Every board has a snake that makes a child's face fall. On the Classic board it starts at 87 and ends at 24, a drop of 63 squares, and it can land when the end looks close. Snakes and ladders for kids goes better when the adult has a sentence ready before that happens, and that is as true in a snakes and ladders online room as on a table. These are mine, with the numbers behind them. I am not a child psychologist and I have no research to quote, so read them as plain suggestions.
How bad is the long snake, really?
Bad, and worth being honest about. In my calculation on the Classic board with the default rules, a counter standing on 87 needs 18.5 more throws on average to finish. A counter on 24 needs 34.4. The slide costs about 16 throws.
Now the other half. A counter at the very start needs 39.2 throws, so even after the longest fall the child stands about five throws ahead of where the game began. And games are long and uneven: my model of the rules has one lone-counter game in ten running past 72 throws. A fall of 16 throws is a setback, not a verdict.
What can you say in the moment?
Three short lines cover most of it.
"That one hurts." Say the feeling first. Skipping straight to "never mind" tells a child that the feeling was wrong.
"Nobody chose that." This is true in a way few games can claim. Each player has one counter and the die decides every move, so there was no better move the child missed.
"Look who is close." From 24, a throw of 4 lands on 28, and the ladder on 28 climbs to 84. The next throw has one chance in six of being that 4, so point at it as a possibility and never as a promise.
What would I avoid saying?
I avoid promising a ladder, because the die does not owe anyone one. I avoid "it's only a game" in the first second, since to the child it is not only anything. And I avoid explaining the probabilities while they are upset. The numbers help later, once the mood has changed.
Can a child step away for a minute?
Yes, and the rules make it cheap. A turn lasts 30 seconds, and when the clock expires the table throws on the player's behalf. Because the game has no choices, a throw made for you is exactly the throw you would have made yourself, so nothing skilful is lost.
After two missed turns in a row, a bot plays that seat until the child comes back and takes it again. A hug and a glass of water cost a few throws at most, and the counter, the place on the board and the seat all stay the child's.
Which boards soften the fall?
The host chooses the board before play starts. Ladder Garden has only five snakes and its longest fall is 16 squares. Snake Pit has eleven, including one on square 99 that sends a counter to 63, and I would keep it away from small children. On Boardit the host sets the board in the lobby, and with two players or a family-sized multiplayer table, a parent is the natural host when the other seats belong to children. It also works with friends of the same age.
On any board, the snake lands less often than you would fear. On Classic, my model has the head on 87 landed on about half a time per game, which is why many games never touch it.
After the game
Ask about the ladder before the snake: which climb was the biggest, and how far did it go? Then say the snake's length out loud, once, as a plain number. A fall of 63 squares is easier to live with when it has a size, and a snakes and ladders game is short enough that the next one starts soon.
Ahmed Moaz builds Boardit, a free browser game site.