Royal game of Ur general

Poor OP makes a thread about a neat old game and the only thing talked about is grammar

To make it easier to visualize.

Fuck please no, I'm in fucking love with old abstract board games and play Ur on a daily basis. My heart skipped a beat when I saw this thread on the catalog.

clear as mud

So you could say that this game is...ur-backgammon : D

I want to play it historically, but the only person I know who is interested in ancient Sumerian board games is my priest and they're busy fellows.

I don't know how to play backgammon though

It's actually still correct, as long as you're referring to a thing you can use addicting. People just don't use it like that so it sounds wrong.

Considering there's only two more safe points per player in the standard variation compared to this it seems like a fairly pointless wrinkle.

To escape this Semantic piffle some Ur questions.

Do you need to roll the exact number to get the pieces off the board or can you "waste" some points to move a piece off the end?

Do you have to make a move or can you pass, either before your roll or after?

Boards and counters are easy to make, how about the dice? Guess you could just hack some D4s. Is there anything else small but tetrahedral that can be bought for cheap?

Great fun game. I made my own last year.

It's made from a small cigar box.

US english is the only correct english. Why do you think everyone sings with an american accent?

Reminder that Sir Humphry Davy coined the word "aluminum."
"Aluminium" is only a word because some random Brit editor didn't know how many elements end in "-um."

>Do you need to roll the exact number to get the pieces off the board or can you "waste" some points to move a piece off the end?

Have to roll exact if you you let people use what ever it fucks up the race at the end
>Do you have to make a move or can you pass, either before your roll or after?
Have to move, cannot pass.

The correct version is supposed to only have 3 dices.

We play where you need the exact roll to get off. It adds to the strategic use of throws.

We also play so you must move. It forces you to move into bad positions sometimes.

You can use d4s if you say 3 & 4 is a pip and 1 & 2 isn't. I made dice using some Miliput.

This looks awesome.

...

The Royal Game of Ur is the Warhammer to Backgammon's Age of Sigmar.

Fucking GW Romans killing off a game for 2000 years.

Actually there's only one safe zone in the British muesem version given that the first two are on your safe row, and the last two are on your ending safe rows.

Though fuck the versions where you come back by flipping your pieces.

HOL UP

The more I look at the board, the more I think that the version of the rules as shown in is really the most simplistic version.
Aside from the rosette tiles there are a bunch of other patterns that seem to indicate they have some distinct effect on the playing pieces, but are ignored.
Especially the unique one on the left end of the middle row that seems to represent the board.

Pic related is the version of the game that I've had for years and years. It only has three dice in it, and a bunch of complicated rules for movement and what all of the spaces do—but it's apparently all a bunch of made-up shit, not historically accurate.

I tried playing the British Museum version not long ago, when I found out about that video, and honestly it's more fun. Fast-paced and intense, like backgammon on crack (crackgammon?). I'm going with the simple four-dice Museum rules in the future.

Just.. just thank you very much, user

Odd that the 5 dots on the pieces match a limited number of squares on the board. I wonder if that's of any significance?