The Glowing Royal Game of Ur

IMPORTANT NOTICE

This is a DIY board with an integrated box for the pawns and dice. You have to assemble 12 acrylic pieces together and most likely you will have to use glue to hold them together. This ain't an easy task.

Also, "super glue" will affect acrylic clear plastic. Therfore, avoid cyanoacrylate glues as these will irreversibly haze up the plastic (trust me I have made that mistake). Use an acrylic welding compound or an epoxy adhesive.

It took me at least 30 minutes to fit the pieces. But once in place and glued tight, it holds very well and works like intended.

Summary

1. This is a re-skin of the Royal Game of Ur.
2. It also include 6 nice custom acrylic printed dice.
3. This is an awesome use of custom Acrylic sheet to create a box and a board all in one.

The Glowing Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur, or Game of Twenty Squares, is a game from ancient Mesopotamia discovered in The Royal Tombs of Ur by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. The game is dated to about 2600 BC. J.-C., making it one of the oldest known games to date. The discovery is on display at the British Museum in London.

The Glowing Royal Game of Ur board and pieces are made with laser-cut acrylic. Although the original rules are unknown or incomplete, the rules proposed here are those generally recognized by historians with perhaps some adaptations here and there.

Objective

The goal of the game is to remove all your pawns from the board before the other player. It's a race!

Preparation

Place the board in the center of the table and the 7 tokens on each side of the board.

Using Dice

When you roll the 4 Phoenix dice, the result is as follows:

The 2 dice with 6 birds are used in variation A only.

Rules of the game

1. Roll the dice to see who plays first. The highest number has white pawns and plays first.
2. The pawns move according to the paths indicated in the picture of the game board.
3. Roll the dice. You can put a new pawn into play or move any pawn already in play.
   • Advance your pawn by the number of squares you have obtained.
   • You cannot put two of your own pawns on the same square.
   • If you land on a rosette, this is a safe place. The other player cannot stop on this square. Roll the dice again for another round.
   • If you land on a square occupied by the other player, his pawn is expelled from the board.
4. If you can't move a pawn, you lose your turn.
5. Expelled pawns can return to the board at a subsequent turn.
6. You can only go out on an exact throw.

Picture of the game board

End of the game

The game ends when a player has taken his 7 pawns off the board.  

Variation A – Entry in order

1. Your pieces each have a name:

1. Birds must enter the board in the order of numbers.
2. To begin with, you need to roll the bird die and get the corresponding bird in order: the Swallow must enter first.
3. Then throw to determine where to place the Swallow.
4. In the next round, you can either move the Swallow or roll a die to try to get the Cuckoo.
5. If you don't get the Cuckoo, you lose your turn!
6. The Dragon enters automatically when the other 6 birds are already on the board or out of the board.
7. Follow all other rules.

Variation B – Special squares

In addition to the rosette, several special squares can trigger an action:

Credits

• Original concept: Anonymous
• Design and translation: Gaétan Lanthier
• Iconography: www.svgrepo.com
• Follow us: www.galasoft.ca

To get the STL files for 3D printing, write to me at gaetan@galasoft.ca © 2022, Gaétan Lanthier. All rights reserved.

Legal notes and disclaimers

All concepts, designs and images are personal, from svgrepo.com or public domain works.