Royal Game of Ur - How to play & history of the game
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Come and pull up a chair at The Raven's Table. Join me as we discuss how to play a game straight out of Ancient Mesopotamia - The Royal Game of Ur. We also go into the history of the game, as well as some variations of the rules.
------------------------------------------
If you are looking for a set of instructions and a printable playing board, click this link:
drive.google.com/file/d/1KGw6...
Other game instructions can be found here:
bit.ly/TheRavensTable
Dr. Irving Finkel's academic paper on the Royal Game of Ur:
www.academia.edu/15173145/On_...
------------------------------------------
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
01:19 History
05:08 How to Play
19:46 Variations of the game
25:43 Wrap-up
------------------------------------------
Intro music by:
www.serpentsoundstudios.com/ 
Игры
My grandson and I are reading about life in Mesopotamia long ago, about Gilgamesh and Enkidu, about building a Ziggurat and we are so happy to know a way to play this game. We ordered the game board, dice and pieces and they arrive tomorrow. My grandson loves to change the rules of games, like building a second queen out of LEGOs in chess. So he will have fun thinking of variations. I hope we can learn more about how divination might have been done using the patterns of moves. Thanks for the clear video!
This game is a lot of fun and is a precursor to Ludo indeed. I also read the work of dr. Finkel and find it interesting that my parents and in-laws have played in their lifetimes with little sheep knuckle bones as dice which dr. Finkel also describes in his paper. We are of Kurdish ethnicity and call these ‘dice’ kabik (meaning little bones). The game is also called kabik, I’ll have to ask them how that is played to find if there is any resemblance to this game or Ur. Love to look at history in this playful way.
No, they wouldn't have used coins instead of dice. First coins don't appear until 600bc, so 2000 years after the game board was made.
I was just watching the history of ancient Sumer in a random video and stumbled across this game. After watching others play I was so impressed with the game I made my own board. I don’t have triangle dice so I use 4 paddle pop sticks painted black on one side instead. The mix of tactics, luck and probability is great, I like it more than backgammon. Senet is also another great game from the same time period.
Yup, and Senet is also on my list of videos to create. So, stay tuned!
In case you missed it, my video on Senet is now up:
ruclips.net/video/HFwR4LQ3O4c/видео.html
Enjoy your videos and the knowledge about the history behind the games! You've inspired me to eventually buy a few.. I have a couple requests if I may .. you should do a video on shut the box and mancala
Thank you. Great presentation.
Thank you very much for watching and for the feedback!
Love this channel. I’d love to see new videos! You should check out the mysterious game Luibo.
We play a variant where every piece goes on every square. Starting in the middle (like the red line on 9.10) one going clockwise and one going anti clockwise, both finishing the home run down the centre makes for much more fun. The family prefer a 4 sided dice (a rectangular piece of wood similar size to 3 dice stuck together and numbered 1-4)
I made some of the pyramid shape dice out of self drying clay.
It's funny to think that this game might be a predecessor to Ludo since it share some similarities with it. I find these old games interresting, and find that they truly show how advancet the human mind was at the time.
When it comes to the spaces on the board they way i'd look at it (if i didn't know that there as a complete ruleset to the game) would be like this: The four dice as you call them, would be spaces where you could stack your pieces, or allowed to share the space, The space with the 5 pips would be a space that allowed you to put another piece on the board, and the two second to last spaces was either a move back space or something similar. The eyes and the first space on the battlefield are the only ones that i can't imagine the rules for as of right now.
Great suggestions! I will have to try them out the next time I play.
All those different icons do allow for a high amount of creativity/flexibility when determining "house rules"
@@TheRavensTable Thanks! I hope it works out well for you. 😊
This is really fun to see the original version of the game as we historically know it. I made a version myself with some slightly different rules to make it a bit more strategic and challenging, but also themed around a book series I really enjoy.
Do you have a Google Doc of your ruleset?
@@TwistedAlphonso1
I do! Here is the ruleset: drive.google.com/file/d/1Rlho4dOXDUv92Oz_I0s8Z2pzXtuUygED/view?usp=sharing
If that link doesn't work, on my channel, I have a video of me showing how to play my game (video titled: "How to Play Redwallur") and in the description of that video at the bottom is a link to the document.
The reason for the dices instead of flat discs (coins) is the ease of pickup. Simple as that.
Excellent vid. 👍🏻
Thank you very much, and thanks for watching!
I'm guessing the path length of 16 is mostly likely to be correct, based on a couple of things. The similar game boards found in India were straightened to that length, and it makes the rosette safe squares come out spaced more regularly, every four squares from one end to the other.
The variations feel like they are mixing in elements from Senet and Scripta. I like the easy variation best.
To me, it's not all that surprising that folks might take rules from one game and modify them to fit in another. But those variations are one of the things that makes playing historical games so much fun! Thanks for watching!
Made one for me and one for my son. Great game with simple to complex rules according to choice. Bit of luck and plenty of tactics 👍🏻
Picking up and throwing coins would definitely be annoying over time compared to 4d4.
The one interesting similarity I would like to know is the corelation between the 5 pips on the original pieces and the 5 pip tiles...
Hi. Regarding the dice, I have only been able to find these black blank 4 sided dice in light plastic. Yours seem heavier and made of a richer material. They make a lovely sound. Could you let me know where you found them, please? Thank you.
Awesome man! Love the video. Love this game as well. Out of curiosity, did you make those tetrahedron dice yourself? Or did you buy them somewhere? I was wondering if it’s possible to buy that specific kind of dice? If not, do you know if a d4 die produces the same odds as the tetrahedrons with the marked corners?
I purchased blank tetrahedron dice from an online store. They only came in plain white so I painted them in the manner you see in the video.
I would think that you could use a standard tabletop gaming d4, doing something like interpreting odds for one score and evens for the other. They should roll exactly the same :-)
Thanks for watching!
I have mixed ideas about that.Don't know about the odds, but I use one D4, and I need to shake it with my two hands closed and throw it on the ground since it's not rolling like a D6. Or, I use other dice I made for Senet; 4 mini wooden pieces (blank scrabble "letters" actually) and painted one side each. But I usually use 3 of them to get 4 points and so I skip the rule that a player lose turn when thrown 4 black peaks... ^_^
@@pallasathena79 In case you didn't know, using one D4 doesn't provide the same spread of outcomes as using 4 binary dice. Your D4 has equal probability for all outcomes, where the binary dice would result in more 2's, less 1's and 3's, and even less 4's and 0's, so it changes the strategy considerably. Regardless, enjoy playing!
@@gumbyrocker hmm.. as I wrote, I didn't do the math ^_^ I was rather focused on comfortable throws :-)) One tetra is already a bit weird to me and four of them ... :-P Well yes, I could buy 4 x and paint them and check myself what kind of difference it makes ^_^ I'll do it later. But I wonder isn't it the same with my small wooden binary dice °_°
stacking certainly bring more strategic fun to the game
Stacking pieces certainly does bring a new dimension of risk management to the game.
yes, right. I put together some rules myself and it's really fun to play. Like, I give every square a function: on "four eyes" for example, a player can stack up to four pieces, but only the same player; and the one in the middle row is only protected if there are at least two pieces of the player on it. The two squares in the middle row with four small five dots; both players can put their pieces here, no kicking out. and the first two pieces must stand in front and the next two at the back and the ones on the back can move only when the ones in front of them are moved. On the squares with five big dots can only be one piece, no protection. The square with twelve dots between the two Rosettes is protected, no kicking out. And the Rosettes give only extra dice roll but no protection. The two squares at the other end of the board with small dots and zigzags, players can put two pieces here. The kicked-out piece must re-enter the game by the next turn. These are my rules for the shortest racing. ^_^
Okay. I was right. No one has addressed this. If you roll more than you need to reach an opponent, can you knock the opponent off and keep going? Or do you have to roll exactly the amount to land on the opponent and knock him off? My wife and I just played where you could go through opponent's pieces, knocking them off as you go. Was that wrong?
If its thought to evolve into backgammon, I bet you can stack pieces and if you have 2 or more pieces on a square it prolly makes it a safe space like backgammon.
Wouldn't surprise me at all!
Thanks for watching! 🙂
I believe (could be wrong) that the Ancient Greek game 5 Lines was the nearest thing to backgammon today.
12:38 I thought that on the central flower or "rosette", in this situation red would simply slide over and land on the next space if it is available. Is this a variant?
Good idea
I the situation where a player rolled a "2" which would have landed him on the other players safe zone. In that situation could he you have just brought another stone on to the board or do you just lose your turn ? And why cant you do that?
I think I get it actually , since he has a legal move that he can't use because he can't bump the other player , he just loses his turn instead of getting to add a new stone
Much more popular than the games of Um and Huh?
Can you buy your game boards?
I might be opening a store at some point, so stay tuned!
I have 5 wins and must have the 2 more. One object is is on the last square and the second is on a square before the last one. It is my turn and I rolled 3. What should happen?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
In your scenario, each of your remaining 2 pieces must roll EXACTLY the number to get off the board. So for the piece in the last square you must roll a '1', and the other must roll a '2'. Since you rolled a three, your turn is effectively skipped since no pieces can move three spaces.
Hope this helps, and thanks for watching!
@@TheRavensTable I thought about that option after I asked a question, but anyway thanks for help
@@iliakurkin6445 No worries, any time!
Recently made a copy of this game and played it with my grandson (11). Looking forward to trying out the different versions. Out of interest, have you heard of the little known Ancient Palace Of Knossos game based on an artifact they dug up that looked to be a game? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knossos_board_game (I made my own board version in Windows Word using pics of ancient Greek tiles). It contains elements from UR being that it is a race game but I find it more involved and also love it, because it is from my home country.