My Emirati friends introduced the game “Jackaroo” to me and honestly, it’s addictive. The origins are unclear, but some believe it originated in Jordan (though suppose it depends who you ask!)

Similar to Ludo or Aggravation the principal is simple, move your four marbles around the board and get them to safety.  With four players in total, you work in a team of two with the person sitting opposite you trying to beat the other team by sabotaging their plans to get home and advancing your own marbles.

Sounds simple enough but each card means something different and determines how you move on the board. The rules I follow are like the below, however I’ve come to learn that lots of people have their own rules and apparently there’s an advanced option with an even more complicated set of rules, but I’ll stick to the basics for now.

The Rules:

King – you can take one marble out of the holding bay to move around the board.

Queen – move 12 spaces forward

Jack – this is a special card and allows you to swap with any other player on the board, unless they are on their home base

10 – make the next player discard a card of their choice or you move ten spaces

9 – move nine spaces forward

8 – move eight spaces forward

7 – this is a special card, which you can split the seven moves over two marbles however you like. So, if you have more than one marble out for example you could move one 2 spaces and the other 5 spaces

6 – move six spaces forward

5 – this is a special card so you can move yourself or anyone else five spaces

4 – another special card meaning you move backwards four spaces, helpful if you’re on your home base and want to try and get home quickly (but watch out for anyone who has a 5 since they can push you passed your home meaning you’ve got to trek around the board)

3 – move forward three spaces

2 – move forward two spaces

Ace – the final special card, you have three options: bring a marble out of the holding bay, move one or eleven spaces forward

You can buy the game on Souq.com for less than AED100 and it’s a super fun game to enjoy with friends and family over coffee/tea or even in the Ramadan tents at night.

If you want to get some practice in between now and then or play solo, then download the ‘Jackaroo’ app from App Store for iOS or Google Play for Android.