
Pencil and Paper Games - aethertap
http://www.papg.com
======
Grue3
Pen and paper games were quite widespread among Soviet/Russian math olympiad
participiants, and sadly these games are practically unknown outside of these
circles. Tochki (dots) is probably the most well known, and it even has a
Wikipedia article. Klopy (bedbugs) is a much more advanced game, but it's very
obscure. The rules were passed orally and probably not written anywhere. It's
a multiplayer game, usually for 4 players, which start in each corner of a
sheet of squared paper, which is the base (represented by completely filled
square). At each turn a player can put a fixed number of "bugs" (represented
by X crosses) which can be placed next to a base or your own bug. Instead of
placing a bug, you can turn a neighboring enemy bug into your base. I probably
don't remember all the rules right now, but that's the gist of it. The games
with many players are extremely fun and involve a lot of strategy and
diplomacy.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_(game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_\(game\))

EDIT: I found the Russian wikipedia article for the second game (I was
searching for the wrong name):
[https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE...](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0)
. Looks like I forgot the rule that each base must be "activated" (have at
least a single bug next to it) to produce new bugs.

~~~
danielbarla
I have some fond memories of playing a few graph-paper based games in my
childhood (Hungary).

One was an open map version of tic tac toe, where the goal was to get 5 of
your symbol in a line. This game was called "amoeba", and if you won, you got
to draw an outline around the board so far (which tended to look like an
amoeba).

Another one was a kind of racing game. You'd draw the boundaries racing track
on graph paper, where the race track would be several blocks wide at all
points. Players would start near each other at the starting line, and get to
update their velocity by one in both the x and y axes, so effectively you
carried a lot of momentum. If you went out of the allowed area, you lost. So,
the game revolved around being able to judge the maximum speed / momentum that
would still allow you to take the corner.

Later on, I lived in other countries, and never ran into so many of these pen
and graph paper games. No idea why.

~~~
Marazan
I implemented the vector racing game as a Flash game many years ago

[http://www.kongregate.com/games/GeometricGames/vector-
race](http://www.kongregate.com/games/GeometricGames/vector-race)

------
jefurii
Not very intellectual or mathy but my friends and I used to play this "paper
arcade game" back in elementary school after Star Wars came out. We'd draw
figures and then take turns sliding the pencil to move or shoot.

[https://imgur.com/sJMwze9](https://imgur.com/sJMwze9)

It started out as "UFOs" (circles with a line through them) and mutated into
X-Wings v TIE Fighters. Soon we were drawing asteroid fields, opposing planets
with gun emplacements, etc, etc. Wish I could go back and look at some of
those old drawings.

~~~
monkeydreams
We had something very similar only it morphed into an explosion of other games
such as one where a person drew an obstacle course and a range of items the
second player could use once or another game involved drawing a range of
soldiers (which shot using pencils) and tanks (which shot using thick markers)
which could be moved using a dot system (i.e. you had to draw a 1 cm line,
draw a dot, for a single step) with tanks being allowed to move 1 move,
soldiers 2 moves, ninjas 3 moves, etc.

------
stevewillows
Often if I'm with a friend at a coffee shop for an extended period of time,
we'll play the drawing game. Its simple; each person draws a line on their own
pad of paper, then the other person needs to make a picture.

You could incorporate a theme, but themes tend to occur naturally.

Especially with the suffocation that comes with technology, simple pen and
paper games are breath of fresh air.

~~~
pricechild
I played a variant of this which was quite fun for 3+ if a little more
complicated...

An animal/mineral/vegetable is written on a card for every player but one who
gets a blank card. For a couple of rounds you each draw a line before finally
voting on who you think doesn't know what you're drawing. The main group is
trying to demonstrate to everyone else that they know what the item is (and so
drawings become very abstract) without making it obvious to the hidden
traitor.

I think the introducer mentioned it was being commercialised...?

~~~
esrauch
This game has been sold for a few years as "A fake artist goes to New York"
(though it seems like the sort of thing that other companies could easily
start selling too, so I'm not sure if that's the only one).

~~~
pricechild
So it is! Thank you!

board game geek suggests there's at least one reimplementation: "Sunken
Sailor"

[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135779/fake-artist-
goes-...](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135779/fake-artist-goes-new-
york) [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233994/sunken-
sailor](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233994/sunken-sailor)

------
SamBam
We often play an Exquisite Corpse-style game we call simply "Words and
pictures." Each person writes a sentence, then passes the paper to the right.
The next person tries to draw the sentence in an understandable way, and folds
over the original sentence, and passes it again. The sentence keeps being
translated between words and pictures, and is often hilarious. No real drawing
skills required.

Because I grew up with Oxford academics, my family growing up would also play
the same thing but switching between English and Latin. Those who knew Latin
would try to translate accurately, but us kids would write stuff that sounded
more like bad Harry Potter spells, which the adults would have to make sense
of.

~~~
andrewflnr
My friends called it "Pictionary Telephone". We played it a lot, but not with
Latin. :)

------
taejo
One that I've played a bit in the last few years (IIRC it's discussed in
_Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays_ ) is to draw an RxC grid (4x5 works
well for a short game). Two players take turns placing 1x2 dominoes on two
adjacent grid squares, one player horizontally and the other vertically. The
winner is the last person to successfully place a domino.

~~~
Someone
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domineering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domineering)
and yes, it is in _Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays_.

------
tonteldoos
This brings back so many memories of hours in the afternoons, classrooms and
roadtrips. It's nice to be reminded how we kept ourselves busy before
smartphones and tablets...

~~~
KGIII
Sometimes, I'll still play the games they are calling _Dots and Boxes_. I
frequently have a pad of graph paper with me and will even encourage
strangers* to play with me.

Sometimes the missus and I will play a few matches. Though they are adults,
I'll sometimes get my kids to play it with me, when they visit.

You can even play it with more than two people. When you do it with three
other people, on a whole sheet of graph paper, it starts to make for some
interesting commentary and labored attempts at stategy.

If you want to change it up a little, you can play with three other people and
play as partners. I imagine you could do that with six or eight people, but
I've never tried it.

Anyhow, just because we have newer devices and ways to entertain ourselves
doesn't mean we can't enjoy the simpler things from our youth. Sometimes, I
even read dead tree books. The old stuff is still fun.

* Where I retired, I don't have much in the way of strangers. We usually go out to brunch on Sundays and I'll frequently purloin someone's child, stuff them with ice cream, and play a game of this, or some rounds of Tic-Tac-Toe, or hangman. It is one of the perks of living in a very rural area.

~~~
wastedhours
I still have some of my graph paper sheets from uni lectures with _Dots and
Boxes_ on (to be honest, I kept them over some of my old notes...). Those
memories were brilliant, stealing a few seconds across a row at a lecture
theatre to play was one of the things I actually look back fondly of the time.

~~~
KGIII
Username checks out!

I really do recommend people take a break and go do some of those things they
did as children. Go skip rocks, play tic tac toe for hours, and climb a tree.

It helps ground me, and who doesn't like catching frogs? All those sort of
things make for a great day moment without needing to be in a rush, connected,
or obligated.

------
shagie
I’ve enjoyed the Beyond series from Sid Sackson in the past.

Beyond Tic Tac Toe ( [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3937/games-
art](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3937/games-art) )

Beyond competition ( [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3928/beyond-
competition](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3928/beyond-competition) )

Beyond solitaire ( [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3940/beyond-
solitaire](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3940/beyond-solitaire) )

~~~
panglott
Hex and Y are also pencil-and-paper games, although the paper usually needs to
be some kind of pre-printed board. Mudcrack Y especially.

Sid Sackson's Games of Art collects a number of these.
[https://www.eaglegames.net/product-p/101319.htm](https://www.eaglegames.net/product-p/101319.htm)

------
asicsp
nice, didn't know so many variations are there, especially the ones based on
noughts and crosses.. and some of them can be played from the site itself,
very nice..

there is also MetaSquares
([http://www.scottkim.com.previewc40.carrierzone.com/squares/i...](http://www.scottkim.com.previewc40.carrierzone.com/squares/index.html))

I have made one too - Square
TicTacToe([https://github.com/learnbyexample/squaretictactoe](https://github.com/learnbyexample/squaretictactoe))

------
avighnay
Great collection! it should also have Hangman
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangman_(game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangman_\(game\))

------
decafb
Lovely reminder. Though nowadays I mostly think that these are also a great
coding challenges.

------
speps
I remember playing Paper Tetris with a friend at uni about 11 years ago now. I
made a single player version in Flash at the time. I was quite proud of the
algorithm to determine if a piece can be drawn in place as it's a bit
different than normal Tetris rules.

Here it is:
[http://speps.github.io/papertetris/](http://speps.github.io/papertetris/)
(Flash player required, lost source code)

~~~
panglott
How does one play paper tetris? Most of the links I'm turning up use cut-out
tretraminos or origami boxes. Is it like Blokus Duo?

------
JoeDaDude
There are many traditional board games that can be played with pencil and
paper as well. See the following list compiled by the board game geeks:

[https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/74684/non-obvious-
pap...](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/74684/non-obvious-paper-and-
pencil-board-games)

------
malingo
I've seen some interesting rules-based design games that are more process-
based art than games. One of the co-creators of Paper JS
[[http://paperjs.org/](http://paperjs.org/)] is a member of this group of
artists.

Some are based on 3-4 participants
[https://www.conditionaldesign.org/](https://www.conditionaldesign.org/)

Some work with an arbitrary number of participants, e.g. visitors adhering
stickers to art gallery walls and floor (see "red fungus"):
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100829051147/http://poly-
luna....](https://web.archive.org/web/20100829051147/http://poly-luna.com/red-
fungus)

------
scandinavegan
I'm happy that Race Track is there (in Other)! It's like a super minimalistic
version of Car Wars, but still very fun. You get the same realization of "Oh
shit, I'm going too faaast!" when you're about to lose control.

~~~
Grue3
I also remember playing this! We also had an alternate version where you place
your pen vertically at some point and then push down on it so that it slides
in the desired direction. The end of the resulting ink trail is where you
start your next turn. Of course it's quite possible to crash into a wall if
you're not careful.

------
ianopolous
My favourite is to play Go: Draw a grid. Player 1 is /, player 2 is \\. A
cross is an empty square (and you note the prisoner on the side). A cross with
two /'s is player 1 again, etc.

~~~
blue1
Havannah [1] is somewhat go-like and is perfect as a pencil and paper game, as
stones are never removed. I've been playing on photocopied hex grids for
years.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havannah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havannah)

------
mrspeaker
Not really pencil and paper, but when I was a kid I remember using the pencil
itself as a die: shave off the ends of a hexagonal pencil (or just etch in to
the wood).

No skill involved, but I spent a zillion hours playing "cricket" by writing
"dot ball, 1, 2, 4, 6, out" on the edges. Then you spin the pencil in your
hand without looking and slide your thumb up the edge. Whatever you landed on
was the score and you marked it down on a score sheet.

As a bonus you could easily disguise the action as fidgeting - so you could
play during class.

------
bass_case
[http://www.ghoulash.com/the-games.html](http://www.ghoulash.com/the-
games.html)

The best pencil and paper game ever

------
midgetjones
"Heads Bodies & Legs" is great fun, especially if the other person is
similarly puerile.

One that I don't see - or maybe I don't know what I'm looking for - is "Fish,
Fruit, Flower"[0], which we used to play as a family when I was young.

[0]
[http://www.lingolex.com/alfgame.html](http://www.lingolex.com/alfgame.html)

~~~
tehno
A variant of that game that I've played a lot is to write a sentence, then
next person draws that sentence in pictures and folds (hides) the sentence
part, next person needs to verbalize the picture again and fold the previous
part etc. Often the end result is hilarious.

~~~
msoucy
Another name for the drawing version of this sort of activity is an Exquisite
Corpse[0]

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse)

------
unixhero
I really like the academic citations where applicable. Mad props for that.

------
brandonmenc
ah, Dots and Boxes!

As a child, I played this game quite often with my babysitter - an older woman
who for close to a decade was essentially a third grandmother.

Our paths cross every five or ten years when I'm visiting back home - she's in
her 90s now - and we _still_ fondly remember playing this game together.

I encourage everyone play these games with their children - there's something
about the interaction of the players that creates warm, lasting memories for
everyone involved.

~~~
JoeDaDude
Not just for children! For some serious treatment, see:

The Dots and Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play by Elwyn R. Berlekamp [1].

[1]. [https://www.amazon.com/Dots-Boxes-Game-Sophisticated-
Childs/...](https://www.amazon.com/Dots-Boxes-Game-Sophisticated-
Childs/dp/1568811292/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1507759803&sr=8-8&keywords=dots+and+boxes+book)

------
dodecacat
How about sprouts? I was introduced to it in Piers Anthony's Macroscope...

~~~
Kiro
What about it? It's the first example on the page.

------
willlll
I'm sad it doesn't have the best pencil and paper game, where mostly you write
something down in secret and say "done": Escape From The Aliens In Outer Space
[http://www.eftaios.com/](http://www.eftaios.com/)

~~~
Uhhrrr
That looks kind of card-intensive. Is there a version more amenable to playing
with pencil and blank paper in the back of a bus?

------
slolean13
awesome! I enjoyed playing it :)

