Ur can turn into a surprisingly tense, nail-biting game regardless of players' relative level. It replaced bridge as one of the pastimes at maths division for most of my senior year, and thank god for that. We used whatever as tokens and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone there who was unable to draw the board on a random piece of paper.
It's a combination of having a relatively small group of people and a common gaming/rec area with donated board games. Sooner or later you'd see people playing, ask what's that, get a crash-course and start playing yourself. It has the advantage over most games in that all you need is 4 coins, 7 tokens per player, and a sheet of paper to draw the board on. Dunno how it got started, but that could have been anything from an article to some youtube video. One of the people I know from hackathons. It's a combination of strategy and luck. You might be winning 6 to 4 only to have your opponent get a hot streak and even the odds. As long as the game is going, you can only guesstimate winner, and I like that kind of flow a lot. Though, honestly, it's a great game to watch other people play. I'd be amazed if it turned out that ancient Babylonians or whoever weren't placing bets on ongoing games, cause that something I saw some students doing. Try it yourself: https://www.yourturnmyturn.com/java/ur/index.php Not as often, but won't say no to a challenge. :PReally? How'd you all get into playing Ur?
Who introduced it to you?
What's the appeal?
Do you still play it?