A Gamut of Games

A Gamut of Games, written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969, contains rules for a large number of pencil-and-paper, card, and board games; many of the games in the book had never before been published. It is considered by many to be an essential text for anyone into abstract strategy games, and a number of the rules were later expanded into full-fledged published board games.

Related Topics:
Sid Sackson - 1969 - Card - Board - Games - Abstract strategy

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Some of the games which were later sold separately include Focus and Property (which later became the popular Acquire); 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.

Related Topics:
Focus - Property - Acquire - Robert Abbott - Crossings - Epaminondas

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

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;In Search of Big and Little Game

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

;Game Inventors Are People Too

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• Lines of Action, a board game by Claude Soucie
• Cups, a mancala variant by Arthur and Wald Amberstone
• Crossings, a board game by Robert Abbot; later turned into Epaminondas by Abbot
• Lap, a complex progeny of Battleships by Lech Pijanowski
• 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.
• Paks, a card game by Phil Laurence
• Skedoodle, a pencil-and-paper game by Father Daniel
• Knight Chase, a board game by Alex Randolph (inventor of games like TwixT)
• Origins of World War I, a historical pencil-and-paper game by James Dunnigan which teaches players history

Those Protean Pieces of Pasteboard - All of the games in this section use a standard pack of cards.

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• All My Diamonds, an auctioning game by Sid Sackson
• Osmosis, by Sid Sackson
• Patterns, by Sid Sackson
• Suit Yourself, by Sid Sackson
• Bowling Solitaire, a one-player game by Sid Sackson
• Card Baseball, by Sid Sackson
• Slam, a two-handed takeoff of Bridge by Sid Sackson
• Poke, a two-handed version of Poker by Sid Sackson
• Color Gin, a two-handed modification of Hollywood Gin by Sid Sackson

New Battles on an Old Battlefield - All of the games in this section use a checkerboard.

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• 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.

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• Hold That Line, by Sid Sackson; an attempt to move "boredom" games away from Tic-Tac-Toe
• Cutting Corners, by Sid Sackson; another attempt to move gamers away from
• Paper Boxing, by Sid Sackson
• Last Word, a paper-based Scrabble-esque game by Sid Sackson
• Patterns II, an inductive-reasoning game by Sid Sackson; see Eleusis for another game in this small genre
• Property, the forerunner of Acquire, by Sid Sackson

;A Miscellany of Games

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• Solitaire Dice, by Sid Sackson
• Domino Bead Game, by Sid Sackson
• Haggle, a deliciously confusing party game by Sid Sackson
• The No Game, a classic and simple party game
• Change Change, a simple solitaire utilizing coins by Sid Sackson

A second edition of the book was published in 1982; Dover Publications released an unabridged reprint, with an additional preface by Sackson, in 1992.

Related Topics:
1982 - Dover Publications - 1992

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