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….
- Battle of Seattle
- Caudillo
- District Commander system
- Guerrilla Checkers
- Kashmir Crisis
- Paranoid Delusions
- Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel
- 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.
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.
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.
I also offer a hand-assembled version with: 90 cards printed on coloured cardstock and hand-cut; 60 die-cut pre-punched counters; and 120 small coloured wooden cubes for $50 US, which includes postage. If you want one of these, let me know at brian.train@gmail.com; I take (and prefer) Paypal.
Here are the files for the free version:
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)
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.
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
VASSAL module by Joel Toppen also available: 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
And if all else fails, you can buy a physical copy from me. 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 .
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
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!
Quick Urban Integrated Combat Kriegsspiel (QUICK)
Wargame on urban combat in a generic city, designed for use by the students of the California Army National Guard’s Urban Operations Planner Course, July 2022. Introductory and standard versions, Vassal module by Curt Pangracs, and decks of slides describing the game are on this separate page. The QUICK Page
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.
When I received my subscriber (!) copy of the game, I immediately made the original version of the game available for free Print and Play. So, 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), here are the game files for you to download and play. As you can see from the game being played above, 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 23 April 2019, to reflect some component changes and rules adjustments)
3Leb war map2 (map)
3Lebwar charts (charts)
3Leb OOB mats (Order of Battle mats)
3LW-r 23 apr 19 (rules)
3Lebwar Cascading Effects Event Chart (Cascading Effects Event Chart)
3LW scenarios (scenarios)
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. It has attracted by far the largest number of visitors, but I fear that well over 99% of the people who click in see that awww, it’s a paper game and geee, they have to print it and play it themselves, so they click elsewhere.
But if you are one of the few with time, a printer and some crafting skills (glue and scissors), here are the files!
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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