3. The Spanish Baraja (Spanish pack of cards)
Description
The traditional Spanish baraja is an old deck that was brought over by the
Moors to Spain during the 14th century.
Cards and suits
Spanish
deck of 40
cards.
4. A traditional Spanish deck consists of four suits of ten numbered cards (1-7,
and 10-12, with 10,11 and 12 being picture cards).
The four suits are:
bastos (clubs)
oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins)
copas (cups)
espadas (swords).
The four suits are thought to represent the four social classes of the Middle
Ages. The suit of coins represents the merchants, the clubs represents the
peasants, the cups represent the church and the swords represent the military.
The three face cards of each suit have pictures similar to the jack, queen, and
king in the French deck, and rank identically. They are the sota, which is similar
to the jack/knave and generally depicts a page or prince, the caballo (knight,
literally "horse"), and the rey (king) respectively.
5. Each card has a box outline to
distinguish the suit without
showing all of your cards: The
cups have one interruption,
the swords two, the clubs three, and the gold none. This mark is called "la pinta"
and gave rise to the expression: le conocí por la pinta ("I knew him by his
markings").
A popular Spanish game played with the Spanish baraja
7½ Siete y Medio (Seven and a half)
6. Seven and a Half is a gambling game that
is popular in Italy, Spain, Brazil and probably in
other places as well. In Italy it is traditionally
played around Christmas.
The objective is to collect cards that total as near as possible to 7½ without
exceeding that number.
Players and Cards
A 40-card pack is used. Each suit consists of A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and three picture
cards. The point values of the cards are:
Aces: 1 point each
2 to 7: Face value
Picture
cards:
Half a point
each
The number of players is limited only by the size of the pack and the number of
seats that can be fitted around the table. Deal and play are counter-clockwise.
The Betting and Deal
At the start of the session, the minimum and maximum bets must be decided
and the players draw lots to choose the first banker. The banker is also the
dealer. The same player continues to deal successive hands until some other
player wins with a score of exactly 7½ and thereby takes over the bank.
7. The cards are shuffled and cut, and each player other than the banker places a
bet, not less than the minimum and not more than the maximum.
The banker then deals one card face down to each player, starting with the
player to the dealer's right, continuing counter-clockwise and ending with the
dealer.
The Play
Each of the players in turn, starting to the right of the dealer, may ask for extra
cards to improve their total. At your turn, you look at your face down card,
without showing it to the dealer or other players.
If you are satisfied with your total you may stay (Spanish: “me planto”)
and the turn passes to the next player.
If you want to risk increasing your total, you ask the dealer for a card
(Spanish: “pido otra carta” ), and the dealer deals you a card face up
• If this new card takes your total over seven and a half you
are bust (Spanish: “me paso” ). You must show your cards and
the dealer takes your stake.
8. • If your total is exactly seven and a half, you must show your cards.
Your turn is over and you will win unless the dealer has an equally
good hand.
• If your total is less than seven and a half you have the choice of
standing or asking for another card. You may ask for another card
as many times as you wish, so long as the total of your cards
remains below seven and a half.
After all the players have taken their turns, the dealer's card is exposed, and the
dealer may take extra cards in the same way as the players. While playing, the
dealer can see the exposed cards of each of the other players, but not their face
down card.
If the dealer makes a total of 8 or more, the dealer loses to all the players who
are not bust, returning their stakes plus an equal amount.
If the dealer stays, with a total of 7½ or less, the dealer wins the stakes of all the
players who stayed with an equal or lower total (in addition to the stakes of the
players who are bust, which the dealer has already collected) and loses the
players who stayed with a higher total, returning their stakes and paying them an
equal amount.
Note that the dealer (banker) wins all ties.
9. If just one player makes a total of exactly 7½, that player not only wins but also
takes over the bank and deals the next hand. If more than one player, not
including the dealer, makes a total of 7½, the bank is taken over by the first of
those players in counter clockwise order from the dealer.
Parchís
Parchís is a popular Spanish board game that comes from the Indian game of
Pachisi. It consists of 4 players with 4 pawns that must make their way around
the board until reaching their safe zone. A die is used to determine moves and
players “chase” and
“eat” each others
pawns, sending them
back to the starting
point.
Rules
10. This game is played with 1 die and 4 pawns per player. Dice cups are optional,
but most game sets include them. As in Pachisi, the aim is simple: players
compete on leading their four pawns out of their nest, around the whole board,
into the colour track and up to the centre of the board, chasing and "eating"
each other in the process.
A roll of 5 forces the player to release one pawn from the nest (if there are any
left), and a roll of 6 gives the player an extra turn. When the player has 4 pawns
in the game (outside the nest), whenever he gets a 6, he can move 7 squares.
If ever three 6's are rolled in a row, the last piece moved is killed and returned
to the nest. If the last piece moved was in the final coloured ramp, it is only
moved to the bottom of it.
When a pawn "eats" an opponent's pawn (by landing on the same square, if it is
not a safe square), it "kills" it, sending it back to the nest, and advances 20
squares. When a pawn reaches the end, one of the other pawns of the same
colour can advance 10 squares.
Blockades can also be made with 2 pawns, but only in safe squares. In some
variants, a blockade can be formed in any square, if both pawns belong to the
same player—otherwise the last to arrive would kill the first. Pawns cannot jump
over blockades, which cause "jams", making it easy for players to "eat" each
other. A player must open a blockade if he tosses a 6.
11. La Oca
Origins
The Game of the
Goose or Goose game is
a board game with uncertain
origins. Some people connect
the game with the Phaistos
Disc (because of its spiral
shape), others claim that it was
originally a gift from Francesco I de' Medici of Florence to King Philip II of
Spain sometime between 1574 and 1587, while the latest theories attribute to
the Templars the creation of the game. According to these theories the
Templars, possibly inspired by other games or discs (as the Phaistos Disc) from
the Holy Land, developed a game and a secret or encrypted guide to the Way
of St. James, representing each numbered space in the game a different stage
in this journey. Furthermore, the hidden messages would not be just in the
game but in the monuments, cathedrals and churches along the Way to
Santiago de Compostela.
In June 1597 John Wolfe had attested that the game existed in London. It is
thought to be the prototype for many of the commercial European racing board
games of recent centuries. The game is mostly played in Europe and seen as
12. family entertainment. Commercial versions of the game appeared in the 1880s
and 1890s, and feature typical old European characteristics such as an old well
and children in clothes from the period. In the 1960s, the game company CO-5
marketed a variant called Gooses Wild.
Description
The board consists of a track with consecutively numbered spaces (usually 63),
and is often arranged in a spiral with the starting point at the outside. Each
player's piece is moved according to throws of one or two dice. Scattered
throughout the board are a number of spaces on which a goose is depicted;
landing on a goose allows the player to move again by the same distance.
Additional shortcuts, such as spaces marked with a bridge, move the player to
some other specified position. There are also a few penalty spaces which force
the player to move backwards or lose one or more turns, the most recognizable
being the one marked with a skull and symbolizing death; landing on this space
results in the player being sent back to start. On Spanish boards the reverse is
usually a parchís board.
Rules
13. Players take turns rolling two dice and moving their pawn around the board by
the sum of their roll. The board has all the same special spaces that Goose
games throughout its history have included:
• The Bridge on space 6 that advances the player to space 12.
• A roadside Inn on space 19 where the traveller tarries for one turn.
• The Well on space 31, where the visitor loses 2 turns.
• The Maze of space 42, wherein the traveller loses the way and returns to
space 30.
• The Dungeon on space 52, where the prisoner remains until another
arrives and the two trade places. An additional means of escape is to roll
a 9 and go to one of the fields with dice.
• Space 58, where a cooked goose appears in place of the traditional Grim
Reaper, sends the player back to start.
Additional rules
A lucky throw of 9 at the beginning of the spiral path advances a player to one
of the fields with dice.
Landing on any of the pretty geese doubles a player's move.
An exact count on one or both dice is needed to reach the centre goose, and if
the number rolled is too great, the player has to take the surplus numbers in
reverse.
Landing on another player's space sends that player to where the new arrival
began the turn. Could be backward or forward. Lots of laughs!
14. You can download and print your own goose board at:
http://modaruniversity.org/goose-game-board.pdf
Dominó
While the game of dominoes is
not of Spanish origin, it has
been popular in Spain since the
19th century. The game is
played with rectangular-shaped
tiles that have varying numbers
of dots on each of two sections.
Play is started by placing a tile on the table. Players take turns adding tiles to
form a chain, joining halves of like-numbered tiles to other halves of like-
numbered tiles. Players who cannot play a tile must draw one from the pile. At
the end of each turn the number of dots on the un-joined tile ends is counted
up. Whoever earns the most points at the end of the game wins.
Domino Basics
15. Getting Started With Dominoes
A domino is a small tile that represents the roll of two dice. The tile, commonly
called a bone, is rectangular with a line down the centre. Each end of the tile
contains a number. In the most popular domino set, the double-six, the numbers
vary from 0 (or blank) to 6. This produces 28 unique tiles, as shown in the
diagram on the right.
A common domino size is about 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 3/8 inch thick -
small enough to be held comfortably in the hand, but large enough to be easily
manipulated, and thick enough to be able to be stood on edge.
Dominoes are referred to by the number of dots
(or pips) on each end, with the lower number
usually listed first. Thus, a tile with a 2 on one
end and a 5 on the other is referred to as a "2-
5". A tile with the same number on both ends is called a "double" (or doublet),
so a "6-6" is referred to as "double-six". A double-six is the "heaviest" domino; a
double-blank is the "lightest" domino value.
16. Tiles which have ends with the same number of dots are members of the same
"suit". In a double-six set, there are seven suits (blank, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), each
with seven members (0-5, 1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 4-5, 5-5, & 5-6) make up the "fives"
suit, for instance. Except for the doubles, each tile belongs to two suits.
General Domino Rules
How To Play Dominoes
Shuffling The Dominoes
Before a game or hand begins, the dominoes must be shuffled, so that no one
knows the location of any given tile. Typically, the tiles are shuffled by turning
them all face-down on the table, then moving them around in a random motion,
being careful not to flip over any of the pieces. The collection of shuffled tiles is
called the boneyard.
Beginning A Game
Before a game begins, the players have to determine who has the first move.
This happens in one of two ways: either each of the players choose a domino at
random, with first move going to the player holding the "heavier" domino (these
dominoes are returned to the boneyard and reshuffled), or the players draw
their allotted number of tiles (which varies according to the game being played),
and the holder of the "heaviest" domino goes first.
17. Drawing Tiles
Once the players begin drawing tiles, they are typically placed on-edge before
the players, so that each player can see his own tiles, but none can see the
value of other player’s tiles. Every player can thus see how many tiles remain in
the other players hands at all times during gameplay.
Placing the First Tile
Once all the players have drawn their dominoes, the first player (determined
either by the drawing of lots, or by who holds the heaviest hand) places the first
tile on the table. Typically, this is the double-six. If no one holds the double-six,
then the double-five is played, and so on.
Playing Subsequent Tiles
In most domino games, only the "open" ends of a layout are open for play. An
end is open when it has no other tile connected to it. Often, a double is placed
cross-ways in the layout, straddling the end of the tile that it is connected to.
Usually, additional tiles can only be placed against the long side of a double.
However, the rules of some games consider all four sides of a double to be
open, allowing dominoes to be connected in all four directions.
18. For example, in the diagram on the right, the first tile played was the 6-6. At this
point, a domino can either be played to the right or left of the 6-6. The second
tile placed was a 6-5, to the right of the 6-6. At this point, the open ends are 5
and 6. The third tile played was a 4-6, to the left of the initial tile, producing open
ends of 4 and 5. The fourth tile was the 5-5, placed vertically. Again, the open
ends are 4 and 5.
At any time, due to space constraints or mere whim, a tile may be connected at
a right-angle, creating an "L" in the layout.
Drawing Tiles
As the turn passes from player to player, if someone cannot make a move,
they're going to do one of two things, based on the game being played. In
"block" games (or if there are no tiles left in the boneyard), a player must "pass"
if he cannot make a move. In a "draw" game, a player can draw a tile from the
boneyard. Depending on the game, he can then either play it (if it fits, and if the
rules allow), pass (if he cannot play the drawn tile), or continue drawing until he
can make a move or the boneyard is empty.
Currently, most rules allow the boneyard to be emptied completely. However,
some rules do not allow the last tow tiles in the boneyard to be removed, and at
the end of a game, the winner receives the value of the tiles in the boneyard.
19. Ending A Game
A game ends either when a player plays all his tiles, or when a game is blocked.
When a player plays his last time, tradition requires him to say "domino" (when
this happens, the other players are said to have been dominoed. A game is
blocked when no player is able to add another tile to the layout.
When playing a multi-round game, domino games are typically scored by
awarding the number of pips on opposing player's tiles to the winner. Doubles
may be counted as one or two (if one, a 6-6 counts as 6; if two, a 6-6 counts as
12), and double-blank may either count as 0 or 14. (These rule variations must
be agreed upon before the game begins!) The player who reaches the target
score (100, 200, or whatever is agreed on among the players), or the player
who amasses the most points is a given number of rounds wins the game.
Peonza (Baldufa in Catalan)
Peonza, or spinning top, is a popular Spanish toy that spins on an axis,
balanced on one point.
The toy is designed to be spun rapidly on the ground, the motion of which
causes it to remain precisely balanced on its tip because of inertia. Such toys
have existed since antiquity. Traditionally tops were constructed of wood,
sometimes with an iron tip, and would be set in motion by aid of
20. a string or rope coiled around its axis which, when pulled quickly, caused a
rapid unwinding that would set the top in motion.
