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Almost everybody in Ancient Egypt liked to play Senet, a board game. The rules to
Senet are:
| 1. |
Senet is a game in which only two players can play. Each player has five
pieces all of one color, one side is black and the other side is white.
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| 2. |
The board has thirty squares. The object of the game is to go through all
of the squares and move all of your pieces off the board.
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| 3. |
To start you must place all of your pieces on squares 1-10, black pieces
on the odd numbers and white pieces on the even numbers.
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| 4. |
Instead of dice, Senet uses dice sticks. You should use four flat sticks.
Popsicle sticks would be a good thing to use. Color one side of the dice stick
black and the other side white.
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Front of stick |
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Back of stick |
| 5. |
To begin the game, toss the four dice sticks into the air until somebody
gets a one (3 black sides and 1 white side or 3 white sides and 1 black side).
When somebody gets a one that means they get to go first. The person who gets
the first one plays the white pieces and the other person plays the black
pieces. Your first move will have to be with the piece on ten. The other person’s
first move will be made with the piece on nine so everything isn’t all jumbled
up. The first person will move one space because this is the number you rolled
to start the game. |
| 6. |
Your turn can last until you throw a three or a two. The different dice
stick tosses go with the following tables. They show how many spaces you can
move depending on the colors of the dice sticks that are showing: |
White Pieces
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Dice Sticks |
Toss |
Spaces |
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All 4 white |
6 |
6 |
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3 white, 1 black |
1 |
1 |
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2 white, 2 black |
2 |
Lose turn |
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1 white, 3 black |
3 |
Lose turn |
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All black |
4 |
4 |
Black Pieces
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Dice Sticks |
Toss |
Spaces |
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All 4 white |
4 |
4 |
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3 white, 1 black |
3 |
Lose turn |
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2 white, 2 black |
2 |
Lose turn |
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1 white, 3 black |
1 |
1 |
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All black |
6 |
6 |
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| 7. |
You cannot move two of your pieces on the same square. However if you land
on a square your opponent is on then your opponent’s piece should go back to
the space that you were at before you moved to your opponent’s square. There
are certain exceptions to this rule like a block. This is when you have three
pieces in a row. You can pass a block but your opponent cannot. If your opponent
comes to a block they must move backwards. If you land on a square one of your
pieces is on and you cannot move forward or backward you miss a turn.
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| 8. |
Squares 26, 28, and 29 are safe. This means that if you reach one of those
squares you cannot be knocked off and sent to your opponent’s square by your
opponent. You do not have to move off these squares if you don’t want to. If
your opponent does get a high enough number to land on your square they must go
as close as they can to that square by adding extra spaces to their roll.
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| 9. |
If you roll more than you need to pass square 30, you must use it for
another piece. You also cannot go to square 30 if you still have pieces that are
in spaces below square ten.
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The Senet board was a 3*10 square board, numbered from 1-30, left to right.
All squares were blank except for numbers 26,28, and 29 which had pictures on
them, and 27 which had a little water picture on it.
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