for Jaime

Because he always leaves comments. : )

The Royal Game of Goose is a medieval western European game. It's pretty simple: each person moves their goose along according to the roll of the dice. If you land on a goose square, you go that same number of spaces again.

If you land on other squares with pictures, you go back a specified number of spaces or forward a specified number of spaces (kind of like Chutes and Ladders) and sometimes you land on the square that lands you in prison. Where you must stay until someone else lands on the square that sends them to the slammer. (Only room enough for one in this small town!)

To win, you must land exactly on the 63rd square. If you roll a number that would land you over the square, you go backwards instead of forward.

At the beginning of the game you ante four of your 12 tokens into the winners circle, and throughout the game you have to throw another one in when you land on certain squares. I'm guessing that's for gambling purposes? Otherwise, landing on the 63rd square and getting all the tokens in the end didn't bring with it any special treats for Mr. Yin.

And that, my dear friends, is the Royal Game of Goose.

Not like Goose in my childhood home, which was really Duck, Duck, Goose played around the dining room table on birthdays.

Love the old illustrations on the board game.

Photo credit.