hist-games: "Seven-sided Backgammon" reconstruction now up

[SEDWilkins at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/3/2002 10:28:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Jim wrote:

> 
>   As for his 7-side die, I gave it a thousand rolls and it
>  gave reasonable results.  He said that that had been his design
>  method - cut a length of a pentagonal prism, roll it for a while,
>  and adjust the length depending on whether "end" or "side" was
>  too common.

Hmm. I think I'm picturing something else. 

The 7-sided die in the Alphonse ms. for the "Zodiac" game appears to be long 
and narrow--I don't think the "ends" are in play at all. Whichever side comes 
up determines which ring the player moves in.

Unless, of course, I missed the point at the beginning of the discussion . . .

Sally Wilkins
<A 
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0313317119/gl

ance/ref=pm_dp_ln_b_1/102-7486696-8176929">Sports and Games of Medieval 
Cultures</A>
Greenwood Press, 2002