Two, three, or four may play. At the beginning of the game, each player's tokens are out of play and staged in one of the large corner areas of the board in the player's color (called the player's yard  ). When able to, the players will enter their tokens one per time on their respective starting squares, and proceed to race them clockwise around the board along the game track (the path of squares not part of any player's home column). When reaching the square below the home column, a player continues by racing tokens up the column to the finish square. The rolls of a cube die control the swiftness of the tokens, and entry to the finish square requires a precise roll from the player. The first to bring all their tokens to the finish wins the game. The others often continue play to determine second-, third-, and fourth-place finishers.

To enter a token into active play from his staging area to his starting square, a player must roll a 6. If the player has no tokens yet in play and does not roll a 6, the turn passes to the next player. Once a player has one or more tokens in play, he selects a token and moves it forward along the track the number of squares indicated by the die roll. If a player rolls a 6 he may choose to advance a token already in play, or alternatively, he may enter another of his tokens into active play. The rolling of a 6 earns the player an additional ("bonus") roll in that turn. If the additional roll results in a 6 again, the player earns an additional bonus roll. If the third roll is also a 6, the player may not move a token and the turn immediately passes to the next player. Players must always move a token according to the die value rolled, and if no move is possible, pass their turn to the next. If the advance of a token finishes on a square occupied by an opponent's token, the opponent token is returned to its owner's yard. The returned token may only be reentered into play when the owner again rolls a 6.