ROTA | Board Game

 ROTA | The Roman Tic Tac Toe
Тhe 2,000-year-old game that is still popular today!

How to Play

1. The game is for two players.
2. The game begins with each player having 3 pieces. All pieces are off the board.
   The players decide who goes first by a lot, such as a toss of a coin.
3. The players alternate placing their 3 pieces on any of the 9 cells of their choice.
4. Once all 6 pieces have been placed, the players alternate moving them around the circle trying to form a line of 3 pieces in a row, across the diameter of the circle, by occupying the center cell and the two opposing cells on the perimeter.
5. The players cannot jump over the opponent’s pieces and cannot knock them off the board or off of their cell. The pieces can only be moved onto unoccupied cells.
   Two pieces cannot occupy the same cell. Players cannot skip turns.
6. The first player to form 3 in a row across the diameter wins.

DESIGN

The Board is made on two levels to make it have more depth, the coins with which you play do not fit the cutout circles because it would be hard to get them out, it is a design element. The coins are made of bronze, 3 of them are pure bronze, and 3 are silver plated to distinguish them from one another.

Dimensions:
Board diameter: 14cm / 5.5″
Coin diameter: 2cm / 0.8″
Material: Wood, bronze and silver-plated bronze

STORY of ROTA

In ancient Rome, people had to make up games for fun just like today. One of the games that the Romans played was Rota, also known as Roman Tic Tac Toe. We do not know for sure what the Romans called this game but we call it Rota, because that is the Latin word for wheel.

Imagine Romans sitting around on the sidewalk while away time playing an ancient board game together. They often enjoyed playing games in other public places, like the bathhouses. Roman soldiers were known to play Rota while waiting in forts for any orders. Anywhere we play games today, you can imagine Romans playing too.

The reason that Rota is called Roman Tic-Tac-Toe is that it is played on a board that has nine spaces and the main objective is to get three pieces in a row. However,  these two games are different because Rota takes longer,  you can move the pieces from their original positions, and unlike Tic-Tac-Toe it cannot end in a tie.