General Pages with no specific Games

• 29 Games Nobody Plays Anymore -- A list of various obscure games from various historical periods -- some SCA-period, some later. Not entirely accurate, but interesting. * Overview*
• A brief history of playing cards -- By Thierry Depaulis. (In French) * History Overview*
• A Family Tree of Card Games -- A lovely infographic, showing many different games and roughly how they are connected. * Overview History*
• A Search for Books Relevant to the History of Games -- A somewhat disorganized listing created by Seaan McAy, of potentially-interesting books found in the University of California system. * Bibliography*
• Arjan Verwij's Dice Site -- Has photos of many different kinds of dice, including a large number of different period and pre-period dice. * Equipment*
• Bibliography of Playing-Card Books -- A massive bibliography, collected by the IPCS (International Playing Card Society). Note that the focus here is on the cards rather than the games. * Bibliography*
• Board Game Studies -- The main journal of board games research, recently (2014) rebooted as an online journal. Currently run by Ludus, a Portugese games organization. Not exclusively historical or SCA-period, but has enough relevant material to be worth keeping an eye on.
  The predecessor paper journal ran for half a dozen issues over a number of years, but isn't easy to get a hold of. * History Reconstruction Research Overview*
• Card Game Rules -- John McLeod's enormous collection of rules to card games from all places and times. John isn't focused on SCA period per se, but his site is breathtaking in its coverage. * Overview*
• Cats at Cards -- A site focused on teaching the rules for a wide variety of card games. Mostly post-period, but includes good descriptions of several period games. * Overview Reconstruction*
• Children's Games at the Florilegium -- A collection of messages culled from the Rialto, about Children's Games. * Overview*
• Dagonell's Medieval Games -- A collection of brief articles describing a wide variety of period games. Stronger on active games than most sites. * Overview*
• Dagonell's Partial Bibliography on Period Games and Juggling -- * Bibliography*
• Dating Period Card Games -- A list of attestations by Imran. Not necessarily comprehensive, but useful. * Overview*
• David Parlett's page on Historical Card Games -- Parlett is one of the major games researchers, with a number of books under his belt. His website is broad (and much is out of our scope), but much of this page covers period games. * Overview*
• Debora Marzec's reproduction game sets -- (Facebook) Photos of many games, generally made along period models. Quite useful for visualizing what the sets looked like -- they're nice stuff. See also Album 2. * Equipment*
• Excerpts from Jessel's Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming -- This 1905 book attempted to enumerate all published works on games; this transcription by Justin is all pre-1700 entries. * Transcription Bibliography*
• Extracts from The Complete Gamester -- A few sections, via the Wayback Machine. * Transcription*
• FitzStephen's Description of London -- A 12th century Latin account of London life, including vague references to various recreations. * Overview Translation*
• Florilegium articles on Entertainment -- Some messages culled from the Rialto (which is the SCA newsgroup), on the subject of period entertainment, with a lot on games. * Overview*
• Game Links from the Kingdom of Atlantia -- One of the few other sites that tries to do serious collecting of links on the topic. * Overview Links*
• Game References found at EMEDD -- Transcribed by Ruben, these are game entries in various period or near-period English dictionaries. * Transcription*
• Games at Medieval and Renaissance Material Culture -- This is basically an enormous links page from Karen Larsdatter; the games section is now mostly divided into categories of games. The focus is more on game equipment and art than rules and play, but there is a lot there. * Links Overview*
• Games Galore -- A very useful summary chart of which games were introduced where and when. * Overview History*
• Games listed in Gargantua (1653) -- From Urquhart's English translation of 1653. Tallied by Jay Cross; note that this list has been alphabetized, and has a few linguistic notes. * Translation*
• Games of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age -- A good overview of what's known about the topic, assembled by Regia Anglorum. * Overview*
• Guinevere's Games -- A relatively new site selling reproductions of a lot of different period games. Very useful for the SCAdian gamer. * Vendor*
• Heather Hall Card Gallery -- From the front page: "Madame Heather Hall's historic playing cards are recreations of packs from 1650 and before, carefully researched and executed. Each pack design has been created by hand, not computer rendered, and thus has the unique imprint of the artist. Yet each pack is an authentic representation of the original. These cards are appropriate for any historic or modern game, and are the perfect addition to a period gaming box or collection." I have several of her decks, and use them frequently. * Vendor*
• Historical playing cards -- A collection of images of historical playing cards. Many of these are from uncut sheets of woodblock printed cards. * Facsimile*
• History of Games Timeline -- A partial but useful timeline of a number of games, from Rose and Pentagram. * History*
• Images from the Alphonso MS -- Organized by Charles Knutson of MacGregor Historic Games, this site collects (admittedly somewhat low-res) images of much of Alphonso X's Book of Games. * Facsimile*
• Is it Period? -- A FAQ put together by Dagonell, listing a lot of games that people often think are period, with a paragraph on whether each one actually is. * Overview*
• John Jordan's decks -- John is one of the regular participants on the SCA Gaming Facebook group, whose specialty is reproductions of period decks of cards. He has a number of decks available for sale at very reasonable prices. * Vendor*
• John Jordan's Playing Card Links -- A pretty enormous Google Doc, chock-full of all sorts of links about period playing cards. * Overview*
• Justin's Annotated Games Bibliography -- My full collection, as of the mid-aughts. My plan is to move this bibliography to this Querki Space as a database, and encourage others to add to it. * Bibliography*
• La boule bleue -- A French company, selling high-end boules / bocce / petanque sets. * Vendor*
• Les jeux de Gargantua (1534) -- The relevant section, transcribed in the original French by Hans-Joachim Alscher. * Transcription*
• MacGregor Historic Games -- AKA Rose and Pentagram Design, this is one of the most complete vendors of SCA-period games. * Vendor*
• Masters Traditional Games -- A British game store, especially strong on Pub games of all sorts. * Vendor*
• Mats Winther's Board Game page -- Via the Wayback Machine. * Reconstruction Overview*
• Norse Games -- An interesting article from Ravensgard. * Overview Reconstruction*
• Opusculos legales del Rey Don Alfonso el sabio -- Facsimile of an 1836 transcription of a period law book, which I gather included laws on gambling. * Transcription*
• Organizing the Greed for Gain: Alfonso X of Spain’s Law on Gambling Houses -- An academic article about a little-known law code. No translation, but includes a number of quotes in the original form, and a fair amount of analysis about what we can infer from it. * History Overview*
• P.S. Neeley Shareware -- Windows implementations of a bunch of ancient games, and a few period ones. * Computer Play*
• Parlett on the Leaf Game -- A discussion of what we know about the ancient Chinese game that purportedly led to the invention of cards * History*
• Period Games at the Florilegium -- A collection of messages culled from the Rialto about period games. Note the links at the top to sub-sections. * Overview*
• Playing Cards at Tattershall Arms -- Tattershall Arms, which mostly deals in period military tack, also apparently sells my favorite Elizabethan card decks. Not 100% period, but among the closest I've found for sale. They really enhance a game... * Vendor*
• Records of the Low Company of Carolingia -- The local gaming group that Justin is notionally the head of, which is very, very slightly active. * Organizations*
• Some game terms found in the *Diccionario de Autoridades* -- Transcribed by Ruben, this Spanish source is well out of period, but noted here for research purposes. * Transcription*
• Some games listed in Minsheu's Spanish/English dictionary -- Notes from Greg Lindahl, transcribing a few relevant entries from this 1599 dictionary. * Transcription*
• Some Less-Known Gaming Sources -- A brief listing assembled by Jim Marchand. * Bibliography*
• Sonja Musser Golladay's dissertation on the Alfonso MS (hardcopy) -- This link is a search into University Microfilms' dissertation service. Golladay's dissertation is the masterwork on the Alfonso MS, including a full translation, copious notes and reconstruction details, and all sorts of information about the art and culture surrounding the book. It is a must-have for anyone researching this text. * Overview History Translation Reconstruction*
• Sonja Musser Golladay's Dissertation on the Alfonso MS (PDF) -- A PDF copy of the full, 1400-page tome about the Alfonso. This is the single most important source when working on this MS, including a full translation, lots of notes and reconstruction details, information about the culture and context, and so on. * Overview Reconstruction History Transcription Translation*
• Taxonomic map of Playing Cards -- A lovely map showing the evolution of the suits, by Lady Heather Hall. * Equipment History*
• The Alfonso MS, in English -- This large PDF (about 5MB) combines an early draft of Sonja Musser Golladay's translation of the Alfonso with some of the facsimiles from Charles Knutson, to make a solidly usable source for reconstruction. * Translation*
• The Asia Society's page on Asian Games -- A collection of brief articles about many games. Not strictly focused on SCA period, but in practice the articles mostly fit. A useful overview for folks with Asian personae. * Overview*
• The Electronic Texts and Condordances of the Prose Works of Alfonso X, El Sabio -- A transcription of the complete Alfonso works (including the Book of Games), from the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies. * Transcription Vendor*
• The Full History of Board Games -- A long blog post that skims over the surface of the topic. Slightly breathless and necessarily very light on detail, but mostly accurate and hits at least many of the high points. Well-suited counter to any misimpressions that board games are a modern phenomenon, and gives a good sense of the scope. * History Overview*
• The Game Cultures Society -- From their webpage: "The Game Cultures Society is a consortium of North American and European scholars pursuing the study and appreciation of games, play, and ludic activities as significant aspects of cultures from antiquity to the digital age." * Organizations*
• The History of Playing Cards -- An overview history hosted at the IPCS. * Overview History*
• The International Playing-Card Society -- As it says, a worldwide organization focused specifically on cards. Not as much about the games, but still a very useful site to peruse. * Overview*
• The Introduction of Playing-Cards to Europe -- The first draft of a brief History of Card Games, by Seaan McAy. Never finished, but is a useful introduction to the history. * Overview*
• The Silliman Etching -- A 1665 etching of children at play, hosted and annotated by Faire Tyme Toys. * Facsimile*
• The Web Gallery of Art -- A useful virtual museum with a lot of period artworks. * Facsimile*
• Traditional Game Rules -- James Masters' site, some of which is indexed by game here. Some of this is period, but not all. * Overview History Reconstruction*
• Transcription of Gargantua (1542 ed) -- In the original French. Search for "CHAPITRE XXII" to get the relevant section. * Transcription*
• Transcriptions of some bits of Cotgrave -- Transcribed by Ruben Krasnopolsky, archived by Justin, mostly pointing into the Wayback Machine. * Transcription*
• VidaQuestla -- I only know it from the website, but this appears to be a vendor of a wide variety of high-quality reproductions of period game boards. Very neat! * Vendor*
• Viking Siege -- A good-looking (but now very old) implementation of Tafl. * Computer Play*
• Walker's *A Manifest Detection of Diceplay* -- Transcribed by Alexx Kay, this 16th century book is mainly about how to cheat at dice. * Transcription*
• Zillions of Games -- Arguably the best game engine in existence, at least for period games. It can't go everything, but it can do a lot, and it comes with many period games already implemented. (If you hadn't guessed, I really like this program.) * Computer Play Vendor*