Robert Charles Bell

RC Bell (1917-2002) was the author of several books on board games, most importantly Board and Table Games 1 & 2 (reprinted as Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations). He was instrumental in popularizing traditional games,^[1] and is acknowledged as one of 11 "principal sources" in David Parlett's Oxford History of Board Games.^[2]

Life

He was born 1917 in Sudbury, Ontario; came to England in 1928; and was educated at Haileybury College, Hertfordshire and St Bartholomew's Hospital by 1941. He became a consultant plastic surgeon. His first work on games was Board and Table Games (1960). He was on the editorial board of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery. He later produced many articles on coin collecting for World Coins.^[3]

He died in 2002. As of 2007, much of his extensive collection of games and game paraphernalia resides at the University of Durham.^[4]

Categories of board & table games

Bell gives origins, history and some game-playing details for some 180 games in the 2 volumes of his main work (Board and Table Games). He divides board games into four main categories:

• A Race game requires the pieces to move from a start point to a finish point usually based on the throw of dice (e.g. Ludo).
• A War game involves movement (and occasionally placement) and is typically won with the capture of all opponent pieces (e.g. Draughts) or a special opponent piece (e.g. Chess).
• A Positional game requires the winning player to form a pattern or shape by merely placing (Tic-tac-toe and Go are respectively the simplest and most complex examples) or placing and moving pieces on a board (Nine Men's Morris).
• Mancala games involve players distributing seeds across a series of holes and collecting the contents of holes that achieve specific numeric or numeric/positional status. Typically one wins by collecting the most seeds, or rendering the opponent unable to move.

Bell used the basic categories suggested by Murray with some alterations. Because his treatment extended beyond board games, Bell also included the categories of Dice and Domino games; and in his second volume added Games of Words and Numbers, Card Games Requiring Boards, and Games of Manual Dexterity. In addition, there is mention of the sub-genre of Solitaire and Puzzle games.

Bell drew on a wide range of sources, including Edward Falkener, Stewart Culin, Willard Fiske, HJR Murray, John Scarne, and many others; as well as his own research and collection.

Publications

• Bell, Robert Charles. The Boardgame Book. London: Bookthrift Company, 1979.
• Bell, Robert Charles. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-486-23855-5
  • Reprint: New York: Exeter Books, 1983.
• Discovering Mah-Jongg - Shire Publications.
• Discovering Chess - Shire Publications
• Discovering Old Board Games - Shire Publications #182 ISBN 0 85263 235 5
• Discovering Backgammon - Shire Publications #201 ISBN 0 85263 263 0

Notes

1. ^ Finkel 2007, p v.
2. ^ Parlett 1999, pp xii-xiii.
3. ^ Bell 1984, back cover.
4. ^ Finkel 2007, p v.

References

• Bell, RC (1960), Board and Table Games [1] (rev. 1969 and rpt. with vol 2 as Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations Mineola, NY: Dover, 1979 ed.), London: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-486-23855-5 
• Bell, RC (1969), Board and Table Games 2 (rpt. with vol 1 as Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations Mineola, NY: Dover, 1979 ed.), London: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-486-23855-5 
• Bell, RC (1984), Discovering Backgammon (2nd ed.), Shire Publications, ISBN 978-0852634745 
• Finkel, Irving, ed. (2007), "Notes on the Contributors", Ancient Board Games in Perspective, London: The British Museum Press, pp. v-vi, ISBN 978-0-7141-1153-7 
• Parlett, David (1999), The Oxford History of Board Games, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-212998-8