Micropoly: Make Your Own Travel-Themed Board Game From Paper

This is a simple, fun, homemade board game you can make with just paper, a pen, and a die. It’s inspired by classic board games but redesigned to be fast, flexible, and easy to understand — perfect for kids, families, or anyone who enjoys creating their own games.

The goal is simple: collect the most tickets before they’re all gone. Along the way, special spaces like planes, taxis, and pause zones add strategy and surprise.

No expensive materials. No complicated setup. Just creativity and fun.

1. Squared (graph) paper
2. Pen, pencil, or coloured pencils
3. Scissors
4. 1 die
5. Small objects for player tokens (buttons, coins, bottle caps, etc.)
6. Small paper pieces for tickets

Using squared paper, draw a large square track around the edges of the page.

1. Divide the track into equal spaces.
2. Leave the center empty — this is just decoration or the game title area.
3. Color-code sections of the track if you like (this makes it easier to recognize zones).
4. Mark the four corners clearly — one of them will be the Pause corner.

Write “Micropoly” in the center to give your game a name and personality.

Now add symbols to certain spaces on the board:

1. ✈️ Plane spaces – allow free travel
2. 🚕 Taxi spaces – limited movement based on tickets
3. 🅿️ Free Parking – nothing happens
4. ⏸ Pause – skip movement temporarily

You don’t need many — just enough to keep the game interesting.

Cut small pieces of paper to act as tickets.

1. Place them face down or stacked on certain spaces.
2. When a player lands on a ticket space, they collect one.
3. All tickets are equal — only the total number matters.

Each player picks a token.

Anything small works:

1. Buttons
2. Coins
3. LEGO pieces
4. Bottle caps

Place all players on the same starting space.

Objective

Collect as many tickets as possible.

The game ends when all tickets are collected.

The player with the most tickets wins.

How to Play

1. Roll the die.
2. Move forward the number of spaces shown.
3. Collect tickets when landing on ticket spaces.

Special Spaces

🅿️ Free Parking

Nothing happens.

✈️ Plane

Travel for free to any space on the board.

Collect tickets if available on the destination space.

🚕 Taxi

You may move up to a number of spaces equal to the number of tickets you currently have.

(Count your tickets before moving.)

⏸ Pause

Move to the corner space and end your turn.

On your next turn, continue playing from that space.

Play a few rounds and see how it feels.

You can easily:

1. Add more special spaces
2. Change how the Taxi works
3. Add penalty tickets
4. Create team play rules

Because it’s paper-based, tweaking the game is fast and fun.