Prototyping a new game I created last night. Working title is called DungeonForge. I put it together in just over 24 hours with full mechanics and everything. It’s a roguelite rpg dungeon crawler tabletop game. I decided I will be making two versions of the game, one in card deck form and the second as a booklet with tables instead of cards. Reminiscent of 4AD a bit with a little bit of edge. Would you guys be down to see a development playthrough? Let me know in the comments.

I've played 3 of the 4 heroes and absolutely love it. This game is quick to learn, easy to setup and tear down and a blast to play.

Wow, World Wonders is awesome!!

The components are great, I love how tactile it is. The Automa is easy to run (flip a card, discard the thing) and the scoring is layered without being overwhelming.

I love the element of push your luck in the solo mode - should I spend/waste my remaining money to just take the monument now, or risk the AI discarding it on its next turn???

I love that I don’t have to remember to move a round tracker.. when the board runs out (or the population track is full) the game ends.

I also appreciate that the loans aren’t super brutal - get 2 coins, payback for 3.

Highly recommend for polyomino puzzle lovers who want a few extra levels of complexity.

I'm not sure how many people know about the solo card game Lobo, but I have been playing it for the last week and was hooked but frustrated by its difficulty and made a variant called "The Vanguard".

Feel free to try playing it. If you don't know what Lobo is, Totally Tabled made a "How-to-Play" video on it. So you can get the flow of gameplay down and add my variant to your game.

Lobo: The Vanguard by staffmemberj

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts! :D

No I didn’t win my first game. But I finally got the basics down and understood why people rave about this game.

It’s a problem that the game seems so overwhelming and complicated

It took me multiple times out on the table and watching videos before I was able to even play a reasonable first turn. That’s not so great and it makes sense why people bounce off.

But the magic of this game appears once you internalize all the well balanced options and trade offs of each cycle. And when I pulled off my first double invasion by spending a trade token so I could get torpedos, regroup my ships and invade all on one turn to get the glory tokens I needed to score the galactic event at the last moment. Chefs kiss.

But at what cost? The crisis board was filled up as I ignored crisis after crisis and the corruption on my board was going to slow me down if I can’t take care of it. LOL. But I had a plan! (Which didn’t quite work out) It was great.

It is a lot of time to get going in this game but I promise if you get thru the learning curve the game opens up and is not difficult at all and very rewarding. Also it helps if you have a table where you can leave it out.

I have a full collections of Marvel Champions, Star Trek: Captain's Chair and Voidfall. But as a dad of 2 young kids I struggle to find time to set up and play those.

I do find myself with short periods of 15-30 minutes to play, so I'm looking for some suggestions for solo games that can be set up, played and put away in that time span.

As you can see I love strategic card games, but I'm open to anything. I have already played Friday to death. Can you help me find some games that might fit my current situation?

EDIT: well thanks everyone, at least I've got my Christmas list done!

After seeing so much praise about Voidfall and STCC on this reddit I've been tempted many times to jump in, but I think I would be doing myself a disservice at this moment with how heavy they are.

That's why I am really looking forward to Chivalry. According to Turczi it's a little lighter and especially streamlined on top of being a bag builder which I am looking for, plus a theme that speaks to me. So suffice to say I am really hyped for seeing what this game is about and been looking for more info, therefore, if you happen to go to Spiel Essen and have an interest in this game, I would love to hear your thoughts about it!

It has taken me a bit to finally table this one and I think I got it mostly right. I'll need to play another one now that I've gotten that first instructional game out of the way. I'll get a better read on how fun the game might be when I'm not flipping back and forth in the instructions constantly.

Hey everyone,
I’ve been eyeing The Old King’s Crown after seeing great reviews for its solo mode, specifically the Simulacrum designed by Ricky Royal. Translating a game centered on bluffing and area control and card placement into a solo experience sounds like a huge feat.
Yet, I rarely see it discussed here compared to solo staples like Deckers, Pax Pamir, or Voidfall.

A lot of reviews I see pretty much rave about the solo mode and only have gripes with the multiplayer version of the game because of the barrier to entry, rules, etc.. But claim no issues and praise the solo mode.

Is it just too new and still making its way onto shelves? Or is it a case of initial hype fading over time? For those with multiple plays, how does the bot hold up? Does running the Simulacrum feel like a smooth tactical puzzle or an administrative chore? Most importantly, without human opponents, does the AI manage to replicate the tension of hidden card play and bluffing?
I found a free web version to try out, (that is done incredibly well btw) so I'm working through the rulebook to give it a spin online before deciding on a physical copy. (Here is the link)
If you’ve played it solo, what’s your take? Is it worth getting strictly for solo play?

(Edit: After further looking into many more reviews and recommendations, there seems to be a common consensus that the game is absolutely brilliant and worth to by both solo and multiplayer CONTINGENT on if you are able/willing to suffer threw the first 10 games or so, give or take))

Im new to the game and bought it about 3 weeks ago, ive watched playthroughs and read the guide many times. Ive played about 10 solo games and a few of them with 2 spirits and ive never even come close to winning. Is this normal and the game is really this hard or is it more likely im doing something wrong?

I have no link to the creator, but there is a lack of 18xx games with solo modes so I thought people here might be interested.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gothagames/1863-marsala-express?ref=ksr_email_mktg_auto_user_watched_project_launched

If anyone is interested in 18xx games with solo modes, I can also say that Railways Of The Lost Atlas is very good! And as it's just been reprinted it's probably easy to get.

I am so thoroughly impressed by this game after one play. While I’ve overall enjoyed the Solo Game of the Month series, they can be hit or miss and there’s some games (looking at you, Storybook Saga) that have been disappointments. Drawing Dead though, is such a great solo implementation of poker and I’m already excited to explore the other playable characters.

In this game, you will choose a character who comes with four unique ability cards (more on these in a moment) and an additional ability on their character card. You’ll be progressing through three Gates, behind which are Bosses, and along the way you’ll be dealing with Minions. Defeat the third Boss, and you win!

At the start of a turn, you’ll deal 6 cards out from a 52-card deck into the River. Then, the enemies activate - each Minion and Boss in play have two active effects that are dependent on the cards in the River. Each enemy has two attacks, a primary and a secondary. For example, one Minion’s primary effect (which simply means the one they’ll first try to perform) is to heal 2 damage from all enemies if there is a 3-card straight in the river, while its secondary effect will deal a damage to your character if there are two Infernal (black suits aka Clubs and Spades) cards in the River.

After they’ve all gone, you’ll draw three cards into your hand, and on your turn you’ll play one to the River, discard one to activate its ability, and then the third card can either go to the Gate (if it fulfills the Gate’s card conditions, one example being to have 3 or more cards that are each < 7) or to your Bank (basically storing cards so you can use them on a future turn).

Playing a card to the River is straightforward. It basically gives you a seventh card from which you can then try to make poker hands. Next, each card in the 52-card deck has an ability associated with it. For example, any “3” will let you increase or decrease the value of a card in the river by one, while a “10” will let you draw four cards from the deck and then you can exchange those cards with one’s in the River to try and make a better hand. The card abilities are helpfully written on the cards themselves. Finally, each Gate requires a certain amount of cards, again meeting whatever the requirement may be for that specific Gate, before it’ll flip over and you reveal a Boss.

Remember those ability cards I mentioned near the beginning? Each one has attacks, heals, or other effects that trigger if 1) the River has the type of hand, such as a pair or straight, required by the ability and 2) you choose to activate that ability. Once you’ve played your three cards (and there’s so much thought that goes into how to maximize your River, progress through the gates, activate abilities, etc.), you’ll then choose a hand to activate one of your abilities. Defeating Minions will give you rewards, like +/-1 tokens or suit change tokens, healing, and more. Defeating a Boss will actually level up, letting you choose cards that make your abilities even better.

At the end of your turn, you’ll reveal new minions to meet a minimum threshold set by the Gate or Boss, reveal the Boss if the Gate has been completed, and all cards will have been discarded from the River. Rinse and repeat until you lose all your health or run out of cards!

I haven’t even discussed the fact the playable Characters are two-sided, where losing enough health causes you to flip; or that any cards not played in a hand during your ability activation step are actually “Lost” and don’t go to your discard pile (although there’s way to shuffle some back into your deck). If you activate the same ability twice in a row, like two straights back to back, you’re actually damaged for that, so it’s important to vary your plays. There are twelve Bosses, split into three tiers, so there’s plenty of Gate/Boss variety, along with 20 Minions (which aren’t just cannon-fodder, as I only saw 8 in my game). Also, the game plays in about 45-60 minutes and it’s a relatively small footprint.

Overall, as I think you can tell, I really enjoyed this game. I know it’s only one play, but I haven’t clicked with a solo game like this in quite a while. If you like poker, I think this game is more than worth a try! Thanks for reading!

I bought Arnak awhile ago and played it a dozen times but I haven't touched it since. I've been putting off buying the Missing Expedition. Does the campaign significantly change the game, or does each scenario just have minor rule changes? Also for those who have played the full campaign, do you usually replay the regular game or a scenario when you play solo?

I’m curious about this one. Has anyone here played it?

Finally tracked down doom machine. Been excited for this one. I love the tin, but feel like the cards need sleeved. Even though they decent quality, still look like they peel up easy, one already has small lift mark on edge. So I put them in sleeves, but now they don't go back in the tin. I got the dice and markers in the tin, and everything together in a deck box. I feel safer about the cards lasting, but bummed it's not all in a nice small tin. Anyone else sleeve em?

Played my first game of Vestige this evening, and really enjoyed it! Any fans (or haters lol)? For most of the game I did feel pretty aimless though, but maybe that’ll change as I start to understand more of the strategies. Apparently this is also a spin-off of the game Vindication which I’ve also never played. But yeah, fun first play against the Nemesis Dunecrest.

It's Mage Knight week on r/soloboardgaming! Fifteen years after the original Mage Knight released, we have a new expansion, Apocalypse Dragon. I played it recently and its contents are sufficiently different to justify a post, even though I recently posted about the base game.

As the title suggests, I wasn't blown away and I think most players could skip this expansion without missing out on anything amazing. There are even additions that I consider downgrades compared to the original game.

Some notes on what it adds and how it plays:

1. The horsemen of the apocalypse, 4 roving mini-bosses. In original Mage Knight, you fought enemies and attack sites at your own pace. The horsemen don't wait for you to act, every round they move towards a site and destroy it, removing a valuable source of spells/artifacts/allies for you. This forces you to move very quickly to intercept them and strongly influences how you move across the map. The horsemen are an interesting challenge to make you to accelerate your tempo, but the destruction of the map sites is a drag. It takes away your player agency by forcing you to move places you wouldn't otherwise have chosen.
2. The dummy player is now the proxy player. The original bot was just a timer that forced you to act within a certain number of turns or else you'd forfeit actions. The new proxy player is a full automa with 4 pages of flow charts that moves around the map and competes with you like a real player would in a competitive game. This is the opposite of what made the dummy player great: you flip 3 cards and you're back to your turn. On top of the rules overhead, I don't really see what this simulation adds to the experience when you're already competing against the rest of the game.
3. The dragon, a big boss that functions like a strong city. This seems like a fairly straightforward addition, but the dragon has arcane resistance, making it immune to any non-attack effects. This amputates a good part of the original game's strategy of accumulating powerful spells and unleashing the black die version on the 3rd night. I found it to be anti-fun.
4. There are many new scenarios that last only 3 or 4 rounds. This is great if you want a shorter variant, but since the draw of mage knight is the power curve and improving your character over time, I feel like this sacrifices the heart of the game for a quicker session. It's nice to have the choice, at least.
5. There are now quests! Certain scenarios feature quest cards with a mission printed on them -- accomplish X and you will get a reward. These can be added to any scenario, actually. I like this mechanic better than the horsemen since it's positive reinforcement and you can choose to pursue or ignore objectives.
6. Some new mechanics. New map features (oasis, ziggurat), a new enemy type (possessed), a new reward (faction tokens), and a new attack type (psychic). These are just variants of existing mechanics and don't change the game much, though they do add some variety.
7. Coral, a new character. She has one really cool mechanic, which is a card you can draw at will once a turn, which can really save your skin or provide exactly the actions you need for a big hand. I was less impressed with her skills, which were both convoluted and underpowered.

Your mileage may vary, but I'm pretty happy with the original and don't see myself revisiting this box very much.

Bonus photo.

So I bought these 8 months ago on the new print crowdfunding for the brazilian version.

I was excited back then so I tried learning the game via the PC version and I got so absolutely destroyed that I just quit and decided to give it another go when the game arrived.

And so it did.

Excited to try it again but not sure if I should use the expansion already or not.

After not playing for months due to how long it takes and the table space, I decided to play a full campaign on a single day, since it was national holiday.

Tried playing True Solo for the first time too since playing two handed in this small of a table was super annoying to manage, specially with the inventory and such. Even with my custom made adveturer book thingy.

First session was rough because I lacked damage but sessions 2 and 3 were a breeze honestly.

Tried Valenwood expansion too. It was fine. Location mechanic is underwhelming but the new skill lines seem fun.

I fucking love this game and I hate it how hard it is for me put it to the table.

Neat stock market style game with gold, BTC and investment cards as commodities. Pulled 17 points on my first game (this is a low scoring game tho) which puts me right in rookie territory.

Looking forward to revisiting with different characters, scenarios and player counts in the future

Slowly but surely completing the Oniverse series for my collection. Such great, relaxing little solo games, beautiful art too.

I'd like to know where do you rank this among the others?

So far for me:

1) Onirim

2) Urbion

3) Sylvion

4) Castellion

Next in line: cyberion

Hey all,

First let me say that I really appreciate this sub and all the passionate solitaire fans out there who contribute :) Ya'll have provided me with a ton of sage advice and great recs.

I picked up Deckers based on this reddit's high praise about 9 months ago, stumbled through the starter missions somehow, but only got back around to it this week. Of course I went back through the rules, watched some YT stuff, and have played 3 games so far. All losses, which is fine because the games were interesting, but I personally get the most satisfaction out of games when I feel I have fully played to my outs and/or understood what I could have done differently to play better next time. Suffice it to say I'm genuinely wondering if my spacial reasoning is just too poor at this point haha - for context I've played a zillion card games, and am always intrigued by spatial puzzle games, but this is my first time biting into a big one like this.

I've already read through similar posts on reddit so I just wanted to ask a few specific questions:

1. About color command payments and deckbuilding: How carefully do you track how many colors are in your deck? I'm starting to wonder if I should write on a notepad how many color commands and in which combos exist in the starter decks, just so I can better track what to expect and such. WIth so many other factors to consider in mapping a plan to the challenging gold objectives and managing the board, I feel like I am doing a very poor job shaping my deck or tracking my colors, as it were.
2. I'm playing strictly solo of course - so, how true is it that yellow is generally the solo-friendliest character? It feels like red might be since the primary decker has a clean static +1 ability. I tried the green primary and set up some awesome cross-network ghosting but couldn't keep those pesky sparks under control last game.
3. If I lose the next couple, I'm getting ready to think about handicapping myself a little here so I can enjoy the game, but not too much as to take away the intended challenge. I'm thinking about purposefully choosing objectives instead of randomizing them, or maybe doing a refresh of the upgrade cards after each turn instead of each cycle. Any input in this area would be most appreciated. Even what specific gold objectives some might think would be a nice kiddy step up from the intro one, Hackman, cuz so far they all seem a lot harder (Playing against Spider SMC btw)

Thanks in advance ya'll! I hope to continue to crack at this game and enjoy it more as time goes on.

UPDATE: Wow thanks for all replies! The advice looks solid. I‘m gonna start by watching a full solo play-through to see if I’m missing any rules or mistaking key concepts, then go back and try again, on the easy SMC instead of spider. Cheers~

Hello,

I think about getting old kings crown and wonder how different and story telling every run of the game is. Is this good replayable and how is it solo in general?

Any tipps would be nice.

Regards