The Pub at Crab Fragment Labs
Classic-Style Board and Card Games
The Pub is a collection of original games in a traditional style, timeless games inspired by various fantasy worlds. This page includes a mix of gambling card games like Whispers and abstract board games like Linos and Tablero. Our newest is Prudh, a pure strategy game played on a 6x6 board.
What is a “Pub Game”?
Pub games are fast, simple, and require very little reading or specialized parts. They usually have a light mix of strategy and luck, leaving your mind free to eat, drink, and be merry. You can imagine our pub games in a boisterous medieval tavern.
More Simple Games:
For a list of even more games, specifically those you can play with pieces you already own, please check out the Ready Room.
El Oso - Solitaire Game
El Oso is a solitaire game played with 24 stacking pieces on a 5x5 board.
Your goal is simply to move your pieces across the board, without running into “the Bear.” Your moves are strategic, but the Bear moves randomly, with strength based on the number of pieces you moved.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Fairmarket
The Fairmarket deck is a unique three-suited deck for several card games from the Dew Point universe, including Fairmarket, Tresotti, and Scurro.
Fairmarket is a gambling game for 2-6 players. Players pre-select their bids for five market stalls, and win coins for being either the highest or the lowest bid in each.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Linos: The Game of Twelve Stones
Linos is a simple abstract game with twelve stacking pieces.
Players take turns choosing a random piece, either light or dark, then adding it to the stack. You score points for touching pieces of the opposite color, and multiply that score by the height of the piece.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Pairs: A New Classic Pub Game
Pairs turns ten years old in 2024. We’re pleased to host some of the decks and all of the games at our Pairs page.
Pairs is available for sale from Greater Than Games / Flat River Group. Our page contains variant games and links to our own art decks.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Prudh “The Gentlemen’s Game”
A new pure strategy game, Prudh uses 36 identical pieces on a 6x6 board.
Players take turns moving and consolidating their stacks of pieces, and your goal is to capture as many enemy pieces as you can, without running out of moves.
Rochi
Created for the novel The Stranger, by Sonia Lyris, Rochi is a gambling game like no other.
Players bet on which suit will “cut,” meaning the first suit where half of the cards are exposed. This is challenging because each player as a limited amount of information, and each suit has a different number of cards!
Tablero di Berona
Tablero is a simple board game for two players using 24 stacking chips (a checkers set) and a simple 3x6 board.
Players take turns rolling dice and moving chips to capture spaces along the center row.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Tak: A Beautiful Game
Tak is a lovely abstract game created by James Ernest and Patrick Rothfuss, based on the game in the novel The Wise Man’s Fear. The object is simply to build a road between opposite sides.
Tak is available for sale from Greater Than Games / Flat River Group. Our page contains the basic rules and other general information.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
The Verdigris Pawn
This page includes two games from the world of The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad.
Fist is an abstract strategy game featuring asymmetric forces, and a powerful piece (The Verdigris Pawn) that can be controlled by either player.
Hens and Chicks is a simpler game from the same universe, the “checkers” to this world’s “chess.”
Read all about them here, and watch the Fist How to Play Video.
Whispers
A classic gambling game from the Vinlant universe, Whispers is a simple press-your-luck game where the object is just to avoid getting a pair.
The deck has eight suits, numbered one through six, and six Whispers, which can’t pair with anything. But each Whisper in your hand doubles your penalty if you do get a pair.
Read all about it here, and watch the How to Play Video.
Looking for More?
You’ll find a wealth of board and card games at our Wild Game Preserve, Cheapassic Park. Some of these games are available for sale from our partners at Greater Than Games.
Some of our board games and card games are double-entered here at the Pub, and a few more games are listed at the Ready Room, a page for games that require no specialized components.
And if there’s a James Ernest or Cheapass Game you can’t seem to find anywhere, we might just not have thought about it in a while. Please send us a note and let us know what you’re looking for.
About El Cámbaro Rojo, the Pub at Crab Fragment Cay
Established 1949 as part of the Old Town Market, El Cámbaro was originally a small dive featuring fresh-caught seafood and other locally sourced entrees. In 1975, they added a distillery and brew pub, and they now make one of Crab Fragment Cay’s most popular dark ales “La Sombra.”
Alex Johanssen, grandson of founder Brunhard Johanssen, added “Rojo” to the name in 2011 when the building annexed a neighboring coffee shop and adopted its distinctive red-orange color for the entire building.
El Cámbaro has also become a favorite late-night gathering spot, where patrons enjoy several of the games you will find here.
We love Pub Games.
James Ernest has a long and storied history with pub games. He has long been fascinated by the quick, simple games at the easiest end of the spectrum, making waves with Cheapass Games like Button Men, Pennywise, Flip, Take Back Toe, Queensland, and dozens of others.
Games in this category are challenging to create and even harder to sell. They must somehow be engaging and replayable with the bare minimum of rules. And they are require so few components that there really isn’t much of anything to put in a box and sell.
In 2008, as game design manager at Microsoft’s Carbonated Games, James was the lead designer for the Fable II Pub Games. This suite included three casino-like games Keystone, Fortune’s Tower, and Spinner Box, occupying the niches of craps, blackjack, and slots.
In 2018, Ernest received a patent for the casino game Ricochet Poker, and subsequently sold that game to Galaxy Gaming. They have placed it in several casinos across the US, including in Ernest’s home state of Wachington.
Pub Games are squirreled away in all kinds of places across Crab Fragment Labs, not just on this page. Look for more examples in the Game Preserve, the Ready Room, and the Card Room. We’ll make a thorough list of them here one day!
Thanks for playing with us, and thanks for supporting Crab Fragment Labs!
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