[Bryn-gwlad] demo request

[Coblaith Mhuimhneach]

Ilariia wrote:
> We have a demo request for tomorrow.

> They would like to have representatives talk (or demonstrate)  Weapons 
> and Warfare, Dancing, Family Life, Heraldry and/or Games.

I'm not kid- (or, indeed, people-) friendly that early in the day.  But 
I do have some printable game boards, with instructions, that I can 
e-mail you (in PDF) if somebody else is willing to teach them.  They 
would make for an easy session with the kids.  All you'd need to do to 
prep is run copies of the board (10, for 20 kids at a time) and cut 
some construction paper or cardstock (or whatever colored paper you've 
got handy) into strips, then squares for game pieces.  You might want 
to have a couple of extra pristine copies of the board(s) to give to 
the teachers, if they ask, so they can copy them to play in the 
classroom later or send home with the kids.

Nine Men's Morris is especially popular, in my experience.  It's 
different enough from anything they're likely to have played before to 
be interesting, and simple enough that they can actually learn the 
basic rules and play a game in 20 minutes.  It was played throughout 
the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  You'd need 180 game pieces, half of 
one color and half of another, for 10 copies of that one.

I also have Fox and Geese and Alquerque boards ready to go.  You'd need 
10 pieces of color A and 130 pieces of color B for the former, and 120 
of each for the latter.  Fox and Geese is a little complicated; I 
wouldn't really recommend it for a 20 minute session.  Alquerque is the 
precursor to checkers, which makes it perfect for little ones but less 
interesting than something more "new" to upper-elementary-aged kids.  
I'm not sure when either of them first became popular, but they were 
definitely common by the second half of the 13th century.  (They're in 
Alfonso X's book of games.)

Just e-mail me off-list if you want them.  (That goes for Ilariia, 
anybody who might want to offer to run a games session at the demo, or 
anybody else who'd like to have them on hand.)


Coblaith