Thu, 22 May 2025 09:17:00 UTC
i was watching youtube this morning and youtube decided to recommend me the newest video from a channel i hadnt watched in a while. pretty normal stuff. this video was from The Modern Rogue, a channel i havent followed closely in probably three or four years. i do like checking in from time to time though as theres usually something interesting to see. this time the video was about a board game called tak. before long i found myself asking people if they wanted to learn how to play.
tak came into existence as a fictional game, written to be the chess or go of a book's universe. ill probably never read the book because im not too big on fiction but i do like the worldbuilding ive seen surrounding tak. turns out fiction authors are good at creating lore. who would have thought. the game has two general playstyles: "courtly tak" and "street tak". the object of courtly tak is not to simply win but to show that you are a better player than your opponent. street tak is more cutthroat with players competing not only for victory, but glory. it is said that street tak is frequently played in taverns with money at stake.
personally i think i prefer the style of courtly tak. i would definitely be down to play some street tak here and there but courtly tak is more like cooperatively solving a puzzle and that seems more compelling to me. as the object of courtly tak is not to simply win but to show your skill, it isnt uncommon for players to work together to see what moves would be best for each other. i find this quite neat. if one player is better than the other they dont just crush them repeatedly and the game remains enjoyable for both. the object of the game is no longer to win the game but to enjoy the game.
i do enjoy the lore behind street tak a fair bit more though. sometimes called the "travellers game", the street variation typically comes with a lot of unique variety that you wouldnt see with a pristine set used for courtly tak. as the lore goes, most any tavern would either have tak boards ready to go or scratched into the tables by people looking to play. if one doesnt have a board handy they can simply play without one by marking the center of the board and playing the pieces where the squares of the grid would typically be. such a setup wouldnt be great for playing chess but works fine for the traditional street tak 5x5 grid. street tak players often carry their own sets of pieces with them, sometimes self made, which leads to incredible variety for the kinds of pieces youd see. it is also not uncommon for street tak players to carry their own capstones (a special piece of which you typically only use one) even when they are intending to use a set owned by someone else. many players then opt to compete not for money, but for each others capstones.
as someone in the mechanical keyboard hobby i cant help but look at custom capstones and think of artisan keycaps. i would love to make and collect artisan tak capstones in addition to regular pieces and even boards. ive been wanting an excuse to get into the more artistic side of design for a while now and i think tak sets could be a very neat way to explore that. i think it would be very fun to get a wide group of people playing tak and carrying custom capstones and sets with them.
i highly encourage you to learn to play tak and show the game to others.