Royal Game of Ur

Alternative Names:

Asha; Ancient Backgammon

History

Originally developed in ancient Mesopotamia 3000 BC, Ur was a popular boardgame across the middle east and the Mediterranean. This is one of the oldest known boardgames in the world and its modern gameplay was developed by a researcher after discovering a clay tablet in a cemetery of Ur. Many believe that Ur is the pre-curser to modern backgammon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur

Video Tutorial

Objective

The objective of Ur is to race all of your game tokens from the start to the finish line before your opponent while avoiding getting reset by their game Tokens.

Materials:

• Game Board Ur_Gameboard.pdf
• 4 rolling dice each (Gold or Silver)
• 5 (or 7) Gold dice to act as player 1's tokens
• 5 (or 7) Silver dice to act as player 2's tokens
• (Optional Betting) One of every colored dice and remaining Gold and Silver dice for each player to act as Anti bets for rounds. Winner of the round takes the anti.

Setup:

Players will start the game agreeing which dice to use for rolling and for betting, a recommended system to use is Anti, where gold and silver dice are used as game tokens while the remining dice are used as spare currency and rolling dice.

The set up of the game consists of each player preparing their game tokens at the starting line. To determine who rolls first, both players will roll 4 dice and the player who rolls the most odd numbers will start.

Game Play Rules

1. Use 2 dice for first roll, Any odd number rolled will count as 1 space for their first game piece.
2. The remaining rolls will use four rolling dice. Any odd number rolled will count as 1 space for any game token on the board, or behind the start line. Only one token can be moved per roll.
3. The pathway is indicated by the arrows on the board. Tokens must travel through the middle lane where they can be reset to the start.
4. If a token lands on a flower shaped rosette, they player will roll again. A player can choose to move any token on this bonus roll.
5. If a token lands on an opponents token in the middle lane, the opponents token will reset and have to start again from the beginning.
6. [Safe Square] The Rosette in the middle lane is a protected space, a players token can not be reset by an opponents token on this square; the opponent must choose to move a different token.
7. In order to cross the finish line, players must roll the exact number of remaining spaces + 1 from the finish line.
8. [PASS] If a player cannot move, or rolls all even numbers, they must pass their turn.
9. The first player to cross the finish line with all tokens wins and the game ends. If betting, the round winner takes all anti's.

Betting

The Royal Game of UR is known to be played for money. If you would like to add a fun aspect to this game, use the spare dice provided in Gold Cup Games. We recommend using spare dice and the Anti betting system to tally wins over multiple rounds between players.

Variations:

• Some accounts of how to play use either 5 tokens or 7 tokes per round.
• One variation is to make the middle rosette not a safe space
• There are accounts of making other spaces have alternate sub rules, similar to the Rosette stone.
• [Drinking] if you land on a space with a 5, your opponent must take a drink.