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Jun 7, 2022·How to play·07:25·11093·Watch on YouTube

The 5,000-year-old Royal Game of UR!

NewVenture Games

NewVenture Games

Watch “The 5,000-year-old Royal Game of UR!,” a how-to-play guide for The Royal Game of Ur from NewVenture Games on BoardGameVideo.

Description provided by NewVenture Games on YouTube:

Nearly 100 years ago, a British archeologist uncovered four game boards in the digs at the ancient city of Ur. These remain the oldest such sets ever found, and for decades researchers speculated on how the game might have been played. A popular rule set was published around 1970 by game historian R.C. Bell which became the standard for the reconstructed game. Then around 1990, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, was translating an ancient manuscript from Mesopotamia. He realized that part of the document related the rules to a game remarkably similar to those unearthed in the 1920s. His hunch proved true, and the Royal Game of Ur now had actual rules to follow! In this video, the R.C. Bell ruleset is explained. It's the most popular still today. The rules discovered by Dr. Finkel are quite complex, filled with references to ancient deities and giving pieces and spaces different powers within the game. The details can be found online if you like, but the rules by Bell are a lot more fun. Purchase a copy of UR today! https://newventuregames.com/products/royal-game-of-ur/ ...OR the DELUXE version: https://newventuregames.com/products/royal-game-of-ur-deluxe Thanks for watching! As usual, please leave us your comments, questions, or suggestions. Be sure to subscribe to discover more about games and gaming, and visit my other NewVenture links: https://www.NewVentureGames.com https://Facebook.com/NewVentureGames See it on BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1602/royal-game-ur

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The Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur

Videos
18
Creators
14

Mainly how-to-play. The Royal Game of Ur is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 3 reviews, 10 how-to-play guides, 2 recorded sessions, and 3 other videos.

2 players
30 min
Light weight: Learn it in minutes

About The Royal Game of Ur, from BoardGameGeek:

The game has been published under different names but it is a simple race game very much like Backgammon. This edition has a board that is a reproduction of the original found in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. Each player brings their 7 pieces in to play and takes them off of their outer track. Opposing pieces come into conflict on the inner track that they must travel on to the exit. If you land on a space occupied by a single opponent's piece you send it back to the start. If you land on a space occupied by 2 or more opponent's pieces then your piece goes back to the start. The four dice give a marked or blank result. They are tetrahedral (four-sided) dice. Each die gives a "1" or a "0". You can roll 0,1,2,3, or 4. Statistically, 2 is most common- a good thing to bear in mind. The rosette in the central track is a "safe" place from which you cannot be bumped, but you can be bumped on others. Landing on any rosette allows you to roll again, but you don't need to move that same piece. All moves must be made by one piece only. First to bear off all 7 of his pieces wins. Note - Rules update in line with guidance from Irving Finkel from British Museum. The game may be a relative of Senet and Aseb.

Artists

Mariela Arratia, Vlad Korniuk, Mathew Sisson

Categories

Abstract StrategyDice

Mechanics

RaceRoll and Move
View on BoardGameGeek ›
The Royal Game of Ur

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