Farkle?

[Loyalist Dave]

Since this is the Accoutrements section, I was thinking of other stuff in my pack. They weren't limited to just tools and clothing after all.

So, after searching for "farkle", "games", and "penny whistles" without results..., I am wondering if anybody out there carries a game or other item for in camp recreation in their pack?

I have a small Farkle set which I put together by obtaining 6 small bone dice off of eBay, and a wooden cup from the local craft store. The cup is supposed to be a tiny, decorative, wooden bucket for something like a shadow-box display. You leather-working folks could probable knock up a small, leather cup in a few minutes. All fits into a small, leather cinch sack. The rules for the game vary a bit.

I also often carry a wooden "penny whistle". Well, OK it's supposed to be a wooden flute I guess; it's not a recorder. It has the same fingering as a penny whistle. I bought it at Jamestown Va many years ago.

So anybody carry dice? How about draughts [checkers]? Nine Men's Morris aka Morels, or Fox & Geese?

I'm thinking of fashioning a dominoes set too. Hey sometimes it rains hard at the Market Fair or week long 'vous, and you have to do something, right? :shocked2:

I just hope the serjeant doesn't find the Farkle set...oh wait,...I'm the serjeant :grin:

LD

 

[tenngun]

Cards, most of the time I'm alone most of the time. Sometimes I carry a book. Nobel books has a lot of classics. I enjoy a lot of them. Then sitting by a small fire smoking is a good time for quite thinking.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Whittling satisfies my boredom, as does napping. :grin:

 

[BullRunBear]

It wasn't for camping but I've had to carry small and light for down time. (The joy of managing multiple projects at multiple sites. Thank the Lord I'm retired.) Items could be a deck of cards, a book (this was long before e-readers), whittling, a small chess or checkers set, even a harmonica (if I had to be on site after hours).

Thinking about it, most of these items, or their moral equivalents, could have been in a pack from the 18th or 19th centuries. I was never tech oriented for recreation.

I don't recall reading specific mention of recreational items that were carried on a trek.

Jeff

 

[Alden]

I always have a period wooden die in my haversack, usually period cards and period portable cribbage (a passion) board, often a Nine-Men's-Morris board especially if I'm doing older-period stuff, and I have a roll-up leather checkers/chess game once in a while too.

 

[tenngun]

We know soldiers often beat musket ball square and made dice from them. Wtbs soldiers would dump cards on the way to a fight least they get killed and their gear sent home. They didn't want mom to know they had cards. Bibles and secular books were sent to 'voo. Ruxton records reading chemistry and Shakespeare in the mountains.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Jew's harp.

 

[Grumpa]

Ruxton records reading chemistry and Shakespeare in the mountains.

T. Roosevelt, in "The Winning of the West" tells of a longhunter who was reading "Gulliver's Travels" by the campfire, and grabbing up his weapon (tomahawk if I remember correctly) disappeared into the forest. He returned in the morning with an Indian scalp, saying that he had slain one of the Brobdingnabs! :shocked2:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

40 years ago, I would carry a paperback book in my archery vest. The area I hunted was thick so I could hear the deer's hoof steps before I could ever see them. I would sit and read with my "ears on"

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have several replicas of early games but have never used any. When I was doing ronny I was usually either too occupied visiting friends or so tired I just got between the blankets at night.

 

[KingofDerby]

Got a little leather cup, hand stitched and quite solid. Keep meaning to get round to getting dice to put in (we call the game Frackle over here...at least I assume it's the same game...1s and 5s score lots, people say something that sounds like, but is ruder then frackle when they fail)

Also a pack of cards, and keep meaning to make a Pharaoh board and Pope Joan board from cloth to stick in the cup.

 

[valen]

I made some dice at a reenactment this summer at Mackinaw. Used that stump and the flat back side of my came ax. Marked the pips with my vent pick. The whole process was way easier than I thought

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The trick is to be able to tap a round ball into a good square. An uneven square won't roll well or as random as needed.

LD

 

[Flintlock]

If you Farkle around with something long enough, you'll break it.

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

Nine Man Morris for me. Inked a playing board on a small square of canvas. I have a small poke bag with white and grey pebbles for pieces although dried beans work well for that purpose too. Lots of folks aren't familiar with Morris but it was an extremely popular game in the American colonies. It's easy to learn and takes more strategy than draughts but maybe a little less than chess.

 

[cynthialee]

Since this is the Accoutrements section, I was thinking of other stuff in my pack. They weren't limited to just tools and clothing after all.

So, after searching for "farkle", "games", and "penny whistles" without results..., I am wondering if anybody out there carries a game or other item for in camp recreation in their pack?

I have a small Farkle set which I put together by obtaining 6 small bone dice off of eBay, and a wooden cup from the local craft store. The cup is supposed to be a tiny, decorative, wooden bucket for something like a shadow-box display. You leather-working folks could probable knock up a small, leather cup in a few minutes. All fits into a small, leather cinch sack. The rules for the game vary a bit.

I also often carry a wooden "penny whistle". Well, OK it's supposed to be a wooden flute I guess; it's not a recorder. It has the same fingering as a penny whistle. I bought it at Jamestown Va many years ago.

So anybody carry dice? How about draughts [checkers]? Nine Men's Morris aka Morels, or Fox & Geese?

I'm thinking of fashioning a dominoes set too. Hey sometimes it rains hard at the Market Fair or week long 'vous, and you have to do something, right? :shocked2:

I just hope the serjeant doesn't find the Farkle set...oh wait,...I'm the serjeant :grin:

LD

Would seem to me that a good leader would find such an item as a game set in a soldiers gear a good thing. Games bond people. It is one of the reasons we play them.
So long as it doesn't take up any real gear space all should be cool.


This got me to thinking about other games and especially cards.

Cards looked different way back when, than they do now. I seen a very old deck of cards once as a kid at my great aunts house, and they looked off.

So...
Does anyone sell old timey cards that are correct to period?

 

[Alden]

Many.

 

[tenngun]

Most every bp ml place on line have period cards. Townsend, Jedediah star log cabin sport shop ect. These places tend to sell 18th cent or early 19th. Mid century cards can be found via WTBS suttlers. Then cowboy dealers have 70-90s cards. Some sights even sell French rounds, but I can't think of where I saw them on line now.

 

[Alden]

I usually play with 16th C. German or 18th C. English, depending, again, on what I'm doing where...

Muskeg, I've always likened Nine Men's Morris to a Checkers-level version of Tick-Tack-Toe.

 

[cynthialee]

Cool! I found them. Kinda don't like the no printing on the back for the majority of PC cards. I did find examples of old timey cards with printed backs, but not recreations.
Seems to me with as many ports on this continent, and the vast amount of foreign sailors that came through over the ages, that some stylized French or German decks of cards would make their way to the States. I'd rather have such a deck in my gear than plain backed cards.

I did find old style cards with modern styled backs. Still doesn't work for me. If I was to buy a deck of said cards they'd have to have something on the backs, and not something like the modern Bicycle or Hoyle backs.

Not like I play cards often anyways. I am much more a Chess player. Travel chess sets are plenty available. And it can double as a checker board.