How to Play Marralhinha
Marralhinha (say it like "mah-hah-LEEN-yah") is the traditional marble board game from Terceira, in the Azores. Two to four players race marbles around a cross-shaped wooden board, capture each other's marbles, and gamble on a shortcut through the center. This is a quick guide to the rules as played in Marralhinha Online.
The goal
Race all of your marbles around the board and into your colored home column. The first player with every marble home wins. A Classic game uses five marbles each, and Blitz uses three on a smaller board.
Leaving your dish
Every marble starts in your dish. Roll a 1 or a 6 to move a marble out of the dish and onto your start hole, the ring in your color.
Rolling and moving
- On your turn, roll the die and move one marble exactly that many holes.
- Roll a 6 and you roll again after you have moved, even if nothing could move.
- Any other number passes the turn to the next player.
- If no marble can legally move, the turn simply passes.
Capturing
Land exactly on an opponent's marble to capture it and send it all the way back to its dish. You cannot land on your own marbles, and you can never be captured inside a home column.
No overtaking
Your own marbles cannot jump over each other, but you can hop right past anyone else's marbles.
The shortcut
On any brass corner except the last one before your home, a 1 or a 6 jumps your marble into the center of the board. From the center, another 1 or 6 drops it on that last corner, right next to your home column. The center holds one marble at a time, so jumping in captures an opponent who is already sitting there.
The home stretch
Inside your home column you need the exact roll to move. You cannot overshoot the end of the column, and you cannot jump your own marbles.
Game modes
- Classic: five marbles each on the full board.
- Blitz: three marbles each on a smaller board, in roughly a third of the time.
- Free-for-all: every player for themselves.
- Teams 2v2: with four players, partners sit opposite each other. You cannot capture your partner, and once your own marbles are home you move your partner's marbles for them.
Ways to play
- Online with friends: create a room, share the four-letter code or invite link, and fill empty seats with bots.
- Quick play: jump straight into a game against bots.
- Pass and play: play on one device, with the board turning to face whoever's turn it is.
- Round the table: lay a tablet flat, sit on the side of the screen that matches your color, and play with the camera locked. Two players sit across from each other as Red and Yellow.
- Discord Activity: launch Marralhinha in a voice channel and everyone lands at the same table.
Pass and play works offline once the game has been installed to your home screen, and it never uses an account.