XII Scripta - Rules, History & Strategy Guide

XII Scripta, in full ludus duodecim scriptorum or "the game of twelve markings", was the tables game of the Roman Empire. Boards survive scratched into the marble of the Forum Romanum, into bathhouse benches and barracks floors from Britain to Syria, and the poet Ovid dispensed advice about playing it charmingly in his Ars Amatoria. Players raced fifteen men over three rows of twelve squares, driven by three six-sided dice.

Around the first century the game shed a row and continued as tabula, which travelled through Byzantium into medieval Europe and evolved into the backgammon family played today. The complete Roman rules never survived, so modern players use a scholarly reconstruction: the board, dice counts, and racing character are historical, and the hit-and-block mechanics mirror its descendant tabula.

XII Scripta is a race: both players move fifteen men in the same direction along one winding 36-square track, and the first to bear all fifteen off the end wins.

1. Both players start with fifteen men off the board; roll three dice each turn.
2. While any of your men wait off the board, they must enter first: a die brings one man in on squares 1 to 6, matching its value.
3. Spend each die by moving one man its full value; several dice may move the same man in sequence.
4. Landing on a square with exactly one enemy man sends him back off the board; a square with two or more enemy men is blocked.
5. When all fifteen of your men occupy the final six squares, dice bear them off; the first player to bear off all fifteen wins.

• Make points: two men on a square are safe and block the Legate at the same time. Points on squares 1-6 also trap entering enemies off the board.
• Count blot danger by dice reach: a lone man within 1-6 of an enemy can be struck by any of three dice, so cover him or push him out of range.
• Prefer hits on enemies deep into the track: a man struck on the third row loses almost the whole race.
• Use the three dice flexibly: two dice can leapfrog one man through a dangerous zone that a single die would strand him in.
• Near the end, race pure: once no contact is possible, stop covering and spend every pip on the fastest bear-off.

The main historical variant is tabula, the two-row successor that dropped the entry row and is functionally early backgammon; some reconstructions of XII Scripta borrow its rule that men may only bear off exactly. Museum boards also differ in decoration: many surviving tracks are laid out as thirty-six letters spelling six-word mottoes, so any six-by-six word grid you see carved on a Roman step is probably a game board.