Since before we could even write, humans have been playing board games. In this beautifully photographed book, longtime game designers Ian Livingstone and James Wallis take us through millennia of game play, spotlighting more than a hundred essential and groundbreaking games—from ancient Egypt's Senet and India's Snakes and Ladders through modern classics like Scrabble and Monopoly, right up to role-play and digital/physical hybrid games. Along the way they uncover surprising stories like stolen patents, boards smuggled into prison, Buddha's banned games, and the hysteria over Dungeons & Dragons.