hist-games: Re: Zodiac

[Charles L Knutson]

Your description agrees with what we have, although the English version 
of Bell seems a little more clear. The seven sides you mention in the 
German version comes out as being that the board is made up of 7 
concentric circles, and that these make up the separate orbits in which the 
pieces travel through the 12 houses of the Zodiac.

I agree it doesn't seem that interesting, if the player that comes up on 
the die can only move on space (house) each move. Maybe there's some way 
to include "retrograde" (The appearance that some objects in the sky move 
backwards lightly during certain times of their orbits) motion as well that 
would add some more interest

 The one part that does create 
some interest is that each time you move you are likely going to pay as 
well as receive payment from other players, so coins, or chips wuld change 
hands around the table in unpredictable ways. If nothing else, it might be 
a fun party game for children with candy for markers, (or a drinking game 
if used with shots for bigger kids).

Since the on board illustrated in Bell's book the "orbits" are divided 
into smaller squares within each house we were at first wondering if they 
were involved in movement in some way, or were just decoration on the 
board. But it is looking like it's just decoration. 

As far as a 7-sided die we were thinking about trying to make a 7-sided 
teetotum-styled die using a 7-sided disk pierced by a dowel. 


Charles
MacGregor Historic Games
www.metrofamily.com/historicgames

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send email to majordomo at pbm.com containing
the words "unsubscribe hist-games". To contact a human about problems, send
mail to owner-hist-games at pbm.com