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Cheapass Games
Jun. 20th, 2024 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleeI was reminded recently of Cheapass Games, a company whose games I bought a bunch of during uni as a broke college student over two decades ago. Their shtick was games that usually came in a 5.5"x8.5"-ish envelope of paper components and rules. It was up to you-the-player(s) to provide the other components - meeples, dice, tokens, etc. - from whatever you, a gamer, had on hand. This enabled them to sell the games for really cheap from a manufacturing standpoint.
The games themselves were usually mildly to very zany/wacky (titles like Kill Dr. Lucky and Bitin' Off Hedz are fairly indicative). The ones I encountered had a play time of at most two hours, usually less, and were great for silly fun during a lazy evening. Cursory Googling suggests that this business model eventually died in favor of gamers with deep pockets who wanted luxe pretty physical components after all. I speak as someone who owns both Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, could only get 80% of the former back into the box and considers that good (the YouTube "how to even put this all away" video I was linked turns out to have been for a different version of the organizer AUGH and I am ass at 3D puzzle optimization); I haven't even opened the box Frosthaven arrived in because we haven't finished Gloomhaven. The damn thing is bigger than our microwave. :p
That said, despite the complicated licensing situation, Crab Fragment Labs has legally made a bunch of Cheapass Games available for free print-and-play PDF download, as well as linking to where you can buy these where possible. I'm looking forward to revisiting some of my old faves!
The whole "print-and-play, gamer provides their own components" model is one that appeals to me as someone who wants to tinker with board game design without betting the farm on the hell that is physical component production. Let's just say that, especially during 2020, I saw A LOT of board game Kickstarters go south when it came to manufacturing and fulfillment; this had been true for a while but was exacerbated by logistics impacts during that year. Needless to say, I also don't expect to make a living as a board game designer. :p
The games themselves were usually mildly to very zany/wacky (titles like Kill Dr. Lucky and Bitin' Off Hedz are fairly indicative). The ones I encountered had a play time of at most two hours, usually less, and were great for silly fun during a lazy evening. Cursory Googling suggests that this business model eventually died in favor of gamers with deep pockets who wanted luxe pretty physical components after all. I speak as someone who owns both Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, could only get 80% of the former back into the box and considers that good (the YouTube "how to even put this all away" video I was linked turns out to have been for a different version of the organizer AUGH and I am ass at 3D puzzle optimization); I haven't even opened the box Frosthaven arrived in because we haven't finished Gloomhaven. The damn thing is bigger than our microwave. :p
That said, despite the complicated licensing situation, Crab Fragment Labs has legally made a bunch of Cheapass Games available for free print-and-play PDF download, as well as linking to where you can buy these where possible. I'm looking forward to revisiting some of my old faves!
The whole "print-and-play, gamer provides their own components" model is one that appeals to me as someone who wants to tinker with board game design without betting the farm on the hell that is physical component production. Let's just say that, especially during 2020, I saw A LOT of board game Kickstarters go south when it came to manufacturing and fulfillment; this had been true for a while but was exacerbated by logistics impacts during that year. Needless to say, I also don't expect to make a living as a board game designer. :p
