The rules of Leela for a player: how to enter the game, why you need a six, how to count moves, what arrows and snakes mean, how long a game takes and how to end it.
Leela's rules are simple and take about five minutes to learn. Below is the whole order of play, from framing your question to leaving the game.
A board of 72 squares, an ordinary six-sided die, and a playing piece. There is no special Leela die. The piece is traditionally a personal object: a ring, a key, a hair clip. You also need a formulated question and a place where nobody will interrupt you.
Your piece starts off the board, on square 68, Cosmic Consciousness. To enter you must roll a six. Until a six comes up you stay where you are. This can take many rolls, and it is not a malfunction: the tradition holds that the game admits you once your question is precisely formulated.
On entering, the piece moves to square 6, Delusion. From there you roll and advance by the number shown. A roll of six earns an additional roll.
Some squares are linked by arrows and snakes. An arrow lifts your piece to a higher-numbered square, a snake brings it down to a lower one. Neither is a reward or a punishment; both are part of the route. An arrow points to a support, a snake to a mechanism that returns you backwards.
You stop on every square, read its meaning, and connect it to your own question. There is no single correct interpretation: the description sets a frame and you supply the content. Write your answer down rather than holding it in your head.
Ninety minutes to three hours, depending on how closely you examine each square. A game does not have to finish in one sitting: breaking off and returning a day or a week later is normal, and often better than forcing through while tired.
The game ends on square 68, where your piece began. To finish meaningfully, reread the answers you wrote and put what you understood into a single sentence. Without that step the game stays a set of separate observations.
The rules of Leela for a player: how to enter the game, why you need a six, how to count moves, what arrows and snakes mean, how long a game takes and how to end it.
A six is the entry condition in the rules. Until it comes up your piece stays off the board. The tradition holds that the game admits a player once their question is precisely formulated, so a long wait is a reason to reread the question rather than to roll faster.
Your piece stands off the board, on square 68, Cosmic Consciousness. After a six it moves to square 6, Delusion, and from there movement follows the sum of the rolls.
No. An ordinary six-sided die works. In an app the roll is built in.
The object that represents you on the board. Traditionally something personal: a ring, a key, a hair clip, an earring. The point is that it is yours and you recognise it on the board. There is nothing to buy.
Ninety minutes to three hours. The spread depends not on the die but on how closely each square is examined. A game does not have to finish in one sitting.
The game ends on square 68, where the piece began. It helps to reread the answers written during play and put what you understood into one sentence, otherwise the game stays a set of scattered observations.