My October Print and Play projects

Over the last few days, I’ve gotten back on the print-and-play wagon. While I sadly make any of the big projects I dream of, I still continue to make small projects on a fairly regular basis. Once or twice a month, I get the drive and do some crafting.

A tiny game from ButtonShy kicked this latest flurry of activity. Chill Pill is a 1-card adaptation of their earlier 18-card game Fever Chill. I got it as a Patreon backer (and, let me say, so much fun stuff from backing them) 

I really made it to be a wallet game, since it’s just one card and only requires a couple of tokens that can be anything. I honestly suspect it will be just one step up from Bonsai Samuria but I figured it would be fun if only for the novelty. I might make more for Christmas presents that will fit in an envelope.

And once I did that, I decided to try making Autumn. It’s a simple tile-laying game with pretty cards of leaves. However, it’s use of the pie rule made the game seem a lot more interesting to me.

Yeah, I know that the pie rule is nothing new. I’m not sure we even know when or where it first got started. (Oh, Wikipedia says 1909 for a Mancala game) However, it can make a huge difference in making a game fair and interesting.

After that, I decided to make A Blorg in the Midwest and Pocket Landship, which are two different 9-card solitaire games. In large part to practice making cards and because it’s easy to test drive solitaire games. But Pocket Landship, a game about WW I tanks, looks like it might be a decent game and worth more than a test drive.

And I printed out some more games from GenCan’t’s Roll and Write contest. Which does count as Print and Play, probably the most literal you can get really, but doesn’t count as a contruction project. (For anyone who cares, I’ve gotten in some plays of the winner, Welcome to Dino World, but want to get in some more before I write a review. I have been happy with it, though)

One thing that I have noticed, in this particular bout of game construction, is that I am actually getting better at making cards. And some of my old shortcuts aren’t as appealing as they used to be. Modern laminators mean that I can laminate and then cut. However, that isn’t as aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t have as long of lifespan. I’m sure I will still do it when I just want to quick and dirty copy but my standards are growing.

Which, of course, means that I have to work harder to make a good copy.