Real life Jumanji? Mysterious ancient Chinese board game unearthed in Warring States era tomb

[yuiyoshida]

Along with the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing, we may also have to credit ancient Chinese civilization with the invention of the precursor to Dungeons & Dragons.

Inside a 2,300 year old tomb excavated near Qingzhou city in Shandong province, archaeologists discovered the pieces to a board game that hasn't been played for at least 1,500 years.

The items discovered included one 14-sided dice made of animal tooth. Twelve of its faces are numbered 1 through 6 in ancient "seal script," while the other two faces were left blank.

They also unearthed 21 rectangular game pieces with numbers painted on them, as well as a broken tile that was once part of the game board. Researchers believe that each of these tiles was decorated with two eyes surrounded by a pattern of clouds and thunderstorms, according to an article in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

http://shanghaiist.com/2015/11/18/ancient_board_game_unearthed.php

[DetlefK]

1. It bears no resemblance to either Jumanji or D&D...

Jumanji is a sequential board-game. D&D is a roleplay-game, an interactive story.

"liubo" sounds like a strategic board-game with army-tokens and dice.

[freeplessinseattle]

4. I think they just mean it is the first known game

discovered. That is the only resemblence that matters in this context

[DetlefK]

5. Go is about that old. Backgammon and the oldest version of Morris are even 1000 years older.

Liu Bo was actually very sophisticated if it indeed were a strategic boardgame with army-tokens and dice (as I speculated). THAT would be what would make it interesting to me, not whether it's the oldest.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Well, they knew what a truncated octahedron is, and thought to use it as a die ...

[longship]

3. Roll an 8/10 for a saving throw.

Looks like a D10.