![COVID-19 at the Gaming Table V: Free Games from Asmodee, Osprey, 2Tomatoes, and More](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/-Qer2BBPG7qGGDu6KcVDIw__thumb/img/NQQcjS31TO0DE246N9rpt0hd9eo=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic2452831.png)
Here are the most recent offers I've seen, some of which are already on that list:
—Asmodee North America has set up a specific print-and-play page on its website that includes files for Timeline, Spot it! (Dobble!), Cortex Challenge, Combo Color, multiple versions of Unlock!, and Dixit, although I cannot imagine printing out all the cards for Dixit or Unlock! at home. Perhaps Asmodee's owner also owns printer ink manufacturers...
—Similarly, Spanish publisher 2Tomatoes has free downloads of Peak Oil, New Corp Order, Escape Pods, Vae Victis, Upstream, and Idus Martii. You need to complete a short survey in order to receive the print-and-play files.
—Carl Brière of Synpases Games has released a special print-and-play version of the 2021 release MATCH 5 in French. Brière adds, "Please note that the visual and material will not be the same as in the final version and that it is only a sample. There will be in the final version ten unique dice with icons allowing to make thousands of different combinations to offer an incredible replayability."
—Through the end of April 2020, Osprey Games is offering downloadable rules for Joseph McCullough's fantasy skirmish game Frostgrave as well as multiple solo scenarios.
Aside from that, Osprey Books is offering five free ebooks from its extensive military history line each week for four weeks. Here's the link for week 2, which expires the day that this post went live, so you might need to visit the company's blog for its latest offer.
—Bruno Cathala and Blue Orange Games have released a print-and-play expansion for Kingdomino and Queendomino with Kingdomino: The Court turning landscape spaces without crowns into resource generators, with those resources allowing you to acquire bonus characters and buildings.
• As a parallel approach to this topic, I appreciate designer Andy Looney's blunt answer in this Q&A from the March 31, 2020 Looney Labs newsletter:
A: We are all okay so far. Everyone has figured out how to work from home, and none of us are sick of anything except being quarantined. I myself still go to the office every day, but only because it's so close to where we live and no one else is there. But all the game stores are closed and all the conventions and gaming events have been canceled, so we aren't making any sales except online or from stores that offer delivery or curbside pickup. Those things will keep going until they run out of product, but since our distributors and warehouses are also closed, we can't restock any of our vendors. So, things are bad, and the longer it goes on like this, the harder it will be.
On the other hand, we're hearing a lot about how people who are cooped up together are turning to games like ours to pass the time, and hopefully that will lead to an increase in our sales later on, when things have returned to whatever the new normal ends up being. In the meantime, we are doing our best to keep everyone safe, and good luck to us all in these difficult times.
As for one of Looney Labs' upcoming releases, the publisher notes that SpongeBob SquarePants Fluxx was scheduled for a May 21, 2020 release to tie into the release of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run on May 22, 2020, but that movie has had its release date moved to July 31, 2020 — but Looney Labs also had production delays due the manufacturers being closed, so now it expects the game to hit its warehouse in early June 2020. Beyond that? Looney Labs writes: "We are also unsure when and how this game will be released. So many release dates are being pushed that we are concerned about too many games being on the market all at once this summer. We will monitor the situation and let SpongeBob Fluxx loose on the world when the time seems right."
• Hobby games continue to get play in mainstream outlets, as with this article by Dylan Matthews on Vox titled "The online board game Dominion is the only thing keeping me sane during coronavirus". Here's an excerpt:
Before I started writing this article, I procrastinated for a bit by visiting Dominion.games, the game's website. After I wrote the intro I went back and played a little more. Last week, I played an online Dominion game with my wife and two good friends; when one friend spent a bit too much time on his turn, I went back to Dominion.games, intent on procrastinating by playing a bit, before realizing I already was in the middle of a game. I am so used to killing time using Dominion that I tried to kill time during a Dominion game by starting another Dominion game.
That is how habit-forming online Dominion is, and why it's become such a deeply essential part of my work-from-home life during the coronavirus pandemic. Actually, I say "my work-from-home life," but that's misleading, as it implies that I didn't play Dominion on my work laptop while working in Vox.com's DC office. Obviously, I did. I played so often and so flagrantly that my editor, after noticing it a bunch of times, was inspired to buy his own physical copy of the game. I still got my work done; I'm not a total mess. But there was a lot of Dominion in between stories.