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Piecepack is a
public-domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive ri ...
game system that can be used to play a wide variety of
board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
, much as a standard deck of cards can be used to play thousands of
card games A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...
("A game system is a set of components that function together in multiple games"). Piecepack has been used by dozens of different
game designers Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, war games, or simulation ga ...
to create over 225 different board games and is available from many different manufacturers. It was created by James Kyle in 2001. The system consists of 24 tiles, 24 coins, 4 pawns, and 4 dice. The Mystique Deck has been designed to use the same 4 suits (Suns, Moons, Arms, and Crowns), for compatibility with the Piecepack system. The pieces are sometimes used in conjunction with other components, including dominoes or playing cards. The book ''The Infinite Board Game: Introducing the Amazing Piecepack System'', published by
Workman Publishing Company Workman Publishing Company, Inc., is an American publisher of trade books founded by Peter Workman. The company consists of imprints Workman, Workman Children's, Workman Calendars, Artisan, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill and Algonquin Young R ...
in 2015, details 50 of the games and includes a piecepack set with it, although the set included deviates from the published specification in the location of the suit markers. This deviation renders certain piecepack games (for example, Alien City) unplayable with the Infinite Boardgame piecepack. The piecepack is one of the base game systems included in
Tabletop Simulator ''Tabletop Simulator'' is an independent video game that allows players to play and create tabletop games in a multiplayer physics sandbox. Developed by Berserk Games as their first title after a successful crowdfunding campaign in February 2014, ...
and is also available as a module for the
Vassal Engine The Vassal Engine is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games, tabletop games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection, and also by email ( PbeM). It runs on all platforms ...
. The system has been used for prototyping other games, including the prototyping of
video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
.


Expansions


HexPack

This is also a public domain expansion, which adds hexagonal tiles and triangular coins, using the same 4 suits as Piecepack. Hexpack was created by Daniel Wilcox and Nathan Morse in 2008. They developed Hexpack as an expansion to extend the possibilities of the original modular system, introducing hexagonal pieces as an alternative to the square ones. As an expansion, some or all of the Piecepack components can be used in the games, but this expansion has no additional dice or pawns.


CardPack

CardPack also in the public domain brings the system to cards. There are 4 suits (arms, suns, moons and crowns) for the cards. And the cards are of empty value or 0, AS, 2, 3, 4, 5, like PiecePack. There are also additional cards similar to the Joker card in poker where one is the 5 card values and the other the 5 suits.


Matchsticks

This expansion was created by Dan Burkey in 2018, and is in the public domain. It adds 144 pieces in the form of matchsticks. The reason for this expansion is to provide pieces to create games that involve roads, walls or similar elements. The 144 pieces are broken down into: * 4 PiecePack suits (arms, suns, moons and crowns). * 6 sizes corresponding to the 6 ranks (null or 0, ace or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). * 6 copies of each rank/suit pair, so there are 36 pieces per suit. In the centre of each stick is the number with one of the six values of the PiecePack (null or 0, ace or 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5). And each stick has the suit symbol at one end. This helps to give the north-south orientation to the sticks with the stick symbol. The measurements are: * null or 0, equivalent to the intersection of grid lines on the tile back. * ace or 1, half the size of the side of the tile. * 2, the size of the diagonal of one of the four squares on a tile. * 3, the size of the diagonal that makes the rectangle of two squares in a row out of the four squares on a tile. * 4, the size of the complete side of the tile. * 5, the size of the full diagonal from corner to corner of the tile.


AcesPack

Expansion created by Miguel de Dios Matías in 2025 of public domain that adds aces. The reason for this expansion is to contribute two things: * add the Aces suit using the Ace Piecepack symbol * add another suit also of Aces but where its components instead of being the 6 numerical values (of void, ace, 2 - 5) are the Piecepack suits (void, ace, arms, crowns, moons, suns). Increasing the possibilities for games that need either 5 suits or have random suits (for example using the dice with the faces with Piecepack suits). Furthermore this expansion applies this logic to the other Piecepack expansions, such as HexPack, CardPack, Matchsticks by adding their corresponding Aces components. Adding the two Aces suits, the numeric and the suit suit suit. The exception is CardPack which does not add the composite card suit with the other Piecepack symbols because it already exists previously in this expansion as Aces of each suit.


References


External links


Official piecepack sitePiecepack Wiki
* * {{Tabletop games by type Game equipment Products introduced in 2001 Open-source tabletop games