Crab Fragment Games
Welcome to the Games Page. This is your stepping-off point into many worlds of adventure. At Crab Fragment Labs you will find new games in development, lost games from the distant past, and wild guesses about what’s coming next.
We’ve recently posted a slew of How to Play videos (linked from the front page), including fan favorite Shipwrights of Marino. You can also buy the deck and board for that game, and many others, from our friends at DriveThruCards.
Other big projects include Prudh and Linos, two simple abstract games; Cold Comfort, a board game about hospitality in the Yukon, and Bread Basket, a cute little sandwich-making card game. You should also check out Bitin’ Off Hedz, a colorful update to the classic dinosaur race, and Pairs, a collection of more than 50 original games with many beautiful decks.
Games Pages:
The Board Room: Thematic board games like Cold Comfort, Tomb of the Ancients and Shipwrights of Marino
The Card Room: Stand-alone card games including Letter Boxing, Bread Basket and The Harvest
The Pub: A mix of abstract games, like Whispers, Linos, and Tablero di Berona.
The Game Preserve: A vast catalog of out-of-print Cheapass Games.
The Ready Room: Simple free games that require only the rules, and components you already have.
The Shop: A listing of our ready-for-primetime games with PDFs you can buy, or download for free.
Feel free to browse all of these pages for delighful surprises. If you’re looking for a specific game, you can visit the alphabetical lists in the Map Room and Cheapassic Park.
Many of our games are available print-on-demand from DriveThruCards. For your convenience we have built a page with links to all of our DriveThru products. Check it out!
Making Your Own
Nearly all of the games at Crab Fragment Labs include a version that you can print and play for free. Here are some hints for printing your own games, and links to helpful resources for some of the components you might need.
Making Paper Components: If you’re new to making games, here are our videos about making your own cards, boards, and more:
Printing Our Cards: Most of our card games include some printable version, though it it not always the same as the version we post on DriveThruCards. Some of our decks are too dark or oversaturated for home printing, so we design lighter ones especially for that job. Also, most of our games don’t include the cardback art, but we do have some generic cardbacks that you can use for any standard-sized deck:
Making Wooden Components: Most of the wooden components in the photos and videos at Crab Fragment come from James Ernest’s Workshop. We are considering offering these components for sale someday, along with posting some videos about how they are made. But in the meantime, for crafting hints, we recommend the many talented woodworkers on YouTube.
Where to Buy Components: If you’re new to buying things, here are some helpful links and suggestions.
Thrift Stores: Check out your local thrift store for used games. This is absolutely the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to pick up extra dice, tokens, play money, and game boxes.
Your House: If you need boxes, flat cardboard for game boards or tile cards, or objects to serve as pawns, you can probably find them in your house. And you should probably learn to save “good boxes.”
Your Local Game Shop: Most game stores carry an assortment of generic components like dice and tokens. If you have a local game shop, please throw them some business.
Discount Poker Shop: Discount Poker Shop carry our favorite micro poker chips, which you will see in many of our photos. They also have normal-sized poker chips at reasonable prices, and a few other gaming bits.
Koplow Games: Koplow make just about every game component imaginable: dice, pawns, tokens, sand timers, spinners, you name it. They don’t have a retail website, but you can search for their products at your local game shop, or via your favorite online retail conglomerate.
Chessex: Chessex specializes in high-end dice and dice accessories (yeah, that’s a thing), they do have a retail website, and their monthly newsletter is called “The Scoop.”
The Game Crafter: We don’t host any products at The Game Crafter, but they are the foremost print-on-demand board game maker, and they carry a huge variety of components.
Do you have a suggestion or a query about building your own games? Help us grow this list, and make our free offerings even better.
Of course, “free” isn’t really free. Game designers need to eat. So if you like Crab Fragment Labs and you want to contribute to James Ernest’s next meal, please consider buying our free PDFs in the Shop, ordering our games from DriveThruCards, or becoming a backer on Patreon. But to be clear, the most valuable support anyone can give us is to tell your friends about us!
Please Support Us on Patreon
We have a Patreon page, as you might expect, and you can help us immeasurably by joining our cadre of Hermit Crabs. If you love what we do, and you want to support our huge catalog of free content, please become a Hermit Crab today!