NOTE: THIS AD IS FOR THE SVG FILE SO YOU CAN LASER CUT YOUR OWN ROYAL GAME OF UR.
You will need access to a laser cutter, 1/8″ inch thick plywood, white glue or super glue, red and blue paint (or other contrasting combination) or even better, paint pens to color the game pieces and decorate your board. I have also included a bonus svg file of Casting Sticks that require 1/4" thick acrylic or wood.
I design the SVG in color because Glowforge can see color! You can make this project on any laser cutter that uses SVG files, just follow directions below:
Settings for Glowforge Laser Cutter
1. PINK: Engrave (HD Graphic)
2. BLACK: Score (Hi Def)
3. RED: Cut
4. BLUE: Cut
NOTE: The top of the game board has to be slowly laser engraved which will take about 2 hours on the Glowforge. I figure the game is already 5000 years old, whats a couple more hours?
Rules to the Royal Game of Ur (see photos and video above)
A game for 2 players: I painted my game pieces red and blue. The dice are four 3-sided pyramids. Each pyramid has four tips in total. Two tips have a hole, and two do not. You roll the four pyramids and count only the tops with holes. With this method you can roll a 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Dice Variation: These ancient games were also found with Casting Sticks. Casting sticks are long rectangular dice that can only roll on four sides. These have a mark on only 2 of their 4 sides. Roll four casting sticks and count the holes that land on top. I find that the casting sticks are way easier to pick up than the slippery pyramids. The casting sticks must be cut separately from 1/4″ inch thick wood or acrylic, whereas the rest of the game is made using 1/8″ inch thick wood. I have included a separate file called casting-sticks.svg as a bonus download, but remember to cut the casting sticks from 1/4" thick material.
Glowforge settings for the Casting Sticks bonus file are: Step 1: RED=Cut, Step 2: Blue=Cut. I prefer my casting sticks cut in bright color acrylic for that plastic dice feel.
The object of the game is to race your opponent and get all your playing pieces into your coin slot first by an exact roll of the dice.
Player 1 rolls the dice and moves the amount rolled. See red and blue arrow on illustration above to see where each player starts and ends game play.
Player 1 and 2 take turns.
With each roll of the dice you can put as many or as few game pieces into play on the board at the same time based on your strategy.
The center aisle is shared by both players and is where the battle takes place. Remove your opponent’s game piece from the board when you land on their square.
The 5 Stars on the board are special squares. When you land on a Star you get another roll of the dice, and you are safe from being removed from the board while on that spot. Not only are you safe while on the Star, you are keeping your opponent from landing on it as well, since they cannot land there and take you off the board.
You must enter the coin slot by an exact roll. If you are out of game pieces, or cannot make a move, you forfeit your turn.
First player to get all their game pieces into the slot wins.
Putting the laser cut pieces together. White glue or super glue will do.
The box has 5 parts to glue together. 1 bottom, 2 long sides, 2 short ends. You do not glue the game board lid.
Notice that the bottom piece has two small square holes on one end. Also notice that one of the short ends has a slot. The tab with the slot glues into the bottom end near the two small square holes.
Glue on the 2 sides and remaining end.
Place the lid on top so the box dries correctly, but make sure you don’t glue the lid!
Clamp the box together, square it all up, and allow it to dry.
The stacking stand has 4 parts. There is an oval base, 2 swords, and the C-Pin. See illustration above. You do not need to glue it together, in fact it is nice to take the stacking stand all apart and store it inside the game box.
Push the short end “handles” of the 2 swords into the 2 square holes in the oval base.
Push the tab that extends from the oval base into the end slot so it enters inside the box. The tab will line up with the square holes inside the box so you can lock it all down using the C-Pin. Stack game pieces on the sword pegs.
The pyramid dice have two parts. Push the tab in a small triangle into the square hole in the center of a larger triangle. Make sure you put it in correctly making a 4 sided pyramid, it’s easy to get it wrong. The inner edge of the small triangle should never extend beyond the edge of the large triangle. Once you figure it out, glue the tabs into place so you have 4 pyramid dice.
Paint 7 game pieces red, paint the other 7 blue. (or any 2 colors you wish.)
Decorate the game board or leave it as is.
I also include a file for Casting Sticks, but they must be laser cut on 1/4″ thick material (the game is cut from 1/8″ wood.) I prefer to use bright colored acrylic for that plastic dice feel.
I have a ton more info, photos, excited crazy ranting, etc. at: http://JEMTOY.com/game-of-ur
SVG file is available for download as soon as payment has processed.
Feel free to customize this design. Commercial use is OK, but please do not resell the SVG you downloaded. Thanks!
I use the free program Inkscape to design these SVG files (download at: inkscape.org). If you need any other format other than SVG you will need to open the SVG in Inkscape and SAVE AS > (choose: PDF, DXF, etc...) I also teach a course called: Learn Inkscape For Glowforge. Using this course you could customize these designs. The details are on my web site: JEMTOY.com
NOTE: Do not open this SVG file in CorelDraw. You must download the free program from Inkscape.org and use Inkscape to modify this SVG file.
Please favorite my shop while you are here. Thanks so much. Jay from JEMTOY.