Playing marbles for the beginners

Marbles have been around for so many years that you will find a lot of different versions and different rules but almost all games have some related rules so we'll explain those first. Most games involve a shooting marble. It is usually called the shooter but is also called a taw, or boss. The shooter hits a target marble or mibs. Some games have a taw line it is required that you stand behind it when you shoot your marble.

American Marbles

Marbles are played around the world and there are more than 100 variations of the game. Some popular marble games in the US are: Ringer, Old Bowler, Football, Knuckle Box, Newark Killer.

Ringer

1. Draw a circle (10 feet across) and put 13 marbles in it . The marbles should be in a cross and spaced 3 inches apart.
2. Each player shoots in turn from outside the circle, trying to hit a mib out of the ring while keeping his/her shooter inside the ring.
3. If the shooter misses a mib, or doesn't hit any out of the ring, his/her turn is over and he picks up the shooter.
4. If the shooter hits a mib out of the ring but the shooter also rolls out of the ring, he/she keeps the marbles that rolled outand his turn is over.
5. If the shooter hits a mib out of the ring and the shooter stays in the ring then player shoots again from the place where the shooter stayed.
6. On each new turn a player shoots from anywhere outside the ring.
7. The person who collects the most marbles is the winner.

Old Bowler

1. Draw a square, put one marble in each corner and one in the middle of the square. The marble in the middle is called the 'Old Bowler'.
2. Draw a line somewhere outside the square. This line is going to be the taw line.
3. Players take turns, shooting at the mibs in the corners standing behind the line.
4. Players try to hit the marbles out of the square. When all mibs except the Old Bowler are out, you can start shooting at the Old Bowler.
5. Each player shoots until he misses a mib. If the Old Bowler is hit before all others mibs have been hit out the player is out of the game.
6. If a player's shooter hits a mib out of the square, that player keeps shooting.
7. If a player misses and the shooter stays inside the square then this shooter has to stay inside and the next player in the new turn has to use another shooter.
8. If a player mises all mibs but the shooter ends up outside the square then the player takes the shooter.
9. The game ends when the Old Bowler has been hit out and winner is the one who collect the most marbles.