When you hear Stephen Fry describe something as “the second most addictive thing to come out of South America” you’re going to sit up and listen aren’t you? That’s exactly how this national treasure described Perudo and it certainly made me sit up and wonder what all the fuss was about.
Perudo (meaning Dice of the Andes) is described as “the classic game of liar dice” and it is very much a skilful game of guesswork, bluff and luck.
The main aim of the game is to be the last player left with any dice, but how you get to that stage is a little more complicated.
History of Perudo
Let me start with a bit of history of the game and go back to 1532. Peru fell into the hands of foreign invaders with Pizzarro and his conquistadors defeated and held captive. It marked the end of the Inca empire, but also the rumoured start of the Perudo dice game. Supposedly Atahuallpa introduced Pizarro to Perudo during his imprisonment. Certainly today, the game is played throughout Spain and Peru.
Object of the game
The winner in a game of Perudo is the last player to be left with any dice, each player starting the game with a cup and five dice of the same colour.
How to play Perudo
Hmmmm. Now this is where things got a bit more complicated when Bonn and I were trying to play. The game isn’t actually that complicated, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it is the first time you read the rules!
First things first. Each player rolls one die to determine who goes first. The one with the highest number does. Easy.
Next. Each player puts all five dice in their coloured up and upends the cup on the table covering their dice from the other players. The first player takes a secret look at their own dice and then makes a “bid” which is an estimate of how many of a particular number there are under all the cups on the table.
Probability
There are two main factors that they take into account when coming up with this bid. The total number of dice on the table. If you have six players then this is 30 dice. If only two of you are playing then there are just ten dice. There is a one in six probability of each die showing a particular side. So, if the example of there being six players you would generally expect there to be five of each number when you look at all dice on the table.
Aces being wild
The second thing that you need to take into account when coming up with the opening bid is ones on the dice – known as aces in Perudo. Like they might in a game of cards, aces are classed as wild and counted as the value of whichever bid is made. So, for example if you were to make a bid of eight fives then it means that you are predicting a total of eight dice on the table that have either a value of five or one.
Play continuing round the table
Once the opening bid has been made play moves around the table in a clockwise fashion. The next player makes a bid, that has to be higher than the last one. Either in terms of the number of dice of the same number, or a higher number of dice showing a different number.
If a player feels that there can’t possibly be a higher bid made then they shout out “dudo” instead, which means “I doubt” in Spanish. This effectively halts the bidding stage and it means that the previous player’s bid stands.
Revealing the dice
Once dudo has been called then dice on the table are revealed, player by player, starting with the one who called dudo and continuing around the table until reaching the player who made the final bid. The number of dice of the particular value in the bid are counted, along with the number of aces.
If the final bid was seven threes and there are fewer than seven dice showing either three or one, then the player who made the last bid loses one of their dice. If there are seven or more threes or ones in total, then the player who called dudo instead loses a die.
Lost dice are placed into the bag so that the total number of dice in play is obscured, so players need to try to remember when making their opening bid.
The player who loses a die makes the opening bid in the next round of the game.
Aces and Palafico
Without explaining every last rule in detail here, it is worth saying that there are other twists in play. One of these is that part way through the bidding you can change what you are bidding on from a number on the dice to aces. There are rules around how you do so that can be a bit confusing until you actually do it in practice.
When any player is down to just having one die left in their cup they are declared palafico, which means that the bidding rules in that round are changed slightly so that players can only raise the quantity of dice, not the value in the bids as they go around the table. Aces are also not wild during such a round.
To add to the complexity even more, a player can only be palafico once in a game of Perudo, yet once they have been palafico they have more rights in a round where another player is palafico.
I hope you’re following this!
Playing Perudo
I won’t lie, Bonn and I felt slightly nervous when we sat down to try and play Perudo for the first time after reading all the rules. There seemed to be so much to take in and remember.
We got started though with the two of us walking our way through a two player game and learnt as we went on. At first it did feel a little clunky as we kept stopping to look up in the instructions book as to how we were supposed to do things, but with more rounds we became more confident in what we were doing, and also learnt more about how to bluff better to try to catch the other one out.
As is the case with many games, I’m expecting Perudo to feel very, very different if you had more people playing. My kids are a bit too young to be trying it yet, so we’re waiting my step-daughter’s next visit to test it out properly with three players. We’re also slightly dreading my mum playing with us – as previous experience playing cards with her suggests she might be a bit of a Perudo demon!
Perudo Championships
I can totally see why Perudo is a bit of an addictive game. I’ve not played any dice games before, but playing felt quite similar to card games in may ways and playing against people that you don’t know I expect has a very different vibe to it.
Every year Paul Lamond host the Perudo Championships in London, where fans of the game are able to battle it out to be crowned World Perudo Champion. I can’t imagine that my skills in the game are anywhere near enough to take part yet, but I am intrigued to watch and see how others play.
Perudo – the facts
Perudo is for 2-6 players and has a suggested age range from 8 to 108! It comes in a very neat storage tin, making it a lovely game to give as a gift to someone. It has an RRP of £19.99 and is available in store in Sainsbury’s, Debenhams and John Lewis, as well as being online here.
Win a copy of Perudo
Do you want to have a go at playing Perudo yourself? We’ve got a copy of the game to give away to one lucky Penny Player reader. Perudo has a lot of famous fans (Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Richard Branson for starters) so all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me who (famous or not) you’d like to play Perudo with. Then fill in the Rafflecopter widget, looking at what you can do to get extra entries, and one person will be chosen at random to win a copy of Perudo.
For full T&Cs please see the Rafflecopter widget.
Good Luck!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Perudo for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.
I’d like to play Perudo with my family. Would love to get them away from their screens for a bit!
I’ play this game with my children thank you x
I’d play Perudo with my kids. You can’t beat games night.
I’d play with my family.
Would have to be my teenage neices – have a feeling they’ll be very good at the game – it’s different than our normal games too
More taxing
Definitely more taxing than what I’m used to playing.
I’d play with my hubby and my daughter (not famous lol)
my children thankyou
I’d play with my two children
My teen in a winter log cabin in the Forest of Dean
That sounds lovely!
With my boyfriend when we go away camping!
Probably Mr Fry, John Wayne, Victoria Coren Michel, Raquel Welch and Gordon Brown
Love the amount of thought you’ve put into this – and the random mix of people you’ve chosen too!
I fear that Coren-Michel would be too good. With the current political climate, it may be interesting to invite Mrs May, Mr Gove, Mr Corbyn, Mr Farage and Mr Tusk. Who will take the high stakes?
Definitely with my daughter as she’s an only child and I love spending quality time with her. She would find this so much fun.
Would play with my kids and OH
i’d play with my hubby and my daughter, the rock can join in if he wants too hehe
I would play with my 12 year old daughter
i’d play the game with my hubby and son
i would play with my daughter x
I’d play with my family, my husband and sons would like it
Stephen Fry.
I’d be scared he’d beat me!
with my family
I love finding new games!
Oliver Reed
Intriguing suggestion!
I’d play with my family, but if I was a betting woman I would put my money on my husband! 🙂
I would play with my friends at our monthly games night
I would play it with my family, looks like a fun game!
I would play it with my daughter
I’d play with my nephew Michael.
I’d play with my family. 🙂
I’d play with my hubby!
I’d like to play this against my sister
I would like to play this with my husband and family!
I would play it with my 8 year old son. we love playing different games together
I would play it with my family 🙂
Playing this with Stephen Fry would be amazing!
It certainly would!
I’d play with my kids
I would play with my family at christmas
My daughter
I would play with my husband and his cousins
With my son Samuel and my Mum and Dad.
I would play the game with my family too, my two boys and hubbie enjoy new games x
my kids
This looks like a fantastic game to play with the whole family of varying ages – think it’ll go on my xmas list
I’d like to play it with my husband
I would play with my 3 daughters.
I’d play this game with my grandchildren ?
I would definitely play it with my husband and family
I would play with my dad when he visits, we love dice games
It looks like good fun. And more suited to the family than the first addictive thing to come out of South America.
Brilliant response! ???
I would play with my children.
I’d play with Paul Hollywood as he’d bring the freshly baked goodies and he’s quite easy on the eye also lol. Failing that my son Rafferty who’s a bit of a budding genius!
My nephew would love this .
No famous inclinations here, I’d just like to play with my family!
I would play this with my grandson Jake, he is very clever and could help me!
my husband and stepdaughters xx
I’d play with Humphrey Bogart. Failing that, my other half. We were trying to remember the name of this game just the other day!
id play with my daughter
Not famous, I’d play it with my kids, we love dice games x
Steven King – Legend and a great writer!
My eldest would love this!
My mum!
My husband (not famous – yet!)
My kids and perhaps Prince William and Kate’s little darlings, in my dreams!!
my husband and my daughter 🙂
my late Dad would have loved to play this!
I (nannny) would play with grandad and our 3 grandsons
Looks like a great game! I’d play it with my family!
I would play it with my hubby and my nephews
Would play it with my grandchildren, I don’t think James Bond would be available
I’d play it with my partner x
Stephen Hawking, my hero!
I would for sure have to enjoy playing this game with my family and maybe Katy Perry too if i’m lucky enough
With my daughters. We love playing together 🙂
I reckon I could beat Harry & Meghan! ?
I would like to play this with my family x
I would play Perudo with my daughter and her pals.
I think I’d take it to the Christmas family get-together and see if we can get through a game without a major bust-up!
This would be perfect to play at the next family games night with my husband and children!
id play Perudo with my son
I’d love to play this with my 5 kids.
Assuming david Beckham and Hugh Jackman were unavailable Id play with my family.
James Corden – He’d be fun though I reckon he’d win all the time.
My son
My 3 boys have all hit the age that they love to play games and this would be a welcome addition to our collection so I would love to play this with them. I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed and thanks for the chance
My partner and his daughter
I’d play it with Sir David Attenborough whilst we sipped sherry and discussed endangered frogs!
This would be fun to play with my nephew when he comes to visit.
Had a game of Perudo as a child, can’t remember how to play but I would choose Santa to challenge with a game
This would be a great family game during the cold Autumn evenings.
I would play with my daughter and my nephews
I would play with my kids
i think my two girls would love this game.
My family – we love playing games and are always looking for new ones!
I’d play with my niece and nephew
i would play this with my family x
Be great to play with the family.
I’d like to have a game with Robin Williams.
My sons…. not famous yet
I’d like to play a game with Rod Stewart.
I would like to play the game with my grandchildren.
yes – would love to play this with my wife Elizabeth
It would be fun to play this game with Dynamo (the magician) to see what tricks he would play. He is very skilful with sleight of hand. But seriously, my family would love this.
Keith Lemon! Be a laugh a minute
This is an amazing game. We found it when we went to a lovely inn in Wales a few years ago and since then many friends have bought a box… so why would I need another…
This game goes way beyond the Perudo game played every single time we as a family get together. My 18 month onld daughter loves playing.. matching colours, numbers, adding, subtracting, towers, making shaky shaky noises, putting them into and out of the bag……. its brilliant and my daughter needs a set for her very own 🙂
I’d love to play with my sister and nephew. Thanks for the competition.
I’d play with my girlfriend and kids.
I’d play with my family – im sure my mum would love it x
I’d love to play with my niece and nephew
I would have liked to play this with Steven Hawkins but my odds would have been low
I would play with my hubby and children
I would play it with my sister, am sure we would enjoy it!
I would love to play with the kids, then they can get away from their consoles for a while
I would play it with Bradley Cooper (a girl can dream 🙂 )…… not sure i would be paying much attention though as i would be too busy drooling lol x
i’d love to play this with my kids.
I would play with my family ?
I would play with my husband to be….loser washes up!
I would love to play with all my family as it sounds rather fun
I would play with my grandchildren
I would play with my family at Christmas time
I would play this with my housemates.
With the family x
i think i’d try playing it with my daughters
i think i’d try playing it with my daughters
I would play this with my family.
I would love to play this with our friends over the Christmas holidays! It looks a really great game!
Id love to play this with my kids!
I’d play with my husband, we regularly have a games night
I would love to play with my children!
I would play with the family always looking for a good game to play 🙂
My husband and niece and nephew.
I have some friends and we get together for a games night , I would take it with me to our next one.
I would play it with the family and it would be fun.
I’d play with my husband and son. We’re all really competitive so that should be interesting lol
With no one else than my family what better company
I’d play with my partner