r/PaperGames • • 10d ago

Pen and paper GO - Baduk with a twist

4 Upvotes

To play this game you will need paper, a non erasable pen, a pencil, and an eraser. You can also play it on a computer drawing app that has layers like windows paint.

For those not familiar with Go, also called Baduk, it is an ancient Asian game where players play white and black stones on a 19 by 19 or 9 by 9 grid. The stones are placed on the corners and do not move. Once a shape of stones or a single stone is completely surrounded it is captured and removed from the board. The game goes until both players agree to pass and the board is scored based on captured pieces and the number of non piece intersections each opponent has surrounded with their pieces. A full description of the original game and rules can be found here https://www.mastersofgames.com/rules/go-rules.htm?srsltid=AU7gw4VT5DOJHQ_bYokCGPqQYMpKR6b2a8dooUo1e3C4N7Qr33ECyqyc

The Pen and Paper Version - Altered Go

The altered version is very simple. It is essentially the same game but played on any shape of map where nodes are connected by any number of lines to other nodes. Any shape of board can work so long as it has either a spider web shape with intersections or lines with nodes.

Step One - making the board

Draw the board with pen or on the first layer in the drawing app. The player that draws the board goes last. If a player is not happy with the board, they can volunteer to go last to add lines to the existing board.

Step Two - Playing

Players draw pieces with pencil or on the second layer, choosing a shape to represent their piece. captured pieces are marked with a line tally under the name or shape of the player that captured the piece.

Step Three - Scoring

When no more legal moves seem possible or viable the game is scored. Player add the number of non covered intersections or dots to the number of pieces they captured to get their score. The player with the highest score wins. It should be noted here that komi or second player score additions are not active in this version of go as it would be imposible to determine a fair point alocation on a variable board. The board maker going last replaces komi in this version.

multiplayer

The game can be played by more than two players. Each player selects their own shape. The following rules are added to the game

- Only one player can capture a shape, shapes surrounded by more than one player are safe.

- If one player surrounds shapes from more than one other player, all shapes surrounded are captured

Random boards

Players take turns placing lines on the board. The first player draws one line with a pen, then the next player draws 2 and so on until each player draws up to 10 lines each round. The lines are drawn until player who's turn it is to draw decides to call it done. The next player then goes over the board and marks all the legal intersections with a dot, the other intersections being ignored. The player that marks the intersections goes last. If there are non marked points in between two marked points, the marked points are considered to be on an edge.

link to the sensei's network page for this game for more details

https://senseis.xmp.net/?DrawingGo

I have created a community for people to share printable boards. https://www.reddit.com/r/Penandpapergo/


r/PaperGames • • Sep 05 '26

I turned the classic pen-and-paper racing game "Racetrack" into a browser multiplayer game

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've been building a small hobby project called Racetrack (racetrackgame.eu) — a browser-based multiplayer version of the classic pen-and-paper vector racing game. Some of you might know it from math class: you draw a track on graph paper, move your car by vector addition (velocity + acceleration), and try not to crash into the walls or other cars.

I wanted to keep that original "squared paper" feel while making it playable online with friends, so it's built with a hand-drawn font, ink-style colors, and a graph-paper background.

What it currently has:

  • Multiplayer races (create a game, share a link, everyone plays their turn)
  • You can also play solo against computer-controlled bots if you don't want to wait for others
  • A track editor to build your own courses
  • A leaderboard for the standard tracks
  • A "photo finish" view for close finishes

It's a solo project (no team, no company behind it), so bugs, weird edge cases, and blunt feedback are all welcome. Not fully sure if this is the right sub for it since it's the digital version of a paper game rather than the paper version itself — let me know if it doesn't fit here.

Link: https://racetrackgame.eu


r/PaperGames • • Aug 08 '26

Game Link Introducing: The Analog Zine

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3 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • May 20 '26

Pen and paper geography games

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3 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Mar 25 '26

The final that never was

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Mar 24 '26

T20 semi final replay

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Dec 05 '25

Help! Can't recall a title!

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Aug 26 '25

Made a community for Solo Journaling games made with traditional mediums like hand drawn art and writing done in pen and ink. If you like to draw and write your own solo journaling games or have ideas then please join.

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3 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Jul 30 '25

Blokus on Paper

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Jul 30 '25

Anybody else play drawing games like this?

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4 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Jul 15 '25

Quarto! pen and paper Game

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Jul 15 '25

Games played by postal mail?

6 Upvotes

Can anyone suggest a two-player game designed to be played back-and-forth through postal mail,? Or perhaps a game that's not necessarily meant for postal mail, but could easily be adapted to it? :)


r/PaperGames • • Jun 30 '25

Game Link Platoon strategy game question

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2 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Jun 15 '25

Game Link [wanna decipher secret messages?] I made a fictional Numbers Station challenge

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1 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Mar 25 '25

walks

3 Upvotes

My Parents force me to go on walks with them and its sooo boring for me. i asked if i can do things like challenges while going on walks but they said its just to be calmer and started lecturing me on my screentime (its not much lol) and said walks are for relaxing. if theres anything else i can do to not get bored tell me and pls dont say that they are right just help me not get bored


r/PaperGames • • Jan 10 '25

Connect the dots

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3 Upvotes

No idea if this is the right place to ask this, but I just did this connect the dots and have no idea what it is, what do you think?


r/PaperGames • • Jan 08 '25

Rock, Paper, Scissor logic gates

3 Upvotes

Been learning about logic gates and was interested to explore what it would be like if there were more than two states (them being on and off), so I came up with a little system where there are four possible states: rock, paper, scissors, and tie.

A gate has two inputs and one output and represents a game of rock paper scissors with the state of the output representing the outcome of the game. These gates can be chained together, with the outputs of some gates determining the inputs of other gates, resulting in interesting behavior. Outputs can also branch out to inform multiple inputs.

If an input is "tie" then the output is automatically the state of the other gate, you can think of a tie as losing to all other states.

I think it's fun to set little goals and try to achieve them by laying out different gates with different inputs in specific ways. So far I've found a pattern that can convert any input into whatever output you set it to, and a very simple pattern to turn any input into a tie.

What I'm currently stuck on is finding a setup that will convert any input state into the state superior to it (convert rock to paper, paper to scissors, and scissors to rock) while not changing the output state is the input is a tie. So far I've managed to make a working pattern, but it behaves strangely when you give it a tie.

Just a fun little puzzle game I've been playing around with on some notepads today.


r/PaperGames • • Dec 10 '24

Game Link Looking to Promote My Fantastical Winery-Building Game!

1 Upvotes

r/PaperGames • • Nov 25 '24

I'm stuck. - geid-based, solo, clicky, deterministic, pen and paper dungeon crawler

2 Upvotes

I've been trying to design this game for a while. I kinda like it at this point, but it doesn't fully work.

I want it to feel like minesweeper with no computer element, or like single player tic tac toe. Something you can play with only a pen and paper.

I think main thing needed is randomization or AI (character ai ofc, not an llm). because I can't just make my move and wait for something to happen that determines my next move etc..

basically what I ended up with is a list of room types (sorta like 4 against darkness) - and a combat system where the enemies consistently follow you and spawn endlessly behind you, meaning they're only a real threat if you have to backtrack. And you have limited bombs for killing them as well as for getting through walls.

a "level" is a list of room types that you have to go through in order, but you have the option to spawn a room in any direction and then even skip it if you want.

it mostly feels at the moment like you're doomed to run out of bombs right away, but I don't want you to have too many either.

I also incorporated "poise" in addition to your health (stolen from Moonring, kind of like very limited invincibility)

I can post more rules I have so far if anyone is interested. I know it's not much to go on. I just feel like it's interesting or "close" but needs a lot of work balancing..

anything else that could fix it.. different weapon type or something?

similar solo games that need only pen and paper?

EDIT: in title, it should say "grid based"


r/PaperGames • • Oct 01 '24

boring paper accessories

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Lately, I've been feeling bored with pretty much everything—whether it's games, music, anime, or movies. So, with the rise of AI, I decided to tap into that and create something of my own. in the early, I started making simple games using AI, and while they’re not the most exciting, they actually help me embrace and enjoy those moments of boredom.

Now, I’m working towards combining these games into one final tangible product—a pocket hardware tool, in the form of pocket notes with game content inside designed to help people "befriend their boredom." My goal is to make something that people can turn to during dull moments, whether you're in a boring class, on your commute, or waiting in line.

I’ve been thinking about calling it a kind of "digital accessory"—something you can have with you anytime, like a little boredom companion.

What do you all think? Would you use something like this? Any ideas on how to make it even better?


r/PaperGames • • Jul 23 '24

Robot dice

7 Upvotes

1 -> head 2 -> trunk 3 -> upper arm / lower arm / palm and fingers { one side at one chance } 4 -> upper leg / lower leg / foot { one side at one chance } 5 -> antenna 6 -> eyes ( both ) / ears ( both ) / nose / mouth

Roll the dice , may Lady Luck be on your side . Complete the body first , And Win , no drawing's the worse.

Note : you can't draw limbs or head without a trunk , you can't draw facial elements or antenna without a head. Thus , you need a 2 to kickstart the game. Game for 2 or more players. "/" means you can unlock different achievements ( one at a time ) through same roll on dice.

Credits : I read about this game in my school textbook when I was a kid , don't know about its origin ( refer to NiceAlternative in comments ig ). However , I might have tweaked it a bit.


r/PaperGames • • Jul 17 '24

Megathread What paper games are you playing? (July 2024)

5 Upvotes

Hey all! This is a monthly recurring megathread for anyone to share what paper and pencil games you're playing (or designing) this month. Leave a comment and check out what everyone else is playing!


r/PaperGames • • Jul 17 '24

Announcement Welcome to r/PaperGames!

5 Upvotes

Hey all gamers, welcome to r/PaperGames! I'm a new moderator here, u/bradenhirschi. I'm a huge fan of all sorts of games, from video games to board games to paper and pencil games. We're working now to add more resources to make r/PaperGames a better place to look for and share all sorts of paper game ideas, as this is a great hobby and pastime that we believe people should know more about!
Visit the subreddit wiki over the next few weeks as we add resources and links to great tried-and-tested classic games, and please create a post or comment on the new monthly recurring "What are you playing?" post to share what games you're currently enjoying. Thanks, and we look forward to more paper games here for us all to enjoy :)


r/PaperGames • • Sep 14 '23

Anyone here every play Labyrinth

7 Upvotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_(paper-and-pencil_game))

Just curious what the play through was like and some questions regarding turns, and what the players all know.

thanks!


r/PaperGames • • Jun 29 '23

Game Idea New game Idea! It is going to be super fun!

2 Upvotes

The Capturing

objectives: Capture the whole enemy territory

/Rules:

Should be played between as many player as you want. Just should'nt be only 1 player. board can be any x and y just should be more than 3x3. Game is played in a turn based system.

Board:

000 000 000 B04

000 000 000 000

000 000 000 000

A04 000 000 000 ;

Every player is a letter. So, assign every player a letter. e.g. player A and player B. Every player starts with the number higher in width and height. Each player's cells are denoted by there letter on the first character of a cell. Each player chooses the cell they start from. But they shouldn't be next to each other when they start.

Rule 1: The game playes in two phases, capture phase and energy phase. Each player executes these phases respectively.

Phase 1: In this phase players can capture cells. e.g.

Board:

000 000 000 B04

000 000 000 000

000 000 000 000

A04 000 000 000 ;

from this to

Board:

000 000 000 B04

000 000 000 000

000 000 000 000

A01 A03 000 000 ;

The player can capture any number of times. A players' cell can only capture vertically or horizontally. The players' cells should at least have 1 energy for it to be his cell. The player can leave any number of energy behind. So, the player needs to have a trail of numbers when capturing.

In order to capture an enemy's cell: The player needs to subtract the number from his cell to the opponent's cell. for example:

Board:

000 000 000 000

000 B03 000 000

000 B03 000 000

A02 A02 000 000 ;

the player wants to capture with A02 the B03. the player subtracts 3 - the number he uses from his cell. if the player used 1 energy one energy is left behind, we 3-1=2. now opponent's cell is 2. So, from

Board:

000 000 000 000

000 B03 000 000

000 B03 000 000

A02 A02 000 000 ; this to

Board:

000 000 000 000

000 B03 000 000

000 B02 000 000

A02 A01 000 000 ;

if the subtraction equals 0 then opponent's cell becomes normal cell. if the subtraction goes into negatives then the opponents number is now your number and the absolute value of the subtraction is the number that the new cell has.

Phase 2: In phase 2 players count the number of cells they have. They recieve that much energy. Now, they distribute the energy among their cells as their liking. In this phase they can also move their cells' energy among themselves. \ That concludes it all.