#board game history

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Twenty-Nine Hole Game Board.

Date: ca. 664-332 B.C. (?)

Period: 26th dynasty, Late Period

[prokopetz]

I'm spinning this off of the main thread about tracing the origin of the term "d66" because it's not strictly germane to the topic – none of these examples actually use the term "d66" to describe their dice-rolling methods – but I'm going to post it anyway as a matter of general interest: following a conversation with Tumblr user @notclevr, it appears that before tabletop wargames (and, nearly concurrently, tabletop RPGs) got their hands on the mechanic, the principal (though by no means exclusive) users of the old "roll a six-sided die twice, reading one die as the 'tens' place and the other die as the 'ones' place" trick may have been tabletop American baseball simulators.

The most notable example of the type – and the only well-known example still in publication today – is J Richard Seitz' APBA Baseball, first published in either 1950 or 1951 (accounts vary). In this game, a d66 roll is cross-referenced with a card representing the active player and a "board" representing the current situation on the field:

For example, with Carlton Fisk at bat, a d66 roll of 31 would yield a result of "8". Assuming for the sake of argument that the situation on the field is a runner on first and a grade C pitcher, consulting the "Runner on First Base" board, this corresponds to an outcome of "SINGLE—line drive to left; runner to third".

(This example is, strictly speaking, incorrect, as Carlton Fisk didn't have his major league debut until 1969 and I'm using the wrong lookup tables for any year in which he played, but you get the idea!)

Interestingly, APBA Baseball is not the first game to use this setup. It's heavily derived from Clifford Van Beek's National Pastime, a game whose patent was registered in 1925, though it wasn't actually published until 1930. Even at a glance, the similarities are substantial:

Indeed, though National Pastime's lookup tables are much simpler than APBA Baseball's, where they overlap they're often word for word identical. It's generally accepted that Seitz plagiarised National Pastime without credit when creating APBA Baseball (ironically, given his own famously combative stance toward alleged imitators!), though he was within his rights to do so, as National Pastime had fallen into the public domain by the time APBA Baseball was published.

We can go back even further, though. As far as I've been able to determine, the earliest known tabletop baseball simulator to use d66 lookup tables for resolving plays is Edward K McGill's Our National Ball Game, first published in 1886:

A copy of the game's 1887 US patent application can be downloaded here. This one uses an unusual 21-entry variant of the standard d66 lookup table in which the order of the rolled digits is insignificant, with doubles being half as likely as non-doubles rolls; it's unclear whether McGill was aware of this when he laid out the table. Unlike later incarnations of the genre, there are no individual player statistics, with all at-bats being resolved via the same table.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Egyptian

Game of Hounds and Jackals

Middle Kingdom, ca. 1814-1805 B.C.E.

[joelchaimholtzman]

In celebration of the upcoming Avatar series I made three illustrations depicting key characters. Here is Sokka, the boomerang wielding warrior from the Southern Water Tribe.

Please let me know what you think and if you are going to watch the show!

All the best,

Joel

[quiddie]

Someone warn Lily Du - there’s a coupe d’état (pun absolutely intended) coming 😈

[mysharona1987]

[marzipanandminutiae]

if you're terrified for your country's elections next year because a lot of people seem to think the solution to the government handling an international conflict in an abysmal and deplorable way is to let a group of total monsters who would handle it MUCH worse AND also potentially doom huge swaths of oppressed people at home as well as our entire literal planet get into power, by ignoring the way our deeply flawed but also deeply entrenched system realistically works

clap your hands...?

(I cannot understand trying to stop heinous and unnecessary killing- which disgusts and saddens me, too! how could it not?! -by handing the election to people who want to do even more of that exact thing. the math isn't mathing, as they say)

[oldschoolfrp]

Gettysburg (Avalon Hill, 1958) is considered the first wargame to depict an historic battle. It was released in advance of the centennial of the bloodiest engagement of the American Civil War, fought July 1-3, 1863. Designer Charles S. Roberts acknowledged the game had some flawed mechanics and balance issues due to a lack of playtesting but it remained in print for many years, with a 2nd edition in 1961, a 3rd ed in 1964, and later printings through the 1970s and 80s. Attempts to fix the movement rules resulted in different editions of the game switching back and forth between a square grid and hexes on the board.

Suggested improvements to the game included those offered in The General V1 N5, January 1965, by Staff Sergeant Lou Zocchi (later a published game designer himself and the founder of dice company Gamescience):

[artschoolglasses]

Game Board, bone, wood, horn, stain and gilding over wood core with metal mounts, Italian, 15th Century

From the Met Museum

[buglaur]

she's live

now you can see what everyones height is in my head because i refuse to download height sliders. look at ass <3

[tanuki-kimono]

Wondering - have you seen garment designs with go (the game)? Or any board game, we're not picky. we thought they'd be more popular since they're geometric. i think we've seen more of the shell game, but that seems more like the fans patterns - like lots of little pictures, and not really centered on the game.

Hi! Kaiawase (shell matching game) is part of the traditional court patterns, hinting at classical Heian noble culture with its Tale of Genji miniature paintings. This game has auspicious underlyings hence why it found its way on many kimono and obi!

As a pattern, strategy games are more a secular motif. Go was already already popular among government officers during Nara era, but of what I know it is mostly linked to warrior culture. Same goes for shôgi.

You can find here and there garments patterned with board games, especially men items such as juban or haori linings.

Go patterns are tbh super hard to find on the net - many are mislabeled circles/round motifs (maybe because they look like goishi/go stones?). But go patterns do exist I am certain of that! (sources 1)

Shogi is easier to recognize as its mostly depicted through shôgikoma/tiles though you can also sometimes find shôgiban/boards (sources 1 / 2 / 3 / 4):

[swifty-fox]

Sitting here, might fuck around and do Art History Major John "thats a penis metaphor" Egan and Data Engineer Gale "No I'm not on my eighth redbull at 11 am" Cleven

[mashhistorian]

This week, we look at another M*A*S*H game from the 1980s! This time it is the Golden Trivia Game: M*A*S*H Edition. This is a fun game with over 1,200 questions, so there is something for everyone! Learn more about it in this week’s post!

[californiastatelibrary]

Today we unboxed a new accession, a game called "What Shall I Be?" from 1976, created by the same designers as Scrabble. The previous version of the game, from 1966, had only six professions for women: model, actress, nurse, teacher, flight attendant, and ballet dancer.

[joelchaimholtzman]

nd here is the final painting for my Avatar: The Last Airbender series! Avatar Aang himself, master of the Four Elements and savior of the world.

The cartoon was significant for me when I was growing up. Now that the live action is releasing tommorow, after 20 years since the original I felt that its the time to create my tribute.

This was the first one of the three (Katara, Sokka) that I made, and the piece I spent the least amount of time on. I also had plans for more characters but time constraints wont allow me to work on them just yet! Perhaps in the future.

I hope you like it!

All the best,

JCH

[restless-historian]

I have been researching the history of board games for school lately. That`s an insanely intersting topic! So here I bring y`all some dice from Egypt. And I have more to come

6 sided die, 30 B.C.–A.D. 364, Egypt, Serpentinite?, H. 1.8 cm,  L. 1.7 cm, W. 1.6 cm, it`s at the Met nowadays

Btw cubic dice have been used in the Near East since the 3rd millennium B.C. Over time, different systems were used for distributing the points. The familiar arrangement of opposite sides adding up to seven (1-6, 2-5, 3-4) only became common later, as reflected by this die

6 sided die, 30 B.C.–A.D. 364, Egypt, white stone, 1.8 x 1.8 x 1.8 cm, the Met