Twenty years ago, James Ernest launched Cheapass Games, with a half dozen games in white envelopes. These games, like Kill Doctor Lucky, Ben Hvrt, and Bleeding Sherwood, came with only the critical components. Players provided their own generic components, like dice, tokens, and play money. And this meant the games could sell for five or six dollars.

This business model wasn’t easy. Cheapass Games were often printed on James’ laser printer, collated by hand, and gang-printed so that not a single inch of the press sheet went to waste. Cheapass worked with small local printers to get the best rates on a variety of jobs, and released dozens of envelope games over the next ten years.

Today, the economics of printing have changed. Small local printers are more or less extinct. Costs have shifted from prepress to paper and freight. Printing a black-and-white game essentially costs the same as printing a full-color game. Into this new marketplace, Cheapass Games introduced three black-and-white boxed games in the Spring of 2013: Fish Cook, Veritas, and Captain Treasure Boots. The first two games were brand-new; the third was a reprint of an envelope game from 2005. These games were released with a cover price of $15 each.

The games met with limited success, and Cheapass has decided not to pursue the black-and-white boxed game. Sadly, what worked in 1996 doesn’t always work in 2016. However, Cheapass Games remains true to its pro-consumer roots. Since home printing is now cheaper than ever, they offer many of their old titles as completely free print-and-play versions at cheapass.com.

Captain Treasure Boots

Captain Treasure Boots is an updated version of a 2005 Cheapass envelope game. It’s a quick-playing romp about pirates gathering treasure and shooting at each other. Like they do.

In Captain Treasure Boots, players are tiny little pirates sailing the tiny little seas for gold, rum, and adventure — but mostly rum. They collect treasure from islands, protect it from privateers and other players, and stow it safely at a port. The pirate with the most treasure can call themselves Captain Treasure Boots. (Or maybe he is one of the privateers… it’s not really clear.)

Fans of the 2006 edition of Captain Treasure Boots will find the game has the same feeling with thoroughly updated and streamlined rules. Patrick Rothfuss calls it “a perfectly equipped pirate game.”

Captain Treasure Boots includes four full-color board sections, 85 counters, and rules. Players must provide their own pawns (mini pirate ships are encouraged), two six-sided dice, and a way to keep score.

Fish Cook

In Fish Cook, a clever economic game, players take on the roles of master chefs freshly graduated from the most prestigious Parisian cooking school.

The game is played in days, which are divided into two sections, morning and night. In the morning, players buy ingredients and recipes from the fish market, farmer’s market, and cooking school. In the evening, players cook up their best recipes, and earn money doing so. Fish Cook’s strategy revolves around buying ingredients as cheaply and efficiently as possible, and also around stealing the good ideas of other chefs.

The free PDF of Fish Cook was nominated for the ‘2013 Golden Geek Best Print & Play Game’, and has earned the ‘Dice Tower Seal of Approval’. The game comes with 36 cards, two boards, 90 counters, and rules — all in full color. Players will need to come up with their own play money, two pawns, and 12 six-sided dice.

Veritas

Veritas is a streamlined area control game designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker. In Veritas, players take on the role of the ‘Truth’ — or, at least, some version of the Truth — hidden away in just two books in a single French monastery. The goal is to become the most prevalent truth in France, by being copied and shared around the country. Players must be crafty, wise, and lucky, managing to be copied while avoiding the machinations of other Truths. And also fire. Nobody likes fire.

“Veritas is a terrific strategy game that will appeal to plenty of puzzle solvers and gamers of all ages,” states the Puzzle Nation blog. “It continues the Cheapass Games tradition of clever games with their signature sense of humor.”

Veritas comes with eight board sections, 96 counters, and rules. Players need roughly 40 stackable counters each, such as small plastic chips.

In a nod to their nascent days, Cheapass Games is reducing the price on all three white boxed games to $10 each in 2017. If you haven’t had a chance to play these Cheapass classics, there’s no better time to pick up a copy!