In the introduction of Alphonso's book of games, he expressed his belief that God intended everyone to enjoy themselves with

games.

"...those who like to enjoy themselves in private to avoid the annoyance and unpleasantness of public places,

or those who have fallen into another's power, either in prison, or slavery, or as seafarers, and in general all

those who are looking for a pleasant pastime which will bring them comfort and dispel their boredom. For that

reason, I, Don Alphonso... have commanded this book to be written."

Dice of various styles have been used since some of the earliest known civilizations.

But, first, let us define what is meant by the term dice. Dice are multiple sided objects thrown or otherwise randomly rearranged. They were used to introduce an element of chance or "luck" into play.

The simplest dice are two sided. Commonly found items could often be used for this. Most easily recognizable are coins. We are all familiar with playing "Heads or Tails" , " Cross and Pile" (Edward II). In Roman times this was called " Capita aut Navim "

There have been other "2"sided dice as well. Some examples of these are painted sticks, and beans such as these which have a "pip" on one side. Cowrie shells were also used.

The next most common style of dice is that of the 4 sides. 4 sided dice have been found in Egyptian tombs. Greek and Romans played with Tali (Knuckle Bones). These bones are from sheep or goats, but these cultures often had "man-made" versions of wood, brass, silver, gold, glass, or other materials. Oddly enough, these man made Tali perserved the shape of the "knuckles". In some that have been found, other decorative elements have embelished the surfaces. Also, the numbering of sides has been found on several of the Roman dice.

Another shape that may seem familiar to D&D players is the pyramidal shaped. These were used in Sumer.

Another style of die is the teetotum. It is shaped like a squared off top. There are variations of different nubmering sides. Some have numbers on them, but many others have words or symbols. The Jewish Dreidel has 4 sides and children gamble with coins, sticks, candies. Four, six, and eight-sided tops known as

"Teetotums," or "Put & Takes" have been used in

Europe since at least the 16th century and are

illustrated in Pieter Brugels painting "Kinderspiel"

(1560). They are related to the dreidels played with

by Jewish children during Hanukkah. Later, when the

variety of family board games skyrocketed in

Victorian England, teetotums were often included

rather than dice in order to protect the family from

the "taint" of the gambling den that was associated

with dice.

Perhaps the most commonly used is the cubic 6 sided die. Etruscan examples of these have been found dating to 900 BC. Similar dice were also found in the prehistoric earthworks of Maiden Castle in Britain. These, much like the standard dice today had opposite sides that added up to 7. This was not always standard, but is very common. It is standared today. As is the Right handedness. (Explain Right and Left)

There have also been many examples of elaborate or whimisical sets of dice. There are "poker" dice with different card images on each side. There are also what is now refered to as "bawdy" dice in the shape of naked people. This type of humor has been going on for centuries, as is proven by the Roman version. There are also 16^th c. German die of this ilk. You can get reproductions of these are various period game vendors.

One might think that novelty dice are a modern idea.

However, examples human-shaped dice date go as

far back as the Roman Empire, and a bawdy set of

14th century dice carved in the shape of a naked

man and woman (Adam & Eve?) survive in a

German museum. A customer recently informed us

that the originals are currently in a Museum in Koln,

Germany.

And, where there have been games of luck and chance, there has been gambling. Romans, as a culture reluctant to legislate ______, found the gambling on dice or Tali to be so pervasive that they prohibited it to the week long celebration of _________. (This ban on gambling did not affect wagers on races or contests) In later years, enforcement of these rules seems to be rather lax, and often the aristocracy is recorded as playing at tali.

Tactus writes of during the 12^th and 13^th c. dicing games spread throughout Europe. Hazzard is one very well known example.

THIRTY-SIX

[source: John Scarne, "Scarne on Dice"]

Any number can play and one die is used. Each player puts a stake

in the center forming a pool and each one throws the die to determine

order of play, low man going first, next highest next, and so on. The

players throw the die in turn and continue to throw, adding each number

thrown to the previous one and calling out the totals. The object is

to reach 36 or approach it as closely as possible without passing it.

Players passing 36 are busted. The player who comes closest to 36 wins.

Ties divide the pool. Most players throw again at 32 or less; stop at 33

or more.

Julie Adams, 1996
HAZARD
Caster Rolls First Roll - called the Main
If the roll is less than 5 or greater than 9 - Pass the Dice left.
Otherwise, the other players bet.
Caster Rolls again - Called the Chance
From this role there are 3 options: Win immediately, Lose immediately, or go into next phase.
Phase I- Imediate Win/Loose:

Phase II- If Caster did not Win or Loose on second roll, the roller continues rolling.
Betters can bet between each roll.
If the Main is rolled, the Betters win. If the Chance is rolled, the Caster wins. Caster must match all bets if caster looses. Loosers pass dice to the left. If Caster wins, then Caster keeps the dice and plays again.

BUCK DICE

[source: John Scarne, "Scarne on Dice"]

Any number can play and three dice are used. Each player throws

the dice to determine the order of play, the player making highest score

goes first, next highest second, and so on.

The low man then throws one die and the number thrown becomes

the point number. The high man begins by throwing all three dice,

scores one point for each point number thrown. He continues to throw

as long as he throws point numbers which are added as he goes along.

When he fails to throw a point number on any throw, the dice pass to

the next player.

The object is to score exactly 15 points, called Buck or game, and

each player, as he reaches this score, drops out of the game until only

one player remains who is the loser and who foots the bill. If a player

whose number is close to 15, on his next throw, reaches a total above

15, the throw does not count and he must throw again. Any three of a

kind (not point numbers) is a Little Buck and counts 5 points.When

the point number appears on all three dice, it is Big Buck or The

General which counts 15 points and eliminates the player no matter

what score he has previously made.

When played on a bar, three crosses, called bucks from their re-

semblance to the end view of a sawbuck, are drawn on the bar with

chalk. The center of the cross is erased when the player throws his first

point number and one arm of the cross is erased for each additional

point number thrown. When all three crosses are rubbed out, he has

scored fifteen.

In one popular variation, the additional rule is added that when

the shooter has 13 point numbers to his credit and 2 to go, only two

dice are thrown, and when he has scored 14 and has only I to go, only

one die is thrown.

The player shooting first has a slight advantage.

ACES

[source: John Scarne, "Scarne on Dice"]

Also called Aces To The Center, Deuces To The Left, Fives To

The Right.This is one of the most fascinating of all dice games. It is

very popular in the Far East particularly the Philippines. In the swank

social clubs in Manila the players each possess their own cups bearing

their names.

Any number can play and each player must have a dice cup and

five dice. Each player throws five dice and the player throwing the

highest poker hand (Ace is high and 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 represent King,

Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine respectively) takes any seat and is the first

shooter; the player throwing the second highest hand sits on his left and

shoots second; and so on. Tying players shoot again.

The first shooter begins by throwing five dice. Each thrown die

that shows an Ace is placed in the center of the playing surface; all

Deuces are passed to the player on his left; all dice showing Fives to the

player on his right. The player continues to throw until he either fails to

throw an Ace, 2 or 5 or until he has no more dice left. It then becomes

the turn of the next player on his left who has dice to throw.

Players who have no dice left remain in the game because other

dice may pass to them from the other players at any time.

When all but one die have been placed in the center the player

throwing the last Ace with the last die is declared the loser. When

played for drinks the loser pays the check. When played for a wager the

player throwing the last Ace is declared the winner and takes the pot.

This game, like Barbudi, is almost impossible to cheat. Percentage

dice such as shapes and loads would give the cheater no advantage

because the dice pass from one player to another. On his own throw

with the last die, a cheater might switch in a mis-spotted die that lacked

an Ace so that he could not throw an Ace and lose. But, since the

players on the left and right usually grab the die when a 2 or 5 is

thrown, it would be almost impossible to switch it out again.

Bell, R.C. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations. Dover: NY, 1979

Wulfric's brief descriptions of many period dicing games. http://www.riconnect.com/wulfric/sca/interest/game/dice.htm

A Manifest Detection of Diceplay by Gilbert Walker, c. 1550. Not specifically a book of games, but since it deals in depth

with matters such as cheating at dice, it gives a great deal of context for period gaming.

"The Ancients used to play Cockall, or casting of

hucklebones, which is done with smooth sheep

bones. The Dutch call them Pickelen, wherewith

our young maids that are not yet ripe use to play

for a husband, and young married folks despise

these as soon as they are married. But young men

contend with another with a kind of bone taken

forth of oxe-feet." -Brand's Popular Antiquities.

The "knucklebones" of sheep, have a roughly

rectangular shape and knucklebones, or Astragali in

Greek, were used as four-sided dice in the days of

both ancient Greece, and Rome. Humans have even

molded artificial "bones" to imitate animal bones

since prehistoric times, usually in terra cotta. The

numbers 1-3-4-6 were sometimes assigned to the

four long sides of the knucklebones. In this game

scoring was not simply by adding the total of the roll,

but included combinations. For example, a roll of

four "1's," was a "Canis," (dog) and naturally the

lowest score. A run of "1-3-4-6" was the highest

score (called a "Venus") and even beat a roll of four

6's.

Beautifully crafted dice games were among the treasures recovered from the tomb of Egypt's

King Tutankhamon. ( circa 1347-1339 BC )....

DEVELOPED AND

SPONSORED BY

It is claimed that dice were used during the Trojan War to keep spirits up

between battles and missions....

During Christ's crucifixion, it has been noted that Roman soldiers tossed

dice for his garments while standing guard....

When Caesar made the critical decision to take his victorious army across

the Rubicon against the edict of Rome, he retorted: "Tacta alea est." (The

die is cast)....

ice have a history as old as the history of man. Dice in various forms are the oldest

gambling instruments known. Artifacts of dice games have been found in the tombs of

ancient Sumeria and Egypt. Dice were notoriously popular in later Greek and Roman

times. The majority were made of bone (like the one shown below) or ivory. Others were made

of bronze, agate, onyx, jet, alabaster, marble, rock crystal, amber, porcelain, and other

materials. Etruscan dice found near Rome and made about 900 B.C. are similar to the dice of

today, with the opposite faces adding up to seven: 1:6, 2:5, 3:4. Similar dice have been found in

Britain in the prehistoric earthworks of Maiden Castle.

Sophocles claimed that dice were invented in Greece by

Palamedes, who taught the game to the soldiers at the siege

of Troy 3,000 years ago.

Herodotus attributed the invention of dice to the Lydians, who

gambled as a diversion from the great famine in the days of

King Atys.

In reality, dice had existed for thousands of years before Troy

was founded and before the Lydians had a king.

Man's very earliest written records mention dice and dice games... and crooked dice,

as well. Archeological evidence points to the fact that dice games were played by both

peasants and pharaohs in ancient Egypt. King Rameses III (c. 1182-1151 B.C.) had

himself portrayed on the high gate of the temple of Medinet Haboo playing a dice game

with two ladies of his harem. Ancient Egyptian religious writings mention dice games

that are played by the spirits of the departed in the underworld.

Primitive tribes all over the globe have gambled with dice of many curious shapes and

markings. The American Indian, the Aztec and Maya, the South Sea Islander, the

Eskimo, the Africans... all played dice games, whether using plum and peach stones,

pebbles, seeds, bones, deer horn, pottery, walnut shells, beaver teeth, or seashells.

Indeed, gambling has not been confined to any one nation or period in time. Tacitus

wrote of the Germani in A.D. 99:

"They practise dice play, at which one will naturally wonder, soberly, and quite as if it

were a serious business, with such hardihood in winning and losing, that, when they

have nothing more left, they stake their freedom, and their person on the last cast of

the die. The loser resigns himself voluntarily to servitude, and even if he is younger

and stronger than his adversary, he allows himself to be bound and sold. Thus great is

their staunchness in an affair so bad: they themselves call it 'Keeping their word'."

The most likely originator of dice is the witch doctor. Before developing

into gambling implements, dice were magical devices which primitive

man used to divine the future. Not only dice, but most other modern

gaming implements have been traced back to primeval man's practice

of divination by arrows. (most notably by Stewart Culin, formerly

director of the Brooklyn Museum, in his book Chess and Playing

Cards, 1897).

Primitive dice dealt with the realms of good and bad luck. When the

prehistoric priest or witch-doctor threw the sacred arrows (sticks,

reeds and straws were also used) upon the ground and recited his

magical spells, he read the future and foretold what good or bad fortune

would attend the tribe.

Marco Polo described a variation of this process with a surprising result...

"...when the two great hosts were pitched on the plains of Tanduc... Chinghis Kaan

one day summoned before him his astrologers... and desired them to let him know

which of the two hosts would gain the battle - his own or Prester John's... they got a

cane and split it length-wise, and laid one-half on this side and one-half on that,

allowing no one to touch the pieces.

"And one piece of cane they called Chinghis Kaan and the other piece, Prester John.

And then they said, "Now, mark; and you shall see the event of the battle and who

shall have the best of it...

"And to! whilst all were beholding the cane that bore the name of Chinghis Kaan,

without being touched by anybody, advanced to the other... and got on top of it."

The divinatory throwing of sticks is the casting of the lots

of Biblical mention, and many ancient writers refer to the

bundles of sacred tamarisk twigs used by the Magi of

Chaldea and Babylonia, the divining rods of Assyria and

the similar baresma of the Parsis of India.

The game of Jackstraws can be traced back to this

divination by throwing sticks, and the fact that kwai, the

name of the jade sceptres carried by the nobles of ancient

China, is written with a character which, combined with

the radical for "hand", stands for kwa meaning "to divine

with straws", hints at the divining rod origin of the king's

sceptre. The magician's wand would also be product of

this line of evolution. > Next >

n other cultures, divining sticks were shorter and thicker and bore a greater

resemblance to modern dice. Among the African tribes of Mashonaland, they are

common among all the Abantu races and closely bound up with their occult belief

in witchcraft. On the evening of the new moon, the village witch-doctor will go around, tossing

each man a set of dollasses in the air, and by the way they turn up he will divine the fortune of

the individual for the month to come."

The Livingstones who noted similar customs among the Zambesi referred to the

diviner as a dice doctor. He also functioned as a detective since another use for his

dice was that of discovering thieves. [below: authentic African dollasses]

Gradually these primitive fortune telling devices began to be used as fortune gaining

devices. The mystical significance of the numbers was lost and the throw determined

winning scores and decided the out-come of wagers. The liturgical rites became

games.

As the arrow used in divination began, instead, to be used in gambling, three general

types of games evolved: guessing games, games of chance and games of skill. In

the guessing games, the arrow shaft became an ornamented gambling stick marked

to denote rank which, in Korea, evolved into a deck of slim strips of oiled paper cards

whose backs still bore an arrow feather design that indicates their origin.

Later Chinese cards of the same shape, called "stick cards", bear figures whose

resemblance to those on our present court cards is remarkable. [below]

The world's oldest known playing card found in Chinese Turkestan is of this type and

is dated at the eleventh century. They were introduced into Europe from China in the

thirteenth century. "Even the ancestry of the book in Eastern Asia", Culin says,

"may be traced to the bundle of engraved or painted arrow-derived slips used in

divination."

In many of the early games such as the Korean Nyout, the Egyptian Tab and the

ancient Pachisi (Parcheesi) of India, the throw of the dice controlled the moves of

counters upon a marked playing surface as in the Backgammon of today. Later,

when the dice and the element of chance was omitted, the game of pure skill

developed and the counters became the men of Checkers, Chess, the Chinese

Wei-Kei and the Japanese Go.

But before any of these developments, the dice were tossed alone in games that

were pure gambling. If we can judge by the American Indian, primitive man and

woman (she was often even more addicted to the practice than he) was an inveterate

gambler.

The close association of gambling and the military man is also noted even that early.

Edwin T. Denig in a report on the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri said that...

"Most of the leisure time, either by night or by day, among all these nations is

devoted to gambling... every day and night in the soldier's lodge not occupied

by business matters presents gambling in various ways all the time; also in

many private lodges the song of hand gambling and the rattle of the bowl dice

are heard. Women are as much addicted to the practice as men, though not

being in possession of much property their losses are not so distressing."

The most common method of play among the Indians was to toss the gaming disks

of fruit stone, animal bone, wood or shell in a basket. The basket was raised a little,

the stones tossed, and the basket brought smartly down to the ground. The

combinations of sides which lie uppermost after the throw determined the count.

In the Cheyenne basket game five plum

stones were used marked on one side

only, three with crosses and the other

two with a symbol representing the foot

of a bear. [see photo, at left]

Two blanks, two bears and one cross

counted nothing; one blank, two bears,

and two crosses counted one point, etc.

The thrower who tossed two bears and three crosses won the game and the jackpot.

The dice shark's sleight of hand is no recent invention, either. In a game played with

dice of beaver teeth by the Twana tribe of Washington, one die with a string around

its middle counted as high score when this die was up and the others down. "They

sometimes learn very expertly to throw the one with the string differently from the

others, by arranging them in the hand so they can hold this one, which they know by

feeling, a trifle longer than the others." > Next

ost prehistoric dice were flat two-sided objects, but the knucklebone with its four

sides, probably the oldest of them all, seems to have been the direct ancestor of our

present day dotted cubical die. Marked and showing the polish that comes from

long use, specimens have been found in American prehistoric Indian mounds. One such

specimen, unearthed in Florida was the knucklebone of a fossil llama.

The knucklebone is found among primitive remains throughout the world and is

still, according to Culin, "in common use in the Mohammedan East, in southern

Europe and Spanish America." In Arabic, the word for the knucklebones is the

same as that for dice.

The Greeks and Romans used the anklebones of

a sheep and called them Astragali or Tali.

The Greek word Astragalomancy meaning

divination by the astragalus, shows that they

were also still being used as fortune telling

devices.

In Rome gaming tables have been found engraved or scratched on the marble or

stone slabs of the Forum, in the corridors of the Coliseum, on the steps of the

temple of Venus and even in the house of the Vestals.

In The History of Gambling in England (London, 1898), John Ashton says,

"Gaming tables were especially abundant in barracks, such as those of the

seventh battalion of vigiles... and of the police of Ostia and Porto. Sometimes,

when camp was moved from place to place, or else from Italy to the frontiers of

the empire, the men would not hesitate to carry the heavy tables with their

luggage. . ."

Augustus, Nero and Caligula, who cheated at the game, were passionate dice

players.Claudius had dicing tables in his carriages and Seneca describes him

as condemned to hell and made to play at dice forever with a bottomless

box.Their dice were cast from conical beakers of carved ivory and the dice were

sometimes of crystal inlaid with gold.

Professional gamblers were common and although severe laws were enacted

forbidding dicing except during the Saturnalia, they were apparently not very

strictly enforced. Loaded dice were not uncommon and one misspotted die

bearing two fours suggests that the sleight of hand necessary to switch in a die

was known and practiced by Roman cheats.

In addition to the anklebone the Greeks and Romans also used the tesserae or

cubical six-sided dice, both sometimes being employed in the same game.And

"they were thrown from dicing cups which contained crossbars to prevent the

cheater from sliding the die out upon the board in a predetermined position." In

Egypt Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie found a very modern appearing

six-sided die that was dated at 600 B.C. It was a limestone cube with drilled

holes for pips.

The first home of modern dice, however, was probably the Orient. The Korean

dice used in the Buddhist game of Promotion bear both a magical formula and

directions for the next move, and the game sheet with which it was played

bears directions in Sanskrit which suggests India as the origin.

There we find that the custom of fortune-telling with a die is practiced as a

science under the name Ramala and the dice used are of a very familiar

pattern. They are cubical and marked with the "birds-eye" spots that some of

our dice also have. They are strung upon a central axis about which they are

spun to determine the magical numbers, reference then being had to the pages

of a book of fortunes numbered to correspond.

It is also in India that the first written records of dice (loaded ones, no less!) are

found in the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, in which "Doorjooden,

having made a false set of dice, challenged Judishter, the commander of troops

he was fighting, to play, which being accepted by him, he, in a short time, lost

all his wealth and kingdoms."

Dicing was a favorite pastime of the Middle Ages and both dicing schools and

guilds existed. One of the earliest references in English is that in which

Ordericus Vitalis (1075-1143) reports that "clergymen and bishops are fond of

dice-playing."

Dice have even played a role in the destiny of nations. King Olaf of Norway, and

his contemporary, King Olaf of Sweden, met at Konungahella in Norway in A.D.

1020 to decide the ownership of the isolated district of Hising. They agreed to

throw two dice for its possession. The Swedish king threw two sixes, and

smiled and said it was hardly worth the Norwegian's while to make a throw.

King Olaf of Norway replied, while shaking the dice in his hands, 'Although

these be two sixes on the dice, it would be easy, sire, for God to let them turn

up again in my favour!' Then he threw and had sixes also. The Swedish king

re-threw, and again had two sixes. On the Norwegian king's second throw, one

die showed a six but the other split in two and there were seven pips showing.

Norway gained the district and it is reported that the kings parted at the end of

the meeting staunch friends.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. dicing spread throughout

England. Hazard was the favorite game in low taverns, and although men could

no longer stake their personal liberties on a throw, they played for everything

else, even their clothing, on which the tavern-keeper, who acted as a

pawnbroker, readily lent small sums of money. There are many accounts of

travelers falling into the taverner's hands and playing and drinking themselves

destitute; and in an early fourteenth-century manuscript there is an illumination

depicting two such players; the older is stark naked, while the younger is

reduced to his shirt!

In 1190 an army regulation prohibited the Crusaders under the command of

Richard the First of England and Philip of France from playing at any sort of

game for money. However, this restriction applied only to the lowest ranking

men-at-arms... knights and clergymen might play for money, but were

penalized 100 shillings, payable to the archbishops of the army, if they were

caught losing more than 20 shillings in one day and night. Naturally, the noble

commanders, Richard and Philip, were completely exempted and had the

privilege of playing for whatever sum they pleased, presumably being better able

to afford their losses.

References to dice from this time forward become increasingly common,

especially in the court records of the day. Elmer de Multone, for instance, was

indicted in 1311 "for being a common night walker; and, in the day, is wont to

entice strangers and persons unknown, to a tavern, and there deceive them by

using false dice." He pleaded not guilty, but the jury thought otherwise and

threw him in jail. Where was the International Bone Rollers' Guild when he

needed them? < Bac

In mythology, the Egyptians had gods and goddess playing dice to add days to the calendar, while

Greeks had their gods rolling for possession of the universe.

Dice

There is also a goðatafl which appears to be a dice game. Dice-throwing is also called taflkast.

Several dice were found at Coppergate (York), especially a 8mm bone die and a 1.1 cm jet die, both cubical.

A group of pieces was found in Baldursheimur, in northern Iceland from the 10th century. The group included a bone

die, hollow and rectangular.

The Viking grave find at Ile de Groix included a 2.8 cm long rectangular die made of marine-mammal tusk (probably

walrus).

Just as an aside, at least one pair of existing Viking Age dice are known to be loaded.

Hazard and Craps

by Dagonell the Juggler

Sir William of Tyre claimed that he and his fellow knights invented the game of Hazard during the crusades under

Charlemagne. They did it to pass the time while laying siege to the castle of Hazarth in 1125. This would imply that the

game is named after the castle. The Encyclopedia Britannica however, states that game takes its name from the Arabic

words 'al zar', which means simply, 'the dice'. Geoffrey Chaucer makes frequent mention of the game in his Canterbury

Tales as an analogy for life, with runs of both good and bad luck.

TO PLAY HAZARD: The shooter first tries to roll a 'main point' or 'faders point', a total between 5 and 9 inclusively.

Any other point total is re-rolled. After a main point has been established, the shooter then tries to roll a 'chance point' or

'shooters point', a total between 4 and 10 inclusively, which is not the main point.

However, it is possible for the shooter to win or lose before establishing a chance point. If he rolls the main point again, he

wins. If he rolls a 2 or 3, he loses his bet but retains control of the dice and may play again. If he rolls a 12 and the main

point is even (6 , 8) he wins. If he rolls a 12 and the main point is odd (5, 7, 9) he loses. If he rolls an 11 and the main

point is 7, he wins. If he rolls an 11 and the main point isn't 7, he loses. If that sounds rather complex, you're not alone.

My wife refers to this game as 'Medieval Fizzbin'. ;-) The table may be simpler:

Main Point Wins On Loses On

5 5 11, 12

6 6, 12 11

7 7, 11 12

8 8, 12 11

9 9 11, 12

any main point 2, 3

Once the chance point has been established, no other roll matters except the main point and the chance point. The shooter

continues rolling until he rolls the chance point and wins, or the main point and loses.

Inn and Inn: A very late-period (possibly post-period) dicing game.

A period-style description from The Ace's Boke. This also discusses period dicing in general a bit.

On the Play of Inn and Inn, and Games Without the Tables

--------------------------------------------------------

To Hys Excellencie Aquel Carolingia and the Most Gracious Johanna

does Justin knowne as Ace send Gode Greetings and thys humble word.

I have spoken in the past of thee games within the Tables, such as

Irish or Tick-Tack. And yet it would be remiss to not speke also of

the plaies that may be had without the Tables, for the dyce alone

maye be cause of much enjoyment. And whilst some may saye that the

games without the tables are lesser to those within, I must contest

this, for so manie good nobles have had sport of the dyce that even

kyngs maye playe without concern.

Knowe first that yr dyce must be cut most finely on the square, wyth

corners that are most true and even, and none of the sydes greater

or lesser than the others. For manie foul men maye use the Cheaters,

dyce which are cut off from true, and whych doe fall as these men

wish. You should have no sport with suche men, but immediately put

them out from yr domain, that theye maye not playe falsely with the

people of yr lande. The true gamester plaies onely with the same true

dyce, that hys chance is held onely in his skill and lot. Eche die

muste have six numbers on't, with eche pair of sides counting to

seven. As: the Ace should face the Sixe, the Duce the Fyve, and the

Trey should be opposite the Foure. And knowe that the number of dyce

maye change in the manie plaies, as two, three, four, or more.

Knowe also that eche plaier should have a Boxe, made from fine wood.

This box must bee the same for eche, and should be screwed inside,

with manie hills to make the dyce jump. For eche plaier will throw

the dyce from his boxe, and it is the task of the box to make the

dyce roll greately. Those same false plaiers may paint or shadow

theyr boxes, using false art to make them look screwed whilst being

fine and smooth inside. And thys is false play, for the cunning

gamester maye throwe from suche a box with no rolling of the dyce,

and make them fall just as they were placed. These men too should

be put out from yr lande.

There are endless games of the dyce, but I shal begin wyth the game

of Inn and Inn. This is a fine lyttle plaie, not so simple as those

where the gamesters but throw until the fyrst should throw Treys or

Foures, but neither so full of subtlety as Hazard, of whych I shal

speke later. And in the playe of Inn and Inn, you maye play wyth

two gamesters or three, eche wyth a Boxe, and foure dyce upon the

Table.

Before the start of playe, the gamesters should agree upon the Stake

and the Battle. The Stake is the coin that shal be drop't for eche

loss, and maye be a Pound, a Shilling, or even a Penny if the plaiers

wish onely to playe for the joy but care not to lose the money. The

Battle is the sum of the loss, eche player having this sum with him

and the playe following until a player has lost the Battle in full, at

whych time the Battle ends. For even a man whose loss is almost full,

to but a few Stakes, maye yet prove the victor before the Battle is

done. And the Battle should be set at some amount greater than the

Stake, as some ten or twenty coins.

The playe is most simple, wyth the plaiers throwing the dyce once in

turn before passing to the next. And the dyce maye fall in three ways:

they maye be Out, Inn, or Inn and Inn.

Yf the dyce fall with a single dublet, as Duce, Duce, Foure, Sixe, it

is Inn. The player who threw muste drop a coin upon the table and

place it in hazard to be won by another gamester.

Yf the dice fall with two dublets, as Ace, Ace, Trey, Trey, it is Inn

and Inn, and he who threw shall take all the coins upon the table for

his own. And it is Inn and Inn as well yf all foure dyce should fall

the same, as foure Duces, foure Sixes, or anie other syde of the die.

And it is but Inn yf three dyce should fall alike, but not foure.

Yf the dyce fall with no dublets, as Ace, Trey, Fyve, Sixe, or Duce,

Trey, Foure, Fyve, then it is an Out. And if ye playe with two, then

the Adversary shall take all of the coins. Yet if ye playe with three,

then the paire of Adversaries maye divide the coins, or maye throw

for them, as ye see right. But as the coins maye not be even, I think

it beste to throw for them, and the higher throw taketh the lot.

I shal speke of other games, mayhap of Hazard, a game most common

amongst gamesters but of suche detail that yt is as riche as manie

others combined. On thys colde .iiii. of Octobre, I remain yr

servant, Justin duC.

Endnotes

--------

Dicing is one of the most universal forms of game, common in almost

every culture I know of. There were a number of variant kinds of dice

in period, but the standard six-sided cubical die seems to have been

by far the most common. Note that the Renaissance sources almost

always imply that all of the players are throwing the dice from a box,

rather than barehanded; Cotton is clear that the box should be screwed

on the inside, but I don't know if that was universal. I don't

consider a box essential to play at dice (especially since I don't

know anyone making proper screwed boxes), but it certainly adds to the

authenticity if you can do so.

As mentioned above, there are a variety of ways to cheat at dice, the

most common of which involved slightly altering the dice as

described. Weighted dice like one usually finds in magicians' shops

today appear to have been less common than dice that were just a bit

long or short along one axis; while such alterations don't assure a

win every time, they skew the statistics enough that a good player can

win quite handily overall without being too conspicuous. See the books

that Alessandro the Storyteller has been editing for more details on

the fine art of cheating in the Renaissance.

I am not wholly confident that Inn and Inn is quite period; my

primary source for it is Cotton's "Compleat Gamester", from the

1670's. But the style of play is a very common one for period,

with some throws winning and some losing, and it is a nice

introduction before something more complex, such as Hazard.

Note that this reconstruction is slightly different from Master

Sallamallah's, mainly in exactly how the Out gets handled. The

original source is a bit ambiguous, and we've interpreted it

differently; those curious about the different interpretation

should see his book, "Medieval Games".

-- Justin