Cheapass Games began in 1996 with a game and a dream. Their dream was to create more than 150 original board and card games over the next ten years, and slowly to be buried in a mountain of unsold inventory. Okay, maybe it was more like a nightmare.

Today, Cheapass Games has found new and interesting ways to bring games to you. Some of our games have been republished by other game publishers. Some are available right here, for free. And a few are still sitting in the warehouse waiting for their day in the sun.

All of our in-print games are available from paizo.com and (maybe) from your favorite local game store. Here is a list of descriptions.

Agora: We chose Agora as our first new free game because we knew it was awesome. Agora is a tile-placement game for 2 to 4 players, about building shops in an ancient Greek market. The coolest rule is that you can play your cards anywhere on the table, and at any angle! Agora made the 2002 GAMES 100. Paizo has the original Hip Pocket Games edition of this Cheapass Classic. You can also download and print your own copy here.

BRAWL: A real-time card game for two players. Each player needs a deck. Winner of the 2000 Origins Awards for Best Card Game Expansion and Best Graphic Design of a Card Game (BRAWL: Club Foglio). Now super-affordably priced. If you can't decide, start with the Catfight decks.

Button Men: A mean little dice game for two players. Each pack contains two characters. Winner of the 1999 Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game, and winner of the 2002 Origins Award for best play-by-mail game (Button Men Online). Various original packs are still available for sale. We suggest the Fantasy or Samurai sets for starters, Brom sets for advanced players.

Chief Herman's Next Big Thing: The original Chief Herman's Holiday Fun Pack is sold out, but you don't need it to enjoy the sequel. Chief Herman's Next Big Thing is a collection of more than 20 short Cheapass Games including dice games, board games, card games, and more. This pack was nominated for the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 2000.

Cube Farm: Another in the lauded Hip Pocket Games series, Cube Farm is a tile-placement game about designing an office layout, and making sure you get the best cubicles. Cube Farm was included in the 2002 GAMES 100. Hip Pocket Games are tiny, portable, and pack a lot of strategy into a very affordable package.

Dead Money: The final installment in the Friedey's series of games (Give Me the Brain, Lord of the Fries, The Great Brain Robbery, et al), Dead Money is a vexing cross between Give Me the Brain and Poker. Players are zombies who have made the final round of a poker tournament they are not allowed to win. The object is to be the next player knocked out of the game, by discarding all of your cards. Dead Money is a beautiful full-color game with classic Zombie art by Brian Snoddy. And you can find a strategy article about it here.

Deadwood: Expansions to the classic edition are still available (but not the classic edition itself). Deadwood is coming soon (or, if this page gets old, is now available) in a new free edition right here.

Diceland: Diceland is a groundbreaking tabletop game that's a cross between traditional miniatures games and a physical sport. Players take turns throwing and controlling units made of sturdy paper 8-sided dice. Diceland was awarded the Origins Vanguard award for innovative game design in 2002. The original set was called Deep White Sea, but we suggest either of the Space sets for new players.

Digital Eel Computer Games: Nothing ages faster than software, but these four excellent PC games (and the three-game collection for Mac OS) are still winners. Digital Eel has moved on to other publishing partners but we still have a few CDs of the old stuff, priced to move!

Enemy Chocolatier: One of the newest paper Cheapass Games, Enemy Chocolatier is one of James Ernest's most streamlined strategy games. Players are rivals in the chocolate business, struggling to expand their control of the city, earn points, and complete their secret recipes. The boards are in full color and the game is still remarkably cheap at just $6.

Fightball: If you're new to real time card games, we suggest you try BRAWL. If that leaves you saying "what's next," the answer is Fightball. Co-designed by Lone Shark's Mike Selinker, Fightball is a future sport realized as a modern real-time game. Players build a court of cards and race to build stacks of players, balls, and shots. Fightball is graphically delicious and deviously clever, despite playing at lightning speed.

Fight City: Imagine a trading card game boiled down into just one 100-card boxed set. That's Fight City. In a dystopian setting, players struggle for control of a city with no rules. The Fight City Boxed Edition contains all the cards from the original two envelope sets, improved rules, and starter deck lists.

Freeloader: The best things in life are free. Other people's things. Freeloader is a board game about mooching off your friends, a simple matter of scoring as many points as possible while making sure your basic needs are met (that's food, clothing, and shelter). It would be better to borrow a friend's copy, but sometimes you have to be the friend.

Jacob Marley, Esquire: This is, beyond a doubt, the best board game about investment banking that you will play this year. Jacob Marley, Esquire follows the story of one young Jacob Marley as he lends money to the deserving (and not-so-deserving) denizens of London. Your goal is to make him as rich as you can, earning his eternal friendship and one get-out-of-hell-free card. A sadly overlooked but decent little board game.

James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game: One of the first Cheapass Games (actually, the second) was called "Before I Kill You, Mister Bond..." We knew that eventually that name would get us noticed by the wrong element, so when MGM's lawyers called us, we transformed the game into the full-color edition, re-titled "James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game." Players take the rules of super-villains luring master spies into their secret lairs, taunting them for as long as is practicable, and then (hopefully) killing them for points. It's still the same awesome game but with one particular name removed. If only we could have called it "What Part of 'Doctor No' Don't You Understand?"

Landyland: Believe it or not, back in the late 90's it was easy to get your hands on stacks and stacks of Magic land cards. So we made a game for the show bags at Gen Con, called it LandyLand, and got beloved Magic artist Phil Foglio to illustrate the board. It's a simple little abstract game about collecting cards and moving stones, and we still have a few copies left for the low price of a buck.

Light Speed: One of only two games in the Cheapass catalog that was not designer by James Ernest, Light Speed is frequently cited as some random player's favorite game. Right beside Starbase Jeff, which is the other one. We are equally proud of all our children, of course. Light Speed is a real-time asteroid shooting game invented by gaming legend Tom Jolly. Players deal out their ten ship cards as fast yet carefully as possible, and then the ships fire their lasers at, well, pretty much everything. Light Speed is a perennial favorite and has even been translated into Polish!

Nexus: Believe it or not, James Ernest printed the cards for Nexus before he invented the rules. He's just that good. Nexus was the first in the Hip Pocket Games series, and like nearly all the others, it was listed in the GAMES 100 (in this case, in 2002). Nexus is a decidedly abstract strategy game about area control, with the wrinkle that the stronger you are, the less you score. Like most of the Hip Pocket line, it's simple, strategic, and cheap.

One False Step: One of the few classic boxed Cheapass Games still in print, One False Step for Mankind is a multi-hour resource production strategy game that is worth every hour it takes. Players represent town mayors in the Old West, who have become so stupidly rich that they have decided to race to the moon. Also available is the expansion, One False Step Home.

Secret Tijuana Deathmatch: We've all been there. Recently fired from our high-paying Wall Street jobs, we find ourselves raising money by wrestling in secret Mexican deathmatches. Secret Tijuana Deathmatch was conceived as a way to dispose of five thousand counter sheets from a completely different game, made years before by a completely different publisher. And yet, somehow, it holds together.

Spree: A super-cheap and must-have game. Spree is a board game about looting a shopping mall, one of the original Cheapass envelope games and now better than ever in its two-color "classic" edition. For the price of $3.50 you can't really go too far wrong.

Steam Tunnel: Beneath the surface of Io... is another abstract Hip Pocket Game. Steam Tunnel is a path-connection game where the trick is to keep certain cards face down, so that the paths pass straight beneath them. It is yet another in a string of light strategy games in the Hip Pocket series, and this one landed in the GAMES 100 in 2003. Seriously, we were on a tear with those.