The most popular variants for Ludo are Quick exit (Where the game is not backgammon and you can let your pieces in safety escape immediately without having to land exactly on the exit) and Blockers (Where if you have 2+ pieces located in the same spot, they become a tower and your opponents cannot cross; if it's their only move, they pass). "Free starters" is not popular for good reason: It gives players way too much mobility and makes the game stop being a tempo-based game loop where having choice is a privilege for the players who keep their pieces alive, to one where you want to and easily can always have a camper scout near your home capturing others because even if it's not on a safe spot you can get him out again. In the arena it compounds with the problem of there only being one other opponent in that they'll never be punished if you don't capture them (as there isn't anyone around to capture them), so them having high mobility means the game is super swingy as 1. They will easily have multiple pieces ready to move so they are less forced to move into capture range (the bad part of Free starters) and 2. They can purposefully avoid capturing you to set up a capture elsewhere and make a more profitable exchange (and one that is worse for you). Lots of games are decided over one total capture overall where as in a normal Ludo game without this variant you win or lose a game based on how good your rolls are. There's also a time where I won even with my opponent having 3 (!) pieces scored and they were stuck with their 4th one next to exit where none of my pieces were even close to scoring, but they never rolled 1 and so I won. Those odds would be drastically different in a proper game of Ludo since I would have to roll 6 to introduce a threat. I also couldn't find any references to Ludo played with Free starters in any country on Earth; the best source is Wikipedia quoting "To get a game started faster, some house rules allow a player with no pieces on the board to bring their first piece into play on any roll, on a 1 or a 6, or allow multiple tries to roll a 6 (with three rolls being the most popular)." (emphasis mine) where Free starters is only for players with all pieces scored or captured and sent home. Not just free entry for all your pieces even when you have more in play.
Even worse, the arena season is already switching and we're stuck with 2p Free starters next month for arena as well, so hopefully the month after that would present us with an escape from the hellscape. If you've been playing arena, feel free to vent and I'd love to hear how Free starters has also been torturing you (and on the off chance if you actually enjoy quick chance, please share why and in what ways since I'm all ears!)
EDIT: I originally wrote "Quick start" since I had it confused with "Free starters"
Even worse, the arena season is already switching and we're stuck with 2p Free starters next month for arena as well, so hopefully the month after that would present us with an escape from the hellscape. If you've been playing arena, feel free to vent and I'd love to hear how Free starters has also been torturing you (and on the off chance if you actually enjoy quick chance, please share why and in what ways since I'm all ears!)
EDIT: I originally wrote "Quick start" since I had it confused with "Free starters"
