What is a Chouette?
Chouette is a social form of backgammon for three or more players. One player, the box, plays on a single board against all the others who form a team lead by a captain. To determine the order of play, players each throw one die, and rerolls are used as needed to break ties. The player rolling highest becomes the box; second highest becomes the captain of the team playing against the box. The captains plays for the team, and has the final say on all checker-play decisions. When the box wins a game, he collects from each team member and retains his position as the box. The captain goes to the back of the line and the next player on the team becomes the new captain. When the team wins a game, the box pays off to each team member and goes to the end of the line. The captain becomes the new box, and the next player in line becomes the new captain. Players can leave or join a chouette at any time. A new player starts at the bottom of the rotation.
A Chouette is a social backgammon variant for more than 2 players. One player is “the box”, and plays against all other players on a single board. One other player is the captain, and rolls the dice and makes the plays for the team that opposes the box. If the box wins, the captain goes to the back of the line, and the next player becomes captain. If the captain wins, the box goes to the back of the line, and the captain becomes the new box. Customs vary as to the rights of the captain’s partners: In some Chouettes, they may consult freely as to the way rolls should be played. In others, consultation is prohibited. A compromise, where consultation is allowed only after the cube has been turned, is popular. Originally, Chouettes were played with a single cube. The only decisions that players other than the captain were allowed to make independently concerned takes: If the box doubled, each player on the team could take or drop independently. Today, multiple-cube Chouettes are more pop
