Are you curious like us?
When trying to decide what to write for this blog post I went from “who are the makers of certain board games and where are they now” to “I wonder what the first board game ever was”. While I’m sure there were board games that existed for many millennia, the first commercialized board game was The Game of the Goose. Now, if you’re like me, you have never heard of this game. So let me explain a little bit about The Game of the Goose.
The origins of the Game of the Goose are unfortunately unknown. It is believed that the first mention of the Game of the Goose was in a book of Sermons where it was stated that it was a board game gifted to the King of Spain.
Now a little bit about the setup of the game, the Game of the Goose board consists of a spiral number of spaces, usually 63. The goal of the game is to get your piece to the end of the board by moving counterclockwise. To determine how many spaces your piece will move either one or two dice are thrown. The board also consists of a goose on random spaces. If an individual land is lucky enough to land on a space with a goose, they may move their piece an additional amount of spaces equal to their original move (i.e. how many spaces they moved after the first toss of the dice). There are also spaces that are marked together with a bridge. If an individual was to land on one of these spaces they would be allowed to move forward. While the Game of the Goose has many positive spaces, there are also negative or penalty spaces such as a space with a skull. If a player is unlucky enough to land on a space with a skull they will be sent back to the beginning of the game.
To win The Game of the Goose an individual must score exactly 63.
This game is purely a game of chance so adults, as well as children, would be well suited to try this out. There is also no limit on the number of people who can play, but if you have a rather large group it may render the game impractical.
If you want to give this game a try, you can check out a variety of options simply by searching through Google. There are many ways to play and many varieties of the board listed there. Here is an example of a board: http://modaruniversity.org/goose-game-board.pdf.
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