''A Gamut of Games'' is an innovative book of games written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969. It contains rules for a large number of paper and pencil, card, and

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboa ...

game A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (su ...

s. Many of the games in the book had never before been published. It is considered by many hobbyist gamers to be an essential text for anyone interested in

abstract strategy Abstract strategy games admit a number of definitions which distinguish these from strategy games in general, mostly involving no or minimal narrative theme, outcomes determined only by player choice (with no randomness), and perfect information ...

games, and a number of the rules were later expanded into full-fledged published board games. Some of the games which were later sold separately include Focus,

Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

and Origins of World War I; Robert Abbott expanded his game Crossings, published here, into the more-refined title Epaminondas. Many of the games covered in the book were creations of Sid Sackson himself, who was a prolific game designer.

Book Sections

The sections of the book and the games covered therein are as follows:

In Search of Big and Little Games

*'' Blue and Gray'', a board game by Henry Busch and Arthur Jaeger *'' Hekaton'', a card game originally published along with "Yankee Notion Cards" from the 19th century *'' Le Truc'', a revived French card game *'' Mate'', a card game by G. Capellen *'' Plank'', a serious revamp of the concepts in Tic-Tac-Toe *Zetema, a Victorian card game similar to Bezique

Game Inventors Are People Too

*'' Crossings'', a board game by Robert Abbott; later turned into Epaminondas *'' Cups'', a mancala variant by Arthur and Wald Amberstone *'' Knight Chase'', a board game by Alex Randolph (inventor of games like TwixT) *'' Lap'', a complex progeny of Battleships by Lech Pijanowski *'' Lines of Action'', a board game by Claude Soucie *''

Origins of World War I The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. World War I began in the Balkans on July 28, 1914, and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil ...

'', a historical pencil-and-paper game by Jim Dunnigan which teaches players history *'' Paks'', a playing card game by Phil Laurence *'' Skedoodle'', a pencil-and-paper game by Father Daniel *'' Three Musketeers'', a board game by Haar Hoolim; notably, this game and the character in it was once used as the mascot for the Zillions of Games software product

Those Protean Pieces of Pasteboard

''All of the games in this section use a standard pack of cards.'' *''

All My Diamonds All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

'', an auctioning game by Sid Sackson *'' Bowling Solitaire'', a one-player game by Sid Sackson that simulates

ten-pin bowling Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...

. *''

Card Baseball Card or The Card may refer to: * Various types of plastic cards: **By type *** Magnetic stripe card ***Chip card ***Digital card **By function *** Payment card ****Credit card ****Debit card ****EC-card ****Identity card ****European Health Insuran ...

'', by Sid Sackson *'' Color Gin'', a two-handed modification of

Hollywood Gin Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollyw ...

by Sid Sackson *''

Osmosis Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region of ...

'', by Sid Sackson *''

Patterns A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

'', by Sid Sackson *'' Poke'', a two-player multi-genre card game that combines strong elements of Poker with trick-taking games *'' Slam'', a two-handed takeoff of

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

by Sid Sackson *''

Suit Yourself ''Suit Yourself'' is the ninth studio album by Shelby Lynne, released on May 24, 2005. The album is the second consecutive self-produced album for Lynne, and one of two recorded for release by Capitol Records. (The album's follow-up, ''Just a L ...

'', by Sid Sackson

New Battles on an Old Battlefield

''All of the games in this section use a checkerboard.'' *'' Focus'', by Sid Sackson; this game was later sold commercially *'' Network'', by Sid Sackson *'' Take It Away'', by Sid Sackson

Grab a Pencil

''All of the games in this section are meant to be played with pencil and paper.'' *'' Cutting Corners'', by Sid Sackson; another attempt at a "boredom" game *'' Hold That Line'', by Sid Sackson; an attempt to move "boredom" games away from Tic-Tac-Toe *'' Last Word'', a paper-based

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left ...

-esque game by Sid Sackson *''

Paper Boxing Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

'', by Sid Sackson *''

Patterns II Patterns II is a pencil and paper game developed by Sid Sackson for 3 or more players. It emphasizes the use of inductive logic and scientific analysis The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has character ...

'', an inductive-reasoning game by Sid Sackson; see Eleusis for another game in this small genre *''

'', later republished as New York, by Sid Sackson

A Miscellany of Games

*'' Change Change'', a simple solitaire utilizing coins by Sid Sackson *'' Domino Bead Game'', by Sid Sackson *'' Haggle'', a deliciously confusing party game by Sid Sackson *
Solitaire Dice
', by Sid Sackson; published commercially under the names Choice, Einstein, and Can't Stop Express *''

The No Game Sid Sackson (February 4, 1920 in Chicago – November 6, 2002) was an American board game designer and collector, best known as the creator of the business game ''Acquire''. Career Sackson's most popular creation is probably the business game '' ...

'', a classic and simple party game A second edition of the book was published in 1982;

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

released an unabridged reprint, with an additional preface by Sackson, in 1992.

Reviews

*''

Games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (su ...

'' *''Games and Puzzles''https://archive.org/details/sim_games-and-puzzles_1973-05_13/page/22/mode/2up

References

*Sackson, Sid. ''A Gamut of Games''.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamut Of Games, A 1969 books Books about board games