Aaron Lawn: Five Books with Games

One of the oddities that I like to have on my shelf are books about games. In general, these fall into one of these categories: History of Game, Collecting games, Designing games, and How to play books. These are all How to Play books, but they focus on books that are a bit more readable than a listing of game rules.

Gamut of Games by Sid Sackson
I’ll start with the book most often mentioned⁽¹⁾, Sid Sackson’s Gamut of Games. This collection of 38+ games is pretty much a must-have if you want a collection of books about games. Sackson starts off with a variety of different games done by other designers and then slips into his own games. 16 games by other people, 22 games by Sackson. Standouts for me include Haggle, Card Baseball, and the rules to Focus/Domination. The writing is strong and interesting, and provides both strategy discussion as well as rules. The games have framing discussion around them to place them in context, so it’s quite possible to read the book, as opposed to simply using it as a reference.

Dice Games Properly Explained by Reiner Knizia
Knizia’s dice book is very, very good. It covers such a wide range of games that can be played with exclusively dice, organized by rules base and presented with framing discussion. He also delves into probability and examines gambling games with (surpise!) mathematical analysis. While I’ve found that there are plenty of games in this book that I will never play, the discussion of dice and what can make a dice game fun is the primary draw to this book. There are several game that I have played – mostly squarely within the same family as Yacht (Yahtzee). Knizia presents both classic dice games as well as his own designs. Easily the best book on dice games that I’ve read.

Blazing Aces! by Reiner Knizia
Unfortunately, I can’t give the same praise to Knizia’s card game book. This book is much narrower in focus – specifically it is card games that use poker hands that aren’t poker. While this was a disappointment to me (I wanted another book like Dice Games…), what really ruins the book for me is the writing style. The book is written as if an old western dude is explaining each game to you with a deck of cards. If you’ve ever read the Return of the Heroes rulebook, reading this book will bring back horrific memories. I don’t like it, and must admit that I have yet to actually read the entire book. Thankfully most of the rules are presented in standard format as well, but reference to the descriptive text is sometimes necessary. There’s little framing discussion around the games. The games themselves? I haven’t managed to try one, mostly because I’ve yet to find one that grabs my interest.

Dealer’s Choice by Ernest, Foglio and Selinker.
Speaking of poker, I have to mention my favorite poker book, subtitled “The complete handbook of Saturday night poker”. This book provides over 200 poker variations, as well as detailed anecdotes about setting up a regular poker night. This is not a book of Hold ‘em strategy and analysis, but rather a book that provides advice about the different ways of setting up a regular poker game, and then clubs you over the head with many many variations of play. Quoted from the introduction to the 200 variations – “Some are exceptional games, some aren’t worth playing even once. But we’ll try to warn you if they’re that bad.” Written at the height of the World Poker Tour craze, the book also talks about making sure that all your players are expecting the same type of poker when they sit down at the table. Each author runs a different type of poker night, providing something of interest for everyone but the most die-hard Hold-em fan.

Games with Pencil and Paper by Eric Solomon
A Dover book, this is a small handbook of paper games that I’ve pulled out many times. Some of the games are simply variations on games that aren’t typically paper games but can be played as such (Hex, Elesius, Go-moku). It’s a worthwhile book just for the many classic games that it presents, including hangman, battleships, boxes, and more. It’s a short book (and cheaply produced, like most Dover books), but worthwhile flipping through.

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⁽¹⁾ Besides the overly common Hoyle’s book of games. In general I’m not a fan of hoyle, though I own about three different editions. The biggest benefit I’ve found to Hoyle has been that it includes all games, not just playing cards. So it has rules for dominoes, checkers, backgammon, etc. It’s a first stop to find rules for traditional games, but not generally your best choice. For traditional card games I generally prefer the “Bicycle Official rules of card games”. The games are explained and presented in a better fashion than most editions of hoyle.

© 2008 Aaron Lawn

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Comments:

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Nice article.  Thanks!  One which has given me spotty pleasure over the years is R.C. Bell’s Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations.  It’s a sufficient source for - well - what it says, but is more of a reference or informative tool than a nice read.  I’ve learned Mah-Jong, Shogi, Xiang-Qi, and a couple of other games from it, but that feat can’t be accomplished with all the games.  It’s basically a mini-encyclopedia. Posted by Nathan Morse on Jan 24, 2008 at 07:14 AM | #

Another good book is New Rules For Classic Games by R. Wayne Schmittberger. It provides new variations and twists from Go and Chess to paper and pencil games and everything in between. Try Nerf Ping Pong sometime. ;-) It even has helpful hints on how to improvise game equipment and how to create your own variations. I find something new every time I like at the book. Posted by Randy Schmucker on Jan 24, 2008 at 09:34 AM | #

One of my favorite books about games (and other classic toys) is “Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them” by Tim Walsh (Andrews McMeel Publishing). It’s a nice full-color coffee-table-type book, and you can’t help but feel nostalgic when paging through it. Tim’s self-published first edition under the title “The Playmakers” was sold out, and Andrews McMeel re-published it. Posted by Jeff Allers on Jan 24, 2008 at 11:28 AM | #

Re: RC Bell- I’ve got a couple of his books also - They are definitely great resources, but I always think of them more like history books. The Schmittberger book is new to me - I’ll search it out. Posted by Aaron Lawn on Jan 25, 2008 at 02:54 PM | #

Definitely check out the Schmittberger book, Aaron; I view it as the logical sequel to the peerless Gamut of Games.  I can also wholeheartedly recommend Tim Walsh’s labor of love.  There’s more toys than games there, but the book is utterly charming and full of interesting and delightful information.  It also brings back lots of memories, particularly for folks like me, who are on the far side of 50. Posted by Larry Levy on Jan 25, 2008 at 04:40 PM | #

If you can find a copy, The Playboy winner’s guide to board games is one of my favorite books on board games. Jon Freeman, the author, has a POV and a sense of humor, which many game books don’t seem to have. OK, it’s nearly 30 years old… but the basic walk-through of Diplomacy strategy or thoughtful reviews of a number of classic board games are still good. Someone has actually put up a series of Geeklists that give the table of contents & short quotes from the book. Posted by Mark "Fluff Daddy" Jackson on Jan 26, 2008 at 11:04 AM | #

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