Free Games!
FREE GAMES FROM BTR GAMES
Yes, I also give away some of my game designs! Follow the links below, download the files, print them out and have cheap fun.
(* = some form of digital port or version is available for the game, see Play my games digitally )
- 91 DSSB Staff Game
- Battle of Seattle
- Caudillo
- The Chair is Empty
- Dislocated*
- District Commander system, Maracas module*
- Gravel*
- Guerrilla Checkers*
- High-Rise*
- Kashmir Crisis*
- Mastering Resistance: Orange Gobi
- Operation Canuck
- Paranoid Delusions
- Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel
- Sole Tunnels
- Third Lebanon War
- Ukrainian Crisis
I’d appreciate if you would send me any comments you may have, provided they are constructive and/or adulatory (as always, I am not responsible if any of these files make your machine go **SPUNG**, though I don’t see how… ).
NOTICE:
All material on this website, including all its subsidiary pages, that is written by me is made available through a Creative Commons license.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Please contact me if you want to discuss other uses of the content.
rough translation: “He who wants something is here in vain.”
91 DSSB STAFF GAME
A cooperative game for 3 players who represent different staff sections in the fictional US Army 91st DSSB (Divisional Sustainment Support Battalion). They work together to prepare and send off daily supply convoys to divisional Brigade Combat Teams on the “front line”. Essentially a time management and planning game, with simple processes – features include an endless time track (a mechanic stolen from Bruno Faidutti’s very weird Red November) and roles and choices that put demands on the players as the situation continues to change and crises arise. Game length 1-2 hours; no fixed end point but players can agree to stop after a certain number of “days” to assess how the brigades are faring compared to the beginning of the game.
91 DSSB staff game rules 20 Sep 23
91 DSSB Staff Game tables 20 sep 23
DSSB staff game cards 16 sep 22
91 DSSB player roles 20 sep 23
Akito and I once made a large version of the game with dollar-store miniatures… the cops came ready-made, we repurposed some of them as protestors.
BATTLE OF SEATTLE
A mini-game inspired by the anti-WTO riots in Seattle November 30 – December 3, 1999. Sort of a hybrid of my Civil Power game and Joe Miranda’s LA Lawless, this one has 96 counters, an 11×17″ area map of downtown Seattle, and the usual 3-4 pages of rules and charts. It came together very quickly and I think you’ll like it, that is if you like this sort of thing. Was published in the March 2000 issue of Strategist, the newsletter of the Strategy Gaming Society, and has been “copylefted” onto a few left-wing websites (I don’t mind, as long as they give credit where it is due).
Battle of Seattle rules and charts
Battle of Seattle double set of counters
Cover art by John Kula. His last published work.
CAUDILLO
A 2-5 player card game on power politics in a fictional Latin American state, based on Venezuela. I originally designed this in 2013, in advance of Hugo Chavez’s eventual passing from power and/or life. Now that he is gone, and Venezuela is passing through an especially dark patch (this is written at the end of 2016), perhaps it is time to just release this into the wild instead of trying to find a good deal on professionally printed cards and 90 pieces of original art.
[NOTE: replaced by the mechanically similar but cleaned up and streamlined game The Chair Is Empty]
I liked working on this game because there is a constant tension within it between competition (as players vie to create the largest and most durable power base) and cooperation (as the card deck delivers more and more crises that players must deal with collectively, or the country will collapse). Coups, too!
The free PnP version consists of 90 cards, 230 counters, and the usual rules and play aids. You print ’em, you cut ’em, you stick ’em or sleeve ’em.
Here are the files:
caudillo-pnp-crisis-cards (Crisis cards and Scoring Round cards)
caudillo-pnp-group-cards (Group cards, Personality cards, Sequence of Play reminders)
caudillo-ctrs-pnp191216 (counters)
caudrls-124 (rules and play aid)
caud-pnp-assembly-notes (notes on how to print and assemble the cards and counters)
Cover image: La Legende des Siecles by Rene Magritte, 1950.
The Chair Is Empty
A card-based game about political tensions and power vacuums, for 3 or more players. A much cleaned-up and streamlined version of Caudillo, which I will keep available for now. It is basically similar in its semi-cooperative and semi-competitive nature, and it plays up the constant tension between these urges. David Turczi advised me on its early development in 2020-21, so you know it’s better already. I still plan on self-publishing a physical version later, but the cards need better art.
108 cards, 88 counters, rules and player aids.
Chair rules 10 Dec 25 rules
Chair PAC 5 Nov 25 player aid card
Chair variants 5 Nov 25 scenarios, including a 2-player method where El Presidente is a dummy and a “Gringo” piggybacking variant that is perhaps applicable right now.
Chair group cards 2 Aug 24 Group and Agent cards
Chair crisis cards 2 Aug 24 Crisis and other cards
Chair card lists 30 July 24 Card lists for perusing
Chair ctrs 13 Nov 22 double set of counters
DISLOCATED
A simple and fast abstract game for one player about some of the problems posed for military, government and non-government organizations when they are tasked with assisting large numbers of people moving away from some kind of threat – a battle or invasion, a disaster, a violent mass movement, some kind of monster protected by copyright legislation, etc..
The game uses a deck of ordinary playing cards and a dozen dice, unit counters optional. Playing time 15-20 minutes. In each turn cards representing groups of Dislocated Civilians (as the US Department of Defense calls them) move downward through a grid. Think of columns of people heading down the Lines of Communication. The player will move their unit counters representing organizations and services to place them with cards, and then roll dice to obtain a score that will allow all, some or none of the cards in the groups to be removed from the game (signifying that their primary needs have been addressed, so that in the short term at least they may be considered safe or healthy or settled).
But the needs and demands to be satisfied are larger than the resources and services available, so some cards will exit off the bottom of the Field; these cards are “lost”. The game is over when all the cards have made their way through the Field, and the Player’s level of success depends on the total values of cards that were lost.
Disloc rules 30 April 2024 (pdf file)
Game additions and variants:
Tabletop Simulator module: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3598693972
DISTRICT COMMANDER SYSTEM
I’ve designed four modules so far for the District Commander diceless, operational-level counterinsurgency system. All or most of them were published by Hollandspiele over 2019-2021. The first one to be published takes place in “Maracas”, the fictional megacity capital of the equally fictitious nation of Virtualia (which was also the locale for my game Caudillo, see above).
It was published in early September 2019 by Hollandspiele. By agreement with them, it is still available here as a free print-and-play download as an example of the District Commander system itself and an introductory game on asymmetrical warfare in a modern large city. However, it features my own substandard artwork and if you want a quality product, you should buy either the physical product from Hollandspiele or the PnP version from Wargamevault. (https://hollandspiele.com/collections/district-commander/products/district-commander-maracas)
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/303989/District-Commander-Maracas
Game and resource files:
DC_Series_RB_rev_20-05 System rules, version 1.1 (introduces some changes in the Ambush and Intimidate missions, a new use for Intelligence Advantage chits, and disrupting Militia units no longer deducts TP)
DC Maracas x-rules10 5 June Maracas Module exclusive rules
DC maracas x-charts11 6 May 20 Updated player aids and charts for the Maracas module
DC system counters 4july Set of standard system counters (176 x 5/8″): infrastructure, chance chits, intelligence chits, insurgent units and assets
DC Maracas ctrs88 7 June Maracas Module exclusive counters (88 x 5/8″): Government units and assets, extra insurgent, intelligence pieces
DCmaracasmap1-1722 23 may Maracas Module exclusive area movement map (made to be printed out at 17×22″)
DC Binh Dinh x-charts11 6 May 20 Updated player aids and charts for the Binh Dinh module
DC_FAQetc_12_apr_21 A FAQ, current errata, clarifications and comments on the system and modules, this version 12 April 2021.
Game additions and variants:
Vassal module: http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:District_Commander_Maracas:_Virtualia_2019
Gravel
A game about missing the (Schwer)punkt.
Rules: Gravel and GC 2 Feb 26
In their turn a player may place and remove a total of friendly and enemy pieces (respectively) that is equal to or less than “X”, an integer agreed upon at the start of the game. Captures are possible in a space only when you outclass its flank and rear support. A player loses through attrition (losing more than half of their starting pieces.
Tabletop Simulator module: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3627753715
My good friend Andreas playing the game with his kids.
GUERRILLA CHECKERS
A hybrid of Checkers and Go, for two players. The “Guerrilla” player, using small Go stones, plays on the intersection points of the checkerboard squares to surround and capture the enemy pieces. Meanwhile, the “Counterinsurgent” player, using checkers, moves on the checkerboard squares to jump and capture the enemy.
Equipment required: checkerboard, six checkers, and 66 small flat pieces (buttons, glass beads, small Go stones, etc.).
Rules, with commentary and pre-printed board: Gcheck 2sided
You can buy a physical copy from me for $10.00 US. Comes with raggedy-edge canvas map (hand-silkscreened by the guy who does the best t-shirts in town for local punk and metal bands) and your choice of glass gems or wooden pieces (usually beads). Spiff it up with a zippered carry case for an extra $2.00. Every set is different! Cost does not include postage (weight normally under 500 grams). Just shoot me an email, brian.train@gmail.com .
Game additions and variations:
VASSAL module by Joel Toppen: http://www.islandnet.com/~ltmurnau/Guerrilla_Checkers.vmod
And a beta of Guerrilla Checkers for Android devices, programmed by Richard Gould. No AI of course but it looks great! http://www.islandnet.com/~ltmurnau/guerrillacheckers-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.apk
Tabletop Simulator module: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421938802
Itch.io version plays on a browser, by Mischa Untaga. Has an AI for either side that understands the rules but doesn’t play that well; still I think that is an achievement using HTML5. https://mischa-u.itch.io/guerrilla-checkers
Ludii online platform (no clue who created it) (https://ludii.games/details.php?keyword=Guerrilla%20Checkers)
Air Board Game online platform (I made this) (https://airboardgame.net/games/)
ZunTzu (https://zuntzu.com/gameboxes/BrianTrain/GCPlus.ztb)
HIGH-RISE
A microgame about a Runner penetrating the passive and active security systems of a tower block to fulfil their mission on the top floor. One page map, 13 six-sided dice, 1 meeple for the Runner. About 10-15 minutes to play. Designed in about an hour at the Connections-UK 2024 Microgame game jam event.
Game additions and variants:
Tabletop Simulator module: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3598684444
KASHMIR CRISIS
Kashmir Crisis is a quite simple card-based game for two players, on the aftermath of the February 2019 suicide bomber attack at Pulwama. Developed with Nathaniel Brunt, a gamer, researcher and photographer who has spent years travelling and taking photographs in the Kashmir Region.
It takes about 15 minutes to play. You need to print out the rules and player aid card, and optionally the player mat to help keep things organized – you also need a deck of ordinary playing cards, with one Joker.
During each game turn, players will begin by revealing the Event Card that will be in effect during that turn. Then, both players will receive a number of cards from a deck of ordinary playing cards, and play them onto Diplomatic, Information or Military Fronts (or keep them in a Reserve, for a later turn). After this, players will compare the totals of cards played to see if one player will score Victory Points on a given Front, and whether one or both players will lose cards and Victory Points.
Game files:
kc-rules-1sep19 rules
kc-pac-13nov19 player aid card
kc play mat 22aug19 optional player mat, for tidy play
KC Narrative Prompts even more optional sheet of verbal prompts to help players describe their actions in the game
Game additions and variants:
Tabletop Simulator module: Kashmir Crisis: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421971111
Kashmir Crisis: solitaire rules
Partisans in Piedmont
MASTERING RESISTANCE: ORANGE GOBI
From 1943 to the end of World War Two, both the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) materially assisted the anti-Fascist, anti-Nazi Partisan movement. In March 1944, a team of OSS operatives including Marcello de Leva, Ricardo Vanzetti and Giorgio Squillace was sent to organize and assist Partisan resistance in and around Turin, under the codename ORANGE GOBI. This themed module for the Mastering Resistance game system abstracts and fictionalizes the work of this and other OSS teams in Piedmont during the final months of World War Two in Italy. They are meant to be representational of the kinds of activities and operations such a team would be concerned with in this kind of general situation and are not meant to be a detailed re-creation or simulation of de Leva’s mission. The module includes an area map of Turin divided into twelve districts roughly equal to the city’s current administration, in order to locate clandestine networks and targets for intelligence, ambush and sabotage.
The game uses the core rules for a game system called Mastering Resistance that I have been working on with a colleague for some time. The basic system consists of rules for a single player to practice and play through a series of missions and operations typical of a covert team sent in to organize and direct resistance within a country in conflict, what the US Special Forces call “unconventional warfare”. The general idea we had was to present this along the lines the USMC tactical vignettes book Mastering Tactics, (https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/Mastering-Tactics.pdf) via Mike Lambo’s popular set and system of simple solitaire “book wargames” (he’s published 18 of them in the last 20 months! https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/143185/mike-lambo). This module may be followed by others in different countries and time periods.
Here are the print-and-play files for the game. Besides this material you need 8-10 dice, a deck of ordinary playing cards (2 decks if you are playing the 2 or 3-player experimental versions) and 3 containers for markers.
MR Mission Bklt ORANGE GOBI 11 Mar 24 Orange Gobi Mission Booklet (OpenDoc file, .odt)
MR core rules 11 Mar 24 Mastering Resistance system rules (OpenDoc file, .odt)
MR Playing Aid Card 11 Mar 24 Mastering Resistance Playing Aid Card (OpenDoc file, .odt)
MR ctrs 23 july 23 Mastering Resistance counters (PDF)
Torino districts 12 20 July 23 Map of Torino districts (PDF)
OPERATION CANUCK
While I was researching the above OSS-related material, I also ran across mention of an SOE mission near Turin with a Canadian connection! The team detailed for this operation was led by Captain Robert “Buck” MacDonald of Nova Scotia – which is why it was given the codename CANUCK. Captain MacDonald, seconded to the 2nd British Special Air Service Regiment from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, arrived with his team in the area of Alba, a large town about 30 km from Turin, in January 1945. The climax of Operation CANUCK was on 26 April 1945 when their combined forces liberated Alba and forced the occupiers to surrender, several days before Allied troops arrived in the area. The above picture shows Captain MacDonald the day before the battle, he is the one standing in the car.
Operation CANUCK is a short game that portrays the activities of this time in an abstract way. The game is intended for solitaire play. During the game the single player (the Partisan) will draw from a deck of ordinary playing cards. The Partisan will deliberately select from the red cards drawn to execute operations representing the efforts of their forces and draw randomly from the black cards to show the Fascist, German and collaborator (collectively, “Axis”) counter-actions.
Here are the print-and-play files for the game. Besides this material you need 6 dice and a deck of ordinary playing cards.
Operation CANUCK rules, PAC 30 Sep 25 Rules and Player Aid Card (Word file, .docx)
Op Canuck map 10 July 23 Map (PDF)
op-canuck-rules-italian-10-june-24 Italian-language rules (Word file, .docx) (thanks to Marcello Barisonzi for his work!)
Link to Spanish-language rules (thanks to Aitor Saiz Lasheras!) https://minervae.top/2023/11/22/operation-canuk-juego-solitario-de-brian-train-traducido/
Spanish-language cover art, made by unknown benefactor.
PARANOID DELUSIONS
In the game, each player adopts simultaneously two roles: the Paranoid, who represents a lone conspiracy nut; and the Enemy, who represents a network of real or unreal groups hiding a nefarious secret. Each Paranoid must struggle with his own weakening grasp on sanity to reveal the Groups, Methods and Goals used by the other players’ Enemies. Meanwhile, the Enemies do their best to mislead the Paranoids, betray their competing plotters to them, or just drive them insane (for purposes of entertainment only, though some people do take their games much too seriously). There are two ways to win the game, and part of a winning strategy is attacking yourself!
End of game, Urban Operations Planner Course, August 2024.
Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel (QUICK)
Simpler wargame on urban combat. Two versions: divisional level fighting in downtown Manila, designed for use by the students of the California Army National Guard’s Urban Operations Planner Course; and battlegroup level fighting in Daugavpils Latvia. Includes Vassal module by Curt Pangracs, some teaching materials and directions for a low-tech method to play the game remotely. All materials are on this separate page.
Sole Tunnels
An infantry company plus an array of enablers moves through a small tunnel complex of random hidden tiles, encountering enemy Fireteams, Mines, IEDs, and searchable Rooms. Solitaire and plays fast, less than an hour and you are not sure when it’s going to end. Four scenarios written so far.
SOLE TUNNELS rules 19 Jan 24 (OpenDoc file, .odt)
Sole Tunnels scenarios 19 Jan 24 (OpenDoc file, .odt)
Sole Tunnels PAC 19 Jan 24 (PDF file)
Sole Tunnels tiles stone 18 Jan 24 (PDF file, print onto card or sticky label then stick onto cardboard and cut out – includes unit display)
2Tunnels ctrs 5 jan 24 (PDF file, this is a counter sheet common to this game and another forthcoming one – double counter set, too. Print onto sticky label then stick to cardboard and cut out.)
THIRD LEBANON WAR
As detailed here (https://brtrain.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/next-war-in-lebanon-redux/) my game on a hypothetical invasion of southern Lebanon by the Israeli Defence Forces in the near future was published by Decision Games in summer 2014 in a state unacceptable to me as its designer.
This is the original version of the game available for free Print and Play, until such time as this game is picked up by another publisher (unlikely) or I publish it in paper form myself through BTR Games (more likely but contingent on time to do it). It’s nothing fancy but it’s better than what came out of the DG sausage machine – and the price is right.
(note: files updated 3 November 2023, to reflect some component changes, rules adjustments and clarifications. Scenarios file updated 27 June 2024, to add a hypothetical 2024 scenario)
3Leb war map2 (map)
3LW rules 3-nov-23 (rules)
3Leb OOB mats (Order of Battle mats)
3LW charts 3 nov 23 (charts)
3LW scenarios 27 Jun 24 (scenarios)
3LW cascade 3 nov 23 (Cascading Effect chart)
3Leb J-ops cards 22 apr 19 (sheets of Ops cards to cut out)
3LW ctrs 140 brt (reformatted counters to make 140 backprinted counters, simplified art by me)
3LW ctrs-140 ik (reformatted counters to make 140 backprinted counters, nicer mixed symbol + graphic art by Ilya Kudriashov)
Banner by Rodger MacGowan.
UKRAINIAN CRISIS
A free print and play game on the Ukraine Crisis of spring 2014. Designed over the weekend of March 15-16 2014, during which the referendum on whether the Crimea should leave Ukraine and join the Russian Federation was held, the situation was changing hourly and an outright invasion of Ukraine seemed possible if not likely. It’s a fairly simple pol-mil game with card play on the military, diplomatic and information-warfare fronts combined with a simple counter game if someone decides to “go kinetic” – though it’s quite possible to play the game without ever doing so.
https://brtrain.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/a-new-pnp-game-ukrainian-crisis/ is the page of this website where the game is available and described in a bit more detail.
UA_Crisis_ctrs2 (counters)
UA crisis map1722-1 (map)
uacr-cds-20 (Resource and Event cards)
uacr-rls-20 (rules and play aid)
VASSAL module by Martin Hogan also available free, though it’s for a slightly earlier version: http://www.islandnet.com/~ltmurnau/Ukrainian%20Crisis_14.vmod
A slightly different version of Ukrainian Crisis was published by Hollandspiele in early 2017, in boxed format with better art and some extra components that allow a longer game.
brtrain 
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