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The Canonical List of Free Print-and-Play Games M-P
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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, demoware, etc.), a short summary, and the website where it is available. All summaries are either taken directly from the designer's/publisher's website or from the rules. 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_m.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_n.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_o.html http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_p.htmlLinks to the other Canonical Lists of Free Print-and-Play Games: 0-9: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...A-D: 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...Q-T: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...U-Z: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
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The items in this GeekList are ordered by average rating
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Posted Sun May 29, 2005 12:09 am
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Operation: SEALION-1940
Designer: Brandon Gajda
Free
'Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no sign of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England and, if necessary, carry it out. The aim of this operation will be to eliminate the English homeland as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and if necessary, to occupy it completely' -- Adolf Hitler, July 1940
It is the year 1940. France has surrendered. The British and the remains of the French Army have retreated across the English Channel. Germany now controls the whole of Western Europe. The United Kingdom stands alone, waiting for the Germans to strike. Hitler approves plans for an upcoming invasion of the United Kingdom. A plan called Operation: SEALION. The invasion of the United Kingdom is about to begin!
Whether or not an invasion of Britian would have been successful is open to debate. This scenario takes place in late September 1940 and relies on a few actions that the Germans would have to take before an invasion would prove feasible. First, that Hitler would not order the bombings of London as he did in early September which gave the badly beaten RAF the breathing room it needed to regain control of the skies over Britian. The Luffwaffe would need to continually pound RAF bases in order to continually reduce the number of ready RAF fighters. Second, that the German Navy would be able to protect the invasion force traveling from Calais, Le Harve, and Cherbourg to the English coast across the Channel. This would require the mining of the east and west flanks of the crossing as well as sending the U-Boats on search and destroy missions against the Royal Navy. Third, that even though the RAF would be seriously reduced with continued bombing of airfields and plane factories, the Luffwaffe would need to be able to maintain air superiority over the invasion beachheads in order to protect the slow-moving invasion force. Even with all of these factors favoring the Wehrmacht, it is still up for grabs whether the invasion would succeed.
http://axisandallies.metalsaber.com/SeaLionMain.htm
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The Pod Racer Miniatures Game
Designer: Thane Morgan
Publisher: Thane's Games
Free
This game lets you use miniature figures of Star Wars Pod Racers to run your own pod races. Any number of players can play at once. You can play anywhere that you can set up a bunch of obstacles to fly through. The course can be made with rocks and sticks, with books and cans and boxes, or furniture or whatever you have available. You can also make cool terrain pieces out of styrofoam.
Circuit/Career rules and variants are also available on the website.
http://www.thanesgames.com/other/pod.html
http://www.thanesgames.com/other/othermain.html
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A (very) quick playing real-time rummy style game the aim in Pest Control is to clear your hand of pests (cards) before the other players.
Players have a hand of 7 cards, which they play down by making nests (melds) of 3 or more cards either of the same type or in sequential order, i.e. a run. Cards may also be added to nests played by any player. On their turn players either pick up a card off the draw deck or the entire discard pile, they then discard a card. However cards may be played down by any player at any time during their turn or other players turns,in other words the game can end at any point, meaning you have to keep a close eye on what the other players are doing and how many cards they have left. Cards left in the hand score negative points, the person with the lowest points at the end of the game is the winner.
Pest Control is a print & play game by myself and my wife which can be tried out first with an ordinary pack of cards if you are only playing 2-4 players - instructions here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/404942
To make the full game all you need to do is to make two decks of 52 using this album:
http://www.artscow.com/ShareAlbum.aspx?Key=phz8xot8
Rules can be found here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/42356
Hope you enjoy the game, any feedback or comments would be appreciated.
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4.
Board Game: Microbe
[Average Rating:7.60 Unranked]
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Operation: Iraqi Freedom - 2003
Designer: Brandon Gajda
Free
Operation: Iraqi Freedom took only three weeks for the Coalition to conquer Baghdad thus bringing the tyrannical reign of Saddam Hussein to a close. It seemed that the demoralized army in Iraq had no chance against the superiority of American technology. Or did it? Could Saddam have held out against the United States, inflicting unexpected loss of life that would send weak-kneed diplomats to sue for peace? Or would the United States finish the job by not only removing Saddam, but eliminating all foreign fighters and resistance units thorough the country and securing Iraq as the first democracy in the region?
http://axisandallies.metalsaber.com/Iraqmain.htm
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Piecepack
Designer: James Kyle
Publisher: Mesomorph Games, IcePack Games
Free/Public Domain
Flexible. Portable. Affordable. Public domain. The piecepack is a set of boardgame parts that can be used to design and play a wide variety of games. Anyone may design and publish a piecepack rule set. Any manufacturer or individual may produce piecepacks.
The Piecepack Games page lists the rule sets currently available. The list is not static, new rule sets are being added all the time. If you want to know when rule sets are added or updated, you can either check back occasionally or join the Piecepack Forum at Yahoo Groups.
Anyone is free to make their own piecepack.
http://www.piecepack.org/
http://www.piecepack.org/PiecepackGames.asp
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7.
Board Game: Nile
[Average Rating:7.35 Unranked]
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NILE
Designer: Daniel Callister
Publisher: self-published
FREE
This is a card game that's easy to play, and full of strategy and frustrations. Free to print and play. Tell me what you think!
download here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40119
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Marchands d'Empire (English title: Merchants of Empire, Commercial name: Himalaya)
Designer: Régis Bonnessée
Publishers: Hexagames, Tilsit
No longer available on website
From the BGG entry:
This game was freely available for download; as a commercial version has been published the author has removed the material from the web site. The commercial version has been produced by Tilsit in 2004 and published with the name Himalaya.
Each player is a rich merchant trying to extend his influence in the religious, political and economic spheres; the stakes are nothing less than the Emperor's favour. The context is a fantasy kingdom.
The game seems inspired by various classics: Elfenland for the movement rules, Euphrat and Tigris for the multiple influence scores and the victory conditions, El Grande/San Marco for the regional influences, Roborally for the simultaneous turn 'programming', etc.
This game is no longer available on the Hexagames website.
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Thank you, Joseph. 
Oh No, There Goes Tokyo!
Designer: Matthew Nadelhaft
“Oh No, There Goes Tokyo!” is a multi-player combat game in which each of 2-4 players controls a segment of Tokyo under attack by the dreaded Godran, Self-Appointed Emperor of Monsters. Players must protect their areas from the rampaging monster by deploying units of the national guard while at the same time evacuating tasty populace units. As key production units in each sector are destroyed by Godran, the players’ resources dwindle.
“Oh No, There Goes Tokyo!” (Also known as ON,TGT!) contains a fold-out map that represents a hypothetical section of downtown Tokyo. The game includes a set of counters representing Godran, destroyed buildings, the national guard in four colors and populace units in four colors. Also included are a small selection of cards - representing potential origin points for Godran and hair brained schemes to control the beast.
Available for download from its BGG entry.
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Princes of the East
Publisher: The Perfect Captain
Free
A complete campaign for the period immediately after the First Crusade!
Choose a state, build an army, a privy council, a spy ring, find loyal and mercenary generals. It's all here:
http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/captain.html
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The files to download this as a print-and-play just went up . It's my newest baby (or monster) and is meant to feel like an old Metagaming of Task Force SF wargame. Mine-Shaft Gap (hmm, that shortens to MSG...) is a tactical combat and mining game that takes place above, on, and below ground on a lifeless, rocky planetoid. The alternate title could be "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
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Mesopotamia: Birth of Civilisation
Designer: Garry Stevens
Free
Mesopotamia follows the rise and fall of twenty nations from the Sumerians to the Persians over two thousand years of history. It purloins freely from those wonderful classic games Civilisation, History of the World, and Ancient Conquests, to which I owe a huge debt. The game is more historical than Civilisation, but less world-encompassing than History of the World (HOTW). The basic system is that of History of the World, but with one very significant difference.
http://www.archsoc.com/games/Mesopotamia.html
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micropul
Designer: Jean-Francois Lassonde
self published
free
micropul is a strategic & tactical tile-laying game in which players are scientists trying to extract precious micropul matter from an energy core. It can be played as a solitaire puzzle or competitively.
http://neutralbox.com/micropul/
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15.
Board Game: Ogre
[Average Rating:6.86 Overall Rank:448]
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Ogre Lite
Designer: Steve Jackson
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Demo
From the BGG entry:
OGRE [is a] tactical ground combat games set in the not-so-distant future. In 2085 A.D., armored warfare continues - faster and deadlier than ever. Hovercraft, tanks and infantry slug it out with tactical nuclear devices. But the most feared weapon of all needs no human guidance. It's giant cybernetic tank called the OGRE.
Steve Jackson has released a lite version of Ogre for download on the Steve Jackson Games website.
http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/resources/
http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/resources/ogrelite.pdf
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Free to play brutal arena action, all you need to play is a 4 a4 sides for the board, the rules fit on 4 pages and a character scroll.
Its needs d10, d12, and d20 sided dice but you can get dice emulators online.
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The Mayor of Hooverville
Designer: Ted Torgerson
Free
BGG entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20927
It’s October 1931 in Seattle Washington, and you’ve had a tough couple of years. The Stock Market crash of ’29 brought on hard times. You lost your job last year when the lumber mill shut down. Nobody’s hiring. The local bank where you kept your money saved made loans to those businesses that were shutting down. Depositors panicked and there was a run. The bank went into receivership, and your savings were wiped out. With no job and no savings you couldn’t make your house payment, and your mortgage was foreclosed on. Like millions of Americans you find yourself jobless, penniless, homeless.
Down by the Port, on the site of the old shipyard, some men are gathering supplies for winter: cardboard boxes, tarpaper, firewood. You have decided to join their shantytown and to try to start again.
Who will eat the most food? Who will wear the least tattered clothes? Who will live in the finest hovel? Who will become The Mayor of Hooverville?
Rules and printable components can be downloaded from the game's BGG entry:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20927
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Mountain Climber
Designer: Craig Blumer
Free
Mountain Climber is a "push-your-luck" dice game, but everyone is playing at all times with no boring waiting between turns. Each Mountain Climber is racing to be the first to the top. However, mountain climbing is tricky business -- taking risks is necessary to climb the mountain, but push it too far and you tumble backwards. The best balance of luck and risk wins the game.
Mountain Climber is for 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and older.
Downloads are available on BGG or
http://gamesfortravel.wetpaint.com/page/Mountain+Climber
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Operation Whirlwind
Designer: Brian Train
Publisher: Microgame Design Group
Free
The Hungarian Revolution of October 1956 took nearly everyone involved in it by surprise. In a few hours, a Stalinist-style secret police state installed by the Soviet Union fell and was replaced by a revolutionary government, nominally Communist but committed to political reform. The hope of Imre Nagy, the new Hungarian President, was to win a bloodless victory, through securing some kind of 'separate but equal' status inside the Warsaw Pact for his country - something similar to that enjoyed by Yugoslavia. His attempts to reduce or eliminate the domination of Hungary by the Soviet Union by diplomatic means and appealing to its own people and the international community for legitimacy showed this was not an impossible goal. The initial Soviet intervention in late October had actually failed and the troops were withdrawn, but scant days later negotiations failed and the military forces of the Soviet Union intervened massively once again to extinguish the renegade government. The operation was codenamed Operation Whirlwind.
Operation Whirlwind is a historical game on street battles between Hungarian rebels and Soviet invaders in November 1956. The game scale uses 8 hours per turn and units are roughly platoon to regiment scale.
http://wsmf.org/countermoves/Wip/mdc2002/OperationWhirlwind/
Also available in a 11.2MB zip file with all of the Microgame Design Contest 2002 games:
http://wsmf.org/countermoves/Wip/mdc2002/mdc2002.zip
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The root of all evil... but you can call me cookie.
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Would have to add this as it's free and can be print-and-played. Download the .PDF file from the BGG section for it.
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For a simple and quick cardgame for two, you can freely print and play my little boxing game called Punch!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20302
Make sure you play the advanced variant with card drafting as this is a bit more challenging than the simple game.
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Panzer Grenadier
Designer: Uncredited
Publisher: Avalanche Press Ltd.
Free
If you’ve never experienced our most popular game series, here’s your chance to get in on the fun for free. We’ve got everything you need here to play the Panzer Grenadier series, with some (well, a lot of) assembly required.
There are two scenarios, drawn from the upcoming Panzer Grenadier: Eastern Front. You’ll need to download the rules, scenarios and charts. The map is in two pieces. The counters will need to be downloaded, printed out, and mounted on cardboard.
http://www.avalanchepress.com/PlayPG.php
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Although produced by SPI, this one has always been free. It was meant to introduce new gamers to the hobby (or the linear warfare genre, if not already inclined). Now available as a free download, look in the BGG entry.
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Puzzle Train is a boardgame 'german type' (puzzle slide-game) for 4 players design by José Carlos de Diego Guerrero, based in Puzzle Railroad pc-game by XD Games and it is a crossover of Mississippi Queen and Carcassonne. This game was published in the magazine Tabula #6 (in spanish).
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25.
Board Game: Olix
[Average Rating:6.34 Unranked]
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Reiner Knizia'sOLIX, 2 Player Abstract strategy game, is downloadable from http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/olix.htm
This link at the geek entry for OLIX is called Games of Soldiers OLIX...as in "Sod this for a game of soldiers"?
Anyway, we love it and used pennies and dimes as pieces before we got some Go stones cheap.
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Posted Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:41 pm
