Improvements in Games.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in Games.
I, JAMES PARFITT BRITTEN, of 70, High Street, Dudley, Bookseller and Stationer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The essential features of the games are
I. A board, for the base of play, representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac arranged
in a circle in order of the signs.
II. Sets of ten pieces, checks, dises, or counters, representing the planets and
luminaries, to be placed and moved upon the board according to the specific instruc-
tions to be issued with the games.
Dated th
1000
I, JAMES PARFITT BRITTEN, of 70, High Street, Dudley, Bookseller and Stationer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The games are to be played on a board representing the 12 signs of the Zodiac,
arranged in a circle in order of the signs, with spaces on each side of the ecliptic in
which to place the pieces in each sign. Boards to vary in size according to the
number of players and size of the pieces for which they are designed.
A set of 10 pieces, checks, discs, or counters, to be provided for each player, to
represent the 8 planets and 2 luminaries, and to be placed and moved upon the
board according to the rules herewith attached. See Figures 1 to 23; Sheets 1 & 2.
The pieces to be made of wood, bone, ivory, composition, or any metal, but each
with a distinctive feature, and they are to be placed on the board at starting thus-
Sun in Leo, Moon in Aquarius; Neptune in Cancer, Uranus in Scorpio, Saturn in
Capricornus, Mars in Aries, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Earth in Taurus, Venus in
Libra, and Mercury in Gemini.
1. Each player has ten pieces, viz., four benefic planets, four malefic planets, and
two luminaries. These have to be placed on the board, in the signs marked for their
reception. The benefic planets are Jupiter, the Earth, Venus, and Mercury. The
TD Q7

page_text: but two pieces of the same colour may not be placed in the same sign. If an adverse
planet obstructing his Sun be benefic, he must besiege it by the opposition and
quartile aspects of three malefic planets, when it must be removed (see Rule 4), and
the sign it occupied is then open for the Sun to enter. But if the obstructing planet.
be malefic, it must be besieged by the trine and sextile aspects of three benefic
planets. The opposition aspect is six signs distant; the quartile, three signs; the
trine, four signs; and the sextile, two signs. Malefic planets also afflict in the
conjunction, which is in the same sign.
4. When an obstructing planet is besieged, it must be named by the besieger,
and removed by its original player to whichever vacant sign the latter may select, but
it may not re-occupy the sign in which it was besieged within three moves after its
ejection.
5. If a player names a planet which is not fully besieged, he must forfeit a turn to
his adversary.
6. The Moon dignifies a planet of her own colour when she in the adjacent sign,
and enables it to pass over the sign she occupies, if there is a vacancy next beside her;
or to pass over the sign on the other side of the dignified planet, if there is a vacancy
next that sign.
7. To provide a more computative game the planets may be given the following
powers Jupiter, 5; the Earth, 4; Venus, 3; Mercury, 2; Neptune, 5; Uranus, 4;
Saturn, 3; and Mars, 2. When an obstructing planet is supported by aspects of
other planets of its own colour and nature, their powers must be added to that of the
planet in possession; and the powers attacking must preponderate over the powers
defending the sign before the obstructing planet is successfully besieged. The Sun
counts as in effecting the preponderance. For example, if Saturn be the
obstructing planet, and supported by the quartile of Neptune, their combined power
is 8, and Saturn would require to be besieged by the trine or sextiles of Jupiter and
Venus, or as powerful a combination, before he could be dispossessed.
The drawings which accompany my Specification show in Figure 1 how the board
is divided into sections as at A, B, C, D, for moving the pieces from section to section;
and how each sign is marked as at E, F, to show what planets and luminaries are
placed in the signs to start the games. The boards and pieces may be made in
various sizes as may be found convenient.
The planets and luminaries are made individually distinguishable by markings on
the faces of the draught-shaped pieces, six of them having black markings as shown
in Figures 2 to 7, Sheet 1, and four having red markings as shown in Figures 8 to 11;
and the luminaries are further distinguished from the planets by being made twice
the depth, as shown in Figures 12 and 13, Sheet 1.
In the chess-shaped sets of pieces, the pieces are distinguished from each other by
variations in the forms of the heads, as shown in Figures 14 to 23, Sheet 2, and by
the lettering upon them; and the malefic planets are further distinguished from the
other pieces by having angular-shaped stands, in place of the turned or rounded
stands on which the heads of the other pieces are mounted, the two kinds of stands
being illustrated in my Figures 14 and 20, Sheet 2.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
That the design of the Zodiac board as described in my Specification and
represented in the accompanying drawing, Sheet 1, Figure 1, is a novelty in the
following respects.
(1). That it is made and arranged to facilitate the placing and moving of pieces or
counters upon it representing the planets, and divided into sections and segments
of circles, as A, B, C, D, Sheet 1, Fig. 1, for that object.
(2). That the signs are marked with the names of particular planets, as E, F,
Sheet 1, Figure 1, which have to be placed in those signs for the purposes of the