Meat on Swords!

The first Cheapass Game of 2026 is here. Meat on Swords, a Lord of the Fries game, is a new press-your luck card game with the characters from Friedey’s restaurant. This time around, they are serving all-you-can-eat meat at Carnespadas, the Brazilian Steakhouse of the Damned.

Meat on Swords has been a challenge to create. We tried several times to create a Lord of the Fries-style menu for Carnespadas, only to abandon that in favor of a press-your-luck game mechanic, more befitting a restaurant without a menu.

You can get Meat on Swords right now from our shop, or from our friends at DriveThruCards. We also have a limited number of Carnespadas coaster sets (optional but lovely), and of course you can download the latest version of the rules from the Lord of the Fries page.

Happy 30th Anniversary!

We hope you’re sitting down, because this year Cheapass Games turns thirty years old. The “Pearl Anniversary” seems like a great time to revisit the games from Year One, updating some of them (as appropriate) into handsome new versions.

That first block of games includes Kill Doctor Lucky, Before I Kill You Mister Spy, Ben Hvrt, Bleeding Sherwood, and more.

We’ve updated the Spy Game recently, so we don’t need to tinker with that. Instead, we’re working on a brand new espionage-themed board game called Bad Assassin, along with a spy-themed Island Deck to go with it.

We’ll update our print-and-play versions of Kill Doctor Lucky, Ben Hvrt, and Spree. And one of our most maligned games, Bleeding Sherwood, is back on the table as well. It turns out that one simple change makes the game pretty playable (even with the original cards). You’ll hear more about that, and all the rest of the 1996 Pearl Anniversary Games, throughout the coming year.

In Other News:

New at the Ready Room: We have begun to update some of our tiniest free games to a format that might one day be collected into a book. So far we have added new drafts of 10-Die Poker, Abandon Ship, and The Forest to the games at the Ready Room, with more games coming each time James Ernest has a free afternoon.

New on DTC: Tak Board Collection. If you need a 5x5 game board for Tak, El Oso, or anything else, check out this streamlined little collection of four Tak boards, just added at DriveThruCards. These are boards plucked from early versions of Tak, including The Classic Set, the University Set, and the cover of the Companion Book.

Coming Soon: Stamp Showdown. Our friends at Four Suit Studio were big fans of Lamarckian Poker, so for the last few months we’ve been working on a magnificent upgrade of this classic game. Stamp Showdown will launch on Kickstarter later this month. They haven’t announced the date just yet, but please visit the page to be notified!

Also Coming Soon: Lord of the Fries. Next month, our Coconut Crabs will receive a Lord of the Fries deck of their choice, along with a new nine-menu combo pack from DriveThruCards. Join our Coconut Crabs on Patreon and help keep our lights on, with new releases shipping to you first!

Thanks Again!

Thanks for being active followers of Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment Labs. Our greatest gift is our players, and we hope you’ll enjoy sharing all of our new games (and some of our old ones) with your friends and family throughout the year.

As we’ve said before, we’re thrilled to have Cheapass Games back in the house. You can read more about what we accomplished this year, and what’s in store for ‘26, in this recap on the Crab Fragment blog.

Follow us, literally: James Ernest will next appear at DunDraCon in Santa Clara, followed by many of his usual stops throughout the year. For details, please visit the schedule page.

If you’d like to support us, we have plenty of ways. Let us know what you’d like to see next, and here’s wishing you a safe and happy 2026.