Even the game alea came to be called tabula since, although it was gambling, it was played on a board or table. In this game of six lettered words, there are neither twelve words or letters, and there are no lines at all. Nevertheless, this is the generally accepted style of play, and, in this form, it bears a strong resemblance to Egyptian Senet, which had 30 squares. It may be, speculatively, that the words simply disguised the board, since gambling was technically illegal. The word scripta is generally considered to mean 'lines', but, according to Austin, could also be interpreted as 'markings'.
Some sources define scripta as 'writing', and in that sense it becomes equivalent to 'words'.
The problem, however, is that these Felix Sex boards contain neither 12 markings nor 12 words, but 36 letters or squares. The picture shown above is redrawn from a board specimen in the British Museum. This is typical of many boards found like this. The proportions of the board suggest that playing pieces, the size of typical 20 mm bone roundels, could have been placed over the letters. Consider the redrawn image of a complete gaming board shown at the left.