Looking to get your game on, but far from your personal collection of board games? No worries – if you have a printer with plenty of paper and a pair of scissors, there are tons of excellent, addictive board games online that you can download and print from the comfort of your own home!
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What is a print and play board game?
A print and play board game is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of buying a board game off the shelf, in a box, with professionally printed and cut cards, tokens, etc, you print off all the pieces at home!
Yes! You can absolutely print your own board games at home and they aren’t just random, poor quality games either. Some of the best board games of all time are available for you to print and play right away.
A decent printer and a pair of scissors and you can be playing a new board game in minutes without ever leaving your house or spending a dime! We ranked five of the best print and play games to get you started.
Top 5 Addicting Print and Play Games Ranked
From classics to modern favorites, here’s our top five list of printable board games:
Where better to start our list than this customizable version of what could arguably be called the most well-known board game of all time? Sure, you could go out and buy any of the million themed versions of Monopoly…or you could make your own!
Impress your partner by creating a unique Monopoly board where each property is a place meaningful to you both, or entertain your kids with a Monopoly version of the TV show or movie they’re currently obsessed with.
Find the template for the blank board and cards below, and let your imagination run wild! All you need is a couple dice – and if you don’t have any, just type “roll dice” into the Google search bar to use the Google dice rolling tool! How handy is that? Now, where’s my thimble…
Tired of mystery games where you’re trying to figure out who committed the murder? Allow me to introduce you to Kill Doctor Lucky, the “pre-mystery” game where your goal is to be the murderer!
Winner of the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 1997, Kill Doctor Lucky is available to you, completely free to download, print, and share, on the Cheapass games website. All you need is a pair of scissors to cut the cards out…just make sure they’re safely stored back in the drawer before all the murdering starts.
And if you enjoy that game, make sure you check out the library of other free-to-play games on the Cheapass website as well!
Already got a box overflowing with extra D6s and minis from your favorite tabletop role playing game? Put them to use with the Dungeon Crawler: Labyrinth printable game! A great option for those nights when not everyone can make it to Dungeons & Dragons (or someone’s running late because they just had to make a snack stop).
Dungeon Crawler: Labyrinth is a competitive game of strategy where the players are adventurers racing to be the first to reach the center of the labyrinth and claim the treasure within! This one has a lot of material, so you might consider taking it to a print shop or stocking up on ink cartridges before you start printing it out. Even if you pay for professional printing, you’re getting a great game for a fraction of the cost!
Love it or hate it, Cards Against Humanity has proven that they’re absolutely here to stay after disrupting the board game scene for good in 2011. Cards Against Humanity has always allowed you to download a PDF and print their cards absolutely free – even going so far as to include some blank slots for you to write in your own custom cards!
Planning to play with a mixed audience and looking for something a little less offensive? They also offer Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition, which removes the raunchier cards and replaces them with tamer versions for family-friendly play. Whichever version you choose, you can’t beat a free-to-play game guaranteed to have the whole crew laughing from the first round!
At the very reasonable price point of $3 and featuring absolutely beautiful illustrations, our favorite printable game has to be Tussie Mussie. From Elisabeth Hargrave, the game designer who brought us the much-beloved (and equally gorgeous) Wingspan, Tussie Mussie is inspired by the Victorian concept of the language of flowers.
Each flower has a different meaning and point value based on the other cards in your hand, and players work to collect a bouquet of their own with the highest total score by the end of the game. Small enough to take with you wherever you go and quick to learn and play, Tussie Mussie will be sure to swoon new players of all experience levels. Now, which flower means “Let’s play again?”
Print and play board game tips and tricks
If you don’t have a printer at home, remember that most libraries offer printing services to anyone with a library card (which is a good thing to have anyway), often for only a few cents a page!
If you’d like these printable games to last longer and hold up against the standard wear and tear of use, we recommend printing on heavier stock paper (like cardstock), or having the game pieces professionally printed and laminated. This is easy and cheap to do at places like Office Max, FedEx, or your local print shop.
Empty shoe boxes or unused tupperware make great storage vessels for your homemade games, as well. For less than $10, you could have a brand new game with quality on par with any you bought in a store!
Ready to make your own fun?
Great game design doesn’t require fancy tokens or huge boards in order to get the players coming back for more – these quick and printable games are proof of that! If you’re looking for something to play but are far away from your personal library of board games, choose any of these excellent options and get playing in minutes. Just watch out for paper cuts!
