About Utopia Engine
Utopia Engine is a solo roll-and-write game designed and illustrated by Nick Hayes and first published on the web in 2010. You play Isodoros, an old artificer who must find the six lost parts of a legendary device in six dangerous regions, put them back together and switch the machine on before the end of the world. It was nominated for the 2011 Golden Geek award for Best Print & Play Board Game and is still one of the best-known free print-and-play games.
Everything happens on two adventure sheets with two dice and a pencil, so it is cheap to print and easy to carry. The third edition rules and sheets were posted on BoardGameGeek by Nick Hayes in 2020 and need a free BGG account to download. BGG lists 30 to 60 minutes. It suits solo players who like a long-running puzzle with plenty of luck to manage.
How to play in one minute
- Each day you either explore one of the six regions or work on the artifacts you have found. A calendar on the sheet counts down to doomsday.
- To search, roll two dice at a time and write each number into the search boxes, aiming for a final result as close to zero as possible.
- A good result finds an artifact or a component. A bad one starts a fight with the region’s monster, which can wound you.
- Activate each artifact by filling in its activation boxes with dice, then link the parts together with more careful dice placement.
- When all six parts are connected, attempt the final activation. Succeed before doomsday and you win; run out of days or health and the world ends.
What’s in the PDF
- Rules, third edition, version 1.1 (September 2020).
- Two adventure sheets for the third edition in A4 (version 1.0): the regions, search boxes, artifacts, calendar and health track.
- Print the sheets once and play in pencil, or print a fresh pair for every game.
- Both files are on BoardGameGeek and need a free login.
In the PDF
- Rules, third edition (v1.1, PDF)
- Two adventure sheets, third edition, A4 (v1.0, PDF)
