluff, distorts all the ‘laws of averages’ and opens the door further to skill, guile, and a big slice of beginner’s luck.

3. Once the call (let’s say five twos) is made, the next player can do one of two things. They can either accept the bid or call ‘Dudo’ (which means ‘I doubt’ in Spanish). If they accept the bid (ie deem it plausible), they must raise the call by either calling the same quantity of a higher number, say five threes, or a greater quantity of any number, say six fours. But if they call ‘Dudo’, then the round stops and the players lift their cups in turn (starting with the person who called ‘Dudo’) and the dice are counted, including the ‘ones’. If the total adds up to or exceeds the bid doubted, the challenger loses a die. If the count is less than the bid, then the bidder loses a die.

Perudo is a game of guesswork, bluff, luck, and no small amount of skill. You win and lose dice until there is only one person remaining with any dice, and they are the winner of that hand.