Greg Costikyan has released Vector 3, a tabletop game he designed in 1979, under the Creative Commons license. The downloadable archive contains the rules PDF as well as printable (though low resolution) board and set pieces graphics. From Greg:
Vector 3 is a 3D space combat board game; its virtue is that players learn the essentials of vector arithmetic and Newtonian mechanics by playing. On a number of occasions, people have told me they learned more about this from the game than from lecture courses. I could see using it in the context of a high-school math or physics course.
Board games have always been fascinating to me in their straightforward presentation of game design rules, untainted by the many complications that plague video game design and while of course there are graphical and sometimes even audio components to board games, mostly they are just about the game rules and the interaction they solicit from the players. I think that video games have alot to learn from that purity.
I think I’m gonna try to print this out and see what it’s all about.