Home Alone (time to Print and Play)
Many of us are stuck in semi-quarantine at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The obvious thing for a solo gamer to do is work through our unplayed games or spend more time with the games we love. But what if you want more variety? Spending money on new games may not be an option, so if you have a printer, why not check out some Print-and-Play's?
JW and me are listing 5 of our favourite PnPs each, arranged in random order. We did not include PnPs that have become published games (therefore no Pocket Landship, Maquis, Black Sonata or Orchard, but we encourage you to try them if you haven't. The PnP files are still available for free in the Files section of each game's page on BGG).
In this post you will also find PnP resources: PnP websites and BGG Geeklists you can visit if you feel like taking the PnP business seriously and discovering your own gems.
JW's PnP favourites
(Images are in slideshow)
Mini Rogue A nine-card dungeon crawler that never gets old. (Our post: Life is simple)
Star Trek: The Dice Game Inspired by Deep Space D-6, this game uses the mechanics for a full blown hour-long board game. You go on missions, try to overcome events and hopefully develop some technologies, abilities and upgrades. You can use normal dice for your print-and-play version. (Our post: Kobayashi Maru)
Adamastor A very smart design with multi-purpose cards, and beautiful thematic artwork. Go back in time to around 1500, then try to find the sea route to India and survive.
Barbarian Vince Diceless adventuring where you try to complete one or more of the main quests, while traveling the lands, surviving encounters, using items - the works. All in a single deck of cards.
Ada Lovelace: Consulting Mathematician A polyomino roll-and-write game from before either genre became fashionable. And still one of the best. You try to solve the theft of a priceless artifact, or are you really?
Athena's PnP favourites
(Images are in slideshow)
A Rusty Throne One of my favourites because I'm partial to card-driven games and multi-use cards. Full of agonizing decisions, as you are forced to give advantages to the enemy. (Our post: A not so Rusty Throne)
Kaiju Siege A worker placement, tower defense game about protecting a Japanese castle from a roaming Kaiju. Lots of variability in the enemies and missions. Good-looking game, and solid gameplay. (Our post: In defense mode)
Adamastor Traverse maritime routes either as Vasco da Gama (in the historical scenario) or as a captain in a journey of discovery. The weather will define how many actions you can take, and you have to play your cards right so that you reach your destination before the crew loses morale and goes into mutiny.
Snowbirds Difficult resource management game about keeping a flock of geese alive during its migration journey. See if you can manage to save at least one bird. (Our post: Nils Holgersson didn't make it to the South)
Lantern Very light, enjoyable roll-and-write game. Progress through stages of enemies by rolling the required results. Sometimes you just want to roll some dice and have fun. (Our post: Just need one die but then I die)
PnP websites
PnP Arcade: Mostly paid and some free PnPs. You can find Jason Glover's Desolate series here, Sprawlopolis, games by Todd Sanders, PnPs of Kickstarted games like the Mint series, and many more.
Wargame Vault: Tons of wargames in PDF format, but you need to pay around 10 dollars on average. Wipers Salient is one of the most popular (and cheap) choices.
Solo PnP Geeklists on BGG
Athena's PnP Buffet
Dark Yeoman's Solo PnP Games I have played
Pedro's My Print & Play Game Collection (not recently updated, contains PnPs released up until 2018)
Martin's Martin Has Fallen Down the Print-and-Play Rabbithole (advanced PnP builds)
Janine's JV's PnP Extravaganza (advanced PnP builds up until 2018)
Stay informed on PnP news by reading Chris Hansen's blog, Print and Play Games News.