Egyptian Senet

Egyptian Senet is a two-player board game based on the ancient Egyptian game of Senet. You play as a deceased person making an afterlife journey through the underworld, protected by the Eye of Horus and facing an invisible adversary. The game combines luck, strategy and magic, and uses rules developed by Timothy Kendall in his 1978 work on Senet.

The board and its goal

The board has 30 squares arranged in three rows of 10. Pawns move from left to right along the first row, right to left along the second, then left to right along the third before leaving the board. Reaching the final space and leaving the board represents a soul passing through the netherworld and attaining rebirth with the gods.

Five squares have special rules and hieroglyphs: square 15 is the House of Rebirth, square 26 the House of Beauty, square 27 the House of Water, square 28 the House of the Three Truths, square 29 the House of Two Truths, and square 30 the House of Horus, the falcon-god and lord of the sky.

The afterlife journey

The game frames Senet as a journey through the underworld realm of Osiris. Its setting is a hidden Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Queens, near the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (Luxor). The journey begins after Anubis performs the Opening of the Mouth ceremony on your mummy.

Senet began as a pastime in predynastic and ancient Egypt, with the earliest known hieroglyph representing the game dating to around 3500 BC. It later took on religious significance: depictions from the mid-13th century BC onward sometimes show a deceased player competing against an invisible adversary, interpreted as the player's soul. The board represents the afterlife, with pawns moving through its layers toward the goal of reaching Horus and leaving the netherworld.

Visuals and sound

The game features photographs of ancient Egyptian temples, with animated graphics of a stone board and pieces in a tomb-like chamber. Ritual music and the sounds of moving stone pieces accompany play. Its icon depicts Queen Nefertari playing Senet in her tomb.