ABSTRACT
If there is such a thing as a foundational prop for play it is not a physical artefact at all, but rather the contract that makes play possible by marking out the imaginary world of each game from everyday life. This idea was first envisaged by Huizinga as a 'consecrated spot', a space for play prescribing 'temporary worlds within the ordinary world', and has become known in game studies as 'the magic circle' after Salen and Zimmerman's development of Huizinga's concept. Caillois' pattern of alea, which literally means 'dice' but stands for all gambling games, offers a cogent understanding of the contractual basis of betting. By marking out the space of play within an artefactual form, boards are the closest to Huizinga's spatial conception of a playground, and serve as far more representational props than dice alone. The board requires pawns for its spatial representation to be effective.
