Stigespill

his is a game that I guess most Norwegian children have played at least once. Stigespill (Ladders) is a game with very old roots. According to The Museum and Archive of Games the origins of this game appear to be found in 2nd century BC documents from India. Stigespill have been published in many different variants in Norway, but the game rules are always the same.

The game

The players put their playing pieces on the start square at the bottom left corner. The player whos turn it is rolls the die and moves his playing piece. There are 90 squares from start to goal. Some squares will advance you on your march to goal. If you are lucky you land on one of these and then you get to move your playing piece up closer to the goal. But you might also be unlucky and land on a square that will send you back, closer to the start. This way you will never be sure on who will win. You might be only a few squares from goal and then land on square that sends you back almost to the very beginning. Likewise, a player ho is far behind might be lucky and be moved many squares up on the game table, closer to goal.

Winning the game

Winner of the game is the player who manages to be the first to the last square.

Variants

I have seen that it in USA is common for games of this type to include snakes. You advance if you land on a ladder and is sent back if you land on a snake. It is not like that in the Norwegian versions. There have been various versions of this game, but not many (if any) with snakes. I have two versions of Stigespill, on with painters trying to paint a house and one with the fire brigade trying to put out a fire. The one with the fire brigade is the one I used to play as a kid.

Reader comments

Ole Askeland:

Jeg mener å huske et stigespill med stier og sklier - man gikk altså opp på stiene, og skled ned skliene. Spillet med brannmenn, slanger og stiger har jeg også spilt, men jeg husker ikke om dette var norskprodusert.

Add your own comment

Name:

Email:

Comment: