SENET FOR DUMMIES

THE GAME BOARD & PIECES

Your board should look something like this. Sketch it. Paint it. Draw it with Sharpie marker on your kitchen table. (Okay, don't really do that last one.)


(Download in color)
(Download in black and white)

For the game pieces, coins work great. Go dig through your sofa cushions and find five pennies and five dimes. The dimes are the white pieces. The pennies are the black pieces. Arrange them white and black alternating along the top of the game board (so space one gets a white piece, space two gets a black piece, and so on).

You're supposed to have two-sided sticks, but in case you don't, coins again work great. Find four coins that you can mark on. Take that same black Sharpie and color one side of each of the coins dark.

BASIC PLAY
Your goal is to get all your pieces off the game board first. White goes first. Toss the four sticks (or coins) and see how they land.

• 1 light side up -- Move one piece 1 space and get an extra turn
• 2 light sides up -- Move one piece 2 spaces
• 3 light sides up -- Move one piece 3 spaces
• 4 light sides up -- Move one piece 4 spaces and get an extra turn
• 0 light sides up -- Move one piece 5 spaces and get an extra turn

Rules:

• There can only be one piece per space.
• If you land on your opponent's piece, that is an attack, and your pieces swap places unless your opponent's piece is "protected" or unless it is in spaces 27-30.
• If a piece is attacked when it is in spaces 28-30 (by a piece in space 26), it is moved to Space 27 unless a piece is already in Space 27. Then the pieces swap as normal.
• You can't land on a space with your own piece on it.
• You have to try to move forward first. If you can't move forward, then you have to try to move backward, and you lose your extra turn (if you had one). If you can't move backward either, then your turn is over, and you lose any extra turn you may have had.

Protection:

• For your piece to be protected, it must be adjacent (numerically) to another of your own piece. This works side by side horizontally and around corners if the corners are adjacent (for example, spaces 10 and 11 are adjacent, but spaces 9 and 12 are not. Also spaces 1 and 20 are not adjacent.).
• Pieces that are in the last four spaces (spaces 27-30) are no longer protected and can't protect other pieces either.

Special Spaces:

There are some special spaces with equally special rules.

• Space 15: The House of Second Life
• Space 26: The House of Beauty
  • All pieces must stop here on an EXACT throw of the sticks. This spot may never be skipped by any stone.
• Space 27: The House of Waters
  • If you land on this space, you lose any extra turn you may have had. Sorry!
  • If you're starting your turn on this space, you don't have to throw the sticks. You can move your piece to Space 15 if you want. If there is another piece already on Space 15, it gets moved BACK (numerically) to the first open space on the board.
  • If you want to try your luck and throw the sticks, you must throw a four (all light sides up). If you do throw the four (and trust me, the odds are against you), then your piece is off the board and you get your extra turn.
• Space 28: The House of Three Judges
  • A piece on this space can't be moved forward or backward. Its only option is if you make an exact throw of three. Then it escapes the game board.
• Space 29: The House of Two Judges
  • A piece on this space can't be moved forward or backward. Its only option is if you make an exact throw of two. Then it escapes the game board.
• Space 30: The House of Horus
  • Great luck! ANY throw gets a piece on this space off the game board.

See, I told you it was easy. Now go share the love of Senet with the world!

READY TO PLAY???

Do you dare to challenge the Boy King in a game of Senet? Just a warning. He never loses!

(Click the green flag to start the game)
(If you've never played Senet before, you might want to start in easy mode. King Tut won't judge you :) )




In case you've never heard of SCRATCH, it is an amazing platform used in a lot of schools to teach computer programming. And what better way to learn programming than to write your own video games? Kids from all over the world use SCRATCH to write games and share them with others.
Please visit the SCRATCH website for more information.