Play ancient board games for free in Reading

If you have a board game on the go at home, there is a free day coming up that lets you play versions of games from antiquity. On Saturday 7 November, from 10:00 to 17:00, the University of Reading is holding an 'Ancient Games Day' at Eclectic Games, the board game shop at 21 Duke Street, as part of the Being Human Festival, which runs from 5 to 14 November. The event is put together by Dr Tim Penn, a Classics lecturer at the university, his games squad, and the shop itself.

The main draw is the chance to try out versions of ancient games, including the Egyptian Mehen and the Roman Ludus Latrunculorum. Because only fragments of the original boards and very few rules have survived, players are encouraged to fill in the gaps with rules of their own, so it is as much about making the game up as it is about playing it. A second room holds modern board games set in the ancient world, such as Concordia and Imhotep, with historians on hand to explain what they get right and what they get wrong.

There are also workshops if you would rather make something than play. At 11:00 and 14:30, Jess Methingham from Dissent Campaigns & Games runs board game design workshops for young gamers aged 8 to 15 and their responsible adults. From 13:00, game designer Dr James Wallis leads a four-hour hands-on workshop for adults to design their own versions of ancient games or produce games inspired by antiquity, and no experience is needed. The drop-in activities are open to all ages, with under-16s needing to be accompanied by an adult; the workshop with Dr Wallis is for ages 18 and over, and Jess Methingham's sessions are for accompanying adults.

Tickets are free but need to be booked in advance to avoid disappointment, so it is worth sorting that before you turn up. For anything else, the shop can be reached at shop@eclecticgames.co.uk or 0118 9598250.

A bit of background on the people involved explains the mix on offer. Dr Tim Penn is a lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture at the university's Department of Classics, based in the Edith Morley building, and his research covers Roman board games among other things. Dr James Wallis is a game designer and historian known for history and story games, who co-authored Board Games in 100 Moves with Ian Livingstone and created the storytelling card game Once Upon a Time. Jess Methingham is behind Dissent Campaigns & Games and the collaborative strategy game Library Labyrinth.

The wider context is the Being Human Festival, the UK's national festival of the humanities, led by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. It has run every November since 2014, and the 2026 programme, themed 'Crossroads', puts on hundreds of free events across the country. Eclectic Games, meanwhile, is a Reading board game shop that has been trading for around 18 years, with a gaming room upstairs that seats up to 72 people.