Snakes and Ladders, also known as Chutes and Ladders or Candyland, is a many-playerrace game where players traverse a single-dimensional grid in an attempt to be the first player in the final grid. In this game traversal is done through some sort of random mechanism, such as dice, and the player is given no real agency beyond that.
The rules of the game are:
All players are given some way to mark their progress, be it a token to be placed on the game board or a number counter, and begin the game on the 0th node of the grid.
There is a one-dimensional grid of nodes, referred to as the “map”, which is typically a colorful drawing on a board.
On each player’s turn, a random mechanism is used to determine how many nodes forward to move their token.
On the map there are indiviudal nodes referred to as “Snakes” or “Ladders”, which are nodes where upon a player landing on them at the end of their turn, transport said player to a different node on the map. “Snakes” move a player backwards, and “Ladders” move the player forwards. Landing on a “Snake” or a “Ladder” when a player has not finished moving does not trigger the node’s ability.
Players which land directly on the final node of the map win the game.
The case of “a player has reached the final node, yet still needs to move more nodes according to the random mechanism” differs in handling between game editions. In some this still counts for a victory, while in others the player must move the remaining spaces in the opposite direction.
Due to having no inter-player interactivity or even active decisionmaking by any of the players, the game can be automated to play itself without changing any of the game’s rules.