Rules for Senet

Senet         Class notes first taught by me at Pennsic 49 2022

By THL Mwynwen Ysginidd Called Strawberry 

Search Blog for Stick dice for other notes 

 “In a presentation to the XX Board Games Studies Colloquium at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Espen Aarseth asked if the game senet could be said to still exist, given that the rules were unknown.^[11] In response, Alexander de Voogt of the American Museum of Natural History pointed out that games did not have a fixed set of rules, but rules varied over time and from place to place. Moreover, many players of games, even today, do not play (or sometimes do not even know) the "official rules".” Quote from Wikki

WITH THIS IN MIND, I PRESENT ONE SET OF RULES

Materials: Senet board, 4 throwing sticks, 5 dark tokens, 5 light tokens

Setup: Place all the colored tokens on squares 1–10, with the light tokens on the odd-numbered squares and the dark tokens on the even-numbered squares

How Players Move: Toss the wooden throwing sticks. The number of light sides that land facing up is the number of spaces a player moves one of their tokens. Only one token may be moved per turn. • Toss 1 light stick, and you move one token one space and get to toss again. • Toss 2 light sticks, and you move one token two spaces. • Toss 3 light sticks, and you move one token three spaces. • Toss 4 light sticks, and you move one token four spaces and get to toss again. • Toss 0 light sticks, and you move one token five spaces and get to toss again. Tokens move along the board in a reverse “S” shape, following the order of the numbers.

To Begin: To determine who goes first, toss the throwing sticks. The first player to throw a “1” plays with the dark tokens; players may need to toss the sticks multiple times until one of them has thrown a “1.” That player moves their dark token from square 10 to square 11 and gets to toss again, and this time may select any of their dark tokens to move. The second player can toss any number to begin moving their light-colored tokens, but must move the token that starts on square 9 first

Game Play:

1. Only a single token can occupy a space on the board. If your token ends its move on the same space as one of your opponent’s tokens, send your opponent’s token back to the space your token occupied at the start of its movement. You cannot land on a space occupied by one of your own tokens.

2. If two tokens of the same color are on consecutive squares (for example, squares 17 and 18), neither token can be displaced by an opponent landing on the same space. This also works for squares around the corner from each other, such as squares 20 and 21, but not on spaces across from each other, such as squares 18 and 23.

3. On your turn, you must try to move forward. If you cannot, you must move a token backwards instead, and you lose any extra turns you may have thrown. If after tossing the sticks you have no valid moves, your turn ends immediately.

4. If your token ends its move on square 15, the House of Second Life, immediately place that token on square 1 at the start of the game board.

5. The last 5 squares of the game are special. On the last 4 squares, tokens do not protect each other as described in rule 2, above.

• Square 26: The House of Beauty. No token may proceed past this square until it has first landed here as the result of an exact throw.

• Square 27: The House of Waters. If a token lands here, you lose any additional turns you gained from your throw. On your next turn, you must deal with this token. You have two options.

• Option one: You can choose to return your token to square 15, the House of Second Life, and end your turn without throwing.

• Option two: You can toss the throwing sticks. If you throw a “4,” your token leaves the House of Waters; you successfully remove the token from the board and gain an extra turn. If you do not throw a “4,” the token remains in the House of Waters, and your turn ends immediately.

• Square 28: The House of Three Judges. Your token cannot move from this space until you toss an exact throw of “3.”

• Square 29: The House of Two Judges. Your token cannot move from this space until you toss an exact throw of “2.”

• Square 30. The House of Horus. You can successfully remove your token from the board with a throw of “1” or greater.