Overview

These are pages talking about Games in a pretty broad sense, not focused on a single game. Many of them are game sites themselves.

29 Games Nobody Plays Anymore (Overview) -- A list of various obscure games from various historical periods -- some SCA-period, some later. Not entirely accurate, but interesting. (more)
A brief history of playing cards (History, Overview) -- By Thierry Depaulis. (In French) (more)
A Family Tree of Card Games (Overview, History) -- A lovely infographic, showing many different games and roughly how they are connected. (more)
A page of Mancala links (Overview, Computer Play) -- Via the Wayback Machine (more)
Backgammon Galore (Overview) -- A big site on All Things Backgammon. This is not primarily about period Tables Games, but it has a substantial page of Backgammon Variants, a number of which are period. (more)
Board Game Studies (History, Reconstruction, Research, Overview) -- The main journal of board games research, recently (2014) rebooted as an online journal. Currently run by Ludus, a Portugese games organization. Not exclusively historical or SCA-period, but has enough relevant material to be worth keeping an eye on.
The predecessor paper journal ran for half a dozen issues over a number of years, but isn't easy to get a hold of. (more)
Card Game Rules (Overview) -- John McLeod's enormous collection of rules to card games from all places and times. John isn't focused on SCA period per se, but his site is breathtaking in its coverage. (more)
Carolus Chess page (History, Overview) -- An interesting overview of the history of chess. A few sections need a grain of salt, but worth looking over. (more)
Cats at Cards (Overview, Reconstruction) -- A site focused on teaching the rules for a wide variety of card games. Mostly post-period, but includes good descriptions of several period games. (more)
Children's Games at the Florilegium (Overview) -- A collection of messages culled from the Rialto, about Children's Games. (more)
Dagonell's Medieval Games (Overview) -- A collection of brief articles describing a wide variety of period games. Stronger on active games than most sites. (more)
Dating Period Card Games (Overview) -- A list of attestations by Imran. Not necessarily comprehensive, but useful. (more)
David Parlett's page on Historical Card Games (Overview) -- Parlett is one of the major games researchers, with a number of books under his belt. His website is broad (and much is out of our scope), but much of this page covers period games. (more)
Description of Ruzzola in modern Italy, by a tourist (Overview) -- (more)
Description of Ruzzola on Italian Traditions (Overview) -- (more)
FitzStephen's Description of London (Overview, Translation) -- A 12th century Latin account of London life, including vague references to various recreations. (more)
Florilegium articles on Entertainment (Overview) -- Some messages culled from the Rialto (which is the SCA newsgroup), on the subject of period entertainment, with a lot on games. (more)
Game Links from the Kingdom of Atlantia (Overview, Links) -- One of the few other sites that tries to do serious collecting of links on the topic. (more)
Games at Medieval and Renaissance Material Culture (Links, Overview) -- This is basically an enormous links page from Karen Larsdatter; the games section is now mostly divided into categories of games. The focus is more on game equipment and art than rules and play, but there is a lot there. (more)
Games Galore (Overview, History) -- A very useful summary chart of which games were introduced where and when. (more)
Games of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age (Overview) -- A good overview of what's known about the topic, assembled by Regia Anglorum. (more)
Imran Ghory's History of Games (Overview) -- A snapshot of the page from one of the folks working in the field, whose page went bye-bye. Mostly links into the Wayback Machine now. (more)
Is it Period? (Overview) -- A FAQ put together by Dagonell, listing a lot of games that people often think are period, with a paragraph on whether each one actually is. (more)
Japanese Chess (Overview) -- A site specifically about Shogi, including rules, Tsume (puzzles), and so on. (more)
John Jordan's Playing Card Links (Overview) -- A pretty enormous Google Doc, chock-full of all sorts of links about period playing cards. (more)
Maproom Publications (History, Overview) -- Publishers of a couple of books specifically on the subject of the early history of the Tarot deck and its games. (more)
Mats Winther's Board Game page (Reconstruction, Overview) -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
Norse Games (Overview, Reconstruction) -- An interesting article from Ravensgard. (more)
Organizing the Greed for Gain: Alfonso X of Spain’s Law on Gambling Houses (History, Overview) -- An academic article about a little-known law code. No translation, but includes a number of quotes in the original form, and a fair amount of analysis about what we can infer from it. (more)
Period Games at the Florilegium (Overview) -- A collection of messages culled from the Rialto about period games. Note the links at the top to sub-sections. (more)
Rithmomachia Canada (Links, Vendor, Overview) -- An organization that promotes Rhythmomachy
Twitter feed
Store (more)
Sonja Musser Golladay's dissertation on the Alfonso MS (hardcopy) (Overview, History, Translation, Reconstruction) -- This link is a search into University Microfilms' dissertation service. Golladay's dissertation is the masterwork on the Alfonso MS, including a full translation, copious notes and reconstruction details, and all sorts of information about the art and culture surrounding the book. It is a must-have for anyone researching this text. (more)
Sonja Musser Golladay's Dissertation on the Alfonso MS (PDF) (Overview, Reconstruction, History, Transcription, Translation) -- A PDF copy of the full, 1400-page tome about the Alfonso. This is the single most important source when working on this MS, including a full translation, lots of notes and reconstruction details, information about the culture and context, and so on. (more)
The Asia Society's page on Asian Games (Overview) -- A collection of brief articles about many games. Not strictly focused on SCA period, but in practice the articles mostly fit. A useful overview for folks with Asian personae. (more)
The Full History of Board Games (History, Overview) -- A long blog post that skims over the surface of the topic. Slightly breathless and necessarily very light on detail, but mostly accurate and hits at least many of the high points. Well-suited counter to any misimpressions that board games are a modern phenomenon, and gives a good sense of the scope. (more)
The History of Playing Cards (Overview, History) -- An overview history hosted at the IPCS. (more)
The International Playing-Card Society (Overview) -- As it says, a worldwide organization focused specifically on cards. Not as much about the games, but still a very useful site to peruse. (more)
The Introduction of Playing-Cards to Europe (Overview) -- The first draft of a brief History of Card Games, by Seaan McAy. Never finished, but is a useful introduction to the history. (more)
The Karnöffel Group on the Card Games page (Overview) -- (more)
Traditional Game Rules (Overview, History, Reconstruction) -- James Masters' site, some of which is indexed by game here. Some of this is period, but not all. (more)
Trionfi (History, Overview) -- A substantial website dedicated entirely to the history of Tarot. Well worth digging into if you are interested in the early history of the decks. (more)