What Is Print to Play?

 

In order to keep these games free, Risci Games has designed games in a manner that makes home printing a little easier  This includes trying to keep printable components confined to an A4 size paper(except for some of the big boards required in several games) and designing games to make use of only 6-sided dice. As a result, you might not get the same visual quality you would get in a traditional board game. It will also mean that you will need to take time to print, cut and set up the components before playing, plus need to find a place to store them. These may be inconveniences to many, but we see it as part of what makes our game more interactive.

 

However, we also acknowledge that your printing experience forms as much a part of your gameplay as the game itself, which is why this guide has been created to make the transition to print that little bit easier. Along with this page, each of the games will also have how to print sections detailing how best to print them.

 

Manuals

All games will come with a default manual or rule book. These are designed to be printed in A5, but are perhaps best kept in their PDF form on an electronic device. The reason for this is that it makes it easier to reference, distribute and keep the rules updated when updates come around. It also saved on the cost of printing.

 

Cards and Tiles

The majority of games will come with some form of card or tile format with components that need to be cut-out. These are all designed to fit on A4 pages and we recommend using thin cardboard at possible for durability reasons. Many of these components are design in full-colour but should display fine in black and white print.

We also recommend sleeves for the majority of cards, as these will be handled quite often and will prevent long term damage to the cards. On the plus side though, the beauty of print to play is that even if the card is damaged, you can simply print out a new one.

 

Boards

There are a few games that unfortunately require boards to play on and these cannot be kept to a small size. The downloadable PDFs are all in a print-ready format for the majority of printers and it is relatively inexpensive to print and laminate these at most printing companies. 

 

Tokens and Player Pieces

While these are provided for all games in a printable format, it is also recommended to use tokens from other games should you wish to save some of the printing and cutting effort for this. The majority of games are very light on tokens and so this shouldn't be too much of an issue.

 

Will our games always be print-to-play?

We are exploring additional print-runs and digital formats for the future, but in order to keep our games accessible, we will always plan to have some form of print-to-play format for those that want to keep their playing experiences as cheap as possible. Don't worry - we won't judge. In fact - we prefer it that way.