Yut-Nori is a traditional Korean board game that has been popular for thousands of years. Sometimes it is also called nyout or yoot. It is traditional to play the game during Korean New Year. It is so old that no one is really sure where it originated. Years ago, the game was also used as fortune telling in rural mountain areas and small farming villages. Modern Yut-Nori is only used as a fun way to spend time with friends and family — especially around holidays. The game seems simple at first, but a lot of strategy is involved. Full boards can be purchased at Korean markets or online, but here is how to make and play a more simplified version. The game is often played by two people, but traditional games have a lot of crowd participation. Groups of people will gather around the players and cheer and joke as the game progresses. You don’t have to be actually playing to enjoy the game.
Here is how to play:
• First you’ll need a piece of cardboard or poster board, four craft sticks, stickers, markers and a few game pieces
• You need a game piece for each player, it is usually played by two
• The larger the board the longer the game will be, it can be the shape of either a square or circle.
• Place the stickers on the board around the edges. You can also place the stickers in diagonal lines from corner to corner. Those are short cuts across the board.
• Mark one sticker as the starting place, it should be different from all of the other stickers
• Decorate one side of the craft sticks with the markers
• Each player takes turns tossing the sticks into the air in order to move the game pieces
• For every side of the sticks that lands with decorations up, the player moves their game piece that many spaces
• If all of the sticks land with the blank sides up then the player should move five spaces.
• The first player to go all the way around the board wins the game
• If a game piece lands where another’s player is resting then the second player’s piece must return to the start of the board.
