Stood up by Mr. Swiveller* and the Marchioness? Cole from Gather Together Games shows how to play Cribbage Solitaire [YT 3 min.] The “Solitaire E-Man” has a longer demonstration. [~12 min.] if you’re not into that whole “brevity” thing.

A nice post on metafilter about various very nerdy ways to play Cribbage Solitaire.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/43595585

Native Americans have been playing with dice in games of chance for more than 12,000 years, according to a new paper published in the journal American Antiquity. And the oldest examples of Native American dice predate the earliest currently known dice in the Old World by millennia.

“Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations,” said author Robert Madden, a graduate student at Colorado State University. “What the archaeological record shows is that ancient Native American groups were deliberately making objects designed to produce random outcomes, and using those outcomes in structured games, thousands of years earlier than previously recognized.”

Madden’s interest in Native American gaming started with Maya ballgames and then expanded to include Native American dice and games of chance. These were rudimentary dice with just two sides, rather than the six sides of modern dice, typically described as “binary lots.” And Madden found they were common to virtually every Native American tribe. Archaeologists had traced the use of such dice back 2,000 years, but most were hesitant to conclude that dice-like artifacts older than that were, in fact, dice.

“We always have that problem with archeology, which is you find something, and you say, well, what is this, how was it used?” Madden said in a CSU podcast. “One of the things we often rely on is something called ethnographic analogy, which is, do we have some kind of historic record of people using things like this, hopefully in the same area and hopefully with a cultural connection. If we see that, then we can make an inference that maybe the same object made in the way was used for the same purpose.”

The most comprehensive study of Native American dice, gambling, and games of chance dates back to 1907, with the publication of ethnographer Robert Stewart Culin‘s 809-page report, “Games of the North American Indians.” Culin began by delving into the collection maintained at the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago, including the field notes and manuscripts written by curator George A. Dorsey, an anthropologist. Dorsey introduced Culin to various Native tribes, where Culin collected even more information about Native American games and gaming artifacts. Culin also consulted with other scholars and collectors to produce his final report 14 years later, which includes over 1,100 illustrations and descriptions of 239 sets of dice from 130 different tribes. A morphological test

Madden used Culin’s magnum opus to come up with four diagnostic criteria for confirming whether a given Native American artifact is an example of Native American dice. First, they must be two-sided objects. Second, the two sides must be readily distinguishable from each other, usually by applying color or markings to one side, although in rare cases they can be distinguished by shape, with one side being convex and the other being concave.

Third, they must fall into one of four shape categories: flat (bone dice or stick dice), plano-convex (one flat side and one rounded side), convex-concave or “cane dice” (one rounded side and one concave side), and convex-convex (two rounded sides), usually peach pits or plum stones marked to distinguish between the two sides. And finally, the objects must be of the right size and shape to be held in the hand and cast onto a playing surface. Flat dice types: (left) bone dice; (right) stick dice Flat dice types: (left) bone dice; (right) stick dice. Stewart Culin, 1907 Types of plano-convex dice: (left) round stick dice; (right) wood dice. Concave-convex and convex-convex dice: (left) cane dice; (right) peach- and plum-stone dice Types of plano-convex dice: (left) round stick dice; (right) wood dice. Stewart Culin, 1907 Concave-convex and convex-convex dice: (left) cane dice; (right) peach- and plum-stone dice. Stewart Culin, 1907

Once Madden devised his four-pronged test, he combed through the archaeological record to apply those criteria to any artifacts labeled gaming pieces. “In most cases, these objects had already been excavated and published,” Madden said. “What was missing wasn’t the evidence, it was a clear, continent-wide standard for recognizing what we were looking at.”

Madden was able to conclusively identify 565 Native American dice from 45 different sites and designate an additional 94 artifacts as “probable” dice. Objects with a drilled or pierced hole were excluded from his assessment because they could just as easily be beads or other decorative objects rather than dice. He also excluded objects whose two sides could only be distinguished by shape, with no clear markings, for similar reasons. The oldest artifacts, from Folsom deposits in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, date back to the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago.

According to Madden, dice and gaming in these societies weren’t anything like contemporary gambling, where the house always has the edge; rather, they likely served a social function.

“These games are one-on-one; there’s no house,” said Madden. “It’s a fair game, everybody’s got an equal opportunity, equal conditions, and it was used as a form of exchange, particularly between groups of people who did not come into frequent contact with each other, so they didn’t really know each other. It’s really a form of gifting over time that creates enduring reciprocal relationships. It’s not about a commercial transaction where you and I are going to swap something and then go our separate ways.”

The findings also shed light on early Native American concepts of probability. “When we see the origins of dice, we’re literally seeing the origins of probabilistic thinking,” said Madden. “That’s always been thought to have begun in the Old World, in the Bronze Age, about 6,000 years ago. This research shows that Native Americans were making dice, generating random outcomes and using those random streams of probability and harnessing them in games of chance 6,000 years earlier. So, if we want to understand the history of probabilistic thinking, we now need to look into the Old World at the end of the last Ice Age.”

That said, “These findings don’t claim that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were doing formal probability theory,” Madden added. “But they were intentionally creating, observing, and relying on random outcomes in repeatable, rule-based ways that leveraged probabilistic regularities, such as the law of large numbers. That matters for how we understand the global history of probabilistic thinking.”

This is a simple, but ornery, solo web-game, played in browser that will conveniently save your progress.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=74339

For sure it's tedious at times, but also fun to outwit one's enemies. Up until the last boss-level, which involves figuring out how to defeat that impossible boss, because that's (@&#)@(#&$@#...

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/strategy_games/p/1093266/i-designed-a-board-game-creative-commons-open-source

Hey I've been working on this abstract strategy board game on and off for more than 10 years. I've picked up the project again trying to get a digital version up and running in the browser that is playable.

It's still under development, but you can check out the repository here: https://github.com/GreenAnts/Amalgam_Webgame/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file. (There are links on the main page for rules, and etc)

Rulebook: https://github.com/GreenAnts/Amalgam_Webgame/tree/main/assets/Rulebook

Video tutorial: https://youtu.be/LZD5h4siXVM

Play against a (dumb) bot/AI: https://greenants.github.io/Amalgam_Webgame/ (this is the under development game, and a has a lot of placeholder text - but once you enter the bot game, it should actually work.

The game is a bit niche, and I'm assuming probably won't fit the bill for most people in this instance, but I'm hoping someone might be interested and help us grow this project. The game is open source and creative commons licensed, so I'm hoping the game will become community created.

Anyways, if you check it out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/37896091

As the game is somewhat anarchic, this is just a suggested ruleset

cross-posted from: https://video.ploud.fr/videos/watch/c6c4aa15-1684-4047-8333-bf39f3077087

Board Game Beat is leaving conventional social media behind. Find out why, and the various ways you can follow Board Game Beat.

Watch the video on-site, read the transcript, and see the full source list here: https://www.wericmartin.com/federated-social-media-video

And...please share to help prove that a business can be successful without Facebook, Insta, Twitter, YouTube, etc.!

In particular, I like the part where you build your deck from a set of themed sub-decks before the start, and then it's up to you to find the synergies between those themes. Not sure if there's an existing term for that mechanic. I think it may count as a form of a deckbuilder, but editing the deck's contents isn't part of the main game loop. Maybe a deck drafter?

I also like that it's a compact card game that doesn't take long to learn or play, and plays well with only 2 players. The only other drafting games I've found have a board, lots of pieces, and are aimed at 4+ players.

Trying to search for games like Compile is a bit difficult, because in the other threads I find, people like to focus on the lane battling aspect, which I could take or leave. I'm mostly interested in compact drafting games for 2p. Anyone know any?

This feels like a pretty wild update. Buried Giant Games apparently includes Josh Yearsley who designed the soon to be released Root expansion, as well as Ted Caya who had left Leder separately some time previously. I really hope it is as amicable as they say and that both studios have good things ahead.

Image text:

An Important Update about the Future of Arcs

Dear Backers,

I have some important news for you all. Kyle and I will be leaving Leder Games and starting a new company, Buried Giant Studios. This separation is amicable, and we wish the best of luck to our friends at Leder Games.

If you’d like to read more about the separation, check out my statement here. You can check our new company’s website here.

As part of this separation, Buried Giant Studios has purchased both Arcs and Oath from Leder Games. Going forward, any support inquiries regarding Arcs should be directed to hello@buriedgiant.com.

Finally, I’m happy to announce that the new company’s first project will be an Arcs expansion. We’ll have a lot more to share about the project soon, but if you want to be notified of its launch, click here!

Granted, my bigger peeve is players who can't sit still and pay attention during the teach.

It's action packed and fast paced, intuitive to pick up for my novice friends and family, replayable with several kinds of optional mechanics. Initially, I picked it up because someone mentioned it in a Flamme Rouge review as being better than it, and I enjoy both games to pieces as the mechanics are immersive.

The new tracks and stuff seem interesting so I'd like to pick up an expansion, but not multiple at once. So help me pick:

• Heavy Rain, Japan + Mexico, puddles and consecutive curves, bumch of new cards
• Tunnel Vision, Netherlands and Spain, tunnels, bunch of new cards
• Rocky Road (upcoming in 2026), South Africa and Germany, gravel roads and stuff

2025 was a real kick in the butt so I just didn't have as much time for games, plus I've been playing more 40k in general which I always waffle on if I should include in here or not.

My group's made some good progress on Frosthaven and we're hoping to actually complete it next year, and another group and I finished Clank 2 (and also finished Clank Legacy 1 finally! But it doesn't show on here because my wife and I had a single game left, but the couple we play with moved so it took over a year to get that last game in).

We also went to Japan this year, which ruled, and Let's Go To Japan has been a blast to play post that trip.

What have you all been playing this year???

I just played Azul for the first time and I really like it. The rules are straightforward and it's quick to setup and pack up. It reminds me a lot of Sagrada.

#boardgames #Azul #Sagrada @boardgames

Reference

Sorry. Wanted to participate in the new Lemmy meme but this is the only corn related thing I could think of 🙏

There Goes the Getaway Car!

An update about Take:

Take's designer, Ted, has decided to move on from the studio and onto his next grand adventure. He will be bringing Take with him. Due to this, we are canceling this crowdfunding campaign. We wish him the very best!

As for the future of Take, that is squarely in the designer’s hands. We enjoyed our play tests in the studio, and will certainly celebrate if/when Ted takes that next step toward production.

We are grateful for the enthusiasm you’ve all shown for Take. Nearly 8700 followers is nothing to sneeze at! We look forward to returning to Kickstarter in the future with another amazing project. Stay tuned!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54250543

Welcome to Hell

An Australian YouTuber got invited to a NATO wargame and made this very interesting video about it.

The section that starts at 3m30s (10 minutes long) discusses the military history of wargaming which I found fascinating.

The rest of it is also well worth a watch.

It's not new (it sat in my watch later list for a month since it's 65 minutes long) so apologies if you've already seen it.

Follow the artist for easy access to these and future playlist;, this artist too:

The Tyranny of Dragons

Icespire Peak

Avernus the Dark

The Rise of Tiamat

Icewind Dale

Waterdeep Cults

It started as a world building thing and ended up complete enough to actually play. It's a bit like chess but with tiles placed to make the field and a pog like betting system. Everyone I've shown it to tells me I need to publish it, but I have no idea how. Any one here have suggestions?

I just feel sad about it. I've been buying most of my games from the same shop for years, the staff is really friendly and knowledgeable. A couple weeks ago they suddenly announced they're closing.

I'm thinking of buying Hero Quest again. I like that the rules aren't too complicated.

I was thinking of how people used to play chess years ago by sending each other their next move by mail. Maybe we could do something similar with IRC and a webcam to livestream the table. Anybody interested? I'm in the UTC+0 timezone. In theory, you won't need a board to play but practice could be different.

It would be easy to set up a chat room on libera.chat. I mention IRC specifically because I'm not into Discord. It's too busy and makes the fans on my laptop very loud.

Edit: I'm going to have to put my participation in this on hold. I did get a webpage set up that streams from my web camera. I'm also in the middle of getting the page to show the most recent frame grab of the last state of the board in case the camera happens to be off. But, I've realised that my cameras are all built into devices (smartphone and desktop monitor). So while it tests well, I can't angle these in a way that frames the board best, and I need my phone for other things most of the time :) I'll come back to this if I ever end up with two dedicated cameras (one from above and one at a side angle).