Cheapass Games is back! Again!
Cheapass Games is now part of Crab Fragment Labs.
It’s complicated, but basically James Ernest and co. licensed the entire Cheapass kit to Greater Than Games in 2019, who sold themselves to Flat River Group in 2021, who abandoned all publication efforts in 2025, leaving the enigma of Cheapass Games on the battlefield for mortals to reclaim.
This is a welcome page for people who have never heard of Crab Fragment Labs, and a news page for Cheapass-specific topics. As we integrate the more than 100 games from the Cheapass Catalog into our own, you’ll find both enterprises are one and the same.
About Cheapass Games
For centuries, Cheapass Games has worked tirelessly to create amazing tabletop games for the betterment of all Mankind. James Ernest founded Cheapass on a simple premise: Games cost too much, and they are at some level all the same.
Most game publishers inflate their prices by larding up their games with components you don’t need. Cheapass Games were tiny, cheap, and wonderful. And we kept our prices low by asking you to find your own spare parts.
Crab Fragment Labs has already posted many of the older versions of Cheapass Games as free print-and-play PDFs. You’ll find plenty of these games at the Shop, and at Cheapassic Park.
Now that we’re unambiguously back in charge, we are slowly updating the catalog to include the newest versions of all the best games, including:
Bitin’ Off Hedz: A full-color remake (with hot lava) of this classic Dinosaur chase game.
Witch Trial: Prosecute and defend suspected witches in this perfectly legal game.
Young Jacob Marley: The best moneylending game you’ll ever play!
Along with tidying up the back catalog, Cheapass Games and Crab Fragment Labs will bring you new versions of classic games, like those listed above. We will add most of our back catalog to DriveThruCards, post unreleased expansions from before the big sale, and we’ll even start minting some new games in the classic Cheapass style.
If you’d like to participate in something akin to the ol’ Cheapass Games subscription program, you can join the Coconut Crab level on Patreon, and receive something in your mailbox roughly once a month.
Coconut Crabs on Patreon
Introducing the Coconut Crab, A new pledge level on Patreon. Patrons at this tier will receive a new game from the old Cheapass Catalog, roughly once per month, delivered right to their door. It’s a premium surprise level, much like the famous Cheapass subscription model of olden times.
Who Qualifies: US addresses only, no PO boxes. (DriveThruCards can’t ship to PO boxes.)
The Price: $32 per month
The Benefits: Coconut Crabs will receive new games from Cheapass Games / Crab Fragment roughly once per month. Many of these games will be new versions of original Cheapass Games, a few weeks before they become available to the general public.
The Games: Games in this vein include Before I Kill You Mister Spy, the newest iteration of Cheapass Games #002. When we can, we will also include new games in this subscription. However, anything that is already on DriveThruCards for any reason will not be sent to the Coconut Crabs. This is because, for one thing, you might already have it, and for another thing, we like the motivation of getting all of our games in shape and onto DriveThruCards. We have more than two years’ worth without breaking a sweat.
The Caveats: This is absolutely not the cheapest way to get these games. Most of our games have a free print-and-play version, and you’d also pay about half as much by ordering these new products individually. Like all Patreon levels, some of your pledge goes to support Cheapass Games / Crab Fragment Labs (and our catalog of free games), while about half goes into the costs of printing and shipping your games.
Also, as with most of our games, some of these games will require you to add your own generic pieces, like dice and pawns and play money. And DriveThru products don’t ship with the rules, but we do keep those here at each game’s product page.
We hope you’ll consider becoming a Coconut Crab, and enjoying free random crap in your mailbox.
What Happens Next?
The Cheapass Games catalog has more than 100 games, and twice as many variations and expansions, so re-integrating it will take time. If there’s something you’d like to see first, please let us know.
We are actively looking for licensing partners for our most well-loved properties, so you should see new print editions of games like Tak, Kill Doctor Lucky, and Unexploded Cow as soon as we locate suckers who still want to print board games. As a last resort we might even run another crowdfunding campaign and tackle a reprint ourselves.
We expect that the tasks of servicing the original catalog, as well as bringing out new games under the Cheapass Games brand, will keep us busy for years. We welcome your love and support as you help us spread the word, and the games, throughout the world.
And now, for the entertainment of our hardestcore fans, we bring you the celebrated “How Much Should I Pay” bar chart from 2012. Remember that we give this stuff away for free, but we’re also happy to accept your money, if you feel you can help.
