Table Press

Free print-and-play card games and an open game-design curriculum.

Prompt Refinery · cabinet of specimens · PLY

BY THIS

Same things. New key. 2–4 players · 25 min · ages 8+ · 40 things + 8 Keys + 4 specials + 2 table cards. File a thing that still fits, or recast the cabinet and shout the name of the game.

Play / simulatePrint the 9-up sheetShare the introBack to Make
Thesis: This game is about the same things living in many true orders, felt as the click of a drawer that is no longer the drawer, decided by whether you close the shelf now or spend a rare key to file it a new way.

How to start

Put the 2 table cards out. Flip 1 Key in play and 2 face-up Keys. Mix 40 things with 4 specials. Give 5 each (3 people) or 4 each (4 people). Three extras are the Floor. Readonly the Key’s word: ABC, Size, Weight, or Age.

A turn

Draw until you have a full hand (6 / 5 / 4 for 2 / 3 / 4 people). Thenplace a thing on a legal end (from hand or Floor), or play aspecial. If the shelf has 4 or more things, you may closeit.

Same numbers sit together. If you cannot place, put one thing on the Floor. If your hand is empty and you cannot place from the Floor, pass. If a whole round goes by with no place and no special, close the shelf as it is — even if it is short.

Specials

By This — take a new Key, slide the shelf, then place. Slide: keep cards left to right until one is out of order with its left neighbor; that card and everything to its right fall to the Floor.

Dump the Shelf — whole shelf to the Floor; Key stays; then place.Lock the Key — this Key cannot change until close; then place.Same Number — place next to a matching number anywhere, not only an end.

Close

Score the length, plus 1 for every extra card in a same-number pile (three 1s = +2). After 6 closes (3 people) or 8 (4 people), most points wins.

Sample turn

Key is Small → Large. Shelf: Ant, Rice, Sand — three Size 1s. Ana places Needle (2) on the right. She could close for 6. She does not. Bo plays By This, takes A to Z, slides Needle off, and files Apple (ABC 1) on the left of Ant — same number is legal. Coffee (ABC 2) would not fit either end. The cabinet is no longer about size.

2 people / young table

Give 6. Floor 3. Close at 3 or more. Still 6 closes. Young table: no By This until someone has closed once.

Live rules: https://game-design-pi.vercel.app/by-this/rules/ · Shareable intro: https://game-design-pi.vercel.app/by-this/