[The posts for this month are reposts from the site www.honotogroabemo.org, on which a host of hirsute individuals including yours truly would grow beards to raise money for breast cancer research. The site is defunct, but I thought I’d resurrect the game-related posts. This was originally posted on 2011-11-26.]

(dJim/dt = 3)

I’ve divided myself into three parts to mourn what I believe is the end of a great game. Fantasy Flight is having a huge sale, and all the expansions for this game are on that list. Doesn’t bode well for the future of the title, that’s for sure.

Yesterday’s game was Craps. Craps is a descendant of a much old game called Hazard, possibly named after the Arabic Al Zar, meaning “the dice”. The game was first noted during the Crusades, and played by the troops while besieging Saracen fortresses. Similar to Craps, in Hazard you make an initial roll (called the main point), and then need to make another roll (called the chance point), and then if you haven’t won or lost at that point, need to match the chance point. Winning or losing during the chance point is rather complicated, depending on the main roll and the chance point (and perhaps the phase of the moon as well). It’s unclear whether Hazard was brought to America by the British or the French (via New Orleans), but there it was simplified and became the game we know today.

Luck is always a lady, by the way. It’s just that as a lady, she’s very discerning of good character.