Boards to print
Print a board, take a pencil, and play away from a screen. Every sheet is one A4 page, sized so the squares come out the size they say.
No screen, no me. Worth it anyway.
- Paper Soccer 8x12Pitch 8 × 12 · goals 2 wide14.5 mm squaresOpen the sheet
- Paper Soccer 8x10Pitch 8 × 10 · goals 2 wide16.5 mm squaresOpen the sheet
- Dots 20x20One board, 20 × 20 crossings9.2 mm squaresOpen the sheet
- Dots 10x10Four boards, 10 × 10 crossings9.2 mm squaresOpen the sheet
- Sea Battle 10x10Fleet to cut out and two 10 × 10 boards8 mm squaresOpen the sheet
Printing tip
In the print dialog choose A4 and leave the scale at 100%, or the squares come out a different size.
Each sheet carries the rules along the foot, so nobody has to go back to a screen to settle an argument.
What this collection is
Every sheet here is one page of A4 with a board on it, the rules of that game printed beside it, and room to write down who is playing and who is winning. Nothing needs cutting out except the fleet on the Sea Battle sheet, nothing needs folding, and no sheet refers to another. The squares are laid out in real millimetres rather than in pixels, which is why the printing advice below is worth reading once: at any scale other than 100% you get a board that looks right and measures wrong.
Two sizes of the same game?
Dots and Paper Soccer each come in two, and the choice is about how long you want to sit there. The smaller Dots sheet carries several boards for several quick games; the larger one carries a single board for an afternoon. The shorter pitch is the one to learn on, because wide squares forgive an unsteady hand and a match ends before anybody drifts off; the longer pitch is what experienced players ask for, since the extra distance is what lets a rebound run the length of the field. Each sheet says which it is and why, on its own page.
Why there is no Reversi or Morris sheet
Both are games a pencil cannot follow. A Reversi disc changes colour every time it is captured, and a Morris piece moves from one point to another; a pencil can only add marks, never lift or repaint them, so a printed board would be out of date by the third turn. Counters would solve it — cut-out discs with a light side and a dark side, pieces to slide around — which is a different sheet rather than a missing one, and it is not drawn yet. Both games are playable here in a browser in the meantime.