ENGRAVING AN HISTORICAL BOARD GAME with SUNLIGHT
The “Game of the Goose” is one of the earliest board games to be commercially produced in history. In fact, its origins are recorded in Italy around the end of the 15th Century. Yet, the game became so popular that many variations and designs were created through the centuries.
The “Game of the Goose” consists of two or more players moving their pawns around a spiral track by rolling a dice. The aim is simple and direct: to reach the last square before any of the other players.
This fun and engaging game is also very easy to reproduce at home, by engraving the design of the squares on a wooden board. How? Of course, using Febo and the solar power! This unique pyrography kit harnesses the sunlight to burn designs on material like wood, cork or leather. An all-natural way of engraving which is as simple and fun as the “Game of the Goose”!
Everything you need
1. A Febo Kit
The Febo kit includes all the essential tools to make solar engraving a fun, easy and intuitive activity. Other than a Febo solar engraver, every kit features a pair of one-size-fits-all foldable goggles, for eye protection, a cotton bag where to store your Febo, and a set of stencils to inspire your creativity. Get yours here!
2. A Wooden Board
A wooden board is the canvas for your engraving. We took a squared piece of poplar wood, measuring 9.86 inch (25x25cm), as this dimension makes the “Game of the Goose” easy to carry around. If you want to know more about which types of wood suit best solar engraving, we suggest you to read the dedicated blog post here.
3. A Pencil
Before engraving your “Game of the Goose” with Febo, start tracing your sketch with a pencil. Not only you’ll minimize the mistakes but it will also speed up the engraving phase as graphite helps conduct the energy.
4. A hat, water and sunscreen
One of the best things about Febo is that you’ll engrave outdoors, surrounded by nature. Just remember to bring water, a hat, and a sunscreen and enjoy your time in the open air.
5. Pawns and dice
To play the “Game of the Goose” once you have finished engraving it with Febo!
Engraving the "Game of the Goose"
DRAW THE SQUARES ON THE BOARD
Start by tracing with a pencil the design of the board game. Usually the “Game of the Goose” has a spiral design of 63 numbered squares. The starting point is outside while the end should be in the center of the wooden board. Of course, you can make as many variations as you want or use carbon paper to transfer on wood a template you like. For example, we only made 30 chess, added some special squares with shortcuts and stops, and decorated the whole game with designs from the natural world.
ENGRAVE WITH FEBO
Now that you’ve set the design for your “Game of the Goose” it’s time to start engraving with Febo. Get outdoors and place Febo over the canvas, keeping it perpendicular to the sun. Its powerful lens will focus sunlight into a beam hot enough to burn the design on the wooden board. If solar engraving is something new for you, we created a step-by-step tutorial that you can follow to master this technique.
HAVE FUN PLAYING!
After engraving the “Game of the Goose” it’s time to play with it! The rules are really simple and you just need a dice and a pawn for each player to play. Here are the rules of the game:
Pawns are placed on the starting space at the outside of the spiral. Highest roll of the dice starts. Players take turns to roll the dice and moved their piece forward. If a pawn lands on an enemy pawn, this one is returned to the space that the pawn started from in that turn.To win the game, a piece must land exactly on the last space on the board. This means that if a player throws too many, the piece counts the extra points backwards from the winning space.
Along the track there may be special squares that make you stop your race for one turn, restart the game or move forward on the board. Decide which squares have the power to change the tide of the game. Usually, in the original game there are several of these “hazards” spaces, such as “the bridge” that brings you to another space, “the “hotel” where you miss one turn, or “the death” that returns your pawn to the beginning.
Of course, you can invent many more rules and “hazards” for your “Game of the Goose”. Use Febo to express your creativity and share your unique board game with us!
