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Shut the box

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:18 am
by Comyn
Enjoying a recent wave of popularity, Shut the Box was introduced to the Clann by Christianna at Pennsic. Players roll three knucklebones (which have four effective "sides") to roll each of nine possible outcomes in succession, "closing" each square of the "box" as they do so. A player "shuts the box" by successfully rolling each outcome before rolling a score with which they cannot close a square during their turn. Any remaining squares are added up as a score, and play moves to the next person. Katerina wrote up a nice description of the game which was published in the Winter '07 Arrow. I will attach her writeup.

Reading the Bones
(from an email sent by Mistress Christianna MacGraine April 12, 2013)
I use the 4 long sides to count from 1 – 4. Occasionally they will stand on end, and you can create specific game rules to include that if you like, but it doesn’t happen often enough for them to be considered 5, 6 in my opinion.

On the long sides, there is one side with a single central hump, and the side opposite it has 2 humps. Those are sides 1 and 2. On the other two sides, one is an “innie” that looks like a backwards 3, the other side is an “outie” that has 3-4 bumps sticking up. The innie is 3, the outie is 4.

Christianna, of Bauble Fame ;)