In which I created a replica of Senet, the world’s oldest board game.

As the Red Leaves Slowly Die

429 words about creative — 10:05 · 15th Aug 2009

… don’t get me wrong (or do, it’s not like I can stop you) I like autumn, I really do but at the same time it’s a very depressing season for me because I really really hate winter. Besides the occasional Christmas that isn’t a total rip-off there is nothing nice about winter…

No wait, I just remembered one thing I do like about winter. -25 degrees Celsius outside, large fluffy snowflakes dancing down down on the streets lit with dim street lights. And being able to sit inside with Love Actually (yes I like that movie so sue me… on the other hand, please don’t sue me), a nice clean-smelling blanket and a warm cup of coffee or coco.

Okay, so maybe winter isn’t all that bad, but there’s still seasons I prefer more.

But from one thing to another, my board game is shaping up nicer and nicer. Yesterday I began using a potential exterior test group. Many thanks to Nonne at Indigo, Folkhälsan for letting me have my board game at their youth café, I’m very curious to see how it pans out, especially wether the rules are comprensable or not. I’ve never writted board game rules before and when I began it dawned on the that it is much for difficult than I at first anticipated. Well actually I have written rules once before, but that was for a Senet replica I made, and that was easier as I just used rules suggested by Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell and mixed into something I thought was a nice mix of both of their suggestions. Here’s by the way a few promotional photos I took of my replica.

Senet, with box, game pieces and throwing sticks.
Recreation of the worlds oldest board game; Senet.
Game pieces and the throwing sticks used to determine how much steps one could move.
Back in those days, they didn’t use dice.
Closeup of a game of Senet in progress.
A game in progress. Some historians believe the game was played against the god Anubis himself.

I have the rules somewhere as a .pdf file but alas I am unable to find the at the moment so you’ll just have to make do with these photos. But I think that’s all for now. Enjoy!

You’ve just read As the Red Leaves Slowly Die.

In which, 14 years ago, I wrote 429 words about creative and I covered topics, such as: senet , board games , and woodcrafting .