At Twelfth Night, Eadmund will be bringing 5 historical board games with handouts for each explaining how to play. Some will be fairly familiar and you have likely heard of before, but hopefully at least one of the games is new to you.
Three games are derived from a single historical source: Los Libros de los Juegos, translated into The Book of Games which was commissioned by King Alfonso the 10th. Games included from this book will be Shatranj (medieval chess), Emperador (a backgammon variant created by the king himself), and Chess of the Four Seasons. Shatranj only requires a modern chess board and all of the pieces, Emperador requires a modern backgammon board with 3 dice and 2 sets of 15 pieces of a distinctive color, and Four Seasons Chess requires a modern chess board with four distinctive sets of pieces (each side will have 4 pawns, a knight, elephant AKA bishop, rook, and a king). You are encouraged to bring these things if you would be so inclined to try these games.
The last two games Eadmund will be bringing are two somewhat recognizable ones. First is Tablut, a game of the indigenous Sámi people in Scandinavia which has informed our understanding of many tafl games. Finally we have one of the oldest board games in the world known as the Royal Game of Ur, a racing game played over 4,000 years ago!
Looking forward to showing you these historical board games and how to play them,
Eadmund sweordhwíta