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This game is free, however it is only to be used for classroom and personal use. It may not be published on any websites or other electronic media, or distributed in newsletters, bulletins, or any other form or sold for profit. Reproduction or retransmission of any materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, is not permitted. All graphics/images/clipart etc. used on all activities are not my own and are from various internet sources.


Participants & Liturgical Objects Used in Mass Board Game is based on the game Patolli which is an ancient Aztec board game that takes its name from the Aztec word for bean - patolli, meaning fava or kidney bean. The game is played on a curious diagonal cross-shaped board with 6 markers and 5 beans (or sometimes four beans) as dice (these were painted with a white dot on one side). It was played all over MesoAmerica: the Teotihuacanos (the builders of Teotihuacan, ca. 200 B.C. - 650 A.D.) played it as well as the Toltecs (ca. 750 - 1000 A.D.), the inhabitants of Chizen Itza (founded by refugee Toltec nobles, ca. 1100 - 1300 A.D.), the Aztecs (who claimed Toltec descent, 1168 - 1521 A.D.), and all of the people they conquered (practically all of MesoAmerica, including the Zaptotecs and the Mixtecs). The ancient Mayans also played a version of Patolli. Patolli was very much a game of commoners and nobles alike and it was reported by the conquistadors that Montezuma often enjoyed watching his nobles play the game at court (from wikipedia.org).


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Need:

5 lima beans with one dot painted on one side (or you can substitute 5 coins, 5 pieces of craft foam, etc.)
6 pawns, beans, etc. for each player
Game Cards
Game Board


Set Up:

This game can be played individually or in teams. Shuffle the deck and place it face down in a small basket near the game board. Put an empty basket nearby for the discards. Give each player 6 pawns of the same color. Players put their pawns in their colored oval. The players throw the “dice” to decide who starts the game. The player with the highest throw starts.


Rules:

The opponents make their moves by turns. To make a possible move you must answer a question (the player to your left draws a card and reads you the question) about participants and liturgical objects used in Mass. If you are correct you then roll the “dice”. If you do not answer the question correctly, your turn is over.

You start with 6 playing pieces in your colored oval. You must roll a 1 to enter a piece onto the board (you would have to have only one bean with the white mark face up and all the other beans face down which is a score of one). Players enter on the square of their color in the center of the board. Your pieces exit by rolling the exact amount needed to land on your colored square on the leg of the board (right below your starting square). The game ends after the first person gets all 6 of their pieces off the board.

Players move their pieces clockwise. When you roll you must move a piece at all possible.

5 spots you move 10 spaces
4 spots = 4 spaces
3 spots = 3 spaces
2 spots = 2 spaces
1 spot = 1 space
0 spots = no move

If you land on the purple spot at the end of the arms you must roll again, but it is your choice as to which piece you move. You cannot move to another spot that is occupied UNLESS it is one of the 8 color spots near the center of the board. In that case, the piece you land on, even if it’s your own is removed and put back in their starting oval. When you get one piece off the board, all players must give you one of their game pieces. If you roll a zero you put one of your game pieces in a pot that goes to the person who gets all their pieces off the board first. If you land on a brown triangle space (there are 8 on the board), you give each player one of your game pieces. Keep as many pieces on the board as possible to keep your options open. Landing on too many triangles can cause you to lose even if you are the first off the board.

*The ultimate objective is to move all of your game pieces off of the board before your opponent does and to have the largest number of game pieces remaining in your possession.



Participants & Liturgical Objects Used in Mass Board Game- Directions, Game Board, and Game Cards


Game Pieces- Playing pieces can be coins, colored buttons, game pieces from other games, fish rocks for the bottom of aquariums, craft foam cut into shapes, glass rocks for vases, etc. You can paint small objects such as rocks, small plastic tops or caps, etc. You can also buy pawns at game stores.