Senet
the game of passing · Egypt's board of thirty squares and the journey across it
EGYPT · FROM ABOUT 3100 BCE
Five cones against five spools on a road of thirty squares. The board snakes: down the first row, back along the second, down the third — and not every house on the road is kind.
The history
The game of passing
Senet means passing, and Egypt played it for three thousand years. Boards survive in burials from about 3100 BCE onward, some cheap and scratched, some fit for kings: four senet boards were buried with Tutankhamun. Tomb paintings show the game in full swing — players leaning over the board, sticks in the air — and in later centuries the Egyptians came to see the journey across the thirty squares as a picture of the soul's own journey, each marked house a station on the way.
What the marked houses say
The last squares of the board carry pictures, and the pictures carry the game's memory: the House of Rebirth at 15, Happiness at 26, the House of Water at 27 that washes a piece backward, the Three Truths at 28, Re-Atoum at 29, and the final square of Departure at 30, from which a piece leaves the world of the board. It is the most storied board in the Games Room.
The honest footnote
No rulebook survives — the Egyptians who played senet never needed to write down what everyone knew. The rules overleaf are the common modern reconstruction, rebuilt by scholars from tomb paintings, passing mentions in texts, and the marked squares themselves. Egyptologists differ on the last houses in particular; the version here is the one the school plays, printed plainly so you always know which senet you are getting.
The rules, plainly
A game for two players · Pale cones throw first · the oldest game in the room that is still a race
Setting up and the throw
Set the pieces alternating on squares 1 to 10: cones on the odd squares, spools on the even, as the old boards show them. Throw the four casting sticks and count the light faces up: that is your throw. No light faces counts as 5. Throws of 1, 4, and 5 cast again after moving.
Moving and attacking
Move one piece forward along the snake by exactly your throw. Landing on an enemy piece attacks it: the two swap places, and the enemy goes back to where you came from. Two friendly pieces side by side are protected — an enemy cannot attack them or swap with them. Three in a row form a wall no enemy may jump over. If no piece can move forward, one of your pieces must move backward by the throw instead; if it lands on an enemy, they swap. If nothing can move either way, the turn is lost.
The marked houses
Square 15, Rebirth, is safe: no piece resting there can be attacked. Every piece must LAND on square 26, Happiness, before it may travel on — you cannot jump over it, whatever you throw. Square 27, Water, washes the piece that lands there back to square 15, or to the nearest empty square before it. Squares 28, 29, and 30 are the last stations before the way out.
Bearing off and winning
A piece leaves the board on an exact throw: from square 30, a 1; from 29, a 2; and so on. The first player to bear all five pieces off the board wins the passing.
Play it here
Play against the school, at Apprentice, Journeyman, or Master strength — or pass the screen and play a friend.
Your side
Computer strength
THE RULES, PLAINLY — THIS VERSION
The board has thirty squares winding down, back, and down again — follow the numbers. Five cones and five spools start interleaved on squares 1 to 10. Pale throws first.
The sticks. Four casting sticks fall light or dark. Count the light faces: that is your throw — and if no stick falls light, the throw is five. Throwing 1, 4, or 5 earns another throw.
Moving. Move one piece forward by the throw. Landing on a lone enemy piece attacks it: the two swap places. But two enemy pieces standing together protect each other and cannot be attacked, three in a row cannot even be jumped over, and a piece resting on the House of Rebirth (15) or the House of Happiness (26) is safe from attack.
The marked houses. Every piece must land on the House of Happiness (26) before it may travel on toward the end — no jumping past it. The House of Water (27) washes a piece back to the House of Rebirth (15). If no piece can move forward by your throw, a piece must move backward by the throw instead; if it cannot do that either, the turn is lost.
Winning. A piece leaves the board on an exact throw from the last squares (from 30, a throw of 1; from 29, a 2; and so on). Bear all five of your pieces off first, and the passing is yours.