May 19

Cafe Press or Zazzle

I’ve had a CafePress account for years (closing on 8 years, I think). In that time, I’ve sold next to nothing. Ok, so I’ve sold things, but they were to myself. I’d already done these new designs and they have been in my CafePress store, but I was dissatisfied with how they were doing. I’ve also been a bit underwhelmed, lately, by the restrictions inherent in the business model at CafePress. So, last week sometime, I opened a Zazzle account and added the new designs. Less than 24 hours after posting my new image I had a sale. I don’t make a lot of money on each item, but hey in this economy, money is money, right?

So, although I’ve not abandoned my CafePress account, I expect that fewer & fewer products will be going there, and I will concentrate on my efforts at Zazzle.
View my East Wind Games Designs at Zazzle

Cheers.

May 09

Being a Brief History of Dice

No Comment · Games, History, Dice

I’ve been in the process for some time now, of writing a book of dice games. Although time has been my enemy on more than one occasion, I feel that there is definitely light to be seen at the end of this very long, very dark tunnel. Here is a portion of the foreword of my forthcoming book:

Being a Brief History of Dice
Dice are likely the oldest gaming instruments known to man. The actual origin of dice is unknown, but the long & rich history of dice is quite colourful. The Greek philosopher-poet, Sophocles (496—406 BC) claimed that dice were invented by Palamedes during the Greek siege of Troy. While Herodotus (484 - ? B.C.), an historian and acquaintance of Sophocles made the assertion that dice were invented by the Lydians of Asia Minor. Physical evidence exists, however, that places dice in the hands of Egyptians circa 6000 BC making them considerably older than either Sophocles or Herodotus thought. Further evidence seems to point to the independent development of dice by ancient cultures throughout the world. In days long past, the throw of a die was not just considered to be luck; the outcome was believed to have been controlled or contrived by the gods. Therefore the casting of a die or dice became a method of means for politicians, lawyers, soothsayers and many other diverse peoples from all layers of life. The throw of the dice, in the Roman world, was looked over by Fortuna, the daughter of Zeus, who determined the final outcome of the throw. Gamblers, still today, beseech Lady Luck to guide their throws. Long before dice became standardized, ancient peoples would use fruit seeds (tamarind, pomegranate &c.), sets of sticks, sea shells, nut shells, or whatever natural items they had to hand. The next evolutionary step for dice was the use of animal knucklebones. The Greeks & Romans used sheep anklebones which were four-sided in shape. Even today we still refer to the cast of the dice as “rolling the bones.” These Tali or Astaragali (the Roman names for knucklebones) were used alongside the more recognizable Tesserae (six-sided dice decorated with counting dots)…

There is more, but you’ll have to wait for the book.
Thank you for reading.

KyleC

Ludo Ergo Sum

May 05

Skallywaggs Scarborough Harbour Rules

No Comment · Games, Rules

One of the games that came to my attention during the 2007 fiscal year, and thus to East Wind Games, was Skallywaggs by Bent Castle Workshop. I love this game, and have never introduced the game to someone who didn’t, in their turn, also love it.

It’s an immensely satisfying game that has a wonderfully high re-playability factor. It’s that re-playbility factor that determines whether I carry a game or not. Skallywaggs is not only a game I love and play, but it became a very good seller last year and into this year. In the many games that we played, there were some rules that we felt were ambiguous enough that they needed clarifications. So, we have created our own set of “Harbour Rules” which I present here.

Skallywaggs
Scarborough Harbour Rules

Swag or Plunder: When playing Swag & Plunder, the player may choose to take three (3) cards from the shipyard, or three (3) cards from the commons which are replaced from shipyard.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady: The draw one extra card ability listed on the Waitress’s head and body cards are good for a single card when the given card is played into a crew from either the player’s hand or from the commons. They do not provide an extra card each turn. In addition, the Waitress’s feet also give one extra card according to the same rules.

Don’t Get Caught: If a player is caught with more than ten (10) cards in his hand after he has “knocked” (passed his turn), then the player who caught him picks (without looking) which card(s) get discarded.

Setting Sail at the Crack of Dawn: After announcing that he is setting sail, a player wins if, and only if, he has the required crew at the beginning of his next turn.

Every Card for Himself: The immunity to Skallywaggs special ability does not convey that effect to the rest of the pirate. It is effective for that card, and that card alone.

Download Skallywaggs Scarborough Harbour Rules

These are the Harbour Rules under which we play Skallywaggs. They are presented here for you only as a guide. If you have developed your own Harbour Rules, we’d love to know about them. Please post them in the comments.

Ludo Ergo Sum,
KyleC
East Wind Games

May 01

Scottish Billiards

No Comment · Games, Rules, Pool

Some time back (many months in fact), I stumbled across a game called Scottish Billiards on a site dedicated to obscure pool & billiards games. Since I’m a) Scottish in heritage and b) love pool & billiards games, I read the rules. I did not, unfortunately, print them or otherwise memorise them. That site has now hidden itself and neither my best efforts, nor the efforts of my pool buddies has resulted in the resurfacing of that site or the rules to Scottish Billiards. So, I will present the rules for Scottish Billiards here for all to read and, hopefully, enjoy. These rules are a combination of my memory of the original rules as I read them, and of play-testing with those rules. I have removed some of the more cumbersome elements of the original set of rules and, if necessary replaced them with more modern and meaningful rules. I have also added a scoring system that was not, to my recollection, part of the original rules but which seemed to be a requirement to the game. Onto the rules:

Scottish Billiards: Being a variation of the genteel sport of billiards.
Players: 2 - 6
Equipment: 15 coloured balls & one cue ball
Objective: To sink the 15 (money ball) while holding the greatest number of points.
Setup: Place the one ball on the rail at the diamond nearest the right foot of the pool table. Move up the rail toward the head of the table placing the balls in sequential order. Therefore on the right hand rail, the balls 1 - 6 will rest at a corresponding diamond. Begin again at the foot of the table on the left hand rail this time and place the 7 - 12 balls in sequential order from foot to head. Back to the foot rail, place the 13 & 14 balls on the right hand & left hand diamonds respectively. At the head of the table, place the 15 at the centre diamond.
Break: Lag to determine who will go first. I recommend lagging prior to the setup of balls. Since this is a rotational game, the one ball becomes the object ball and must be struck on the break. As in traditional billiards, the cue ball must be placed behind the headstring for the first strike.
Play: Scottish Billiards is a rotational game. This means that each ball, in it’s turn becomes the object ball. The object ball does not change until the current object ball has been successfully pocketed. At the start of the game, the one-ball is the de facto object ball. Each shot that takes place must strike the one-ball first or be deemed a scratch (see Scratches). The one-ball will remain the object ball until it is pocketed. Once the one-ball has been pocketed, the next ball in sequence becomes the object ball.
Scratches: If a scratch occurs on the break, all balls are returned to their spot on the rail and play passes to the next player. The next player must play as though he was breaking by placing the cue ball behind the headstring. Any balls pocketed on the same turn as the scratch are removed from the pocket and placed back at their initial starting point against the rail. No points are scored on a scratch shot. There are three types of scratches.

Pocket scratch: If the cue ball comes to rest in any of the six pockets.
Table scratch: If the cue ball comes to rest on the table without having struck the object ball.
Ball scratch: If the cue ball first strikes any ball other than the object ball first or fails to drive any ball to the rail (including the cue ball)

Scoring: When a player pockets a ball, the player is awarded points. There are two methods of scoring that we have devised for this game. I will present them both although I prefer to play with the set I present first.
Scoring System 1: Each ball has a point value equivalent to it’s number. Thus the one-ball is worth one point while the 13-ball is worth thirteen points. If the fifteen-ball is pocketed during regular play when it is not the object ball, then the player gains 15 points and shoots again. The fifteen-ball is removed from the pocket and placed against the rail in it’s original position. If a player pockets the fifteen-ball when it is the object ball, then that player gains 15 points plus 1 point for each ball he had previously pocketed in the game. When the fifteen-ball is pocketed as the object ball, then the game is over and the points are tallied.

1 = 1, 2 = 2, 3 = 3…13 = 13, 14 = 14, 15 = 15

Scoring System 2: The balls are assigned values based on their location on the table. The diamonds nearest the foot & head of the table are worth 1 point, the second nearest are worth 2 points, while the diamonds nearest the middle-side pockets are worth 3 points. The two diamonds at the foot of the table are worth 2 points each, while the centre diamond at the head of the table is worth 4 points. If the 13, 14 or 15 are pocketed while they are not the object ball, then the player gains those points, removes the ball from the pocket & places it back on it’s original position. If the 13, 14 or 15 are pocketed when they are the object ball, then the player gains the points, but the ball remains in the pocket. When the 15 is pocketed while it is the object ball, then the game is over and the points are added up.

1, 6, 7 & 12 = 1 Point
2, 5, 8 & 11 = 2 Points
3, 4, 9 & 10 = 3 Points
13 & 14 = 2 Points
15 = 4 Points

The player having gathered the greatest number of points is declared the winner. The player with the fewest points must now reset the table for the next game.

So, there you have it. These are my rules & scoring methods for Scottish Billiards. Please enjoy them.
Cheers.
KyleC
Ludo Ergo Sum

Apr 29

Storm-Tossed Chess

1 Comment · Games, Rules, Chess

Chess. It’s one of those infuriating games for me. I enjoy it, but truth-be-told, I’m just no good at memorisation. So, no matter how I try I can’t memorise all those opening moves that everyone uses. It’s that same memory problem that plagues me later in the game, too. It prevents me from seeing multiple moves ahead. I think in the decades I’ve played chess, I can count on one hand the number of times I have won against a quality opponent (I’m not counting playing against my younger sister - she’s worse than I am at chess).

So, to combat this, I evened the field a bit by randomising the backrow of the White side and then mirroring that for the black side. Although I still lost, I had more fun playing than I have in twenty-plus years. I highly encourage taking this outline I’ll present here and using it as a springboard for yourself and your chess games.

What we did:
We set the pawns on the board in their correct (historically speaking) positions for both black & white.

We then set up the black and white rows in the row directly in front of the pawns.

Now the fun begins. We used a six-sided die (it’s what we had - I recommend an eight-sided die) and rolled it once for each White piece starting with the Queen-side Rook and working down the line in order.
In our example, I threw a two for the White Queen’s Rook. Counting empty spaces from the far left of the White home row, I placed the Rook on the former White Queen’s Knight space. We then mirrored that placement for the Black Queen’s Rook.

For the second throw, I rolled a five. Again, counting only the empty spaces, this places the White Queen’s Knight on the traditional White King’s Bishop square.
The third throw (for the Queen’s Bishop) was another five. So, we moved the Queen’s Bishop to the King’s Knight square to take up residence. The board was starting to look very interesting.

The fourth throw, for the Queen herself, was a four. Remember, we are only counting blank spaces, so the Queen ended up on the King’s square. Talk about an usurpation!

Now for the King. We rolled a six. While counting empty spaces, we ran out of spaces before getting to six. In fact, there were only four empty spaces left. So, when we got to the end, we started over at the Queen’s Rook square with five. The sixth empty square is the Queen’s Bishop’s square. That’s where we placed the King. Quite interesting.

We’re nearly there, only three more pieces to go. A four was thrown for the King’s Bishop. Counting again from left to right only the empty spaces and continuing again from the left when we run out of spaces, we find that the fourth empty space in that sequence is the Queen’s Rook’s square. Well, that places both bishops on the same colour. This’ll certainly make for an interesting game, especially since the Queen is on the same colour.

Two pieces left. First up, the King’s Knight…and a six is rolled! This will place the King’s Knight on the King’s Rook square which of course, will place the King’s Rook on the final remaining square - the Queen’s square!

And, there you have it - A Storm-Tossed chess board ready for play.
We also played with a couple of variations on this. The first alteration we made was to not mirror the sides. Instead, we rolled the die once for each piece for both the White & the Black sides. This made for some truly intersting and, truthfully, volatile games. The second alteration we made, which I personally did not care for but I present here in a full-disclosure effort, was to allow the player to choose to begin counting from either the King-side or the Queen-side. I found that this gave too much latitude to the experienced player thus giving them a much greater advantage. I preferred the more pure randomness of the setup.

However you play it, just play it. Chess is one of the oldest games in existence for a reason.

(Bill Fields deserves credit for the name)

Cheers.
~KR
Ludo Ergo Sum

Apr 29

A Brief History of Bagatelle

No Comment · Games, History

Bagatelle is an indoor game related to pool. Although sources vary on whom deserves credit for the first Bagatelle game, they do all agree that Bagatelle is most likely the result of attempting to move outdoor games, such as croquet & shuffleboard into the parlour. The earliest known Bagatelle-like tables seem to date from the 15th century and are very primitive in form and function. It wasn’t until the 17th century that the French narrowed the common billiards table and placed permanent pins on it that the game of Bagatelle became the game we know today . The game gained its name in or around the year 1777 (sources disagree on the exact date) when a party in honour of Louis XIV was held at the Chateau de Bagatelle by the Count of Artois. The highlight of this party was this splendid new game that the Count dubbed Bagatelle. The game is the precursor of our modern pinball & pachinko games and is played similarly. It is quite like pachinko in that you have only the initial strike with which to control your ball as there are no flippers like exist in pinball. However, it is more akin to pinball with it’s table-structure and gently inclined playing field (Pachinko has a vertical face). This version is a miniaturized version of that 1777 Bagatelle table where the cue stick has been replaced by a wooden spring-driven plunger and the ivory balls have been replaced by steel ball bearings. Find a Bagatelle game and play it. It is great fun.
Cheers.
~KR
Ludo Ergo Sum

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