Shut-The-Box: Or, How to Waste Time in the Revolutionary War
While in Colonial Williamsburg we learned the funnest dorky math game from the eighteenth century EVER.
It's called "Shut the Box" apparently. The gameboard is just a 3 x 3 grid with numbers 1 through 9 in the squares. It looks like colonial Sudoku, but don't get excited, it's not. You roll two D-6 dice and add them together. Then you cover the squares that add up to your roll: a combined roll of 7, for example, would let you cover 7, or 6 and 1, or 5 and 2, or 3 and 4. The goal is to cover all nine squares, or "shut the box". You aren't allowed to cover anything twice.
Sample Game
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
I roll 8. I cover the 8 square.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 x 9
I roll 9. I cover the 9 square.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 x x
I roll 3. I cover the 3 square.
1 2 x
4 5 6
7 x x
I roll 9. I cover the 7 and 2 squares.
1 x x
4 5 6
x x x
I roll 6. I cover the 6 square.
1 x x
4 5 x
x x x
I roll 11! I can't make 11 from the remaining squares, so my turn is over. My final score is 10. I failed to shut the box.
After we got back from vacation we played it around the table, and it was superfun with people taking turns to roll, seeing who could get the lowest score. My little brother, who I swear was compensated for his mental retardation by also getting the luck of the Irish, shut the box on his first try.
I programmed it into my calculator so I don't have to carry dice around. I'm not a gambler, but it seems to me like this would be a lot of fun to bet pennies on.
It's called "Shut the Box" apparently. The gameboard is just a 3 x 3 grid with numbers 1 through 9 in the squares. It looks like colonial Sudoku, but don't get excited, it's not. You roll two D-6 dice and add them together. Then you cover the squares that add up to your roll: a combined roll of 7, for example, would let you cover 7, or 6 and 1, or 5 and 2, or 3 and 4. The goal is to cover all nine squares, or "shut the box". You aren't allowed to cover anything twice.
Sample Game
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
I roll 8. I cover the 8 square.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 x 9
I roll 9. I cover the 9 square.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 x x
I roll 3. I cover the 3 square.
1 2 x
4 5 6
7 x x
I roll 9. I cover the 7 and 2 squares.
1 x x
4 5 6
x x x
I roll 6. I cover the 6 square.
1 x x
4 5 x
x x x
I roll 11! I can't make 11 from the remaining squares, so my turn is over. My final score is 10. I failed to shut the box.
After we got back from vacation we played it around the table, and it was superfun with people taking turns to roll, seeing who could get the lowest score. My little brother, who I swear was compensated for his mental retardation by also getting the luck of the Irish, shut the box on his first try.
I programmed it into my calculator so I don't have to carry dice around. I'm not a gambler, but it seems to me like this would be a lot of fun to bet pennies on.