Beetle

Beetle is a fun, retro pencil-and-paper game you can customise to any creature your kids love — beetles, spiders, cats, dragons, unicorns… anything works.

How to try it:

• First, draw a simple version of the creature you’re aiming to complete, then assign a number (1–6) to each body part.

• Give each player a blank sheet of paper.

• Take turns rolling a single die. Each roll tells you which part you’re allowed to draw:

  • 1 = eye

  • 2 = antenna

  • 3 = leg

  • 4 = wing

  • 5 = head

  • 6 = body

• You can only add certain parts once the basics are in place — for example, no eyes without a head, no legs without a body.

• The first player to finish their creature shouts “Beetle!” (or whatever you’ve chosen to draw) and the round ends. Add up your points and start again.

How the scoring works:

• The winner earns 14 points (or however many body parts your creature has in total).

• Everyone else scores 1 point for each body part they managed to draw before the round ended.

• 3–5 rounds usually works well, though attention spans can sometimes evaporate mid-beetle.