Free Printable Board and Card Games

Put away your dusty old copy of Monopoly — boardgames have changed! The best new games are not about buying hotels and making your sister miserable — they’re games that involve interesting strategies, socialization, they might be funny, dramatic, or tense. And even better, in the age of home printing, many designers and publishers have released their games online for free, so you can download them, print them, cut them out, and be playing them by the time your friends arrive tonight. I’ve only listed games that are easy to make, without too many fiddly pieces.

Here are some of the best printable board and card games available online at the moment.

Slash: Romance without Boundaries

Played Cards Against Humanity but are bored by the jokes? Then check out Slash: Romance without Boundaries — a party-game where you argue which characters would make for awesomely romantic couples. Maybe you like the idea of Andre the Giant and She-Hulk getting it on? This is the game where you can explain to all your friends how that would totally work out!

You can get the PDF file from Games-By-Playdate.

Two Rooms and a Boom

Two Rooms and a Boom is a big-group social game, perfect for party situations where you have a big crowd and two rooms. It’s a bit similar to the games, Werewolf or Mafia. Every player is given a role — they are the president, the bomber, the blue team, or the red team — and these roles are kept secret. Why? Because the bomber will be trying to get into the same room as the president by the end of the game — if that happens the red team wins. Each round, players will try to deduce who’s on which team and nominate players to move between the two rooms — cue, lots of arguing!

You can download it from the official website.

Agent Decker

Agent Decker is a very unique solitaire game — that is, a game for only 1 player. In Agent Decker, you are a secret agent trying to infiltrate an enemy base. You must sneak around, kill baddies, and grab the loot. Agent Decker uses a mechanism called “deck-building”, which is the bread and butter of many modern boardgames — it’s a little bit like leveling up, where the more experience you get, the more abilities you acquire. This makes Agent Decker a really rewarding experience.

You can download Agent Decker here.

The Decktet

The Decktet is not an individual game, but a 36 card game system — so like a regular deck of cards, you use the Decktet to play a whole host of different games. Unlike regular cards, Decktet cards can have multiple suits on them, resulting in some really unusual games and play concepts. For people who are fans of more traditional card games, the Decktet is a fantastic way to explore the card game hobby a little more.

You can get a copy of the Decktet and learn about the games it supports on the official website.

Sub Rosa: Spies for Hire

Sub Rosa is a 1-page printable game for 2–4 players. It’s another spy-themed game, this time all about secret bidding, bluffing and deception — so anybody who’s played poker should feel right at home! The game is seriously easy to learn, but you can see these layers of interaction just below the surface. One minute you’ll think you’ve guaranteed your control of a secret agent, just before another player uses an agent ability and pulls off a masterful bluff, leaving you with nothing — Of course, then you’ll no doubt betray somebody else on your next turn!

You can find Sub Rosa: Spies for Hire on this Payhip page. It’s free to download — just enter your email address to access the PDF.

Lasers and Feelings

Something a little different, Lasers and Feelings is a storytelling RPG — yeah, like Dungeons and Dragons. Except rather than loads of statistics to keep track of, each player has only one number, which determines if they’re better at using lasers (and other weapons and computer stuff) or feelings (like seducing others or arguing a point). Other than that, players have a role (like Hotshot Pilot), a goal (like meet sexy aliens), and then they just jump into a space adventure! One player rolls a dice to determine what kinds of calamities ensue, and then players fly around in spaceships, probably shooting aliens. Hilarity guaranteed.

You can get Lasers and Feelings here.

The Duke

This game feels a little more traditional than many of the other games on this list — it’s like an updated version of chess, where as your pieces move around the 6x6 grid, their abilities change! This keeps the whole experience surprising and strategic!

The PDF download is right here.

Timeline

This game is all about 2–5 players travelling through time, manipulating the stock markets and amassing fortunes. Like the other games here, it has a simple set of rules, but results in some really weird gameplay! It’s developed by Cheapass games, who are some of the pioneers in printable boardgames. You’ll need to steal some player tokens from another game to play this one.

You can find Timeline here.