[Bryn-gwlad] board games (was: 2008 Gulf War Gifts)

[Coblaith Mhuimhneach]

Dreda wrote:
> I would suggest games.. . .We could make the boards, pieces and a  
> carry sack and include the rules. If the boards seem to bulky, I've  
> seen Lady Pegasus bring a cloth gameboard to PiP.

I assume we'd want to use games that are documentable to our period,  
and include documentation?  I'd be willing to put together little  
"booklets" with instructions and docs, if we decided to go with this.   
Depending on the games we choose, I might even know where to find  
period illustrations we could use or take as inspiration.

Lots of people use cloth "gameboards", by the way, but I've never seen  
any evidence that that is a period approach.  In addition, in order to  
use a game-cloth effectively, you have to have a table or some other  
flat surface on which to lay it out, so I've always found boards more  
practical.

Folding boards are period  
<http://www.khm.at/system2E.html?/staticE/page666.html>, as are boxes  
with boards painted on the lids that double as storage for pieces  
<http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/kultdoku/kataloge/51/html/3520.htm>.  There's  
even one late-period French piece consisting of a box that folds out  
into a double game board, each side of which can be slid out and  
flipped over to reveal a second board or removed entirely to reveal a  
third that normally lies beneath it  
<http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/pages/page_id18081_u1l2.htm>.  (If you're  
counting, that's six different boards, plus storage for the pieces for  
those games, all in a folding travel box.  Now THAT's a gift fit for a  
king!)

There's a good deal of information on documentable games on the  
Medieval and Renaissance Games Home Page  
<http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/>, and Mesterinde Karen Larsdatter has  
compiled a list of annotated links to sites with images of medieval and  
renaissance games and gaming equipment  
<http://www.larsdatter.com/games.htm>.  The Atlantian A&S Links include  
a listing for "Games, Pastymes, and Toys"  
<http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/wsnlinks/index.php? 
action=displaycat&catid=22> as well.  We shouldn't have any trouble  
choosing something both groovy and authentic to make, if games are what  
we decide to do.



Coblaith Mhuimhneach