Senet - How to play & History of the game

Welcome to The Raven's Table! Pull up a chair and join me as we discuss how to play a game from ancient Egypt - Senet. We also go into the history of the game, as well as some variations of the rules.
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If you are looking for a set of instructions and a printable playing board, click this link:
drive.google.com/file/d/12nIx...
Interested in learning how to play a related game - The Royal Game of Ur?
• Royal Game of Ur - How...
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Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:45 History
04:23 How to play
26:46 Variations of the Game
32:10 Wrap-up
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[@eas2752]

Best instructions I’ve found on KZbin. Thanks.

[@TheRavensTable]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!

[@HiNRGboy]

I feel like the other squares also have a lot of meaning and rules to them that we don't fully understand. It would make more sense for each player to start at the very beginning of the board instead of having all pieces already on the board to begin with. For instance, there was a "Netting" square that was right after the House Of Rebirth, that might be something like if you go there, you lose a turn or you go back to the beginning of the table. I don't believe there were extra turns if you roll a 1, 4, or all black. The all black should be 0 and a loss of turns. I love that since we don't fully know the rules, that we can all improvise and make things pretty interesting while playing. You could also play without blockades and without any spaces being "safe." Also what if when someone is occupied on a square, but the original rules might've been you can't land on the same square as an opponent at all.. meaning you can't switch the pawns around, but you lose a turn. See how many variations are possible? lol

[@Ty_The_Bonsai_Guy]

If you land on the house of water Square and the house of rebirth is occupied, what do you do?

[@ericallison3263]

After watching your video I went on Google play And found a couple versions Downloaded it And for some reason can't stop playing it It is very addicting and I'm going to teach my 13 year old daughter how to play it Have you ever thought about doing a video on the Irish pub game shut the Box My daughter loves that game too

[@TheRavensTable]

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Believe it or not, I have that one on my list for future videos. One of the reasons I like Shut the Box is that it is a sneaky way to teach kids math. ;-)

[@seanforbes164]

I teach this using the Robertson Rules and in that one 3 in a row is a blockade to all behind on a straightaway, you have to land on house of happiness and house of ra as he made man as a thanks to him. if the house of rebirth is occupied you have to start on the top row. Otherwise I love your instruction.

[@thudor1]

They sell museum replicas of one of the four senet sets found in Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb by the Carter Expedition of 1922 online.

[@501Mobius]

If you look at a number of ancient wall paintings showing Senet games. Most have 5 pawns of a color all together at one end then the other 5. I seen three with the interlaced LeMans type starting setup. And after playing the game a bit that causes a jam up at start.

[@TheRavensTable]

I noticed much the same thing in the original artwork and I agree. Playing it that way with the 5 pieces from each side all together and it really gives the "back" player a significant disadvantage since they cannot move until the "front" player is already well down the path. Thanks for watching!

[@501Mobius]

@@TheRavensTable Well in those 'all pawns at one end' setups the first spot they can move to is #`11. And captured pawns go home to their starting spot. In which case spots #1 to #10 are just home resting spots. With the alternating set up if an odd number like a 3 or 5 is thrown early you can move your pawns so that it produces a wall of 3 pawns. I haven't tested the option of adjacent pawn setup. Probably my computer game will be completed by the first of the year. It depends on how many options I include.

[@TheRavensTable]

@@501Mobius Good point. If one was to consider that first row of 10 spaces to be one large one, by which any piece can leave by a 1 or higher, that would negate any sort of positional advantage. It would also shorten the game somewhat, as there would be only 20 squares to traverse than the other maximum of 30. But definitely a variation that I will try out the next time I play!

[@501Mobius]

@@TheRavensTable I have tried not requiring a stop at the House of Happiness and found that it increases the chance to go into the House of Waters. Requiring a stop usually only forces the very last pawn to go if a '1' is thrown. Otherwise, the player can avoid it.

[@TheRavensTable]

@@501Mobius Interesting, I think I like that variation too! It would seem to make the game a bit longer in duration given that more pieces would forced into reincarnation. But that's not a bad thing at all.

[@caseyczarnomski8054]

Ancient Egyptians symbolized 5 as universe where the gods live eternally because the pentagonal five pointed star aptly symbolizes the belief that the king, after his death, becomes a star. Therefore rolling a 5 symbolizes winning the game and is NOT used. This was done intentionally to prevent lay off with a roll of 6 (or 5 since it is not used) when automatically stopped on square 26. Therefore to get a piece off the board from square 26 you need to roll twice. A roll of 1 is water trap, 2, 3, 4 are prep for godhood, 5 is not possible, and 6 brings you to the edge then backwards and is shows what is lucky in life can be unlucky in reaching godhood. The path to godhood from mummification on square 26 is not 1 easy step.

[@markangeloflores9180]

Sir from the other variations playing Senet here. My questions are House #28 and #29 a safe square? Some played like this, If you land on the House #26 and then on your turn if the squares are occupied by your opponent, can you capture it and bring him back to the House of Waters? I don't get the logic there because the House of Waters is like a snake in the Snake and Ladders game, bringing you back down. If his turn is next what will he do with his piece on theHouse of Waters? Does he must roll a 4 to bear off or other number to skip there?

[@TheRavensTable]

The way I usually play it is if you have a piece on the House of Waters and your opponent gets "cast down" from #26, then your piece does back to start. Probably should have covered that case in the video. Thanks for watching!

[@ldupre237]

If a player lands on the house of waters and the house of rebirth is currently occupied, what happens?

[@TheRavensTable]

The way I usually play is if piece #1 was supposed to be sent to the House of Rebirth but it is occupied by piece #2, then piece #1 has to be "reborn" by going all the way back to the start of the game (the first free space on the origin row)). Thanks for the great question!

[@lloydwillette6777]

I love your tutorial. But I need to clarify something in the rules you provided; if 28 -30 are "safe" if player 1 is on those spaces and just waiting to roll a 1,2, or 3... and player 2 gets to 26, player 2 just has to wait for player 1 to win in effect since they can not stomp square 28,29,or 30? Or am I missing something. Thanks for the amazing tutorial though. Love the game

[@mr-mizu]

The piece on 26 could jump over the others on 28-30 and go off

[@motomfthug8551]

What happens if someone is on the house of rebirth and then you land in the Nile?

[@TheRavensTable]

Great question! I have seen it played one of two ways. The piece that was on the HoR space is either pushed backwards one space (or to the next free space), or is pushed back all the way back to the first available space in the estarting row. Thanks for watching!

[@ericallison3263]

Is there a version where all pieces start off the board So Kind of like cribbage

[@TheRavensTable]

I've seen some folks play it that way. It does make the game a little bit longer since there is more board to traverse. That's one of the cool things about historical games. Since many are at least partially reconstructed, there are many ways to play. So feel free to experiment! Thanks for watching!

[@ericallison3263]

And can you play with a 6 sided die

[@TheRavensTable]

It would change the odds somewhat, but no reason why you couldn't!

[@anahi_naya_ledesma]

You can play with 4 dice that are 6 sided each, where the numbers "1, 2 and 3" are worth ONE POINT and "4, 5 and 6" are BLANK. Remember that in this game, you cannot have zero points, because if all sides are blank, it means 5 points.

[@chiconva]

Ancestor of Backgammon

[@TheRavensTable]

That is, in fact, a likely possibility! 😃 Thanks for watching!

[@steveswanson8474]

Confused about house 27, waters of chaos, can’t think of any logical reason for it strategically. If opponent is camped on house 26, you can’t get to it, if house 26 is open, you stop there regardless of your roll. Seems the only way to get to house 27 is stopping at the safe house 26, so you are the “camper” blocking opponent. Why give that up by moving that piece one and resetting yourself. So it would only come into play if you have a single movable piece on house 26 and roll a 1. Just seems like a wasted space, when all the other special houses have such purpose. Makes me wonder if any original game play rulesets had a way to force an opponent on to it, then it would make more sense. Idk

[@wyldemanironworx7099]

I love those dice. It's there a tutorial on how you made them?

[@pallasathena79]

Too many bonus rolls :- )) I give only the point "1" a bonus roll. And the player whose piece is on the very first square starts the game, because I think it's more fair since the opponent's pieces are one square ahead and have a bit more "advantage" . We usually play the thirtieth square without a house name and protection and no bonus rolls on the third-row houses. House of Beauty is occupied only with exact thrown points. and the piece on the House of the Three Truths or Judges can move forward if 1 or 2 points are thrown; and so the piece on the next House one move with 1 point. And the piece that "resurrects" gets a bonus roll, but if the House of Rebirth is occupied, it lands on the next empty square behind it. And if the three pieces of a player are standing next to each other they block the whole way for everyone; they can't be attacked or jumped over unless the player can land on the very first empty square in front of them. The blocking can also take place on the corner of the tenth and the nineteenth squares. The player can start bearing off their pieces only then when they have no pieces left in the first row...These are the rules we enjoy playing ^_^

[@TheRavensTable]

Hi! Thank you so much for the suggestions! Those sound like fun alternate rules, I will give them a try the next time I play.

[@sameash3153]

But did the loser go to the shadow realm?

[@TheRavensTable]

Sounds like a great house rule to me!