In Freedom’s Ring, Temperance Hayes loves games of strategy—whether they’re board games or games of the heart. Check out all the games we refer to!
A Journey Through Europe
The first board game by an individual designer! (Before this, board games are “folk games,” developed over centuries.) Designed in 1759 by John Jefferys. Players start in London and follow a trail around the continent. Since dice were instruments of gambling, players used a top with numbered sides, called a teetotum, to determine how far they could advance. Like other track games (like Monopoly and Candy Land), various spaces contained instructions, listed down the side here:
Some examples
He who rests at 28 at Hanover shall by order of Ye King of Great Britain who is Elector, be conducted to No 54 at Gibraltar to visit his countrymen who keep garrison there.
He who rests at 48 at Rome for kissing ye Pope’s Toe shall be banished for his folly to No 4 in the cold island of Iceland and miss three turns.
Temperance plays this with her would-be suitor, whom she tells, “I must warn you, darling: I always play to win.”
The game was reissued in the 1950s. More about the original Journey Through Europehere and here.