Paper ‘Mech

About this board game

Paper ‘Mech is a solitaire board game for 1 player, designed for a 40-minute battle against four increasingly difficult waves of attackers.

As a lone mech pilot, you must decide how to spend your time while responding to approaching threats. Every action has an associated time cost, and more complex or powerful actions take longer to perform. Enemy actions also have varying time costs, making timing a central part of your strategy.

Attacks can be hasted to reduce their time cost, but rushing comes with a penalty to accuracy. Resolve attacks by rolling dice equal to the attack’s power; each die that exceeds the target’s armour value deals one point of damage. As your mech takes damage, its performance degrades, although you can repair between enemy waves.

Before facing the attackers, choose from 13 weapons and equip them across four mounting points. You can also increase the armour on your legs and torso, but additional protection adds weight. Exceeding your mech’s maximum weight slows all of its actions, creating another trade-off between durability and speed.

• Solitaire play against four escalating waves
• Time costs that shape both your actions and enemy threats
• Hastened attacks with reduced accuracy
• Weapon, armour, and weight-management choices

Paper ‘Mech is played with a pencil, an eraser, 12 cubes in four colours, one red die, one blue die, and several white dice. The game was a 2016 1 Page PNP Design Contest entry, winning Best Overall Design and placing second for Most Innovative Mechanic, Best Written Rules, and Most Thematic.