Felix Sex

Felix Sex

Type: Abstract
Status: Public domain / Historical
Available from: http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/boardgames4.html

From the Roman Board Games website:

'This game was played all across the Roman Empire, in taverns, brothels, private homes, and frontier forts. Numerous boards have been found from Egypt to Britain, but especially in and around Rome. However, this game did not seem to have a name to distinguish it from either Duodecim Scripta or Tabula. We call this game Lucky Sixes -- in Latin, Felix Sex.

'In this game of six lettered words, there are neither twelve words or letters, and there are no lines at all. Nevertheless, this is the generally accepted style of play, and, in this form, it bears a strong resemblance to Egyptian Senet, which had 30 squares.

Three dice would have been tossed. The 15 pieces move first up the center line of letters, and then over to the left. Finally they would travel to the opposite side of letters and then off the board. As in Tabula, no pieces could move beyond the first "word" until all pieces had entered the board. Likewise, no pieces could exit the board until all pieces had landed on the last word.

'The marvelous thing about this game is that the words tended to spell out clever sentences. Mostly these related to gambling and good fortune, or matters with military overtones, indicating soldiers often played this game. Sometimes they were just words of encouragement, somewhat like fortune cookies.'