Ancient Egypt

Senet

Also called the game of passing

Senet boards of thirty squares were placed in Egyptian tombs, including Tutankhamun's, and the game is painted on tomb walls from more than 4,500 years ago.

No rules survive. The ones played today, including the AtlasTales board, are modern reconstructions by scholars.

The rules, briefly

The thirty squares are in three rows of ten, and the pieces move along them in an S shape.
Throw four sticks and move one piece forward. Land on a single enemy piece and you swap places; two side by side protect each other.
One square near the end, the House of Water, sends a piece back. The first to bear all five pieces off wins.

Try this: Pairs protect

Two of your pieces side by side can't be swapped. Try to move in pairs and break your friend's pairs apart.

Play on AtlasTales (two players, one screen)

Read more: Senet on Wikipedia. Written from published sources; if your family plays it differently, write your rules down in Heirloom Rules, and if something here is wrong, tell us: hello@sparkanvil.org.