From Tindol of Laketon, sage and guilded member of the Bards and Bandsmen House #7
My lord, you have requested information on the social ills which plague the many peoples of Erenth. As I am well-traveled and practiced in many forms of entertainment, I thought to give you what I knew of the ways that men will wile away their time in various games of skill and chance.
Westrun
As you know, the people of Westrun are fond of two games: Checks and Draughts. Both are two player games using tokens of two colors. The tokens are flat and round and usually colored white and black.
The game board is a subdivided square of alternating smaller dark and light colored smaller squares number 64.
Each player starts with 12 pieces of their own color. The row closest to each player is called the "King Row". The black moves first.
In Checks, a player places all of his pieces alternating with his opponent. A player cannot move a piece once it is played, and it must be played on the whtie player's King's Row, if possible. If that column is occupied than the piece is played in the first vacancy closest to King's Row. When a column is filled, no more playing is possible there.
The Game is over when either player has arranged his pieces so that there are four in a row, either diagnolly, vertically or horizontally. If nobody has four in a row, the game is a draw.
In Draughts, a player places all 12 of his pieces on the dark colored squares closest to the his King's Row. Thereafter, a player can move in two ways. A piece can be moved forward, diagonally, to the very next dark square. A piece can also jump over an opponents piece to remove it from the board, provided there is clear space on the other side of the opponents piece to land. A player can also use one piece to make multiple jumps in any one single turn, provided each jump continues to lead immediately into the next jump and in a straight line.
If a player's piece moves into the King Row on the other player's side, it becomes a king. It can move forward and backward. A king cannot jump out of the King Row until the next turn. Unlike Regular pieces, Kings can "jump" various empty boxes at a time to capture a regular piece. These "King Jumps" may only occur in diagnoally alligned boxes. Neither Kings nor regular pieces may move in any direction that is not diagonal.Northrun
The first player who cannot move loses. So if a player loses all of his pieces, he loses the game. And if he cannot move, he loses (even if he has pieces). A player may also resign (choose to lose). If nobody can lose, the game is a draw.
The Men of the North have a game called Mill. This uses draughts as our games of Westrun, but the rules are a bit more complicated. The board consists of a grid with twenty-four interesections or points. Each player only has nine pieces. Players try to form 'mills'— three of their own men lined horizontally or vertically—allowing a player to remove an opponent's man from the game.Eastrun
The game begins with an empty board. The players determine who plays first, then take turns placing their men one per play on empty points. If a player is able to place three of his pieces in a straight line, vertically or horizontally, he has formed a mill and may remove one of his opponent's pieces from the board and the game. Any piece can be chosen for the removal, but a piece not in an opponent's mill must be selected, if possible. Once all pieces have been placed, the second part begins.
In the second part, players continue to alternate moves, this time moving a man to an adjacent point. A piece may not "jump" another piece. Players continue to try and form mills, and remove their opponent's pieces in the same manner as in phase one. A player may "break" a mill by moving one of his pieces out of an existing mill, then moving the piece back to form the same mill a second time, or any number of times; and each time removing one of his opponent's men. The act of removing an opponent's man is sometimes called "pounding" the opponent. When one player has been reduced to three men, the third part begins.
In the third part, there is no longer a limitation of moving to only adjacent points: The player's men may jump from any point to any vacant point on the board. A player wins by reducing the opponent to two pieces, or by leaving him without a legal move.
The Eastrun version of draughts, is called Tiles and begins with the same board and pieces though many more are used.
The first two moves by each player are in the 4 central squares of the board. The players place their pieces alternately. The dark player makes the first move.
Upon his third move, dark must then place a piece such that there exists at least one straight (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) occupied line between the new piece and another dark piece, with one or more contiguous light pieces between them. After placing the piece, dark captures and replaces all light pieces lying on a straight line between the new piece and any anchoring dark pieces.Southrun
Now light plays. This player operates under the same rules, with the roles reversed: light lays down a light piece, capturing one or more dark pieces. Players take alternate turns. If one player cannot make a valid move, play passes back to the other player. When neither player can move, the game ends. This occurs when the grid has filled up or when neither player can legally place a piece in any of the remaining squares. The player with the most pieces on the board at the end of the game wins.
The men of the South play a game called Twelve Lines.
The objective is to remove (bear off) all of one's own draughts, from the board before one's opponent can do the same. The draughts are scattered at first and may be blocked or hit by the opponent. As the playing time for each individual game is short, it is often played in matches, where victory is awarded to the first player to reach a certain number of points.Dwarf Realms
Each side of the board has a track of 12 long spaces, called triangles. The triangles are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24. Players begin with two draughts on their 24-triangle, three draughts on their 8-triangle, and five draughts each on their 13-triangle and their 6-triangle. The two players move their draughts in opposing directions, from the 24-triangle towards the 1-triangle.
Triangles 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and triangles 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-triangle is referred to as the bar triangle, and the 13-triangle as the midtriangle.
To start the game, each player rolls one die, and the player with the higher number moves first using both the numbers shown. If the players roll the same number, they must roll again as the first move can not be a doublet. Both dice must land completely flat on the right hand side of the gameboard. The players then alternate turns, rolling two dice at the beginning of each turn.
After rolling the dice players must, if possible, move their draughts according to the number of pips shown on each die. For example, if the player rolls a 6 and a 3 (notated as "6-3"), that player must move one draught six triangles forward, and another or the same draught three triangles forward. The same draught may be moved twice as long as the two moves are distinct: six and then three, or three and then six. If a player rolls two of the same number, called doubles, that player must play each die twice. For example, upon rolling a 5-5 that player may move up to four separate draughts forward five spaces each.
For any roll, if a player can move both dice, that player is compelled to do so. If players cannot move either die in a roll, given the position of their draughts, then that turn is over and the turn passes to the opponent. If either one die or the other but not both can be moved, the higher must be used. When removing draughts from the board ("bearing off"), the exact roll must be used unless a die is greater than any draught can use to bear off; in that case the die is played by taking a draught from the highest-numbered triangle off the board. If one die is unable to be moved, but such a move is made possible by the moving of the other die, that move is compulsory.
In the course of a move, a draught may land on any triangle that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own draughts. It may also land on a triangle occupied by exactly one opposing draught, or "blot". In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A draught may never land on a triangle occupied by two or more opposing draughts; thus, no triangle is ever occupied by draughts from both players simultaneously.
Draughts placed on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home board. A roll of 2 allows the draught to enter on the 23-triangle, a roll of 3 on the 22-triangle, and so forth. A player may not move any other draughts until all draughts on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.
When all of a player's draughts are in that player's home board, that player may start removing them; this is called bearing off. A roll of 1 may be used to bear off a draught from the 1-triangle, a 2 from the 2-triangle, and so on. A die may not be used to bear off draughts from a lower-numbered triangle unless there are no draughts on any higher triangles.
If one player has not borne off any draughts by the time that player's opponent has borne off all fifteen, then the player has lost a Double, which counts for double a normal loss. If the losing player has not borne off any draughts and still has draughts on the bar or in the opponent's home board, then the player has lost a Triple, which counts for triple a normal loss.
To speed up match play and to provide an added dimension for strategy, a doubling cube is usually used. The doubling cube is not a die to be rolled but rather a marker, in the form of a cube with the numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 inscribed on its sides, denoting the current stake. At the start of each game, the doubling cube is placed on the bar with the number 64 showing; the cube is then said to be "centered, on 1". When the cube is centered, the player about to roll may propose that the game be played for twice the current stakes. His opponent must either accept ("take") the doubled stakes or resign ("drop") the game immediately. If the opponent takes, the cube, now showing the doubled stake, is moved to the opponent's side of the board. This is done to indicate that the right to re-double belongs exclusively to the player who last accepted a double.
Whenever a player accepts doubled stakes, the cube is placed on his side of the board with the corresponding power of two facing upward. If the opponent drops the doubled stakes, he loses the game at the current value of the doubling cube. For instance, if the cube showed the number 2 and a player wanted to redouble the stakes to put it at 4, the opponent choosing to drop the redouble would lose two, or twice the original stake.
The dwarves are known for a game called Bartuk. Which attempts to simulate a battle between Kings on a board remarkably similar to our draughts board. The rules are far more complex and instead of using simple interchangeable pieces, Bartuk requires the memorization of different movements, captures and strengths for each individual piece as all sixteen are inscribed with a different rune.Elf Realms
Elves play a game called Red Leaves which uses leaves mounted on carefully oiled sheets of animal skin. This game can be played with two or three players, but is most often enjoyed by four.Halfling Realms
Halflings are found of a game called Stacks and Sticks which allows players to take turns removing small irregular shaped blocks from a pile and replacing them on the top of the pile, until it either falls or is knocked over by a player's attempt. This game can be played by any number of contestants.
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