The Canonical List of Free Print-and-Play Games M-P
Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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.html
Links 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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David Hunter
United Kingdom
Newcastle-under-Lyme
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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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Jason Hauger
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
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I recently joined BGG after lurking for two years. You can read my introduction here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/437021
I recently designed my first card game (Make An Offer) and sent the files to ArtsCow for production of a few sets. I have also uploaded the card files and the rules on the BGG entry for all to print and play.
Thanks.
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Julio Trois
Brazil
Porto Alegre - Brazil
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Paris Crime Investigation - Card Game
Designer: Julio Trois
Publisher: TroisStudio
http://troisstudio.blogspot.com
Language: Portuguese
Free
"Paris: Crime Investigation" is a card game for 2 players whose theme is a criminal investigation, which seeks to identify a killer, through the administration of cards representing suspects, weapons, alibis and evidence.
Each player represents a French police investigator, who must gather as much evidence connecting each suspect to the murder, adding the maximum points possible.
The game mechanics are similar to Rummy, each player must make melds with evidence, weapons, suspects and alibis, trying to gain maximum points. In each round the player must discard one card and, if not using the strategy, this card can help your opponent to form melds and win more points.
The game also has a dose of luck, providing excitement to every round.
The game is Print & Play, and have 54 cards.
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4.
Board Game: Paraguay
[Average Rating:8.00 Unranked]
Julio Trois
Brazil
Porto Alegre - Brazil
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Paraguay - Board Game
Designer: Julio Trois
Publisher: TroisStudio
http://troisstudio.blogspot.com
Print & Play
In 1864, South America was in critical condition, in the midst of a constitutional crisis in Uruguay, Brazil invaded Uruguay in support of Venancio Flores, in response, Paraguay invaded Brazil... It was the onset of major armed conflict in the history of the continent! From 1864 to 1870 nearly half a million people lost their lives in a conflict that placed war: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
"Paraguay" is a board game for 2-4 players created by Julio Trois, whose theme is the War of Paraguay. For 10 rounds, the armies of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay must defend their cities and destroy all the defenses of Paraguay. Aiming to conquest Asunción!
"Paraguay" is a tactical game, where military strategy is very important. Each player must organize his troops, composed of tiles of infantry, cavalry and artillery. The movement is point to point, and the clashes follow the style of the best wargames, using dices and tables, for the resolution of battles.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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Kai Bettzieche
Germany
Ladenburg
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Meeplecrawl can be considered a re-theme of a better known schi-fi crawler ..
However MC offers some different as well as additional mechanics.
Meeplecrawl is a tactical dungeoncrawl where up to two parties of adventurers (each one consisting of a knight, a mage and three archers) delve into a dungeon in order to accomplish the goals of the job they got at the local tavern. Though a book with adventures will be released, players are encouraged to design their own adventures with the given dungeon elements.
Each meeple has a certain amount of action points each turn to move and fight. Combat is resolved with dicerolls.
Material needed additionally to the printable tiles:
*Meeples, Lots of them.
*5 green ones
*5 blue ones
*6 yellow ones
*24 black ones
Enjoy the crawl!
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Craig Blumer
United States
Oshkosh
Wisconsin
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An exciting co-operative game for 2-4 players. Crimes occur randomly throughout the city. The players (police) move to the crime scenes as allowed by a special movement die. Then using 5, 6-sided dice, crimes are solved if the police on the scene can roll 3 of the same number. To win, the players must solve all of the crimes before time runs out.
A relatively easy game to make: print out and mount map of Osh Vegas for the game board and assemble some dice and markers.
It has been a hit in our house with an adult and a couple of kids in the 6 to 11 year-old range.
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A simple yet subtle dice based solitaire Space Trading and Exploration game.
From the game's description page on BGG
Quote: You start the game with a credit of $10 and your aim is to earn enough money throughout the game to pay back this loan when the game ends.
You will take turns moving your Spaceship on cards laid out as a chart of the Milky Way Galaxy, discovering new Planets as you go. You will throw dice to determine what goods will be on offer at each planet. Available goods will vary from turn to turn, so buy low and sell high while the market is friendly to you. But if luck abandons you, you may be driven to Bankruptcy by greedy Pirates and zealous Customs controls (if you dare to smuggle any illegal goods).
The game ends when you turn over the last unexplored card on the Galactic Chart, or when you run out of money.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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Marc Petrequin
United States
North Carolina
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A free PNP board game adaption of Magic: The Gathering, where each player has a hidden spreadsheet to represent their library and a collection of counters (either the ones included or their own) to represent permanents in play.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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S C
Belgium
Unspecified
Unspecified
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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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Not sure this is free to P&P, but all the components can be downloaded here on BGG.
Moon Melee is an abstract strategy game in which players play cards to determine the movement of their warriors. The warriors are represented by dice and have a life force of 6.
Players take turns moving and attacking their opponents. When a warrior is reduced to a 0 life force they are removed from the game. The game takes place on a 7 X 7 square grid. The player with the most life force after 3 rounds is declared the winner.
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Matthew Nadelhaft
Scotland
Edinburgh
Scotland
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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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Steve Sisk
United States
Rochester
New York
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Access Games is proud to announce its fifth free print and play game, Pocket Pro Golf!
Tee up for the opening drive!
Pocket Pro Golf™ brings you the best aspects of real golf--club selection, careful aim, and shot consideration--in a pocket sized game that will fit in any golf bag.
Unlike many other golf games, Pocket Pro Golf™ shows you the "narrative" of each shot as it works its way down the fairway. Watch as your ball comes perilously close to each hazard. Did you plan the shot well enough to keep your ball on course?
One to four players can play anywhere from a single hole to a full round of 18 holes using a series of modular game cards. Hazards and features can be set up at random or arranged to resemble any hole from any golf course in the world.
The core of the game uses a clever movement mechanic that combines loss of control with distance. You use a number of dice to represent swing tempo (one two or three for slow, moderate and fast). Doubles and triples represent the effects of wind and slope, causing your ball to make semi-random deviations from a straight shot. Roll more dice and you're more likely to lose control and have your ball drift off course!
Rules can be found here.
Game cards here.
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Matthew Nadelhaft
Scotland
Edinburgh
Scotland
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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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Ken Boone
United States
Cleveland
Ohio
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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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22.
Board Game: Ogre
[Average Rating:6.87 Overall Rank:586]
Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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A solo Print and Play dungeon crawler.
Several of Pocket Dungeons interesting features are :
- Stealth dice. Pocket Dungeon is the first game to introduce stealth dice. If you follow the instructions presented, you can use your stealth dice that are created to play any number of different games besides Pocket Dungeon.
- The DunGen system to quickly generate a random and dynamic dungeon as your explore.
- Highly customizable. Pocket Dungeon leaves plenty of room for you to input your own content, without having to remove existing parts of the game.
- Quick and easy game play. Pocket Dungeon is designed to be played either in a single setting, or in chunks of just a few minutes as you avoid doing something more productive, like work.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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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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