Hamback

(a.k.a. Sixes, or solo backgammon)

The game for solo backpackers
Carry only a single die!
Play for hours!

I do a lot of hiking and cycling, and often travel and camp alone. After a couple of long nights wild camping in 2007 I decided that although it's magnificent to lie in a forest listening to nature, it would be great to have some sort of game or activity to while away the hours spent lying around before going to sleep. My criteria were:

• No batteries - although I could easily entertain myself playing games on my phone, this eats up power that should be saved in case of emergencies. Also, the lights and sounds are a liability when stealth camping (see below). And it doesn't feel very backwoodsman-y to play with electronics anyway.
• Lightweight - I'm moderately fanatical about weight when backpacking, and so the game should be of minimal weight. Ideally it should be less than 25 g
• Fast gameplay - Each game should last only a few minutes, but the game should be one which can be played over and over. Shut the Box is a great example of this sort of game, but it's too much to carry for backpacking.
• Compatible with stealth camping - Looking for inspiration on backpacking forums, I saw that some people take hackysacks to entertain themselves in the evenings. The hackysack fulfills the three criteria above, but sadly bouncing around on one's feet isn't great if one wants to keep a low profile, as one often must when camping in places where it isn't strictly allowed. Plus, if you've got energy to hackysack in the evening you clearly haven't travelled far enough.
• Can be played when it's raining - When the rain is coming down it becomes even more important to have a diversion.

When I thought about existing games, I couldn't think of anything that met all these criteria. I therefore realized I was going to have to get inventive. But then I remembered that being inventive is hard work, so decided instead to rip off an existing idea: backgammon. Backgammon is an old favourite of backpackers, not only because it's a fundamentally kick-ass game which allows for lots of vindictiveness, but also because the board can be printed on a bandanna, or even improvised, making it lightweight and easy to carry. Now, as an alert and good-looking reader, you will have noted already that backgammon is a game for two people and therefore not ideal for the solo backpacker, so some modification was needed. Enter Hamback! (The name is Back-gammon re-arranged, with 'gammon' replaced by a near-synonym. Yes, it's poor.) The pressure in this game comes not from a competing player but from the fact you have to move every turn and lose the game if you cannot move.

The rules

Equipment
Six counters (buttons, pebbles, coins, or whatever), an ordinary six-sided die and a playing board. The board can be drawn on paper, scratched in the dirt or whatever and should comprise seven vertical lines in a row (actually the left-most line is not strictly necessary and you can omit it if you like; however, it is easier for me to explain the game to non-backgammon players if the line is there). The great thing is that the board and the counters are all improvised, so you only need carry the die.

Set-up
Line up the six counters along the rightmost vertical line, thusly...

Aim
Move all the pieces from the rightmost line to the leftmost line, moving one counter after each dice throw. The game is lost if you cannot move.

Play
On each turn, you roll the die and move one counter to the left by the number of places shown. The aim is to move all the pieces to the leftmost line. So, for example, if my first roll is a six then I can move the top counter directly from the rightmost line to the leftmost line - BANG! One down.

If, on the other hand, my first roll is a three, I move the top counter from my rightmost stack three place to the left, so:

If I then roll a two, I can either move the counter that sits on its own a further two places to the left, or move the top counter from the rightmost stack two places to the left. Remember: You must move every time and the pieces have to land exactly on the leftmost line (so if you are two spaces away from it, you must roll a 2 or a 1 followed by another 1 - you cannot move there with a 3, 4, 5 or 6); the game is over when you cannot move. You win if you get all six pieces lined up on the leftmost line.

Discussion
Hamback rocks the hardest! It's stimulating enough and involves sufficient strategy to keep you interested. You only win now and again, which gives you that "oh, just one more game then" feeling, especially as often when you lose you are just one move away from winning.

The prototype Hamback board. This die weighs 3 g: you can get them much lighter

Variant: Sarah's Hamback

My wife felt each game in my original version of Hamback is over too quickly (the critical minx). She therefore suggested an additional rule to make each game last longer: when you roll the die but cannot move, if you already have one or more counters on the leftmost line, you return one of them to the rightmost line then roll again. You only lose the game if you cannot move and have no counters on the leftmost line.

It's an interesting variation which in some ways feels a bit more like playing original backgammon as you tend to end up with all your counters bunched up at the left-hand side of the board praying for low numbers to come up on the die; you are also much more likely to win eventually, so it becomes more a game of seeing how quickly you can get all your pieces off - in theory you can do it in six moves. (The probability of this, though, is .00002, or 1 game in every 50,000, so don't hold your breath, although I have once finished a game in 8 moves.) Try both versions and see what you prefer. I think I may prefer Sarah's version because there's a fun experience of going "I just need a one to win... D'oh!" and then going back a step.

The 'official' version

After playing both version for a while, I've definitely found Sarah's version more fun. Henceforth, the version with her rule will be known as Standard Hamback and the original version will be known as Power Hamback.

Feedback? Suggesstions?