This game is so beautifully put together. Don't let the fact that it's only 2 printed pages fool you, there's a lot of depth here! Andrew has done an incredible job of compressing this amount of gameplay into such a short package, all the while keeping the rules very clear. It's wonderful to live in a world where things like Pencilvillage exist!

This is my favorite world-building (small scale!) solo print & play game.

It's just meaty enough to be interesting but still fast playing and there are numerous paths to victory. Also, I love making maps. :)

The Advanced Event table adds a decent amount of variety once you've played the base game a handful of times.

This game is pretty great. As others have said, it really does scratch that city builder itch, with the tension of being attacked and dungeon exploration built in. It makes me think of a really simplified paper version of Warcraft 3.

The mechanics are clever, and I honestly found the rules to be fairly clear. After reading through it once, I just started a game and looked things up as I went. Since the rules are only on 1 page, finding a specific rule is very easy and after finishing my first game (with a score of -17

Absolute cracker of a game, five stars! As others have mentioned it does exactly what it says on the tin. It scratches the 'I want to play a city builder/ dwarf fortress style game but want to be done within an hour' and it does this VERY well. The basc game has you building a village, creating an economy to aquire resources and in the late game send heroes off on mighty quests for loot and glory. Each round there is an event that keeps you on your toes and the goal of every game is very different depending on what you choose at the start.

1. The rules are a bit hard to understand and important things (like the default number of actions per turn in 3) is easy to miss. The Youtube Videos clarify the game really well.
2. The maps are in grey scale and the icons can be a bit tricky to tell apart (was not too much of an issue but the option to print in colour would be nice)
3. It is a much lighter version than Pencil Town but I would reccomend both games depending on what experience you are after

• Colour maps
• New maps/ character packs (happy if seperate purchase)
• Custom 'Scenerios' (custom map with unique mods/ events/ rules like a map with a rival evil castle or something or a win condition to slay the largest monster)
• coastal expansion (I just want to be a Pirate King...)

Absolute gold. it'd be great to have a way to generate our own maps but, at the same time, a few hours in Paint seems to be all you need to make your own maps! I think that's the beauty of games like this.

Let me start by saying that : PencilVillage is definitely worth the 4.00. It's satisfying, fun, and worth the time!

The good:

1) A clean game engine that works with intricate interactions.

2) It's an a modular city building game with rpg aspects. Huge win :)

3) It has a ton of replayable value; each play through, you can choose a different "Character" that has different aspects that almost feel like you're playing a different game.

The Okay:

1) The game includes with enough of resources to run the game multiple times, via maps and characters. However, the representation of the information is somewhat lacking.

I ended up finding the designers youtube videos, that shows you how to play the game. Without that "tutorial" of sorts, I doubt I would've even been able to play it.

2) Beyond requiring a tutorial (For what it's worth, I watch videos the first time I play a new game anyway, so that's not really a negative.) the maps/environments have some issues. There isn't anything wrong-functionally speaking-but it is difficult to really read.

In short, the maps including difficult to work with; the grids and lines are super fine, and not discernable. Additionally, the tile icons are the same. Once again functional, but lacking in differentiation.

Potential areas of improvement

1) The Rules. And once again, it's not the rules themselves, the engine is sound. My issue with the rules is that they're not explicit; that is to say that it requires some implicit jumps from having "information dump" to "I understand how this game works."

I think the thought was to have the entire game to be "small" (page count I mean). Due to the fact that the game has a small page count (under 10), the presentation of the information is, or could be rather, a barrier to play. I watched entire 1 hour tutorial, and even then had some questions.

I supposed the most explicit example lacking from the rules, is the "Turn Order." From the Video they are:

1) Tick the round tracker up 1.

2) Roll Event

3) You get 3 actions (unless modified by event).

It's sort of important to include what's supposed to be going on each turn, and in what order, inside rules.

TL;DR It's a good game. Pick it up, watch the tutorial video by the published, and have some run. Rating 4/5

Maybe PencilTown might have more instruction (which is my next game to pick up).