Jumanji (2021) Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Jumanji has changed its rules a number of times over the years. This post is for the 2021 version of the game which makes some pretty significant changes from the original game. If you are looking for the rules for the original version of Jumanji, check out our Jumanji Rules post.

Objective

The objective of Jumanji is to make it to the center space and yell out Jumanji without any of the players running out of life tokens.

Setup

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table.
All of the players choose a mover and place it on one of the four corner spaces on the board.
Shuffle all of the cards and place them next to the board with the green dome side visible.
Place the green dome in the middle of the gameboard.
Place the timer and dice near the cards.
Each player takes three life tokens. If there are only two players, each player takes four life tokens.

How to Play Jumanji 2021

You will begin each of your turns rolling the two regular dice (the dice with dots on them). The total you roll on the two dice determines how many spaces you will move your pawn. You will move your pawn the corresponding number of spaces along the track. You must stay on your own path even though the paths will cross each other.

Moving a pawn five spaces after rolling the dice — The green player rolled a five on the dice. They move their pawn forward five spaces.

After you have moved your pawn, you will draw one of the cards and place it into the green dome. You cannot look at the other side of the card when you are placing the card into the dome. Each card has a riddle on it. Each riddle can be answered with one of 20 possible answers:

Safari
River Rapids
Preparation
Monsoon
Monkeys
Darkness
Bugs
Adventure
Zoology
Van Pelt
Trapped
The Chasm
Stampede
Slither & Growl
Silence
Treasure Map
Marauders
Jungle
Hunger
Dreams

Looking at the riddle of a card inside the decoder — The current player placed the top card in the decoder. The card has the following riddle. “Inspect them fully, ground and sky. Then it’s time to classify.” The player has to try and figure out the answer to the riddle.

After you have provided an answer to the riddle, you will flip over the card to see if you were right. If you provided the correct answer, you get to move forward one additional space. Should you answer incorrectly, nothing happens.

Next read the rest of the text on the card. This will present a challenge that you need to overcome. See the challenges section below for more details.

If you ever roll doubles, you will get to take another turn.

Challenges

After you have finished dealing with the riddle, you will handle the challenge from the card you drew. Read the card out loud to the rest of the players. Most challenges involve some or all of the other players. You must follow the instruction on the card and complete the challenge in order to avoid losing a life.

Challenge card in Jumanji 2021 — For this challenge the current player has to name four different types of snakes. If they can’t name four types, they will lose one of their life tokens.

Some of the challenges require players roll a specific symbol on the challenge dice. In these challenges all of the players will roll the special dice until they roll the required symbol.

Rolling the dice for a challenge — For this challenge all of the players have to roll the dice and complete the sequence of symbols in order before the timer runs out. The players have to first roll the Jaguar’s Eye (green gem), then run, and finally the rope. If all of the players complete the challenge before the sand timer runs out, nothing happens. If any player fails, the current player loses one of their life tokens.

There are a couple unique symbols that can be on the Challenge Cards. These symbols apply specific rules to the challenge.

Danger challenge symbol — This is a danger challenge. The current player could potentially lose a life token.

Danger challenges only put the current player in danger unless the card says otherwise. Should any of the players fail the challenge, the current player loses one of their Life Tokens.

Sand timer challenge — This card has the sand timer symbol on it. The challenge needs to be completed before the sand timer runs out.

For these challenges you will flip over the sand timer before the players start the challenge. The challenge ends immediately once the timer runs out.

Story challenge symbol — This card has the story challenge symbol on it.

For these challenges you will be asked to act out a scene or tell a story to the group.

End of Game

The 2021 version of Jumanji can end in a couple different ways.

Each player receives three or four Life Tokens at the start of the game (depends on the number of players). You can lose Life Tokens throughout the game if you fail challenges. The game is played cooperatively. Should any player ever lose their last Life Token, all of the players lose the game. To prevent this, at any time in the game you can gift one of your Life Tokens to another player.

Giving another player a life token — One player is close to losing their last life token. One of the other players gives them one of their life tokens.

As long as no one loses their last Life Token, the players are racing to reach the center space. The first player to reach the center space and yell out “Jumanji” wins the game for the whole group.

Winning Jumanji 2021 — The blue player has reached the center space. The players have won the game.

Jumanji FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

Gameboard
Green Dome
100 Challenge Cards
4 Rhino Movers
12 Life Tokens
2 Regular Dice
4 Challenge Dice
45-Second Timer
Instructions

Year: 2021 | Publisher: Spin Master | Artist: Mat Edwards

Genres: Action, Dexterity, Family, Roll and Move

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 20-60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.

Baltazar

Monday 14th of April 2025

There is no penalty for Timed and Storytelling Challenges.

Tuesday 15th of April 2025

When we played the game we had a pretty similar opinion. We easily won the game with no one even getting close to being eliminated. Since there appears to be no penalty for failing Timed and Storytelling challenges, you would have to be quite unlucky to lose the game.

As for the answering the puzzles incorrectly, I don't see a benefit in purposefully giving the wrong answer. The benefit for answering the puzzle correctly is that you get to move forward another space. The rules say that after guessing you flip over the card and see what difficulties Jumanji brings on your turn. I interpret this to mean that you have to try and complete the challenge whether you got the puzzle correct or incorrect.

I think the game has a serious flaw (bug). It is impossible to lose game. If a player intentionally answers a puzzle incorrectly, there is no penalty, and the player moves towards the goal. I was hoping that revised rules would come out that would fix the game, but...

Bojan Janićijević

Sunday 26th of January 2025

Hello! We recently purchased Jumanji board game, and we are of course having fun with it! Still, while playing, we got some questions for which I couldn't find the answer anywhere. For example, if I need 7 for endgame, do I have to roll seven or can it be a higher number? If I need exactly seven, what happens if I roll higher number, do I pull another card but not move on the board? Also, If I end up on one field before an end, and it's my turn to play, am I supposed to roll one dice (to get to the end) or just take a card? I hope that my questions are clear enough. Hope to hear from you soon! Best regards, Bojan

Monday 27th of January 2025

Unfortunately the rules are not at all clear about if you need to reach the finish space by exact count. All the game says is that you need to reach the game's center.

I am not sure how you should handle this. Not having to roll the exact number makes it quite a bit easier to finish the game. Having to roll the exact number could make the quite quite a bit harder though. Then as you pointed out if you are only one space away, you either only roll one die on your turn or you would never be able to roll the right number to make it to the finish space.

I don't know the official answer to your question. I personally would say that you don't have to reach the final space by exact count. Usually games specifically mention when you need to reach the finish by exact count if you have to. Combining that with the fact that you could only be one space away, I would say that you can reach the finish space if you roll a higher number.

If you want the game to be more challenging though, you could always add the rule that you need to roll the exact number. When you are only one space away I would say that you only have to roll one of the dice though.