Print and play games are an underappreciated corner of the hobby. The economics make no sense — you spend real money on printing and assembly for a game you could buy finished — but the curation and community that has grown around PnP design has produced games that would never have found a commercial audience.

Button Shy Games has essentially industrialized print and play into commercial products, producing excellent small-format games in wallet format. Their model — 18 cards in a wallet sleeve — has produced genuinely good designs.

For historical games, PnP is often the only accessible option. Block wargames, detailed hex-and-counter titles, highly thematic simulations — many exist only as PnP. If you have the patience for assembly, this is a rich space to explore.