|
The Canonical List of Free Print-and-Play Games A-D
|
|
|
The 'list' is a work in progress -- it is my goal that every single game that is freely available on the internet will be listed here. A lofty goal, to be sure, but a noble one.... Since there are literally hundreds of free games available on the internet, I've decided to break the list into alphabetical chunks. The format I'm using is pretty simple -- name, designer, publisher, status (free, shareware, demo, etc.), a short summary, and the website where it is available. All summaries are either taken directly from the designer's/publisher's website, from the rules, or from the BGG entry. Any references to 'me' or 'I' refer to the designer, not yours truly... Feel free to add to the list, but please only add games that have been released to the public by their designer or publisher -- don't add games that could be made for free using details and rules found on the internet but are actually commercially-published games. Also, please don't add public domain games such as chess, backgammon, poker, etc -- this would make the list unwieldy, to say the least. Also, if you have played any of these games, please leave your comments. A version of this list is also available at: http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/canonical_list.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_a.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_b.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_c.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_d.htmlLinks to the other Canonical Lists of Free Print-and-Play Games: 0-9: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...E-H: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...I-L: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...M-P: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...Q-T: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...U-Z: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
|
|
The items in this GeekList are ordered by average rating
|
Posted Sat May 28, 2005 9:20 pm
|
|
|
|
|
From the rules: "Chevauchee (translated: 'War Ride') is a simple card-based medieval battle game for 2 players. Players draw cards from several decks to form a Base Force made up of Household units, Commanders, Tactics Cards, Mercenaries, Levies, and Weapons and Equipment. Players can then allocate funds from the war chest to get additional Mercenaries, Levy, or Weapons and Equipment to customize their armies further. Players then proceed to deploy for two combats, the Van, which is an abbreviated engagement, and the Main, which is the heart of the game. Victory goes to the side that sweeps the battlefield of all opposing units by the end of any Main Combat Round (not Van)."
|
|
|
|
Battle Leader Tactics (BLT)
From the Rules:
"Have you ever wanted to match the tactical brilliance of Napoleon versus the charismatic sheer will to succeed of Alexander the Great? Do you want to see how Caesar’s ingenuity flourishes with the use of mechanized infantry or missiles? How about seeing Genghis Kahn flying in low over the steppes to terrorize his opponents with attack helicopters? Go into battle with some of the most feared and successful military leaders of all time. Use the same tactics they used to win their battles. Fight with the military forces revered throughout history. All this is possible with the abstract wargame--Battle Leader Tactics (BLT)."
BLT is a component and introductory game for the Battles Leaders Tactics & Technology (BLTT) master game. BLTT is an abstract wargame that depicts some of the greatest military leaders (e.g., Alexander, Napoleon, Caesar, etc.) commanding historical units in some of the world most decisive battles (e.g., Megiddo, Zama, Hastings, Waterloo, etc.) using proven tactics of history. BLT serves as a basic game introducing players to the interaction between army units, leaders and tactics. BLT allows players to command standard troops (e.g, infantry, cavalry, artillery and guard) and special military units (e.g., 300 Spartans, Panzer Army Afrika, etc.) with historic military leaders using real tactics and fog of war--all without any dice. The primary resolution engine for the game is housed in the Tactics Results Chart (TRC), which compares tactics selected by the players and determines losses, if any, of army units.
Components:
21 Leader Cards
24 Tactics Cards (12 for each player)
28 Army Cards (14 for each player)
10 Special Army Cards
1 Tactics Results Chart
1 Rules Booklet
1 Leader Card Explanation Sheet
Available on BGG.
|
|
|
|
BrickQuest
Designer: Peter Guenther
Free
BrickQuest is a game of small-scale fantasy combat similar to HeroQuest, Warhammer Quest, or MageKnight Dungeons. It requires at least two players to play and can be played easily by four to six players.
One player takes on the role of the BrickMaster. His job is to create, using construction blocks, a variety of dungeon rooms in which the game will take place, and creatures to inhabit them. Ideally these rooms will be modular so they can be added to the table one at a time as players enter them or get sight of them.
The remaining players will play heroic characters who enter the dungeon in pursuit of gold and glory.
Since BrickQuest is a boardgame, it uses a higher level of abstraction than roleplaying games. Rather than trying to capture all the nuances of fantasy combat, it uses simplified rules for quick and balanced play.
http://www.brickquest.com/brickquest/
|
|
|
|
Deadly Harmony is a game that attempts to capture the spirit of old Shaw Bros. Kung-Fu movies and the fighting games of the early 90's (Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown, et al). Players keep hands of cards, and play them simultaneously. These cards are balanced in Rock-Paper-Scissors fashion so that in the midst of combat the psychological heart of the game unfolds; the player must outwit their opponent, by looking for tells, bluffing, and knowing their adversary better than he knows himself.
|
|
|
|
Alphabet Runner
Designer: Rasib Khan
Publisher: Alphabet Runner Ltd.
Commercial/Free for personal use only
From the 'Press Releases' forum on BGG:
It’s more than just a game – it’s a battle of wits where imaginations are fired and words are the weapons of choice.
recommended age 4+
The alphabet cards are available in upper and lower case Alphabet to download and print out. (recommended paper 260gm photo paper). The cards can be used to play snap, pairs and various other games or create your own card games yet remain educational.
The word game: recommended age 8+
Play one on one by dealing five cards each, choose one of the four colours Green, Red, Blue, or Yellow as your player colour. Using the alphabet letters on your 5 cards plus any other letters matching your player colour, create and memorize or write down the longest word possible. Simple!!!
Play without the board using just the cards: Home, Train, Plane, Airport, park etc.
Free Educational cards and game for personal use only.
http://www.alphabetrunner.com/without_flash/index_wflash.htm...
|
|
|
|
Canvas Eagles
Designer: Eric Hotz
Free
Sweep the skies free of the dreaded Fokker scourge!
Lead the Flying Circus in a Jabo over the Allied trenches!!
Canvas Eagles is a multi-player air combat game set in the time of World War One 1914-1918. Canvas Eagles provides the details of aerial combat: how the aircraft fly, and how they fight. Players then choose their aircraft and fight out their encounters using 1/72nd or 1/144th scale model aircraft.
http://www.generalissue.com/canvas.html
|
|
|
|
Alien City
Designer: Michael Schoessow
Free
You Need:
Portions of a piecepack and some Ice House pyramids as follows:
* 20 piecepack tiles, consisting of any five of each suit (5 red, 5 blue, 5 green, 5 black).
* 24 piecepack tokens (6 each of red, blue, green, and black).
* 4 piecepack dice.
* 14 large Ice House pyramids, 5 red, 5 blue, and 4 green.
* 6 small Ice House pyramids, 3 red and 3 blue.
Alien City is a game that is set in the far future and concerns the building of a city on a newly colonized world. Society in this distant time is divided into four powerful guilds. These are the Energy Guild (symbolized by a red sun), the Synthesis Guild (symbolized by a blue fountain), the Control Guild (the most powerful guild of all, symbolized by a green crown), and the Builder's Guild (symbolized by a black tool---yes, that's how tools look in the far future).
Cities in this future contain two types of structures; towers and domes. Towers are owned by the various guilds. These are the power plants (energy), factories (synthesis), and government facilities (control). Domes are smaller structures used to house the citizens. As with the towers, domes are always associated with a particular guild. Both towers and domes are color-coded to identify guild affiliation; red for energy, blue for synthesis, green for control, and black for builders.
Each of the guilds wants their towers positioned close to the towers and domes of other guilds (their customers) and far away from their own other towers (to avoid competing with other towers of their own guild). Location, location, location! Some things never change, even in the distant future.
The Builder's Guild is unique because there are no Builder's Guild towers, i.e., no black towers. Instead, the Builders are compensated for their efforts by being given the profits of some of the other guild's towers that the Builders choose as they construct the city.
The players in this game are competing builders working to construct the city. At the same time they are choosing towers for themselves that they hope will be profitable with lots of close customers and little competition. The choices must be made with care because each builder may only choose three.
Red, blue, and green large Ice House pyramids are used for the towers, and piecepack tokens with the suit side up represent red, blue, green, and black domes. The land area of the city is defined by a 4X5 array of piecepack tiles, suit side up, with each tile representing four building sites. The game-play consists of the players alternating turns, placing a tower or dome each turn until either all available towers and domes have been placed or until there are no legal construction sites remaining within the city. Then scores are determined based upon the relative positions of the towers and domes.
http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/AlienCity
|
8.
Board Game: Decktet
[Average Rating:7.64 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
The '''Decktet''' is a 36-card deck of cards in 6 suits. Each suit has 10 cards, because most of the cards are double-suited. Most of the cards also employ the pairing of suits thematically, providing a tarot-style name and illustration. The game system is released under an open license.
|
|
|
|
From the BGG entry (edited):
--
Astromachia is a starship combat simulation boardgame for two or more players.
Astromachia is distinguished from other games in this genre by three features: fast, highly interactive play; realistic Newtonian movement; and a strong sense of three-dimensionality.
Players alternate taking very simple actions, such as maneuvering, angling shields, or firing a weapon. This prevents long waits for a chance to do something.
Movement follows Newton's laws of motion. A ship doesn't always move in the direction it is facing. Furthermore, if a ship gets going too fast in one direction, it has to turn around and fire its engines to slow down.
Astromachia is fully three-dimensional. Ships can fly at different altitudes, and can move up or down as easily as moving north, south, east, or west. (These directions are with reference to the local star system, not to a planet.) A ship can have any of 24 different orientations, and is damaged differently depending on whether the damage is coming from the fore, aft, port, starboard, dorsal, or ventral side.
--
The game includes 10 different ship designs - ranging from fighters to leviathans, 5 scenarios and ship design rules.
The rules are available under the BGG "files" section, and the playing pieces and board are scanned images in the "images" section. Alternative play aids and a ship design aid are also available from the files section.
|
|
|
|
From the Rules:
"Have you ever wanted to build a basketball dynasty to rival that of Wooden’s legendary UCLA teams? How about experiencing the thrill of recruiting, developing and a starting a team of Champions? What about trying to improve a run-of-the-mill team into a tournament team, all while trying to keep your job? You can do all of these things a more in Basketball Dynasty—in under an hour.
Basketball Dynasty is a game about recruiting and developing college basketball players, while trying to qualify for the tournament and win a championship. Each player acts as the head coach of a college basketball team and has 12 years to win as many games, go to as many tournaments and win as many championships as possible. As the coach, you determine who to recruit (do you want solid season performers or the star who can win in the big game), who to develop, who to start and bench, and what style of team do you want (e.g., a group of 'team players' or bunch of talented 'individuals' who happened to play on the same team)."
Components:
1 Six-Sided Die
1 Rules Book
1 School Rating Chart
1 Coach Record Sheet
14 School Roster Boards
25 Red Chips
150 Blue Chips
168 Player Counters (General Supply)
|
11.
Board Game: Chunky Fighters
[Average Rating:7.24 Unranked]
[Average Rating:7.24 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
A print-and-play dice game where humorous characters fight it out in an all or nothing brawl.
Players choose their brawler and roll to determine hit points and weapons. Each character is made of four dice: a head, a body, some legs, and a weapon. Fighting involves rolling damage and hit location dice. As characters take damage, their body parts show the remaining hit points until finally destroyed.
In addition to the traditional attack, players can choose to change weapons, disarm the opponent, make called shots for increased damage or to heal their character's body parts.
Destroy your opponent's head or body to win the game!
This game was created as a submission for the print-and-play dice game contest here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/405493
|
|
|
|
Big Mama is out of the house, so the Mice of the Cheese Chasers are out Chasing Cheese. Fat Cats are on guard, ready to pounce and devour the Cheese Chasers. Help the Mice surround the Cheese and break the Mousetraps so that they can get to the Cheese and be the top Cheese Chasers around!
Cheese Chasers is a SOLITAIRE OR MULTI-PLAYER, FREE PNP card game that I designed, takes 1-10 minutes to play. Printable on 3 pgs of 8.5" x 11" (that includes the pocketmod rule booklet). It can be played Cooperatively OR Competitively.
Show everyone how you are the top Cheese Chasers around by posting your HIGH score at the Scores Thread.
Scores Thread: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/386572
|
13.
Board Game: Chicago
[Average Rating:7.25 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
Chicago
Designer: Ted Torgerson
Free
Chicago is an auction game based on a poem by Carl Sandburg. It takes place from 1871 until about 1910, an exciting time of change when America was transformed from an agrarian to an industrial economy. You and your fellow players have come to seek fortune and glory in rebuilding Chicago. You will strive to become giants of industry and commerce. You will help settle immigrants who will work for your businesses. You will use your profits to engage in philanthropy to create cultural landmarks in a contest to see who will become the grandest person in Chicago.
Rules and printable components can be downloaded from the game's BGG entry.
|
|
|
|
solo dice game, kind of a fantasy-themed Yahtzee. Your party of heroes will face several encounters in a dungeon. Only needs a player sheet and some dice.
|
15.
Board Game: BrikWars
[Average Rating:7.21 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
BrikWars
Designer: Mike Rayhawk
Free
BrikWars is a miniatures wargame, which means that players pit miniature models of military units in simulated combat against each other. Much like chess, except a lot funnier.
Unlike more serious wargames, BrikWars is intended for battles between toys, and especially plastic building bricks and other construction toys. The BrikWars rules let players take turns moving toy troops and toy vehicles through toy terrain to attack one another with toy weapons and die horrifying toy deaths.
The game places no limits on what kinds of units and terrain can be constructed, or on what types of toys can be used, although the brick construction toys produced by The LEGO® Company are an overwhelming favorite.
http://www.brikwars.com/
|
16.
Board Game: Druid
[Average Rating:7.15 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
Druid
Designer: Cameron Browne
Free
From the BGG entry:
Two sects of Druids want to build a monument on the same sacred site, however there is some conflict. The followers of Horizontus believe that the monument should track the sun from the East horizon to the West horizon to worship the passing days, while the followers of Verticalus believe that the monument should track the sun from the North to the South to worship the passing seasons.
On a square board players take turns placing cubes (sarsens) which may be played on the ground or on any piece of your color, and (3x1) rectangles (lintels) which can be placed in such a way that they are support by two blocks of your color. The simplest configuration therefore resembles a mini Stone Henge (hence the name).
The space in between can be empty or occupied by a piece of either color.
One player is attempting to connect the top and bottom of the board and the other player the left and right edges. Connectivity is judges as seen from above so that higher pieces can cut the connection of lower ones.
The game has several variants including a version played on a hex grid (also playable by three) and both the hexagonal and square versions have a 'Druid's Walk' variation in which an additional piece represents a druid out for a stroll.
|
|
|
|
BrickMech
Designer: Peter Guenther
Free
BrickMech is a d6-based game where Mechs built of LEGO® bricks vie for ultimate control of the battlefield. Constructed in a unique modular system, Mechs can scavenge parts blown off other Mechs to improve their stats. The game is designed to be a rich gaming experience that's simple to play.
http://www.brickmech.com/brickmech/
|
|
|
|
Deck Deck Revolution
Designer: Aitor G Guridi
Free
A cardgame about japanese dancing videogames.
Can be downloaded directly from BGG.
60 poker-sized cards and a rulebook.
|
|
|
|
Refight Trafalgar. Naval rules in English and Portuguese. All files downloadable from game page.
|
|
|
|
Napoleonic card game for 2 - 6 players. Rules in Portuguese and English. All files can be downloaded from the game's page.
|
|
|
|
Napoleonic card game for 2 players. Rules in Portuguese and English. All files can be downloaded from the game's page.
|
|
|
|
Tile game about building roads, oddly enough. Rules and tiles freely downloadable from the game's page.
|
|
|
|
Here's my entry for a free P&P game. Published option available in March.
A train game with some card playing mechanics with resource management.
|
24.
Board Game: Cold War
[Average Rating:6.88 Unranked]
|
|
|
|
Cold War
Designer: Nicolas Normandon
Publisher: Hexagames
Language: French
Free
At last peace has arrived... But it is evident that our old allies are profiting from the peace to arm themselves, sign alliances with the enemies with plans of invasion!!! As a president, it is your duty to make the first move on the other countries. It is necessary to act and to quickly! Cold War is a strategy game of bluff and diplomacy for 3 to 5 players, from 14 years. A game lasts about 1 hour.
http://www.hexagames.com/coldwar.htm
|
|
|
|
CromoGnomo
Designers: Andrea Angiolino, Roberto Cestaro, Claudio Del Pizzo, Emiliano Liverani, Giovanni Galanti, Silvano Sorrentino
Publisher: daVinci Games
Free
CromoGnomo is a game for four players, playing in two teams of two players each, that deals with four painter gnomes.
Each gnome/player begins the game with the same hand of twelve "colour" cards. During his turn, each player either plays in the bucket one of his card, or passes. The colours in the bucket blend to form other colours: at the end of each round, one of the team may score points if the resulting colour is one of his favourites.
An elegant and fun card game created during the event "Create a Game from Scratch" (Gradara Ludens 2003)
http://www.davincigames.com/page_eng.cfm?sez=03&gioco=cromog...
|
|
|
Posted Thu Oct 9, 2008 1:27 pm
What a lot of work you put in to produce these geeklists!
RESPECT
http://gratis.labsk.net
Nothing to print except the rules, so maybe not technically print and play.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1567