What Are Print and Play Board Games?

If you’re involved in the board game community, it’s likely you’ve heard the term ‘print and play’. But what are print and play board games? Simply put, they’re pretty much the same as standard board games, except minus all the fancy components. They don’t come in a pretty box, and you don’t have carefully crafted pieces. Instead, you can download a digital copy of the game, and then print out the components yourself.

Still, there’s a lot to understand about them, so in this article, I’m gonna cover everything you could possibly need to know. From the pros and cons, to where to find them, let’s get into the world of print and play games!

Why Choose Print and Play Games?

I know what some of you are thinking. Half the fun of board games is in the components. It’s feeling the cards in your hand, moving pieces around a board, admiring the artwork, etc. However, print and play games absolutely serve a purpose. Here are some of the reasons people choose to play them:

• Budget-friendly – Print and play games are considerably cheaper than standard board games, and can help you save money. You can often find them for just a fraction of the price of the standard game, and many are even available for free.
• Decide Whether You Like It – Board games aren’t exactly the cheapest hobby, and you may be hesitant to commit to such an expensive purchase. Print and play games allow you to test out the mechanics and see whether it’s a game you enjoy. If it is, you may then decide to purchase the standard copy.
• More variety – Producing a board game is an expensive and complicated process. Many indie developers never get to the publishing stage. As such, they may release it as a print and play.
• Don’t take up much space – Instead of having a bulky box to try and fit onto your shelf, with print and play games, you simply have a few sheets of paper. This is much easier to accommodate. It also makes them perfect for travel. If you don’t have room for a standard board game, you can grab a print and play. That way, there’s still a fun activity to do in your down-time.
• Plenty of solo games – A lot of print and play games are designed for someone to play alone. You may not want to dedicate shelf space to games you can’t play with other people, so having print and plays for yourself is the perfect solution.

Where Can You Find Print and Play Games?

There are multiple sites online dedicated to print and play games, as well as the websites for the developers themselves. Here are some places you can look to start building out your collection:

• PNP Arcade – A great resource for print and play games, PNP Arcade has an excellent range of paid and free games for you to try out. There are a range of genres and difficulty levels, so you can find something that suits your needs.
• Kickstarter – Often board games on Kickstarter will already have a working prototype, and they just need to raise funds to produce the physical game. In these cases, you’ll often be sent a digital print and play file of the game as part of the reward when you back a project.
• Board Game Geek – Board Game Geek is the go-to website for all things board games, and has a very active community. In fact, one such community member has made this very handy GeekList detailing tons of free print and play games that are available.
• Publisher websites – Some publishers, such as Asmodee, will have download links for print and play versions of their games on their website. It’s always worth checking to see if your favourite publisher has made any titles available in this format.
• Itch.io – Itch.io has a very handy list of tons of print and play games, from regular tabletop games to TTRPGs. You can scroll through and find something that takes your fancy.

Are There Free Print and Play Games?

There sure are! Some game developers will put out free print and play versions of their board games. That way, players can experience the mechanics before committing to a purchase. Sometimes indie developers don’t even have a standard version of their game, but will still make the print and play available for free, in the hopes that people will choose to donate to them.

Here are some great free print and play games for you to try:

Free Print and Play Games

• Orchard – Cute and minimalist, Orchard involves trying to lay down tiles to harvest as much fruit as possible. It’s technically a solo game, but you can play multiplayer by printing as many copies as there are players and competing against each other to harvest the most fruit. Just be aware that you’ll need to provide your own dice.
• Mini Rogue – Mini Rogue immediately caught my attention simply from the title. I play the Rogue class in D&D, roguelites are my favourite gaming genre, so it struck me as likely to be my type. It’s best played as a solo experience, but you can have a second player if you really want to. In this dungeon crawler, you have to navigate various hazards to uncover a valuable ruby!
• Birdscaping – This 18 card game is wonderfully self-contained, and you won’t need anything other than what you print. Birdscaping is best played as a two-player game, but can also be played solo. The aim is to try and attract the best possible array of birds to your garden by making various improvements such as adding in trees or a pond.
• Two Rooms and a Boom – Two Rooms and a Boom is an exciting social deduction game played between two teams. You’ll need at least 6 players, but can have up to 30 if you really want to. The game is split into the red team and the blue team. Players move between rooms, and the Red Team want to have their bomber in the same room as the Blue Team’s president by the end of the last round. As long as you have two rooms, you can play this.

Tips for Printing and Storing Your Games

To make the most of your print and play adventures, try out some of these tips!

• Don’t buy your own printer – Unless you’re planning to regularly need use of one, buying your own printer is likely a frivolous waste of money. Instead, you can use someone else’s. You’ll likely have affordable local printing shops, and most libraries have printers available to use at a very small cost. If you’re a student, you probably have access to one at your school/ university.
• Glue the cards onto collectible cards – To help keep your cards from bending or getting damaged, you can glue them onto common cards from collectible card games. Not only does this protect the cards, but it also ensures that you can’t tell them apart from the back, even if the cutting isn’t entirely even. Alternatively, you can skip the glue, and just sleeve them together.
• Laminate your favourite games – Although not the most sustainable method for the environment, laminating the components for games you play regularly will help protect them from getting damaged over time.
• Use deck boxes to store components – If you have print and play games with lots of cards, you could keep them in a deck box for a sleek storage solution.
• Invest in a ring binder – These can be useful for storing the rules, other components of games, so you don’t have scruffy sheets of paper crammed onto your shelves. Put a label on each wallet to state which game is inside. You can get creative with this, and decorate the labels. You could also use tabs to separate by number of players/ genre, etc.

What Other Components Will You Need?

Now, as convenient as print and play games are, you won’t just need the digital files. After all, you’re not gonna play the games staring at a screen. Some things are a necessity, some are optional extras, and some will depend on the game.

Necessary Items You’ll Need

• Printer (Or access to one).
• Scissors (To cut out cards and the like).

Optional Extras

• Laminator (Or access to one).
• Card Sleeves
• Collectible Card Commons (Such as M:TG, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Pokémon. You can use these to stick the printed elements on to).
• Glue/ Double-Sided Tape
• Ruler (So you can make sure to keep your edges straight).

Additional Components (Depending on the game)

• Dice (You can buy bulk packs of D6 dice online for under £10).
• Tokens (Anything will work here, as long as it’s easily distinguishable. Coins can be useful here as you can have multiple of the same denomination).
• Pen/ Pencil
• Paper
• Small Bags (If you need to draw tokens etc without seeing them. Velvet jewellery bags or dice bags work well for this).

Conclusion

There you have it! The next time someone asks you “what are print and play games?”, you’ll be able to give them the full run down. Hopefully this beginner’s guide to print and play games has given you a good idea of what to expect from them. Whether or not they’re right for you, only you can decide. But at least you now know where to start with them.

If you do decide to give print and play games a try, we’d love to hear about it! Let us know which games you’re thinking of trying out, and whether you miss having the physical components or whether you’re perfectly happy just printing everything off yourself. You can join the discussion over in our Facebook community.