Ladder Draw
Ladder Draw is a free decision tool that runs directly in your browser with no account required.
About this tool
The ladder draw (known as Amidakuji or sadaritagi in East Asia) assigns people to outcomes by tracing paths down a ladder with randomly placed rungs. This version builds a real ladder on screen, animates each participant's colored path as it zigzags across the rungs, and lands everyone on an outcome, so the group can watch exactly how each pairing was decided. It handles up to 16 participants and works for coffee runs, chore splits, prize draws, and team assignments.
How to use
- List each participant on its own line under People or teams (up to 16).
- List the prizes, chores, or slots one per line under Outcomes or prizes; if there are fewer outcomes than people, outcomes repeat in order.
- Choose a Mode: Shuffle pairings maps every person to an outcome, while Pick one winner selects a single person and their ladder result.
- Press Draw ladder and watch the rungs appear and each path trace down to its outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Is the draw actually random or just an animation?
The rung placement is generated with the browser's cryptographic random number generator, crypto.getRandomValues, and every pairing is then derived from the real ladder topology by tracing paths through those rungs. The animation replays the genuine traversal rather than decorating a predetermined answer.
How does a ladder guarantee fair one-to-one pairings?
Each rung swaps two adjacent paths, and a sequence of swaps is a permutation, so every participant always lands on exactly one outcome slot with no collisions. This is the mathematical property that makes Amidakuji work.
How many people and outcomes can I enter?
Up to 16 participants, each drawn with its own path color. You need at least one outcome; when outcomes are fewer than people, they cycle, so with 6 people and 2 outcomes each outcome is reachable by multiple people.
What does Pick one winner mode do?
It first picks one participant uniformly at random using crypto.getRandomValues, then traces only that person's ladder path to reveal their outcome. Use it when only one person needs to be selected, such as who buys coffee.
Can anyone game the ladder by picking a certain column?
No. The rungs are generated fresh for every draw after names are entered, and roughly 40 percent of possible rung slots are filled at random with every gap guaranteed at least one rung, so no starting column has a predictable destination.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. Names, outcomes, and results stay in your browser; the whole draw runs locally.