The Ancient Egyptian Game of Senet is one of my personal favorites, and one of the first games I made for my family. It is a two player game with very simple rules.
The game is at least 5,000 years old. Let that sink in. An early painting on the tomb of Hesy-Ra, a high official in the Egyptian court (2,600BC, so 4,600 years ago) depicts the game being played. Queen Nefertiti also had paintings of herself playing the game in her tomb a thousand years later. King Tutankhamun was buried with multiple copies of the board game.
Around 4,300 years ago the game symbolism changed to connect the game with the voyage a spirit takes when it heads to the afterlife.
When I made my board, years ago, I took some old cardboard boxes and cut them up. I was intrigued by the Sliding tray versions found from the 13~16 hundred BC. I folded and taped the boxes together to include a sliding tray, and then covered the whole outer box in a4 label paper.
The inner box still shows the writing from it’s original use on it.
Once the labels were stuck I hand drew all of the spaces and symbols with a pen.
The Objective of the game is simple; be the first player to move all 5 of your tokens off the end of the board into the afterlife.
Before the game begins, the player with the white tokens places them on the odd numbered spaces from 1 through 9. The player with the black tokens places them on the even numbered spaces from 2 through 10. at the top of the board.
If you have no numbers on your board that it fine. just remember that the entire top row of the board is covered by the tokens alternating white and black until the entire row is covered.
The play of senet is very much a roll the dice and move kind of game. and you can use a standard 6 sided dice to play. For the more authentic feel you can use casting sticks. Below are the rules for both.
To use casting sticks you have 4 sticks that are round on one side and flat on the other. I used sanded down pieces of take-out chopsticks for mine. The flat side is painted or colored black. You shake the sticks together and cast them onto the table counting the number of black sides up.
If you get 4 white sides up, it is counted as a 6.
On a roll of one, move one token one space, and roll again.
One a roll of two, move one token 2 spaces
One a roll of three, move one token 3 spaces
One a roll of four, move one token 4 spaces, and roll again.
One a roll of five, don’t move, roll again until you get a different number.
One a roll of six, move one token 6 spaces and roll again.
First Move: belongs to black. This move must be from the farthest right token on the top row. (Space 10).
All other moves, if you are moving a token from the top row must be the farthest right token of your color.
- Attacks: If you land on a token of the other team, that token moves to the space you just left. (Effectively exchanging places.
- Defense: If there are two or more consecutive tokens of the opposite color on the board, you may not attack any of them.
- Blockade: if 3 or more consecutive tokens in a straight line of the opponent are on the board, they cannot be passed. Blockades cannot be around corners.
Special Spaces:
Space 15 (The Ahnk) is a safe space. You cannot be attacked here.
Space 26 (The Soul Bird). You must land on this space. To do so you need an exact roll to land on it. It is a safe space, and once you are there, you are safe. Once you have landed on this space you may, on your next roll, move into the afterlife. beyond this.
Space 27 (The rivers). If you move off the Soul bird onto this space, You are reincarnated. Move your token to space 15. (The Ankh) or, if it is occupied, the first empty space behind it.
Space 28 (The 3 Truths). This is a safe space, and you may not be attacked on it. If you move off the Soul Bird onto this space, you automatically get to roll again. Any roll above 3 is counted as a miss a turn.
Space 29 (The Eye of Ra). This is a safe space, and you may not be attacked while on it. If you land on this space, you get to roll again. any roll above a 2 is counted as a miss a turn.
Space 30 (The Exit). is NOT a safe space. If you land on this space, you may roll again, a roll of one allows you to move your token off the board. Any other roll is ignored and counted as a miss a turn.
Except on the last 5• If you can’t move a token forward, you must move a token backward (according to the same rules). If no move is possible your turn ends.
No piece may be moved off the board if you have any pieces left on the top starting row.
Baldwin Games 
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