Bul

Cast the grains and run your pieces down the track — land on a rival to capture it and haul your prisoners home to score.

How to play

Bul, also called Puluc, is an ancient Maya running-fight race played on a single straight track. You enter from one end and run toward the other; your opponent enters from the opposite end and runs back at you. Pieces collide head-on, and a captured piece is carried along as a prisoner until its captor reaches the exit.

• Cast four grains; your move equals the number of marked sides up, with zero counting as five (so every cast is 1–5).
• Move one piece per turn: enter a fresh piece from your end, or advance one already on the track.
• Land exactly on an enemy piece to capture it — prisoners ride along with your piece.
• Run a carrier off the far end to score every enemy prisoner it holds; that piece then returns to your hand.
• Win by leaving your opponent with no pieces, or by holding the most points.

Game modes

• Vs computer: choose easy, medium, or hard.
• Hot-seat: two players share one device.
• Online: host with an invite code, join one, or quick-match.

Controls

• Desktop: click 'Cast the grains', then click an entry slot to bring a piece on or click a piece on the track to move it.
• Phone & tablet: tap to cast, then tap a piece or entry slot. Legal moves are ringed in gold.

Tips & strategy

• Because zero counts as five, the cast is always 1–5 — keep a piece poised the exact distance from an enemy to threaten a capture.
• A captured enemy is only worth points once you exit, so don't push a loaded carrier into the path of an oncoming rival who could recapture it.

Origins

Bul is a running-fight game of the Maya, played in parts of Guatemala and Belize. Grains of corn are thrown as dice to race tokens along a track laid out in kernels, and when opposing pieces meet they capture and send one another back to the start. A lively, social game, it carries echoes of much older Mesoamerican pastimes.

About Bul

Bul is a traditional Mesoamerican race-and-capture game once played by the Maya with maize-grain dice. This is an original, free browser recreation of the public-domain game — no download or account required.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium — no download, no install. Browse all games →