10-27-2020, 10:48 AM
The rulesets that we implemented were chosen because they are played in competitions, and are thus rulesets which have some kind of consensus within a group. Of course, we do not know what rules are historically correct for Hnefatafl, or even if the "king on 4 sides" rule was used 1000 years ago (already 700 years before Linnaeus' Tablut account). Even the equation of the Tablut rules with Hnefatafl is itself an inference, and not a foregone conclusion. Even if the two games are related (as seems likely ), it does not mean that all of the rules for Tablut must also have been included in Hnefatafl in the past. Games often have local variants, and change through time, so it's entirely possible that Hnefatafl was played differently in different places, as it was played from Greenland to Sweden and places in between.
It is impossible for us to include every possible ruleset proposed for these games at this stage, so we have to be selective. Most of these kinds of rulesets to be found online are based on what a certain person thinks is fun, but not from much empirical study or data on the history or playability of the games.
In the future, our project will be proposing reconstructions for plausible rulesets based on various metrics and the evidence of what we know for sure about Hnefatafl. Stay tuned to see what we come up with!
It is impossible for us to include every possible ruleset proposed for these games at this stage, so we have to be selective. Most of these kinds of rulesets to be found online are based on what a certain person thinks is fun, but not from much empirical study or data on the history or playability of the games.
In the future, our project will be proposing reconstructions for plausible rulesets based on various metrics and the evidence of what we know for sure about Hnefatafl. Stay tuned to see what we come up with!