Duodecim Scripta and Pachisi

Hello all

Today I shall talk about some more ancient games that I got to try out. These games for today are Duodecim Scripta and Pachisi.

Duodecim Scripta is the ancestor to the game Backgammon and the meaning of the name is Twelve (lines) written down. It is a board that has 24 places and the goal of the game is to get pieces off the board. There aren't very many known rules for Duodecim Scripta except for the knowledge that 3 dices is used to determine the player's movement across the board. Also, if your opponent has 2 pieces in the way of the other player and he tries to land on the same square that pieces, he cannot and must go onto the place behind the opponent's piece. However if there is only one pieces, you are able to take that piece and send it back to the start, a similar rule found in Royal Game of Ur.

Pachisi is a cross and circle board game that is considered India's national game. The goal of this is to get all four pieces that a player has, around the board at least one lap. Player would throw cowrie shell in order to determine the movement for that turn. If a player lands on a place that is occupied by an opponent's piece that is not a castle space, they can capture pieces and send them to a location on the board known as Charkoni. The movement in this game is similar to the game Frustration, in which you could move around the board, take pieces and send them back, and then finish the game by moving up the column you started.

Out of these two games, I find Pachisi to be the most interesting, as it shares similarities with modern games, and it also has a very good concept for a board game. The only downside I would have to say for the game of Pachisi, is the use of shell for replacing dice, though I would of thought that they have developed a version that uses some sort of dice to determine movement.