Mansion of happiness 1843 W and SB Ives

	Mansion of happiness	?year	W and SB Ives
	First produced	1843	Players	2 to 4	Age(s)

Click the picture for more		1 x playing board illustrated in full colour 1 x teetotum; 8 sided, wood top spinning top 4 x colour playing pieces 1 x rules sheet The first ever, commercially produced board game. A game of morals. Good deeds get you closer to eternal happiness, while bad deeds move you backward. The first player to arrive at space 67, The mansion of happiness, wins. Invented by Miss Abbott, the daughter of a Beverly Massachusetts clergyman and first published in Salem Massachusetts by the book firm W & S B Ives, in 1843. At this time, games using dice or cards were thought of as evil gambling games, hence the teetotum spinning top.

Extract from the rules;

"Whoever arrives at Piety, Honesty, Temerance, Gratitude, Prudence, Truth, Sincerity, Humility, Industry, Charity or Humanity is entitled to advance six spaces towards the Mansion of Happiness.
Whoever arrives at Audacity must be taken to the water and thoroughly ducked, ie. must lose two turns and there remain until the third, when he may play again.
Landing on the Whipping Post, House of Correction, the Pillory and the Stocks send a player's piece back five spaces, unless his piece is sent to one of them for punishment from some other place. landing on Prison or Ruin send the player's piece back to begin life over again from space No.1.
Whoever possesses Cruelty must be sent back to Justice.
Whoever gets into Idleness must come to Poverty.
Whoever becomes a Sabbath Breaker must be taken to the Pillory and there remain until he loses 3 turns.
Whoever becomes a Drunkard must be taken to the Whipping Post and whipped and there remain until he loses 2 turns.
Whoever first arrives at 67 - The Mansion of Happiness wins the game - this must be by exact spin.”

By popular demand, it was reproduced in its original form in 1926 by Parker Brothers Inc, Salem Mass.

Other early board games were also based on moral issues. In 1860, Milton Bradley produced The checkered game of life. Once again, the game was entertaining but also provided moral instruction to the players.