Glass Bead Game Read Me

Glass Bead Game
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About the Glass Bead Game

Mancalas are among the oldest boardgames known to man. They can be found in a huge variety of variants and under many different names from South Africa to the Phillipines. In his New Rules for Classic Games (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York; ISBN 0-471-53621-0), Wayne Schmittberger remarks of the Glass Bead Game: "Christian Freeling has created a mancala-type game that may make you want to forget all the previous ones you've seen". The reason for his enthusiasm lies in a number new concepts I brought to the general principle and the way they interact.

In traditional mancalas all beads are equal. Here they come as Gems & Stones.
- Gems range in point value. They can be captured, but cannot capture.
- Stones have no point value. They can capture, but cannot be captured.
There are two mutually exclusive ways to make a capture, direct & indirect. Both allow for single as well as multiple captures.

These concepts, among other things, make the order in which the beads of a particlar pit are distributed - totally irrelevant in usual mancalas - an important issue. The strategical and tactical implications allow for a drastic reduction in the material needed. The Glass Bead Game is not only deeper and wider and more strategically and tactically rewarding than any other mancala, but also considerably smaller.