The
original material on this site is licensed under 
and is copyright © 2008 by Mark R. Brown.This page is a list of resources for cheap gamers. Most have free rules for games you can play without equipment, or using game pieces you already have on hand. Others may provide a PDF file to print your own gamepieces and/or gameboards. I promise you that there is enough fun stuff beyond these links to keep you busy for a lifetime!
Buy a deck of cards and never be bored for life. When you're talking about web resources for card games, you really only need to know one thing:
Everything about card games. Traditional card games, solitaire (patience) games, rules variants, original games using a standard deck, original games using custom decks, you name it. If it has to do with cards, it's here. They even have links to my own card game rules!
Too many cards and not enough boxes? Just print your own on card stock, cut, fold, and glue. Several sizes available.
Replacement rules. Score sheets. Rules variants. The web is a veritable treasure trove of resources for those who love traditional board games.
Nice overview of the history of board games, with links to other articles on specific games. Includes links to other sites of interest to board gamers.
Lost the rules to your favorite board game? Don't worry, they have replacement rules for all your favorites here. They've also got score sheets you can print out (Uno, Yahtzee, etc.), and even a printable design for a $1000 bill for Monopoly. Cool.
Replacement rules for hundreds thousands of traditional
games.
Official game rules and FAQs for Hasbro games, right from the source. You can also order game replacement parts.
Monopoly's maker Hasbro doesn't want you to run short of cash. Download the patterns and print your own.
Learn the basics of the classic game Go.
Print out and glue together a complete paper chess set! Also tangrams and lotto ball.
If you're tired of playing chess by the rules, find hundreds of rules variants here. Also download the pattern to print out your own. hex chessboard.
Over a dozen free ebooks on the subject of chess.
You think you can make a better game than the ones you see out there already? Don't be so hasty. Check out these resources, then see what you think.
Want to write your own computer game? Don't even think of starting until you've read Chris Crawford's classic treatise on the topic, now available as a free PDF download.
If you're serious about creating your own board games, you have to go to the Board Game Designers Forum to start. Register for free. Read the boards. Ask questions. You'll save yourself a lot of grief in the long run.
Nice introductory paper on what Game Theory is, with examples like the Prisoner's Dilemma. This is theory, folks, not playtime.
Official information from the Register of Copyrights telling you how to copyright your game.
This is the idea I started with when I began this page: Gather together all of the sources of free downloadable games on the Web. As you can see, like Topsy, it just growed.
Dvorak is a card game where all of the cards start out blank; players choose a theme, make up enough cards to get started, shuffle and deal, then add further cards to the game as the game progresses. Many pre-built decks are available for downloading and printing.
Great cheap games, and even a handful of games that are free for downloading.
Features a couple of dozen good free games. Be sure to make a game of this: avoid the torrent of popup ads!
This link goes to their directory of print & play board games.
A guide to about a dozen original free games.
Four PDF files that combine to make "one of the best free games available on the net", they say.
A game simultaneously invented by two famous mathematicians, so you know it's good!
Free-spirited game where you make up the cards so you make up the rules. Win a gazillion points, or not. The fun is in the playing, not the winning.
They say great minds think alike. Start with this idea: 'Hey, what if there was one set of game pieces, but a whole bunch of free rules to different games you could play with those same pieces? Wouldn't that be cheap? And fun? And cool?" Well, Icehouse Games is founded on that idea. And so is another gameset, which we won't mention until the next big header...
The rules for dozens of free games that can be played with the same set of Icehouse game pieces, which you can also buy on this site. (Or fold your own - see below.)
Don't buy your Icehouse pieces, fold 'em yourself! Screw the Man! (MS Word file)
Free gameboard for the popular Icehouse game Volcano.
Yeah, Piecepack Games is the other one set/many rules idea. The implementation is very, very different than Icehouse Games, but it's just as cool in its own right.
Get a set of piecepack tiles and play dozens of free games with them. Buy Piecepack sets here, or...
Print out and cut out your own Piecepack game pieces for free.
An online Wiki (information site) on Piecepack games.
You need a few cheap game pieces even to play free games. Here's where you can get them.
Buy dice, stones, pawns, money, chips, blank cards, and whatnot individually, or a whole bunch of stuff stuffed into an "Ultimate Bits Pack". What? That sounds too wimpy? Okay, go for the "Titanium Bits Pack" instead.
Designer resources for parts, design, publishing, etc.
People go to yard sales and buy dozens of games, then package the parts in big bags. You save! Some people also sell new game pieces, poker chips, dice, and more. Big savings, from what I can see, though it's a crap shoot as to what's for sale at any particular time.
Need to keep the kids quiet for awhile, but strapped for cash? Well, when I was a kid we used to make our own games. Fortunately, the world isn't that primitive any more. Now you can just download games fo free from the Internet. Ain't technology cool?
Three sites with the rules to Tic-Tac-Toe and other simple pencil and paper games for kids. One Two Three
The classic from the Orient. Print out and cut out these pieces and solve hundreds of timeless puzzles.
A free kids' gameboard and rules.
Another free kids' gameboard.
Kids get diseases and learn about health. Fun!
From the Kennedy Center, so you know this kids' board game is just dripping with culture.
A dozen educational games that promise to put a little fun into learning math.
Educational game from Bank Street College of Education.
Counting game for little kids.
Educational game for middle schoolers to teach prime and perfect numbers.
Okay, these aren't really games, they're toys. But they're free and fun and they'll help you waste some time, and isn't that what it's all about?
Pretty cool space stuff for kids, including paper models to build.
PDF instructions for folding a precision paper airplane designed by a PhD. Really.
High-performance paper airplane.
Free plans from around the world for realistic flying and non-flying paper airplane models.
A directory of web sites devoted to creating paper models.
Cut out and build a paper model of a riverboat, car, bridge, or even Angor Wat.
Aimed at art teachers, this site features cardboard and paper designs, including some origamic architecture (popup) models. From France, in English.
Incredible popup paper models with instructions, help, and tips.
Their list.
Fold something out of money and people are instantly intrigued.
I wanted to stay away from computer games in this list, I really did. But these items are just too cool to pass up.
Lost the manual to a computer game? Chances are you can download a replacement here.
Download this Java applet, paint up a few pieces and a gameboard, then configure a text file to play your game onscreen. It won't know the rules, but you can move your pieces around the board on the screen. How cool is that?
Coin-op arcade game manuals (and schematics!) Be sure to also check out the collection of video game instruction cards, most of them scanned from the originals that were affixed to the machines.
I'm not kidding. This guy has listened to the music tracks from various video games and has transferred it to PDF sheet music. Just too weird not to include.
Roleplaying games. Step out of your skin and into an adventure. For free.
I didn't want to list any individual games in this section, but these five sites are simply must-sees.
Pokeman. Cthulhu. Mix 'em up and you have the wildly amusing Pokethulhu free RPG.
Risus, the Anything RPG, is specifically designed for "late-night
beer-and-pretzels" gaming. It's the least complicated gaming system
you're likely ever to find. It's by S. John Ross, the same guy who did
Pokethulhu, so you know it's funny, too.
The Generic Universal Roleplalying System in a Lite version. PDF rules free for the downloading. In my mind, the very best of the RPG systems.
Scroll down the page and download this free RPG, then play at being
a Chicago-style mobster in New Orleans, from a Finnish perspective. :)
It started as Dungeons & Dragons, then it turned into the d20 system, arguably the most popular gaming system in use. The basic rules are free for the downloading.
There are several sites that feature huge lists of free RPG rules on the web. I'll just list links to those lists instead of compiling my own.
The
original material on this site is licensed under
and is copyright © 2008 by Mark R. Brown.