The Canonical List of Free Print-and-Play Games U-Z
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, 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_u.html
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_v.html
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_w.html
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_x.html
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_y.html
http://www.runestoneit.com/~dseagraves/list_z.html
(A quick note: 0-9 entries used to be included in this list, but I decided to spin them off onto their own list. Follow the link below for the new 0-9 list.)
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...
M-P: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
Q-T: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
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1.
Board Game: Vera Cruz
[Average Rating:9.00 Unranked]
Julio Trois
Brazil
Porto Alegre - Brazil
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Vera Cruz - Board Game
Designer: Julio Trois
Publisher: TroisStudio
http://troisstudio.blogspot.com
Print & Play
The beginning of the XVI century was of great transformations in the world, previously unknown lands were discovered by European explorers adventurers ... The New World! More than "discover" it was necessary "conquest" and "colonize" ... Live as one of the early settlers who had the mission to transform the Island of Vera Cruz in what we know today as Brazil!
Vera Cruz is a board game for 2-4 players created by Julio Trois, whose theme is the colonization of Brazil. Each player is a Portuguese colonizer who must establish his colony, planting sugar cane, catechizing or enslaving Indians, to be the 1st to build the Great Mill!
The mechanics are worker placement, management and trading resources, and variable phase order.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Whistling Death
Designer: J. D. Webster
Publisher: Demo
Whistling Death covers the entire Pacific War and primarily features aircraft from the USN and IJN, with a few USAAF and JAAF planes for variety. It includes updated and expanded flight rules, and new rules covering Air-Naval actions and night-fighting. With this rules set, the player can recreate any type of aerial action, whether air-to-air, air-to-ground, or air-to-sea, by day or by night.
JD Webster has produced a 'Quick Start' set of rules. These are a slightly simplified version of the full Whistling Death rules, designed to give players a feel for the rules and how the game plays.
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mantis/FW/FW.htm
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4.
Board Game: Zaibatsu
[Average Rating:8.14 Unranked]
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The game is set in a cyberpunk future, players represent supercorporations rivals, the Zaibatsu, who struggle to obtain the domain and control of the global network of information, Cybernet and for this we serve a large number of agents, mercenaries pawns they use to achieve their targets.
Zaibatsu is a print and play cyberpunk-themed game, each player in game can move pawns, attack the pawns controlled by other players, put new hexagonal blocks to expand the modular board or gain control of the existing blocks to dominate the board and win the game
The game consists of cards, which allows variety of actions to choose, dice that add random and uncertainty to the game, and a modular board which adds replay value to the game, also each player have the opportunity to control simultaneously multiple pawns each one of them with special abilities and restrictions.
In the game will alternate turns until one player obtain a certain number of control counters over the board.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Vietnam Conflict - 1969
Designer: Brandon Gajda
Free
The US was engaged in the Vietnam Conflict from the late 1950’s until the mid 1970’s costing the lives of over 60,000 Americans and over 3,000,000 North Vietnamese, thus being the first American defeat in war. What if the American military had decided to launch an invasion of North Vietnam to force them to sue for peace? Could things have turned out differently or would things have been made even worse?
http://axisandallies.metalsaber.com/VietnamMain.htm
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João Paulo Vilas Boas
Brazil
Sao Carlos
Sao Paulo
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War in Rio is a politically incorrect wargame based in the traditional Risk. The main rules and mechanics from the classic wargame remain all the same, but the original board is replaced by one depicting the city of Rio de Janeiro. This new board is divided in 42 "favelas" - how the slums and shanty towns are called in Brazil -, which are arranged in six different sections, following the geopolitical areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
In addition, the colored armies now represent the different groups struggling to control the "wonderful city". Two colors represent the government forces: black is the "BOPE" (Special Police Operations Battalion) and blue is the "Polícia Militar" (Military Police). Three colors represent the major criminal organizations in Rio: red for "Comando Vermelho", green for "Terceiro Comando" and yellow for "Amigos dos Amigos". The white pieces represent the several other militias "Milícias" that also play a role in the urban war.
Fabio Lopez, the Brazilian designer who created the game, has already informed that he didn't intend to publish the game or even share it for free. His purpose with War in Rio was solely "to generate a discussion through a shameless invitation to enjoyment." However, such an original idea could not be ignored by Brazilian players and several anonymous fans soon joined forces to recreate the map and the cards based in the original photos posted by Lopez in his blog.
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A Spotlight on Games
United States
Bay Area
California
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Each turn, players will add and subtract cards from a shared deck. Then, players will draft cards from this deck. After players have chosen a set of cards, they will take turns playing them. In a turn, players can choose to either discard cards (in order to save ink), or to spend ink to play cards (developing plot-lines). The plots players develop will then influence the next weeks workshop, as they help players to add and remove cards from the shared deck.
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Shawn Low
Australia
Footscray
Victoria
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This is an early version of Z-Man game's Camelot Legends. In fact, it's the same game by the same creators.
Check it out. It's a little text heavy and doesn't look as nice as the production version but it's FREE!!
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Kai Bettzieche
Germany
Ladenburg
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Whack & Slaughter is a quick and brutal hack&slay-style skirmish game, that can be played with any kind of miniatures:
The common D6 becomes a charactersheet, where you distribute the strengths and weaknesses of a character by painting the pips.
Give a character up to three skills to individualize him even more and unleash him onto the battlefield.
The rules are free and the game is meant to be played with as little as 1-2 miniatures per player.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Waving Hands
Designer: Richard Bartle
Free
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5818
This is a game concerning the imaginary conflict between two powerful wizards in a duel of sorcery. The two opponents perform magical gestures with their hands to create their supernatural weapons - spells. Some spells are so potent as to be able to blind a man, call forth terrifying creatures, or even kill the unfortunate victim instantly. Consequently, each wizard must rely on his own cunning to be able to time enough defensive spells to avoid the brunt of his adversary's attack, yet deliver sufficient offensive spells of his own to crack the magical armour of his opponent, and kill the wizard outright.
The game is an attempt to capture the spirit of such a battle in as simple yet exciting way as possible. The only equipment needed is pencil, paper and opponent. Time taken varies between 15 - 30 minutes. The inventor wishes to state that he has never been involved in a magical duel but would be interested to discover how realistic the game is for those who have been involved in such a bout.
http://www.gamecabinet.com/rules/WavingHands.html
http://mud.co.uk/richard/spellbnd.htm
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11.
Board Game: Zed Deck
[Average Rating:7.32 Unranked]
Chris Fee
United States
Corning
New York
No fair! They're using brains against us! We removed our brains to make room for guns and explosives!
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Zed Deck is a solitaire game of surviving and gathering supplies in a post-zombie apocalypse world. Play time is 5 - 15 minutes. Using the optional scoring track, it is possible to play this game standing up.
Quote: It has been months since the dead rose and attacked the world of the living. At first, the survivors seemed to have the upper hand. Zombies were dangerous but slow. Working together, people were able to fight back against the shambling hordes.
And then the first full moon came after the outbreak. The slow-moving hordes of undead became raving, screaming maniacs, running down the living with a speed and ferocity that was unimaginable.
Initially, the moon frenzy lasted as long as the full moon did. Recently, however, they seem to last longer and some zombies even start to frenzy on the nights leading up to the full moon. Survivors now know to hunker down in a safe location and wait for the shrieking dead to stop and go back to their shambling existence.
That's what you were all prepared to do when your hideout got overrun by the dead. Now you are scrambling to gather enough supplies to last the full moon frenzy before the screaming dead come for you.
Files are available in the files section of the database entry.
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Nick Hayes
United States
Los Angeles
California
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A solitaire dice game played with two dice and a pencil on a black and white printout. Play as the artificer Isodoros who is attempting to reconstruct the Utopia Engine in an effort to stop the fast approaching Doomsday. With only two weeks to accomplish your task, you'll have to divide your time between scavenging the deadly wilderness for parts and feverishly working to activate and connect those parts into the Utopia Engine.
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Aitor G Guridi
Spain
Vitoria
Alava
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Vera Discordia is a fantasy warfare p&p cardgame for 2 players which plays on an imaginary board. Is not collectible, but modular: each module brings more armies to play with, for a total of 8 different armies.
The game will be free and will be licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NonDerivative Creative Commons.
To be released in 2009.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Universal Combat System
Designer: Jesse Carlucci
Publisher: 3J Games
Free
The Universal Combat System is an expandable miniatures battle system. The UCS is a system of combat rules meant for any number of players in an infinite amount of settings. The players determine what kind of universe their games will be set in, whether it's classic fantasy, sci-fi, or even modern warfare. The UCS provides the basic template for the game, and the players work out the details of what types of units will be involved in the campaigns. Players can then adjust certain rules to fit the setting and units they have chosen for their games.
http://freewebs.com/3jgames/games.html
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Elijah Lau
Singapore
Singapore
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A hex-and-counter wargame of futuristic ground combat for 2 players. Each player assembles a platoon of crawlers, walkers, and powered armor squads and equips them with nukes, stasis rays, lasers, and more. Then the platoons meet in combat where they unleash terrible powers of overwhelming destruction. The interesting bit is that units are near unkillable by direct attack. The weapons are used to destroy/transform terrain to trap enemy units.
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Zombie Plague
Designers: Skott Kilander, Brian S. Roe
Publisher: Fortress Figures, Inc.
Free
Watch zombie movies. Eat Jiffy-Pop. Drink Tang. These are the things that make me happy. Zombie movies tell stories about absolute terror. In most of them the entire world has become corrupted by hordes of rotting, walking cadavers. No place is safe, at least not forever. Eventually the zombies will break down the door and munch your guts like a fresh pan of Jiffy-Pop. But is this a reason to give up?! Heck no!
The thing I’ve always loved about zombie movies is the sheer determination that the main characters usually have in the face of such an onslaught. It’s better to go down swinging a blunted chainsaw than just to give in. I hope you choke on 'em!
Another thing I dig is miniature gaming. Superior in everyway to collectable card gaming, better than role-playing or video games, miniature gaming is still the one arena I always return to. I love my PS2 but I’ll never forget the first game of Warhammer 40000 that I ever played (back when it was good). Skott K and meself talked about a game like Zombie Plague for years over many a cup of bad Denny’s coffee. Some things changed but the basic concept remained intact. Make a simple to learn game about bashing zombies and have cool figures that you can use with it. Simple.
We’ve tried to stick to this idea with pretty good results, I think. With the growth of the Internet new areas of gaming can be explored. We can publish a game for free and let the gamers who want it use the power of their own printers to get it. We can continue to build the game as suggestions come in. We can make a game that grows. Have fun with this, please.
A couple of other things. Fortress makes cool 1” square bases that work perfectly with ZP. You can use these or cut up mat board to make square bases. These are just easier to use. Fortress also produces many other miniatures that can be used to add spice to ZP. Lots of little Brainworms and Bog Monsters and such. And if Ben releases Artemis Jones soon she would make a cool addition to your character figure collection.
Keep watching the web and make sure you are stocked up on Tang and Jiffy-Pop.
http://www.fortressfigures.com/zombieplague/
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Chris
Germany
Near Aachen
NRW
This is my brand new OverText :-)
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A small tile-laying game creating some fun.
Th@nx to Ryan Hackl.
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Frank Strauss
Germany
Berlin
Unspecified
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Designer: Frank Strauss ( me )
FREE
In this game, players build tracks and transport commodities with up to four different trains.
At some stations the products will be manufactured and as a result will be worth more points if delivered.
At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
This is a free print and play game and it will only be available here at the Geek.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/23239
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Jeremiah Lee
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
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A free print-and-play game, so it's on this list. Small enough to fit in your pocket (and without any sharp dice), this is a great filler solo game.
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Kevin Roach
Canada
Brandon
Manitoba
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Goto the listing and you will find the locations to download and print the game. I have already done so, but havent cut it out or played it yet. good B&P game for no cost.
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Robert Carroll
United States
Lawrence
Kansas
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Weilong or "Powerful Dragon" is a simple dice game based loosely on the dice game One-O-Five and the Chinese card game Shou Ba Yi. Each player represents the role of one of Wei Fu's sons on their quest to collect the Five Elements or capture the Dragon. Each player rolls their dice and sets aside those dice showing their target number (Element). The objective is to roll all five dice of the target number before any other player. Target numbers are determined by drawing cards (Son Cards). The Son Cards also have unique abilities for the players.
Once a player has set aside all five dice of the target number or captured the Dragon (by collecting the dice 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), the remaining players add up the total of the dice they have collected along with the penalty number at the bottom of the card and track those points. Your goal is have the lowest point total each round and for the game. The Son cards are then passed to the left and the next round begins (5 Player Game). The winner is the player who has the least amount of points after 5 rounds.
Available on BGG.
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22.
Board Game: Undercut
[Average Rating:6.29 Unranked]
Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Undercut
Designer: Joseph Kisenwether
Free
From the BGG Enry:
Undercut was the winner of the 'Second Ice Game Design Competition'. It's an auction game played with Icehouse pieces where the players score points based on sets of similar pieces, but the twist is that the player with the lowest score wins. During each round, players are required to bid on a set of pieces, and it is desirable to win the auction on the set of pieces which most avoids matching pieces.
http://icehousegames.com/contest/icedes-2/undercut/Undercut....
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Xochintlan
Designer: Pierre Canuel
Free
Xochintlan means 'garden' in Nahuatl, former language of the Aztecs. If this game existed 600 years ago I bet you it would have been a real hit on the Mexican High Plateau.
In the deep Mexican Country The Human live surrounded by animals. The Monkeys (Ozomatli), the Lizards (Cuetzpallin) and the Birds (Quetzalli) try to settle close to Him to find food and entertainment.
Unfortunately The Human will not be able to take care of all the animals at the same time.
Which one of the three species will succeed in settling with the human : the mischievous Monkeys, the silent Lizards or the musician Birds?
In this game, players will be part of this legend by taking over the Animals' destinies and plan their settlement next to The Human.
http://www.substantiel.net/jeux/pages_jeux/USpresentxochintl...
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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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Warp Skirmish
Designer: Lloyd Krassner
Free
Warp Skirmish is an abstract Wargame system that utilizes a mix of board, card, dice and unit elements to create a system with chess-like strategy, fog-of-war uncertainty and module expandability.
Presented here are the base mechanics and several modules that are ready for play. The modules contain the game setting, background, unit and card definitions and the rules that augment or change the Warp Skirmish engine.
http://wsmf.org/countermoves/Wip/mdc2002/
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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Donald Seagraves
United States
Copperas Cove
Texas
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WarpQuest
Designer: Lloyd Krassner
Free
Warp Quest is an abstract game system that depicts goal driven scenarios. Each player controls a collection of Units who are attempting to be the first to reach an objective and bring it back to the start.
The units could be a party of adventuring archeologists hoping to recover a lost artifact, a squadron of bombers attempting to hit a military target and return home, a band of samurai seeking to vanquish marauding bandits or a company of mixed creatures seeking to destroy a piece of evil ornamental jewelry that has the nasty habit of trying to control the minds of all free creatures.
The scenarios that use the Warp Quest engine will hold the details.
http://wsmf.org/countermoves/Wip/mdc2002/
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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Lakewood
Colorado
Would you also please create a meta-list of these lists, so it will be easy to find them in the future? Perhaps jaquino would then add your meta-list to his meta-meta-list.
For a sample meta-list, see mine at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
Winnipeg
Manitoba
Chicago
Illinois
Florida
My current plan is to print everything on paper, then tape the "board" elements to posterboard, and the "card" elements to index cards. I already do this for Dvorak, the card game.