Sunday afternoon was a noisy one. We may even have turned the tables and disturbed mum’s neighbours, with the amount of noise we were making. Why? For a couple of hours we played Perudo, a bluffing game, which is probably one of the noisiest parlour games ever invented (this computer version is much quieter, though).
Originating in 1988 and inspired by the Peruvian game, Liar Dice, Perudo (as its inspiration suggests) is played with dice. The rules are quite simple. Each player starts with five dice and a cup. Through a process of luck, bluffing, and bidding, the number of dice in play is reduced, and the last player with any dice left is the winner.
The rounds go like this. All players shake and tip out the dice from their cups, concealing them from the other players. The starting player then makes a call based on the number of dice of a specific value there are under the remaining cups on the table. Probability undoubtedly plays a part, with ones (or aces) as wildcards, counted as the value of whichever face number the starting player chooses.
The player on the left of the starting player then makes a call, until all players have bid. As the play goes around the table, each bid must be higher than the last, but doesn’t have to be based on the number started by the opening player. For example, play may start with ‘Five twos’ and the next player may call ‘Six fours’ and so on.
Every time, the stakes are raised for the next player, in order for them to call that the previous player show their dice and see how many of a particular value lay on the table. The aces come into play when, if a player doubts there are ‘Six fours’ for example, he or she can call half that number of aces (in this case, ‘Three ones’).
If the next player does not wish to bid on aces, they may raise the number of a die value, bit with a minimum bid of twice the number of aces. If a player doubts the number of dice on the table of the value in play, they may call for all of them to be shown.
If they are correct in their doubting, they win. The losing player then loses one die, and starts the next round. Play continues until there is just one winning player left with any dice. Differing rules for Palafico rounds for any player who starts with only one die also apply.
Although Bart won the first game we played, he lost the other two, proving that strategy isn’t always the answer to winning. And while it wasn’t as popular a game as Blob or Donkey, it did give us another afternoon of family fun. We’d been to the award-winning Norman Warrior for lunch, as Sandie, Doug, Kevin and Janice were visiting, and in need of a wake-up, Perudo was the perfect shake-up we needed.
