Glückshaus

The game we know as “Glückshaus” is relatively modern. German writer and game designer Erwin Glonnegger developed the modern version of the board as well as the name “Glückshaus” in the 1960s.

However, the concept behind the game is much, much older. Glückshaus belongs to a popular family of gambling games that all involve throwing two 6-sided dice and matching the throw to a stakes board that holds all the players money.

This means that Glückshaus isn’t a boardgame as we usually think of them, because there’s no interaction between players and your place on the board is irrelevant. The board itself exists solely to hold the stakes and let players know if they need to collect or put in, depending on the dice roll.  

The oldest existing examples are wooden game boards from the 17th and 18th centuries, mostly discovered in German-speaking regions from modern-day Switzerland to Poland.  They are usually laid out in the same fashion, with the numbers 2-12 arranged in a grid, with the 2 and 12 sticking out top and bottom and, most importantly, the #7 taking the center square.

See the history video below for more information about the rules, history and strategy of the game, and the build video for how to make your own inlaid Glückshaus board out of wood.