Print and Play Easy to Learn Board Game for All the Family

This board game is based on my Killmuckie stories, It's a game for 8+ years for between 2 and 4 people. The whole game can be printed out. Files and instructions are all here.

Printer

* Laminator & A4 pouches

Drill and 5mm bit

Quantity of A4 paper

*8 sheets card for printer

1 sheet of stiff card size A1 or 2 sheets A2 if you want to fold the board.

5 split pins or leather rivets

*7 Lolly sticks (or 4 cut in half)

1 10mm washer

4 Playing tokens or counters. I use Ludo pieces, they’re easier to move around.

EVA glue or Pritt stick adhesive. EVA glue will not soak into paper and make it wrinkle like PVA.

Craft knife

Metal edge ruler

*Spray lacquer

*optional

Based on my stories of Killmuckie. The object of the game is to get Supt Dorian Gray to Dunmuffin Garda HQ to collect a reward for a crime case that he solved and back – in 30 minutes. On the way to Dunmuffin he must make certain stops and again on the way back after he’s collected his reward. The journey takes him all over Killmuckie. On the way he encounters various obstacles such as injuring himself and going to hospital, paying fines or acquiring Sgt Dean

The game itself borrows heavily from the Hancock’s Half Hour board game from 1960. That explains why you have 30 minutes on the clock. The street layout is the same as are the locations of the places that you must visit and the prices of things. But Hancock is replaced by Dorian and Sidney is replaced by Deano. I’ve changed the names of everything and added a few extra functions to the board. The original instructions were a little vague with no clear indication what to do in certain circumstances. As this is my version I’ve tweaked them to my satisfaction.

Rather than dice the game uses a spinner to move along. As well as numbers, the spinner has instructions too. You can use throw sticks instead, either works. Throw stick values are given on cards that will be printed along with the place cards. more about them later.

A printer that does double-sided is useful here but I'll give you some workarounds.

Download all the files.

Print out everything onto A4 paper. spinner.jpg, clocks.jpg, money.pdf (or €1-€20.jpg), cards.pdf (or p1-p4.jpg) and the instructions.pdf, the board in sections on board.pdf or the download the complete board 50.8cm,jpg and print it full size.

Read each section for more info first.

Spinner

Print out the spinner.jpg and stick it to some stiff card, make the pointer and drill a hole in the appropriate place. Glue the washer to the underside of the pointer. Push a split pin through the hand, the washer and the spinner and spread the back, not too tight, loose enough to let it spin when it's flicked I used a piece of card paper as a spacer then took it out after fixing it together on my prototype. You could use a leather rivet, as I did on my finished article, but you must be careful not to hammer it too tight. The purpose of the washer is to keep the hand away from the surface of the spinner and to avoid the hole being worn out. The pointer must move freely. Protect the back with some tape over the pin.

*Throw Sticks

If you choose this option instead of the spinner, You’ll need 7 lolly sticks. I cut 4 lolly sticks in half, they are a more convenient size. Or you could use playing counters, paint each one black on one side, white on the other.

Print the clocks.jpg and stick them onto stiff card using the EVA glue or Pritt stick. Let them dry under a weight so they won’t curl. Patterns for the hands are on the spinner sheet, You could laminate them, copy them onto a scrap of stiff card or fashion them from lolly sticks. Whatever suits you.

*For more hard wearing clocks or spinner, laminate the clock and spinner sheets together, when you cut the edges off they will separate, glue them to cards using the EVA glue or Pritt Stick. Leave them to dry under a weight for at least a couple of hours so they won’t curl, then cut them out using a craft knife and metal edge ruler.

Using the 5mm drill bit, slowly drill a hole through the centre of each clock. If the hands are shaped lolly sticks, put the point on the clock where it needs to be and mark where the hole must go and carefully drill it. The split pin or rivet must be firm enough that they won’t be moved by accident yet loose enough to slide the pointer around.

The Banknotes.pdf has all you need, print the entire file on A4 paper, or print them separately from the €1-€5.jpgs Print more if you think you need it. I printed mine on pastel coloured paper, green for 1, grey for 5, pink for 10 and blue for 20. Then cut them all out.

Print place cards.pdf double-sided, or print p1-p4.jpgs, 2 front and 2 rear. Double-side print them on A4 card or paper. If you can’t double-side print them, glue them together making sure that the tops are together. Paper ones can be laminated after gluing. Don’t laminate them unglued! they’ll come apart when you cut them up. They could be glued then I guess, but you’ll have 52 of them to stick together and they'll all curl into really horrible, tight little tubes.

Print them. There are both A5 and A4 formats to chose from in .rtf format. If you have a double sided printer, print the instructions.pdf as a booklet from Adobe Reader (not your browser). It will print four A5 pages on to one A4 sheet.

Key to image

A- board, B- clock cards, C- spinner, D- throw sticks, E- Deano card, F-money, G- place cards.

There are two options for printing. Take board 50.8cm.jpg to the printers and choose either 45cm (18”) or 50cm (20”). I used Max Spielmann and had a 20 inch print made. But as this is instructables, you can print it yourself in sections. Print files 1-6.jpg on A4 card or photo paper and join them together. A handy guide on the bottom of each sheet helps you to position them. There is loads of overlap. I cut round squares with printing in it to keep it tidy. Glue it all together with the Pritt stick. You could use adhesive tape but I find gluing a more elegant solution. Glue it onto a board if you wish, or store it rolled up. If you’ve printed onto photo paper, it’s worth using some spray lacquer on the surface to protect the surface and the cut edges after sticking it onto card.

The object of the game is to leave home at Delaney House and go to Dunmuffin Gard (police) HQ to collect your reward then return to Delaney House within 30 minutes. There are seven stops to make on the way there and back. At each one you pay for the service and collect a card. Along the way are obstacles. All the time the clock is ticking forwards.

The game is more fun if you’ve read the Killmuckie stories, but its not necessary. The stories are humour/farce genre, written in an easy to read style. Download or read online for free at philip-birch.com/shorts in this order:

Once Upon a Time in Killmuckie

Operation Yorick

Beantown

The Garden

Tidings

and coming soon The Muff Hare.