Ski joring, which entails a horse and rider pulling a skier around a snow-packed course over jumps and through gates while both rider and skier collect rings and tokens in a timed competition, is the national sport of Caldorne, captivating young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural. Every Wintermåne, when the Baronial Games are held, it is the main topic of conversation on everyone's lips, from the lowliest cottar to the King himself.

A series of official competitions starts in Allfather to determine which team wins the coveted honour of representing their barony, but preliminary, exhibition, and amateur games begin as soon as there's enough snow on the ground and end only with spring thaw. Excitement runs high during joring season, and sometimes tempers as well; no other single cause produces more charges of disturbing the peace and brawling, and alehouse fights are common. Substantial sums of money regularly change hands based on the performance of a favourite team.

Other popular winter sports include competitive sprint skiing, sledging, skating, and snowshoeing. In the Northern Tier Baronies snow festivals are common, with ice dancing and snow wars--massive team snowball fights--as well.

Spring and summer bring shinty, second only to joring as a national pastime, with teams that compete on the local, regional, and baronial level. During the Summer's End games, held every year in Jägermåne, the two winning teams from the preliminary tournaments vie for the all-Caldorne championship; the winner must take three out of five games. Archery and spear-throwing contests are also very popular, often the highlight of the many seasonal faires and feastday entertainments, while bowls and palle-malle are enjoyed in every community with a village green.

The most popular games are strategy board games played on a chequered or latticed game-board with two armies of uneven numbers. Although the size of the board and the number of pieces vary, all games involve a distinctive 2:1 ratio of pieces, with the lesser side having a king-piece that starts in the centre. The king's objective is to escape to (variously) the board's periphery or corners, while the greater force's objective is to capture him.

Also much enjoyed are several "fox" games, such as fox-and-geese or fox-and-hounds, where the objectives still are capture and evasion, but the moves and style of play are quite different.

Knucklebones is the gambling game most frequently played in Caldorne, the Trewschan Confederation, and Nordvald. Other games of chance do exist, of course, but are usually only encountered at faires and markets or in alehouses, while knucklebones is ubiquitous in every barracks and schoolyard.

The rules are as follows:

Any number may play, but only one player -- the caster -- has the dice at any one time.

In each round, the caster specifies a number between 5 and 9 inclusive: this is the main. He then throws two dice.

• If he rolls the main, he wins (throws in or nicks).
• If he rolls a 2 or a 3, he loses (throws out).
• If he rolls an 11 or 12, the result depends on the main:
  • with a main of 5 or 9, he throws out with both an 11 and a 12;
  • with a main of 6 or 8, he throws out with an 11 but nicks with a 12;
  • with a main of 7, he nicks with an 11 but throws out with a 12.
• If he neither nicks nor throws out, the number thrown is called the chance. He throws the dice again:
  • if he rolls the chance, he wins;
  • if he rolls the main, he loses (unlike on the first throw);
  • if he rolls neither, he keeps throwing until he rolls one or the other, winning with the chance and losing with the main.

This is simpler to follow in a table:

As long as he keeps winning, the caster may keep playing: but if he loses three times in succession, he must pass the dice to the player to his left, who becomes the new caster.

Bets are between the caster and the bank (the other player, or other players acting as a group). If the caster nicks on the first throw, he wins an amount equal to his stake. After the first throw, the caster wins his stake if he gets his chance before his main.

After the first throw, the caster (and others, in side bets) may wager an additional sum that the chance will come before the main. These bets are made at odds determined by the relative proportions of the main and the chance:

For example, with an odds stake of 10s, a main of 7 and a chance of 5, a castor stands to win 15s (3/2 × 10s); with the same stake, a main of 5 and a chance of 6, he could win 8s (4/5 × 10s). A game of bones is often used to determine who pays for the drinks of a convivial evening.

For each main the probability of winning can be calculated:

If the main is determined randomly by tossing the dice until a valid main appears, the overall player disadvantage is 1.84%.