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''Button Men'' is a dice game for two players, invented by James Ernest of Cheapass Games and first released in 1999. Games are short, typically taking less than ten minutes to play. Each player is represented by a pin-back button of their choice. Buttons are metal or plastic discs, about 2–2.5 inches (about 5–6.5 centimeters) in diameter, with a pin on the back that can be used to fasten them to clothing. They bear the name and illustration of the combatant (the "Button Man", or "fighter") whose role the player is assuming. They also indicate the number, size, and abilities (if any) of dice to be used by the player. ==Background and history== ''Button Men'' is a game designed for fan conventions and other public venues. It can be played almost anywhere on short notice (provided the dice are at hand), and games are quick to complete. Buttons are meant to be worn on clothing, bags, or other accessories, advertising that the wearer has a button to play with and is open to challenges. Buttons also frequently advertise something else, such as a company, a webcomic, or another game. The ''Sluggy Freelance'' set of buttons, for example, features characters from that comic, and the ''Brawl'' set features characters from another Cheapass game. In 2000, Button Men won the Origins Awards for ''Best Abstract Board Game of 1999'' and '' Best Graphic Presentation of a Board Game 1999''. ''Button Men'' can easily be extended simply by creating more buttons. It has continued to be so extended since its inception; , over 200 buttons have been printed. Many are by now out of print, though many others are still available, primarily via purchase from the Cheapass Games web site. Companies other than Cheapass must pay a licensing fee to use the ''Button Men'' artwork in distributing their own buttons. In 1999 ''Pyramid'' magazine named ''Button Men'' as one of the ''Millennium's Best Games''. Editor Scott Haring said "This game just gets more and more impressive every time I look at it. ... the idea is so simple, and the strategy so subtle . . . I've never figured out exactly how to master this game, and I suspect that's because there is no good way to do so." In 2009, Thrust Interactive released an iPhone version of the game in collaboration with Cheapass Games.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Button Men iPhone Homepage )〕 In 2011, Cheapass Games began "ransoming" their older and out-of-print games in an experiment to apply the "freemium" business model to board games. Button Men was revamped into a trading-card format that can be easily printed on a standard inkjet and cut apart for gameplay. The original base set, "Soldiers" and the first expansion set, "Vampyres", have both been released in this new format and made available for anyone to download, print and play with at no monetary cost. 〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Button Men )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Button Men」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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