Talk:Knucklebones

As someone completely unfamiliar with Knucklebones who looked at this page to find out the basics of the game, I was confused by the word "jockey" which is used in the descripton of the modern game. It looks to me like this means "throw the bones and attempt to catch them..." but I'm not sure. Perhaps I haven't read carefully enough, but perhaps we need an explanation. Thanks. --Mark Asread 10:35, 12 July 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark Asread (talk • contribs)

When I was playing these games, admittedly not yesterday, they were separate games. Fivestones was played with five (wooden) cubes and no ball, jacks with ten six-pointed pieces and a ball. The moves were different in each. Awien (talk) 17:48, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Quote: "According to a still more ancient tradition, Zeus, perceiving that Ganymede longed for his playmates upon Mount Ida, gave him Eros for a companion and golden dibs with which to play. He even condescended to sometimes join in the game (Apollonius)."

Where in Apollonius does it say that Zeus joined the game? I can't find it in Argonautica, but may have missed it. Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder (talk) 19:34, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

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As a kid in Denmark the '70s, I played Terra with five unmarked marble dice (regular hexahedra) and similar rules. I think the dice were sold with printed rules that alleged a Roman origin for the game. Here's a source in Danish , calling it Terre but I'm pretty sure it was Terra. Does anyone know of such a commercial game, or a similar name for the game, from elsewhere - or have valid sources?--Nø (talk) 16:52, 16 September 2018 (UTC)

PS. I recall some of the tasks to be completed involved clapping your hands - like: Throw three "terra" in the air, clap three times, and catch them again.--Nø (talk) 14:39, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

As it's said on the Europe section this article treats about two different kind of games, or at least the second type is still played today. One of those that I know as payana and has a mechanic similar to that of throw and catch but is played with litle stones and the other one I know as taba, it's the second type and it's currently played in Spain, Mongolia and the South Cone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.61.203.100 (talk) 05:40, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

I made a WP:SPLITREQuest because I feel it qualifies as a WP:CONTENTSPLIT. And per WP:NPOV, I feel the game of skill shouldn't over-encompass the game of chance. Since the second type is known in so many other countries and is also in historical texts about the history and invention of dice and their corresponding dice games, then I'm sure it should meet WP:NOTABILITY. 2600:8800:97:E200:1031:EF09:EE66:A6E0 (talk) 23:18, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

@167.61.203.100 and 2600:8800:97:E200:1031:EF09:EE66:A6E0: I feel the game of skill shouldn't over-encompass the game of chance . I agree. Game of chance probably should be described in new article called Dice game which is connected to wikidata: d:Q1515156 . Currently English wikipedia does not have article about the game of chance, it has only the most recognisable brand version of dice game called: Yathzee where there is no mention about ancient origin of th game and that is the issue. We should make two disambigs, one for knucklebones (per IP rationale at: Wikipedia:Proposed article splits and added template for article) and one for dice game, where: Dice, "Dice game=d:Q1515156", Yathzee=d:Q696920 and Knucklebones are mntioned as four the most basic and primary topics in List of dice games. IP said at Wikipedia:Proposed article splits However, the game of chance version is equally notable as it is the origin of most, if not all, of today's dice games and I recommend to discuss that futhermore at other wikiprojcts (games, etc.) Dawid2009 (talk) 12:32, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

• @SMcCandlish: Out of curiosity, what do you think about the following change?

I am proposing to rename the article Knucklebones to Jacks (game), with Knucklebones (game of skill) becoming a redirect to Jacks (game) (choice of Jacks per Game article and describtion at the photo here) . At the same time, I suggest turning Dice game into a set index article under the title Dice game, with Knucklebones (game of chance) redirecting there, all for d:d:Q1515156.

This would allow Knucklebones to function as a disambiguation page with no primary topic. There is no etymological connection between dice and bones, although this association does appear in some languages (for example, in Slavic languages dice are commonly called “bones”). This may be influencing how the topic is currently structured in Wikidata (see also WP:chimera). As an additional point (probably not for this talk page, but potentially relevant elsewhere): Yahtzee may have problematic interwiki links, with some foreign-language articles conflating the Hasbro brand with dice games in general. The brand version did not overwhelmingly dominate or originate all such games — this situation is more comparable to Ludo vs. Pachisi, or Scattergories vs. Categories (game), and less comparable to Battleship vs. Battleship as pencil-and-paper game, stricte. Dawid2009 (talk) 20:12, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable to me. PS: "bones" for "dice" has also been common for a long time in English (cf. the phrase "roll the bones"), probably because dice were often made of bone. I would think this common throughout the Germanic languages, too. And bones (often carved with symbols) have long been used for divination purposes, including in Germanic societies, and this is likely the origin of gaming dice, just as there's a strong historical relationship between tarot and other divination cards on the one hand and playing cards on the other. But I don't think any of that has any implications for our need to distinguish these two "knucklebones" games, nor how to go about that. I'm agreed on the notes about Yahtzee, etc.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  17:48, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Ok. How about keeping the game of skill under the title "Jacks", game of chance uder the title "dice games" and meanwhile creating disambig "knucklebones", or eventually create article: "knucklebone" which would not be about game but about thing called "knucklebone" (just as we have dice and dice game)? In light of implication I had on my mind just wikidata links Dawid2009 (talk) 19:50, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

When talking about the "modern game" the article refers explicitly and implicitly to "Jacks" - the United States variant with rubber ball and pointed metal objects - not what is played in the rest of the world — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.144.40.161 (talk) 23:27, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

I'm 68 years old, and I've never seen that usage. To refer to the western hemisphere, it's 'the Americas.' North, South and Central. MarkinBoston (talk) 23:43, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

I was WP:BOLD and changed it 2600:8800:97:E200:1031:EF09:EE66:A6E0 (talk) 19:12, 27 September 2025 (UTC)