An Overview of Period Gaming - ENA08A01

(Created by Juan Carlos Santiago Bienvenides)

Level: Novice

Length of Class: 1-3 hours, depending on depth of instruction.

Description: The class will cover an overview of three major categories of medieval gaming: card games (including tarot and french-suited varieties), dice games, and board games (including chess variants and tafl-type games).

Objectives: By the end of the class, students should:

1. Be familiar with the broad categories of games played in period.
2. Be able to locate medieval gaming resources.
3. Be familiar with modern redactions from period resources.
4. Learn at least one variant from each of the categories of games covered by this course:

a. Card games.

i. Tarot games. (i.e. Early French Tarot)

ii. Frech-suited card games. (i.e. Primero or Ruff and Trump)

b. Dice games. (i.e. Hazard or Craps)

c. Board games.

i. Chess variants. (i.e. Chaturanga or Shatranj)

ii. Tafl games. (i.e. Fox and Geese or 9-men's Morris)

Teaching Resources:

Libro de los Juegos.

Commissioned between 1251 and 1282 A.D. by Alphonso X, King of Leon and Castile.

(Period text: available in print and online from multiple sources.)

Medieval and Renaissance Games Homepage

http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/

GA_Gamesters · Gleann Abhann Gamesters Yahoo Group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GA_Gamesters/

Syllabus kindly made for RUGA by Juan Carlos Santiago Bienvenides, 5/21/07.