There’s a wonderful charm to the nature of print-and-play board games. Whether free or available for a small fee, these do-it-yourself designs offer full experiences that rival professionally published titles. In fact, many hit games started off as print-and-play offerings, including The Resistance, Monikers, and Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs. Clearly, this minified format does not hold back a stellar game or stifle its creativity.
The nine games on this list are some of the best print-and-play offerings currently available. This is a genre that boasts thousands of options, so whittling the list down to a select few proved quite a challenge. The end result is an array of titles that will suit varied tastes and proficiencies. So fire up the inkjet and pull out the scissors.
TL;DR: The Best Print-and-Play Board Games
- Deep Space D-6
- Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game
- For Northwood!
- Voyages
- Netrunner: System Gateway
- Table Battles
- Heading Forward
- Two Rooms and a Boom
- Circle the Wagons
Deep Space D-6
- Age Range: 10+
- Number of Players: 1
- Play Time: 30 min
A large swathe of print-and-play games target solo play, and Deep Space D-6 is one of the best. This game puts you in the role of captaining a United Earth's Fleet starship responding to a distress call. Warping into the sector, you quickly realize it was a trap and have now been ambushed. Your only response is to start rolling dice.
Each turn you roll crew dice and assign them to various stations on your spacecraft. You must split your concentration between internal and external threats, as you will face boarding parties as well as opposing ships. With several ship options, a multitude of threats, and various tactical considerations, Deep Space D-6 boasts a solid amount of depth in a little package.
Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game
- Age Range: 13+
- Number of Players: 2-4
- Play Time: 120-180 min
This is the most complex and rich board game on this list. Bloc by Bloc is a semi-cooperative political experience about fighting a revolution. Players control factions of workers, students, neighbors, or prisoners, and utilize their force to combat the State. It’s a very fierce affair that embodies the use of violence to curb tyranny.
This is a multi-layered design that features hidden agendas, area control, and a high degree of asymmetry. Play occurs over multiple nights, with each participant executing actions and then bracing themselves for the game-controlled police response. It’s a fascinating game, and one that bears a striking theme. The cute facade and buffer between realistic depictions provide a touch of levity and blunt the game’s edge. This is a fantastic example, however, that board games can tackle serious topics and themes beyond surface-level violence and adventure.
For Northwood!
- Age Range: 12+
- Number of Players: 1
- Play Time: 15-30 min
For Northwood presents the novel concept of a solitaire trick-taking game. The trick-taking game genre, epitomized by titles such as Spades and Euchre, is a classic style of card game that has seen a huge resurgence in recent years. For Northwood takes this idea and translates it to a single player experience that is surprisingly effective.
The goal here is to peacefully unify the kingdom of Northwood. Each trick represents a conversation with Northwood’s rulers, playing out as a series of tense negotiations. This is such a clever format to present this idea, and it works wonderfully to inject a bit of drama and context to the card play. The approach is ultimately playing cards against a mindless opponent, the challenge level can get very high. You’re forced to make difficult decisions about when to use special once-per-game abilities, and you must manage your hand deftly to succeed. This is a winner, and a very easy game to print out and assemble.
Voyages
- Age Range: 10+
- Number of Players: 1-8
- Play Time: 20-30 min
The popular roll-and-write genre of games has players rolling dice and then marking up personal sheets to cross off boxes, mark off numbers, or color in spaces. Voyages has players use dice rolls to sail a ship across an open sea. The goal is to visit different islands and gather goods to deliver to various destinations.
Like many roll-and-write games, the experience shifts substantially with new sheets and layouts. There is a wide variety of sea maps to choose from, creating unique strategic challenges that demand clever sailing. This is a breezy game that is playable by a large number of players simultaneously. It requires a very modest amount of effort to print and assemble, and is one of the most accommodating games on this list. The gameplay is more worth the trouble, as Voyages is an excellent print-and-play design.
Netrunner: System Gateway
- Age Range: 12+
- Number of Players: 2
- Play Time: 45 min
Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield released the two-player cyberpunk hacking CCG Netrunner in 1996. It was later re-envisioned by Fantasy Flight Games as Android: Netrunner in 2012, cementing its legacy as one of the best card games ever made. Unfortunately, it officially went out of print in 2018, closing the doors on any future development and leaving a huge fanbase hanging in the wind. Or so we thought.
A group of fans has revitalized Netrunner in a completely free-to-play format, offering professionally illustrated card sets that continue the legacy of this astounding game. While the new card sets are free to print on your own, you can also purchase professionally printed decks online. The quality of artwork and game design is remarkable. It’s as if the game never died. Additionally, you can even acquire reworked versions of old cards, making for a very complete and nuanced game that is completely accessible from your computer. System Gateway is the starter set, a wonderful collection of cards that plays superbly.
Table Battles
- Age Range: 10+
- Number of Players: 2
- Play Time: 20 min
Amabel Holland is an enigmatic designer who has produced dozens of quirky and unusual titles from her co-owned studio Hollandspiel. Table Battles is one of her most successful systems, offering a light and streamlined war board game that is flexible to cover many different eras of history. It’s fueled by a central dice activation system where players allocate rolled dice to unit cards in order to later activate and attack with them.
While this game is easy to pick up and learn, there is a degree of depth through tactical options such as counterattacking, utilizing strategic reserves, and screening attacks to cancel them. It’s a tense game where thoughtful maneuvering is paramount to success. This base set includes battles ranging from 1458 to 1776, but there are follow-up titles that cover the War of the Roses, the American Civil War, and even fictional setups such as Dinosaurs and Kaiju.
Heading Forward
- Age Range: 12+
- Number of Players: 1
- Play Time: 30 min
Another Hollandspiel title, Heading Forward is a very weird game about recovering from a brain injury. This solitaire design has players exploring rehabilitation from a terrible accident. You must relearn skills such as planning, shopping, and returning to work. All of this must be accomplished in a limited time as your insurance company will only fund your recovery for a defined timeframe.
To develop these skills you must rotate and swap out cards. They upgrade from weak level one skills all the way up to level four. Improving your acumen requires managing emotional and physical energy, as well as other resources. The road is fraught with setback, however, as hiding in the deck is a trigger card. This reignites the trauma of your accident and marks a major setback. This game one again displays that board games can reach for something greater. It’s based on designer John du Bois’ own recovery, and is a very intimate and memorable experience.
Two Rooms and a Boom
- Age Range: 8+
- Number of Players: 6-30
- Play Time: 30 min
Two Rooms and a Boom is one of the best social deduction games ever designed, and it’s thankfully available in a print-and-play format alongside the professionally published version. This is one of those party games that works best with a large crowd. It excels with groups of 10 or more, as players are dealt secret cards that split them between two teams. All of the players are then divided between two rooms which are isolated from each other.
The blue team wants to protect one of their own, the President. The red team wants to ensure the player on their team that occupies the role of the bomber ends up in the same room as the President at game’s end. Over multiple rounds, each room will select players to be exchanged with the other location. At the end of the game, if the President is in the same location as the bomber, then the red team wins. If this doesn’t happen, the blue team succeeds. It’s simple but wildly entertaining. Players can secretly or publicly reveal their role cards. Cliques are established quickly and much negotiation occurs. Everything radically changes when new roles are added, such as players which are not allowed to show their role, ones which may only lie and never tell the truth, and ones with alternate private victory conditions. This is a fantastic game with a large amount of depth and variability that is sure to please a large crowd.
Circle the Wagons
- Age Range: 8+
- Number of Players: 2
- Play Time: 15 min
This head-to-head card game has players developing their own prosperous town. The core of the game hinges on a unique draft system, where available cards are placed in a circle at the center of the table. Players take turns plucking cards from this circle and placing them in their own personal towns.
One wrinkle of the game is a set of three cards at the center of the circle. This trio dictate bonus ways to score when building towns and should not be ignored when formulating strategy. This is a clever little game that is enhanced by a large degree of variability. There is a plethora of combinations in card placement, and each session doesn’t quite work out the same way.
Charlie Theel is a tabletop games freelancer. You can follow him on Twitter @CharlieTheel.
