Royal Game of Ur

I recently saw a video of a curator at the British Museum explaining the Royal Game of Ur, a 5,000 year old game from Mesopotamia.

Click to play video

The game is similar to backgammon - though much older. It uses playing pieces, a type of dice, and players remove opponents pieces by landing on them following a roll of the dice.

RULES:
The Game
1. Each player has seven play pieces; one set is white with five black dots and the other is black with five white dots. The game board is composed of two rectangular sets of squares, one containing three rows of four squares each and the other containing three rows of two squares each, joined together by a common “narrow bridge” of two squares.

2. Moves are determined by rolling a set of four four-sided, tetrahedron-shaped dice. Two of the four corners of each die are marked and the other two are not. The number of marked ends facing upwards after a roll of the dice indicates how many spaces a player may move during that turn.

3. The object of the game is for a player to move all seven of their pieces along the course of the board, then off the board before their opponent. When a piece is on one of the player's own squares, it is safe from capture, but when it is on one of the eight squares in the middle of the board (the shared lane), the opponent's pieces may capture by landing on the same space. This sends the piece back off the board so that it must be restarted from the beginning. This means there are six “safe” squares and eight “combat” squares.

4. When a player rolls a number using the dice, they may choose to move any of their pieces on the board or add a new piece to the board if they still have pieces that have not entered the game. There can never be more than one piece on a single square at any given time.  If a player cannot make a valid move then play passes to the opponent.

5. A player is not required to capture a piece every time they have the opportunity. Players are required to move a piece whenever possible, even if it results in an unfavorable outcome.

6. If a piece lands on the space with the rosette, it is safe from capture. When a piece lands on any of the three rosettes, the player gets an extra roll.

7. In order to move a piece off the board, a player must roll exactly the number of spaces remaining until the end of the course plus one. If the player rolls a number any higher than this number, they may not remove the piece from the board.

7 Wonders

This game for 3 to 7 players was created by Antoine Bauza in 2010 and originally published by Repos Production in Belgium. 7 Wonders is a card drafting game set around constructing the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Resources are traded to enhance your resource holdings while building your wonder; miltary strength is an additional element. The game is one of the highest rated games on the board game discussion website BoardGameGeek. It has won a total of more than 30 gaming awards, including the inaugural Kennerspiel des Jahres connoisseurs' award in 2011. The game has been cited by leading designers as one of the most influential board games of the last decade.

And you can add six expansions: Armada, Babel, Cities, Edifice, Leaders and Wonder Pack.

The Armada expansion is a significant addition to the game.

There is a duet version called 7 Wonders Duel, and you can add two expansions: Agora and Pantheon.

Here is a good introductory video to 7 Wonders.

Source: Wikipedia

Scotland Yard: Hunting Mr. X

This is a deduction game that involves hunting for a spy in London. One person acts as the spy while the other players are detectives on the chase.

Produced by Ravensburger, it was the 1983 Spiel des Jahres Winner.
Here is a video giving an overview of the game.

Click to view video

Scrabble

One of the most popular games of all time that was, like Monopoly, invented during the Great Depression (in 1938). Alfred Butts invented the game based on the popularity of crossword puzzles at the time.

Scrabble is produced by Hasbro.

Clue: The Classic Detective Game

In 1943, Anthony E. Pratt of Britain developed the murder-mystery game Clue (called Cluedo in Britain); commercial production began in 1949. Clue has been one of the most popular board games ever produced.

The game of Clue may have been partially developed from an older American card game called “The King of Hearts Has Five Sons.” In that game, two cards are set aside and the object of the game is to be the first to identify them. A player asks another player if he holds certain cards. If that player has any of those cards, he secretly shows one of those cards to the player who asked the question. Players could keep track of the card requests on paper. These are major aspects of playing Clue.

See this interesting article on Clue and other “deduction” games.

Originally produced by Waddingtons in the UK and Parker Brothers in the U.S. and Canada, both were bought by Hasbro. There is also a smaller card-based version than is good as a travel version of the game.

Detection Games

Detection board games have been around at least since Clue which was introduced in 1943 (though that is thought to have been partially based on a much older card game called The King of Hearts Has Five Sons). Over the years more have been created. Some use the basic Clue game play with some additions, others include more roll-play and involve each player establishing their characters, up to full roll playing games such as the How To Host a Murder series (all 18 of them).

Clue

Scotland Yard

Inkognito

Adventure Games: Monochrome Inc.

Mysterium

Covert

Detective: City of Angels

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Orient Express

Letters From Whitechapel

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Carlton House & Queen's Park
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases

221B Baker Street: The Master Detective Game

Betrayal at House on the Hill

How To Host A Murder: The Last Train From Paris

How To Host A Murder: The Last Train From Paris

Not a board game, but a role playing game in which each “player” inhabits the role of the various characters in the murder mystery. Each person has a guide outlining their characters back-story and their place in the mystery.
In this case, a murder on a luxury train reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s, Murder on the Orient Express. 

How To Host A Murder

Role guides and script with train layout

Created and produced by Decipher Inc.

Trivial Pursuit

This trivia knowledge game was invented in Canada and began production in 1981. It became one the biggest selling board games of all time, with over 100 million produced by 2014. The questions test players knowledge on six categories: history, entertainment, geography, arts & literature, science & nature, and sports & leisure.

Besides the original edition, over 80 versions and additions have been made since 1981 such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. Now produced by Hasbro.

Ticket to Ride

One of the biggest selling games of the last 15 years has been Ticket to Ride. As of 2024 18 million copies of the game have been sold. It was invented by British game designer Alan R. Moon and won many prestigious game awards in 2004 and 2005, including the 2004 Spiel des Jahres.

Game play consists in building railways to connect destinations on a map. The game is considered to be very easy to learn.

The original game was for North America (actually, the U.S. and Canada). It was followed shortly with Europe, then Germany, Rails & Sails and the Nordic Countries. Those are complete games, but there are many expansion available that provide new map boards and destination cards, variations on the rules, and sometimes additional components. (Note that the base game and most expansions are for 2-5 players, except Nordic Countries which is for 2-3 players. Numbers in brackets below indicate the player counts of the expansions that are other than 2-5.) Asia (4 or 6) & Legendary Asia, Poland (2-4), Japan & Italy, India (2-4) & Switzerland (2-3), The Heart of Africa, Nederland, United Kingdom (2-4) & Pennsylvania, France & The Old West (2-6 players). The expansion packages are used with the full (base) versions like TTR original and TTR Europe. The city based games are all stand-alone: Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York City, and San Francisco. Ticket to Ride First Journey is a beginner version geared toward younger players. TTR - The Card Game is a much smaller version that would be a good travel version of the game.

TTR has teamed with Amazon to allow Alexa to be used as an additional player for the original TTR and TTR Europe.

TTR - Original

TTR Ride Europe

TTR Rails & Sails

TTR Nordic Countries

TTR Europe map and playing pieces

TTR Original

Actor Wil Weaton has a YouTube series on board games. He has a video on the original Ticket to Ride and on Ticket to Ride Europe.

Ticket to Ride video

Ticket to Ride Europe video

Expansions card packs for the games are available called USA 1910 for the original game and Europa 1912 for the Europe game. These are larger cards (closer to standard playing card size) that add more destinations and routes and a few variations in game play. Europa 1912 expands game play even further with the addition of warehouses and depots.

USA 1910

Europa 1912

See details on all the Ticket to Ride games including downloadable rules at the Days of Wonder website.

Golf card game

Golf is a two-deck card game that is easy to learn and fun to play.

Deck: 2 decks of regular playing cards, 4 to 7 players. (Use 1 deck for 2 or 3 players; use 3 decks for 8+ players.)
Rank of cards: Jack = -2; Queen = 12; King = 0; Ace = 1; all other cards are face value.
Object of the game: to get the lowest scoring hand in 9 rounds.
Number of players: 2 and up

Play:
1. 6 cards are dealt face down to each player; players may not look at their cards. Players arrange cards in a column of three pairs.

2. Remaining cards are placed in the middle of the table and the top card is placed face up beside the deck — this will be the discard pile.

3. The first player starts play by drawing from either the discard pile or from the top of the deck.

4.a. If the player draws from the top of the deck, the card is turned over. The player can choose to use the drawn card to replace a card from his hand or discard it.
i. If the card is discarded then one card from the player’s hand must be turned face up.
ii. If the player chooses to keep the drawn card then it replaces one from the player’s hand. The drawn card can replace either a face up or face down card in the player's hand. The discarded card is placed face up on the discard pile.
The exception to point i above is if the player has only one face-down card remaining. It is then an option for the player whether or not to turn over their last card. See points 6 and 7 below.

4.b. If the player draws from the discard pile, then one card from the player’s hand must be swapped for that card and placed in the discard pile. If the card to be swapped is face down then it is turned face up and then placed on the discard pile.

5. If a player has a matched pair of cards (side by side pairs), on the next play the pair (or pairs) can be discarded, provided a card has not been drawn from the deck or the discard pile. The player then proceeds to play the turn as usual (steps 3 & 4 above).

6. If the player's last face down cards is turned up, that player is finished and the remaining players have one more turn each. All cards are then turned face up and the points are tallied.

7. If the player who first turned all cards face up does not have a lower score than all other players then 10 points are added to that player’s score.

8. If all cards are played from the deck, play ceases. All cards are turned face up and the scores are tallied.

9. Nine hands are played and the lowest cumulative score wins. 

 

Game Making

There are lots of tools available for making custom game components. From printing cards and to dice and game box organizers. Great for making PnP games and other card games.

CriCut custom cutter that can cut paper, vinyl, and other materials.

Custom dice from Board Games Maker, also game pieces and cards.

Kadomaru corner-cutter for professional looking rounded corners.

Heavy weight (65+ lb) linen paper makes good card stock, for example Southworth Linen Cover paper.

Here is a step-by-step instruction on making custom game cards.

For colour printing the Epson Ecotank is the most economical.

My game site

 

My site is looking at all things games, especially board games. Board games have grown tremendously in the last 20 years or so in both popularity and complexity. Considering the popularity of video games, there is considerable interest among younger people in their 20s and 30s for board games.

A lot of the most popular board games produced in the last 20-30 years are so-called "German-style" board games (or Eurogames) that are usually different from American, Canadian or British games.

From Wikipedia:
“A... German-style board game... is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical components. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than war games. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.”

The main international award for board games is the German Spiel des Jahres. A lot, but not all, of the Spiel des Jahres winners are Euro-style games. A good website for information on board games with descriptions and ratings is BoardGameGeeks.com. Also see Solo Board Gamer.

Games are rated for complexity which correlates to playing difficulty. BoardGameGeeks has a rating system of 1 to 5 where 3 or above is considered complex. Of the top 17 many are war games, and the only game I recognized was the ancient game of Go (at least 1500 years old) with a rating of 3.93. The game rated lowest for complexity that I saw is the card game, War.

Buying Games
Amazon usually has the largest selection of games available, though their prices are often higher than specialized game sellers, so I check them out first. The few that I regularly check are Game Shack, Boardgames.ca, 401 Games, Boardgame Bliss, Great Board Games, Wood For Sheep, and Zatu Games. They can be quite a bit below Amazon's prices but stock is limited and often back-ordered, but if it is in stock you can get it immediately. Also some have very reasonable shipping costs. Some other interesting sites are Board Game Oracle, Table Top Finder, and Board Game Prices which are consolidators that find games from multiple sellers. Located in the U.S., Noble Knight Games sells new and used games and will buy games.

For old classic and ancient games see Masters Traditional Games. They carry the Royal Game of Ur, Hnefatafl, etc.

Another source is the old brick & mortar stores: Minotaur, Mind Games, and SBT Comics & Games in Kingston. Nexus in Kingston is a game store and play room, as is Funny Bones Games Lounge & Cafe in Etobicoke. The Board Game Cafe in Halifax is both a store (storefront and online) and play room. And see the Orcs Nest in London, England.

Gamegenic make a large variety of accessories for gaming: card sleeves, card & game piece boxes, dice trays and game mats. There are also many accessories dedicated to the more popular games. Available at Nexus Hobbies, 270 Bagot St., Kingston.

X-Trayz make small plastic component cups for game play. Available online from BoardGameBliss.

Print & Play is a company that does custom printing for PnP card games.

If you can't play in person (which is ideal) you can play board games online at Board Game Arena which has 576 games. You can play with your friends or anyone world wide.

Learning Games

Learning new board games can be difficult. It is a combination of the increased complexity of current games and how so many of the instruction manuals are poorly written.

Youtube has many channels for learning to play many of the current board games. The best one is the Watch It Played channel. Rodney Smith explains how a game is played; Monique and Naveen do a play-through, and Paula Deming does a play-through of solo games.
Anther good channel with instructions on game play and play-throughs is Geek and Sundry. This channel features, among others, Will Wheaton doing instruction and play-throughs with, sometimes, celebrity guests, and Becka Scott does the same with various groups. The channel Good Time Society has many play-throughs with Becka Scott, Paula Deming and others.

Dized.com has tutorials for learning many popular games: 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Cartographers, Everdell, Expeditions, Scythe, Splendor, Splendor Dual, Terraforming Mars, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, and the Tiny Epic series.

MY GAMES

Board Games:
7 Wonders (2011 Spiel des Jahres winner)
7 Wonders Architects
7 Wonders expansions: Armada, Cities, Edifice, Leaders, Wonder Pack
7 Wonders Duel
7 Wonders Duel expansions: Agora, Pantheon
Alien: Fate of the Nostromo
Axis & Allies: 1941
Blitzkrieg!: World War Two In 20 Minutes!
Brass Birmingham
Brass Lancashire
Caesar!: Seize Rome In 20 Minutes!
Carcassonnne (2001 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Carcassonnne Big Box (w. expansions)
Cartographers
Cartographers Heroes
The Castles of Burgundy
Catan (1995 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Clue: The Classic Detective Game
Codenames (2016 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Coffee Roaster
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine (2020 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Deception: Murder In Hong Kong
Deception: Undercover Allies
Detective: City of Angels
East India Companies
Elite
Exit: The Cemetery of the Knight
Exit: Man on the Orient Express
Firefly: The Game
Firefly expansion: Artful Dodger, Esmeralda, Jetwash, Pirates & Bounty Hunters
Forbidden Desert
Forbidden Island
Friday
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Imhotep
Imhotep: A New Dynasty
Imhotep: The Duel
In a Grove
The Initiative
Inkognito: A Carnival of Spies in Venice (1988 Spiel des Jahres winner)
It's a Wonderful World
Jaipur
Jeopardy!
Kings Cribbage
London (2nd Ed.)
Mansions of Madness (2nd Ed.)
Maquis
Memoir '44
Monopoly
Mysterium
Mysterium expansion: Hidden Signs, Secrets & Lies
Mysterium Park
Obsession
On the Rocks
Pan Am: The Game
Parcheesi
Ramble: the Lake District Board Game
Ready Set Bet
The Resistance
Risk
Sabotage
Scotland Yard (1983 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Scrabble
Scythe
The Search For Planet X
The Shores of Tripoli
Splendor
Splendor Duel
Star Trek Catan
Star Trek Federation Space
Summit
Summit: Teams expansion
Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
Ticket To Ride (2004 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Ticket To Ride Amsterdam
Ticket To Ride Europe
Ticket To Ride Nordic Countries
Ticket To Ride Rails & Sails
Ticket To Ride expansion - France & Old West
Ticket To Ride expansion - India & Switzerland
Ticket To Ride expansion - Japan & Italy
Ticket To Ride expansion - The Heart of Africa
Ticket To Ride expansion - Poland
Ticket To Ride expansion - United Kingdom & Pennsylvania
Ticket To Ride deck - Europa 1912
Ticket To Ride deck - USA 1910
Tinners' Trail
Tinners' Trail Expansion Box
Tiny Epic Galaxies
Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black
Trekking the World
Trump: the Game
Turing Machine
Ultra Tiny Epic Galaxies
Undaunted: Battle of Britain
Undaunted: Normandy
Undaunted: North Africa
Undaunted: Reinforcements
Undaunted: Stalingrad
Under Falling Skies
Virtù: The Art of Governing
Wayfarers of the South Tigris
Wheel of Fortune
Wicketz

Card games:
Air, Land, & Sea
Air, Land, & Sea: Spies, Lies & Supplies
Cluedo Shuffle
Cockroach Poker
Coup
Coup Reformation
Cribbage
Deep Sea Adventure
Firefly: Tall Card
Five Crowns
The Fox in the Forest
Fugitive
Jeopardy!
Love Letter
The Mind
Monopoly Deal
Quiddler
Rivals For Catan
Rummoli
Saboteur & Saboteur: The Duel
Scout
Scrabble Slam!
Star Realms
Startups
Struggle for Catan
Sushi Go!
Valley of the Kings: Last Rites

Other Games:
Backgammon
Catan Dice Game
Checkers
Chess
Dominoes - Mexican Train
Firefly: Shiny Dice
Jenga
Hive Pocket
How To Host a Murder: The Last Train From Paris
Howzat! Cricket
Mexican Train Dominoes
Password
Pocket Games - T20 Cricket
Pocket Games - Test Cricket
Rummikub (1980 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Carlton House & Queen's Park
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & other cases