Rules to Period Games
There are many period games for which we have rules, or at least are
capable of guessing at the rules. The following are the ones I know of,
on the Net. Note that these descriptions come from a wide variety of
places and people, so the quality of reconstruction and description may
vary a bit. I'm pretty comprehensive here, so take these articles with
a little caution.
Sections
- All Fours: a trick-taking game with some complexity.
- Alouette: a basic trick-taking game.
- As Nas: a historically important card game from Persia.
- Bassett: a rather interesting gambling game. (I have no idea
where this one comes from; what's the source? What era?)
- La Bete: a 17th century trick-taking game for anywhere
from 2 to 10 players.
- Bone-Ace: an early 17th century
relative of blackjack (and a variant of One-and-Thirty).
- Bryncir: a 16th century Welsh game
for five people and a whole lot of cards. (This game is based on
relatively scant evidence, but is interesting...)
- Cacho: A Spanish game, attested to 1691. A bit like Poker,
although much simpler.
- Cent: see Picket.
- Cribbage: See Noddy.
- Flor: A Spanish game, attested to 1610.
- Gleek: a three-player trick-taking game of
moderate complexity.
- Glic: a French gambling game with a distinctive board for
dividing the loot. Known as Pochspiel in Germany.
- Karnoeffel: one of the earliest card games known.
- Landsknecht: a 16th century German game.
- Laugh and Lie Down: a fishing game
from the 16th century; fun, lightweight and different.
- Maw: a 16th-century trick-taking game for up to 10
players. (Does anyone have primary documentation? Where do the
rules come from?)
- Noddy and Early Cribbage: the 16th and
17th-century ancestors
of modern Cribbage. Noddy was Elizabethan, and didn't yet have a
crib. Early Cribbage was much like the modern game, but smaller.
- One-and-Thirty: a 16th century
ancestor of Blackjack.
- Pechigonga: A Spanish game, similar to Primero, apparently
from the late 17th century.
- Picket: one of the older documented
card games, which was popular for centuries. It has survived to
the modern day, with some tweaks.
- Primero: a fun card game, somewhat like Poker, known in
several Renaissance cultures.
- Rentoy: A late 16th-century Spanish trick-taking game.
- Ruff and Trump/Honours: a couple of apparently-related
trick-taking games.
- Tarot: a family of trick-taking games played with the
Tarot deck.
- Justin's reconstruction of
17th century French Tarot, based on the work of Michael
Dummett, and a period-style description
from The Ace's Boke.
-
Seaan's reconstruction of basic Tarot, which comes out
rather differently from Justin's.
- Modar's reconstruction of Tarok, an Eastern European
variant.
- Troccas,
an old Swiss card game; I don't currently know whether it is
period...
- A
decent brief history of Tarot.
-
Another history of Tarot.
-
Another history of Tarot.
- Hildegarde Stickerin has a page on
relatively
SCA-appropriate tarot decks. Note that this focuses more on
pretty "art" decks, rather than the more typical everyday decks.
- The
Accademia del Tarocchino Bolognese (in Italian) has a number
of interesting-looking articles on the game, some of them relating
to its history.
- Hans-Joachim Alscher has a very nice page that is primarily
on
Austrian Tarock, but has a number of early sources relating
to card games in general, including a transcription of the
earliest known rules for Tarot (which desperately needs to
be translated into English).
- James Wickson has produced a new
reconstruction of early Tarot,
based on the 1637 French rules.
- The members of TarotL have put together a
nice little
page debunking some of the common myths about the deck.
- Truc: A Spanish game of the 17th (and maybe 16th) centuries,
apparently related to the English game of Put.
- Trump: Apparently an ancestor of Ruff and Trump, above.
Rough descriptions of various
classes of card
games, some of them period, may be found at the Card Games home
page.
- Alquerques: a classic period strategy game, and
primordial ancestor of Checkers.
- Backgammon: See Tables Games.
- Chequers: Also known as quek, apparently not related
to the modern game checkers. This was apparently a simple game of
luck, tossing pieces onto a checkerboard and betting on whether
they land on white or black.
- Chess: perhaps the most enduring strategy game of all
time. It originated in the east prior to the 7th century, and
spread gradually through Europe during the Middle Ages. In
period, this was actually a family of games, with many
fascinating variations. Modern chess arose at the very end of
the Renaissance.
- The most important site: the
Chess Variant
Pages. This site covers an enormous spectrum of chess
variations, both period and modern. Note particularly the
Historic
Chess Variants page, which collects all historical
versions. Many of the below links go into there.
- Specific variations:
-
Chaturanga, generally assumed to be the earliest version
of chess, from 7th century India.
-
Four Player Chaturanga, a 4-handed variant from around
the tenth century.
-
Shatranj, the basic medieval game which spread through
the Arabic world to Europe. This is the nearest thing to
"generic medieval chess".
-
Byzantine Chess, a 10th century variant of Shatranj
played on a round board. And
another page on Byzantine Chess.
-
Citadel Chess, a variant played on a 10 x 10 board, with
four "citadels".
-
Shatranj Kamil, a 10 x 10 variant that adds camels.
-
An alternate Shatranj Kamil.
-
Gala, aka Farmer's Chess, a German variant that may be
period.
-
Indian/Turkish Great Chess, a good 10 x 10 variant.
-
Oblong Chess, a 4 x 16 variant.
-
Tamerlane's Chess, a particularly complex 14th century
variant.
-
Grande Acedrex, a 12 x 12 13th century variant.
-
Courier Chess, a popular German variant played on a 12 x
8 board.
-
Four Seasons Chess, a 13th century 4-player variant.
- A long abstract of
a book propounding the importance of Spain in the evolution
of modern chess and checkers.
- James Masters has a nice
overview of the history of Chess, covering a broader scope
than I'm describing here.
- There is a very interesting (if not very pretty)
page of
examination of the early history of chess; this is a subject
of considerable controversy today.
- Traveller.com has a very complete
timeline of the early history of chess.
- Jean-Louis Cazeux has an
interesting examination of the "missing link" between eastern
and western chess, as well as lots of background information
about early chess, in both literature and archaeology.
-
This page is a good concise description of the early
versions of chess.
- The Live on the Net
Chess Site has a nice, if brief, article on
Religion
and Chess (scroll down for the article). It lists a large
number of clerical references to chess, both positive and negative.
- Chesmayne (Raymond Reid) has a
large collection of interesting little articles on the history
of chess. Unfortunately, the site is very hard to navigate; I still
can't figure out how to get to his examination of
the queen from the top page.
- A fellow doing chess in the classroom has a concise history of
the origins of chess.
- Sam Sloan has a longish article arguing for the
Chinese origin
of Chess. Interesting article (with a somewhat annoying
soundtrack, I'm afraid).
- Blackmask has
transcribed H.E. Bird's
Chess History and Reminicences, a 19th (?) century book
on the history of chess. He also has it available for download
in various formats. (Go to the main page and search for the
book to get the download entries.)
- The John G.
White Chess and Checkers Collection, at the Cleveland Public
Library, has a number of relevant books, including important
manuscripts. (Okay, it's not really an online resource, but
it's worth folks knowing it exists.)
- There has been a recent claim of a very early Albanian origin
of Chess, due to the finding of what is supposed to be an early
King there. Imran Ghory has an
image
of the piece online; I leave it to the reader to draw their
own conclusions.
- Imran Ghory has
several articles
on the history of chess.
- The town of Marostica has a tradition of
live chess matches
that purports to go back to the Renaissance.
- Dice: not a game in and of themselves, but there are a few
pages on dice in general. See also Knucklebones.
- Dreidel: a traditional Hebrew game, sort of like dice.
- Dublets: See Tables Games.
- Fidchell: See Tafl Games.
- Fierges: an ancestor of modern Checkers/Draughts.
- Fox & Geese: a classic hunt game, still played today.
- Gluckhaus: a popular and simple German dicing game.
- The Game of the Goose: a fun, simple race game. (I often
describe this as the forebear of the modern Game of Life,
although I don't know if there's a direct influence.) It was
popular for many centuries.
- Hazard: one of the best-known period dice games,
generally regarded as the forerunner of modern Craps.
- Hnefatafl: See Tafl.
- Imperator: See Tables Games.
- Inn and Inn: A very late-period (possibly post-period)
dicing game.
- Irish: See Tables Games.
- Knucklebones: The original, primitive form of dice.
- Mancala: an old African game family that is basically a
thing unto itself. Probably not known much in Europe during
period, but likely that old in Africa.
- Merels/Morris Games: one of the most common games in
history; not written down as much as one might wish, but boards
appear in a wide variety of cultures. Most commonly known as
Nine Men's Morris, but that's actually just one of a family.
- El Mundo: See Tables Games.
- Pachisi: an Indian race game, the immediate ancestor of
American Parcheesi. Generally reputed to be period, although I
don't know the detailed history.
- Rhythmomachy aka The Philosopher's Game: perhaps the most
intellectually demanding game of period, and indeed one of the most
ever. We have a number of links relevant to it; my thanks to Peter
Mebben, a true Rythmomachy scholar, for providing many of them.
- First, a description of the game,
written by Peter for a presentation.
- A transcription of a period English book
about the game by Fulke, transcribed by me. (Text is complete;
images coming once I get a chance.)
- An introduction to the
common elements in all the versions of the game, written
by me.
- A detailed reconstruction
of my personal favorite variation of the game (a 16th century
variant), which is less
common, but IMO more consistent and easier to learn and play
than most versions.
- Period-style descriptions of
Rhythmomachy Basics and
Late-Period Rhythmomachy,
along with accompanying illustrations of
The Board for Basic
Rhythmomachy and The Kings,
all from The Ace's Boke.
- Stargraphics has a
shareware
implementation for Windows.
- Tommy's Toys has a
shareware
implementation for DOS (and by extension, most versions
of Windows).
- A
relatively concise description, by Dagonell.
-
A description of the game in the Game Cabinet.
-
A very brief description of the game, apparently for a
class project.
- Senet: an ancient Egyptian race game. Probably died out
before this period, but popular enough to be worth mentioning.
- Six, Deuce, and Ace: See Tables Games.
- Tablero de Jesus: a fun, quick gambling game from 15th century
Andalusia. Note: There is currently some controversy
about the authenticity of this game; the secondary sources are
not validating well. If you have solid information either way
(especially if you have pointers to real primary sources),
please write to Justin.
- Tables Games: the family of games that eventually
turned into modern Backgammon. This was actually a very large
group of games in period, covering many different games in many
different countries. In period, they were generically referred
to as "games within the Tables".
- Justin's reconstruction of
Irish, the most popular variant of the Tables, and the
immediate precursor to Backgammon; also, a
period-style description from
The Ace's Boke.
- Justin's reconstruction of
Early Backgammon, which originated in the early 17th
century.
- A very
complete page (with rules, software, etc) on
Modern Backgammon, which is similar to the early game in most
ways.
- Justin's reconstruction
of Astronomical Tables, a seven-sided tables game from the
13th century. Also, Roselyne l'Estrangere's
translation of the original, which this reconstruction is based
upon.
- Justin's reconstruction of
Dublets, a trivially easy gambling game played on a
Backgammon board.
-
A brief description of Imperator, currently missing its
picture, on the Alfonso site.
-
A brief description of El Mundo, an unusual four-player
tables game, with a good picture on the Alfonso site.
-
A brief description of Six, Deuce, and Ace, a simple tables
game, with a good picture on the Alfonso site.
- Justin's reconstruction
of Ticktack, a fast, gambling Tables game.
-
David Levy is
gradually gathering a page of information on
Trictrac,
the most common French tables game. He also runs a
Yahoo group
for discussion of Trictrac.
- Philippe Lalanne has a substantial
page
on Trictrac in French. (Warning: this page kills older versions
of Netscape.)
- James Masters has a brief
overview of race games, with a few pictures.
- There is a basic (if a bit imprecise)
description
of period tables.
- Imran Ghory has
several very useful articles on the
History of Backgammon.
- Tafl:
the common generic name for the classic Norse board game;
there were many
variants, such as hnefatafl, tablut, tawl-brwdd, and
alea evangelii. All of the versions are believed to share pretty
much the same rules and style, but are played on boards of
wildly varying size.
- Earl P. Jones wrote a description of
Gwyddbwyll, published in
Y Camamseriad.
- Sten Helmfrid has written an
extremely impressive article on hnefatafl, with a broad
historical view of the game.
- Lady Gunnora Hallakarva wrote
a very nice article on the family.
- The Game Cabinet includes an
extremely nice
article, with lots of documentation.
- Venshavn has put together a
good page on
the games, including pointers to other pages. They also
have a very good reconstruction
of the game by Ragnarr Thorbergsson, with careful
documentation, which comes to some novel opinions about
the endgame.
- Susan Granquist has a good, somewhat more concise
description and history.
- Culwyn Bleidd Caernarfon has written yet another good
description of hnefatafl.
- Rose & Pentagram has a nice picture of
the
Ballinderry Game Board, which was probably used for
Fitchneal or Brandubh.
- Modar has a
concise description of the game.
- James Masters has a good (if brief)
overview of the game, with very pretty pictures of some
reproduction game boards.
- A period-style description from
The Ace's Boke.
- Justin's description of
the game, summarizing all the major interpretations.
- Guillaume de la Sudeterre has a nice page showing
Brandubh boards he has constructed, and a bit of speculation
about how the game was played.
- The Smithsonian Learning Center has a
brief page on hnefatafl.
- Earthgames has a brief overview
history of tafl games.
- A nice-looking
German page
on Hnefatafl. And
another.
- Benjamin Slade has a
good page
on tafl, with a bunch of links and a downloadable
implementation.
- There is a
Yahoo discussion group on tafl.
- The
Tafl
Gild is apparently using the game as essentially a
spiritual metaphor. (Which, as a Mason myself, I find kinda
neat.) They also have some interesting tweaks to the rules,
based on extensive playing and observations of the primary
sources, to try to make the game work better.
- Colyne Stewart has a
discussion of tafl games, focusing on Tablut.
- Lord Rowan O'Sidhe has a brief description of
Irish
Fidchell
- Ticktack: See Tables Games.
- Trictrac: See Tables Games.
- Wari: See Mancala.
- Zodiac: A pair of games, vaguely related to chess and
tables, from the Alfonso MS.
- See "Astronomical Tables" under Tables Games for the
tables game.
- Battledore and Shuttlecock: the ancestors of modern
badminton.
- Billiards: the ancestor of modern Pool. Originally, this
was more or less Table Croquet.
- Blind Man's Buff: a children's game still played today.
- The Museum of Games has a
brief page on the subject, based on the Brueghel painting.
- Boules, or Bocce: the early version of lawn bowling,
known in many cultures.
- Colf: the early ancestor of Golf.
- Croquet: see Pall Mall.
- Curling: sort of like Boules, but on ice, popular in
Scotland and related lands.
- Hickok Sports has
a page on Curling, which briefly points to a bit of
16th-century evidence for the game.
- Gameball: an early, simple football game.
- Hopscotch: period variants of the common children's game.
- Hurling: a simple, rather vigorous ancestor of field hockey,
increasingly popular in the SCA.
-
A Brief History of Hurling, by Lady Elisabetta Maldestro, which
quickly runs down the commonly-known info.
-
The Rules of Hurling. Note that these rules should be taken with
a grain of salt for purposes of period recreation; as far as I know,
we don't have many concrete details of the period game. SCA games
are often played with even more minimal rules than this.
- A detailed article on the
history of Cornish Rugby, which winds up touching on a lot
of Hurling history along the way.
- A brief overview of
Traditional
Gaelic Sports, which touches on Hurling among other things.
- A detailed article on
the history of Shinty, a relative of Hurling.
- Clan na Bheithir has a
good page,
giving some history of the sport as well as their reconstruction
of the game, and a couple of modern versions.
- Kubb: A fun Swedish game in the throwing-things-at-things genre.
Note: While I have seen it asserted that this game probably goes
back to period, I've seen no evidence of that. Anyone with clear
information either way should please
write to Justin.
- Marbles: again, a common children's game that goes way
back.
- Pall Mall: an early ancestor of Croquet. (Croquet itself
is significantly post-period.)
- Quoits: the generic game of Throwing Things at Things.
Best known today in the form of Horseshoes.
- Ringing the Bull: a traditional tavern game that
purports to be period.
- Rounders: a 16th century bat-and-ball game.
- Running Games: a broad category of games, generally
relegated to children's games today.
- Shinty: see Hurling.
- Shove Groat/Ha'penny: an old skill game, still played
in England today.
- Shovelboard: the ancestor of modern shuffleboard,
originally played on long tables in the Renaissance.
- Skittles: an ancestor of modern ten-pin
bowling. Versions of this game are period, I believe.
- Stoolball: an early ancestor of Cricket, at least close
to period.
- Tennis: the popular game of hitting balls with rackets;
the game was known well back in period, although the rules have
changed somewhat.
Return to the Medieval and Renaissance Games
Homepage.
