BAT AND BALL:

"Perhaps the most serious incident of the contests had occurred in one of the games of bat and ball; in this contest there are two men on each side, and the object is to keep the ball out of the hands of the other team; no one man may hold the ball for more than the referee"s count of twenty; he may, however, throw it into the air, provided it is thrown over his head, and catch it again himself; the ball may be thrown to the partner, or struck to him with the bat; the bat, of course, drives the ball with incredible force; the bats are of heavy wood, rather broad, and the ball, about two inches in diameter is also wood, and extremely hard; this is something like a game of "keep away" with two men in the middle. I was pleased that I was not involved in the play. Shortly after the first "knock off", in which the ball is served to the enemy, Gorm, who was Ivar"s partner, was struck cold with the ball, it driven from an opponent"s bat; this, I gathered, is a common trick; it is very difficult to intercept or protect oneself from a ball struck at one with great speed from a short distance; it looked quite bad for Ivar at this point, until one of his opponents, fortunately, broke his leg, it coming into violent contact with Ivar"s bat. This contest was called a draw. Ivar then asked me to be his partner. I declined. "It is all right," said Ivar, "even the bravest of men may decline a contest of bat-and-ball." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 140


BONES:

"Imnak and I sat across from one another, both cross-legged. He dropped a tiny bone to the fur mat between us. Each player, in turn, drops a bone, one of several in his supply. The bone Imnak had dropped was carved in the shape of a small tabuk. Each of the bones is carved to resemble an animal, such as an arctic gant, a northern bosk, a larl, a tabuk or sleen, and so on. The bone which remains upright is the winner. If both bones do not remain upright there is no winner on that throw. Similarly, if both bones should remain upright, they are dropped again. A bone which does no remain upright, if its opposing bone does remain upright, is placed in the stock of him whose bone remained upright. The game is finished when one of the two players is cleaned out of bones." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 184 & 185


CAT"S-CRADLE:

"Others faced one another, kneeling, and, with string and their fingers, played an intricate cat"s-cradle game. Others played "stones", where one player guesses the number of stones held in the other"s hand. I tried the cat"s-cradle game but I could not play it, I always became confused, trying to copy the intricate patterns. How beautifully they would suddenly, in all their complexity, appear. The other girls laughed at my clumsiness. The northern girls, incidentally, were very skilled at this game. They could beat us all." Book 7, Captive of Gor, page 107


DICE:

"A number of men crowded between the tables then and some dice, inked knucklebones of the verr, were soon rattling in a metal goblet. Sura knelt before the table of Cernus, her head down. One of her guards snapped a slave leash on her collar. The leash key was on a tiny loop of wire. The guard twisted this wired about the red-enameled steel of her collar. Behind her the men began crying out, watching the tumbling of the knucklebones on the stones of the floor. I understood to some extent what was taking place. It was merely another of the turnabouts of Kajuralia, but in it was perhaps more; Sura"s pride and her position in the House, though she was a slave, had been resented by many of the men and staff; perhaps even Cernus felt she had overstepped herself; surely he seemed pleased that she would now be humbled, now used as a common red silk girl." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 248


KAISSA:

"Game! Game!" I heard, and quickly shook my head, driving away the memories of Ar, and the girl once known, always loved. The word actually cried was, "Kaissa," which is Gorean for "Game." It is a general term, but when used without qualification, it stands for only one game, The man who called out wore a robe of checkered red and yellow squares, and the game board, of similar squares, with ten ranks and ten files, giving a hundred squares, hung over his back; slung over his left shoulder, as a warrior wears a sword, was a leather bag containing the pieces, twenty to a side, red and yellow, representing Spearmen, Tarnsmen, the Riders of the High Tharlarion, and so on. The object of the game is the capture of the opponent"s Home Stone. Capturing of individual pieces and continuations take place much as in chess. The affinities of this game with chess are, I am confident more than incidental." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 26

"I thought that I had played Kaissa well tonight. To be sure, Samos was not an enthusiast for the game. He preferred, as I recalled, a different Kaissa, one of politics and men." Book 20, Player of Gor, page 38

"He looked down at the board. "Perhaps it is stupid, or absurd, or foolish, that men should concern themselves with such things." "Kaissa?" I asked. "Yes," he said. "Now," I said, "you are being truly foolish." "Perhaps that is all it is, after all," he said, "the meaningless movement of bits of wood on a checkered surface." "And love," I said, "is only a disturbance in the glands and music only a stirring in the air." "And yet it is all I know," he said. "Kaissa, like love and music, is its own justification," I said. "It requires no other." Book 20, Player of Gor, page 236


RED HUNTER"S GAME:

"You spoiled her kick," said a man to me, in Gorean. "I am sorry," I said. The girl, with the other youths, had been playing a soccerlike game with the leather ball, with goals drawn in the turf. I had not realized, until too late, that I had been traversing the field of play." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 193


STONES:

"Tal," I said to two guardsmen who crouched at the side of a fire, playing Stones, a guessing game in which one person must guess whether the number of stones held in the fist of another is odd or even." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 186

"At "Stones," however, I was genuinely pleased with myself. It has two players, who take alternate turns. Each player has the same number of "Stones", usually two to five per player. The "Stones" are usually pebbles or beads, but in the cities one can buy small polished, carved boxes containing ten "stones," the quality of which might vary from polished ovoid stones, with swirling patterns, to gems worth the ransom of a merchant"s daughter. The object of the game is simple, to guess the number of stones held in the other"s hand or hands. One point is scored for a correct guess, and the game is usually set for a predetermined number of paired guesses, usually fifty. Usually your opponent tries to outwit you, by either changing the number of stones held in his hand or, perhaps, keeping it the same. I was quite successful at this game, and I could beat most of the girls. I could even beat Inge, who was of the scribes." Book 7, Captive of Gor, page 107


THE BATTLES OF OXEN:

"The Battles of Oxen," cried one of the silver masks, and her cry was taken up by ten and then a hundred others. Soon the stands themselves seemed to ring with the cry. "The Battles of Oxen," cried the women of Tharna. "Let them begin!" We were thrown on our feet again, and, to my horror, our yokes were fitted with steel horns, eighteen inches in length and pointed like nails. Andreas, as his yoke was similarly garnished with the deadly projections, spoke to me. "This may be farewell, Warrior," said he. "I hope only that we are not matched." "I would not kill you," I said. He looked at me strangely. "Nor would I kill you," he said, after a time. "But," he said, "if we are matched and we do not fight, we will both be slain." "Then so be it," I said." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 112


ZAR:

"Between them they had, in the crusts, scratched a board for Zar. This resembles the Kaissa board. Pieces, however, may he placed only on the intersections of lines either within or at the edges of the board. Each player has nine pieces of equal value which are originally placed on the intersections of the nine interior vertical lines with what would be the rear horizontal line, constituted by the back edge of the board, from each player"s point of view. The corners are not used in the original placement, though they constitute legitimate move points after play begins. The pieces are commonly pebbles, or bits of verr dung, and sticks. The "pebbles" move first. Pieces move one intersection at a time, unless jumping. One may jump either the opponent"s pieces or one"s own. A jump must be made to an unoccupied point. Multiple jumps are permissible. The object is to effect a complete exchange of original placements. The first player to fully occupy the opponent"s initial position wins. Capturing, of course, does not occur. The game is one of strategy and maneuverability." Book 10, Tribesman of Gor, page 265 MISCELLANEOUS GAME QUOTES:

"Dice and cards and game boards and drinking goblets scattered to the rocky floors of the guards chambers as Whip Slaves and guardsmen looked up to find at their throats the blades of desperate and condemned men, now drunk with the taste of freedom and determined to free their fellows." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 167

"He yelled something raucous and ribald. It had to do with "tastas" or "stick candies." These are not candies, incidentally, like sticks, as for example, licorice or peppermint sticks, but soft, rounded, succulent candies, usually covered with a coating of syrup or fudge, rather in the nature of the caramel apple, but much smaller, and, like a caramel apple, mounted on sticks. the candy is prepared and the stick, from the bottom, is thrust up, deeply, into it. It is then ready to be eaten. These candies are usually sold at such places as parks, beaches, and promenades, at carnivals, expositions and fairs, and at various types of popular events, such as plays, song dramas, races, games, and Kaissa matches. They are popular even with children. The expression was sometimes used by men for women such as we." Book 22, Dancer of Gor, page 81

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{me'shan}~Azriel