/bgg/ - board games general

/bgg/ - board games general
Solo game edition

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>top 3 solo games
>top 3 games that can play solo (with or without expansions, etc)

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=rrOzOJY18mw
boardgamegeek.com/article/23189391#23189391
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

What's your favorite game that can be played with a single deck of playing cards?

I've been playing the new Descent app solo, it's actually great fun. I'm having a better time than 1v4 normal play.

I only play games solo to learn the rules, but the 2 games I would consider going back to solo are Flashpoint Fire Rescue and Mansions of Madness 2nd edition

Im super excited about getting into the whole board gaming business, already ordered 2 games.

How do I go about getting my friends to join?
Or if anyone has some experience in making a board gaming group.

It's just that I have so many games I want that are 4+ players, and I don't want to buy them just so my friends wont play them with me.

Anyone has some tips on how to hype up people about board gaming?

How much does the app do? I'm not opposed to apps at all and think Mansions of Madness was massively saved by having one, but I'm still cautious how far the apps should go. Mansions of Madness only tells you the status of monsters and tokens and helps you with setup. An app like the Spec Ops one goes too far, making you insert all the opposing player movements and trying to calculate line of sight and makes you tell it when you use items when it woulda been perfectly fine as just a replacement for the sheets of paper and an easier way to see the grid.

Gives you a semi-random quest layout, and some simple instructions for how to control monsters, along with occasional events.

You can still play normally without the app though, there's no risk of it 'going too far', because it's just a different gamemode. It doesn't, nor is it meant to replace normal play. Just adds value.

ok I am watching this thread....

I *will* be taking notes....

Let's see these solo games

Games that have optional solo rules that I own:

Shadows of Brimstone
Agricola
Caverna
Arkham Horror
Eldritch Horror
Elder Sign
Descent 2e
Space Empires 4X

Probably some others.

Looking for some good, cheap-ass microgames. The kind of shit where I could stuff 20 games this size in a backpack.

I'm talking a box the size of pic related or smaller.

>top 3 games that can play solo
I only have one game with solo rules: Baseball Highlights 2045. They work alright, you just have your opponent with nothing but named player cards and you draw the top of the deck onto the field each turn. Their super team is equalized out by the fact that they will have no decision making skills. I'd rather play with people but it works surprisingly well.
Just ask em to give it a shot. Most of my friends at the time associated boardgames with monopoly and mass market crap, so when I got them to try one of the recommended game I had picked up it was very easy to impress them. If they have any history with Magic the Gathering or such, it'll be easier to convince them as they'll understand basic concepts already like phases.

Once they're actually over, I find 2 things very important:
1. Know the rules. You might still have to open the book from time to time for clarification and you don't need to get into the nitty gritty for stuff like that, but a basic understanding of the flow of the game to get people moving is key. Most games once you get moving are pretty self explanatory.
2. Be a good host. Have the place clean, have the seating ready, well lit. Snacks are optional but always help. I recommend nothing that will get on the components like I always have this walgreens brand chex mix or pretzels. With my halloween spirit in full swing, recent game nights have had candy corn and mini candybars, but that's just me being excessive.

Coup
Hanabi
Seven Dragons
Valley of the Kings (also has two expansions)
Sushi Go
Patronize

Games that come in a box SLIGHTLY larger:

Jaipur
Tides of Madness

What are some good intrigue type games? I played a game where you had to survive a zombie apocalypse, and it was possible for one player to be a traitor, though nobody would know who, or even if there was one. I thought that was nifty.

Shadows Over Camelot
Battlestar Galactica

Dead by winter is the gane you are reffering to

Dead of Winter? Yeah, it's a good one. I think Battlestar Galactica holds up better through several plays, but I haven't played Dead of Winter with the expansion yet and Battlestar does have the issue of it's longer and more complicated.

Why do I love the Dice Tower's Top 10 lists when Zee, Tom, and Sam are all there, but find everything else on that channel boring?

>How do I go about getting my friends to join?
Free Pizza, don't forget the paper towels!

>It's just that I have so many games I want that are 4+ players, and I don't want to buy them just so my friends wont play them with me.
Don't buy them, unless you can convince your buddies to go in on it (even if they just pay you back for the aforementioned pizza since you'll be in possession of the games after purchase)

>Anyone has some tips on how to hype up people about board gaming?
See the first comment - "If you build it they will come"; seriously free shit to broke buddies goes along way in terms of company....

Sorry just the realities.

Pict is my one of my favorite solo BGs

I only watch stuff with the big 3 from them, and even then I don't watch Sam and Zee's solo stuff. Zee and Sam's reviews have a tendency to spend waaaaay too long explaining the rules while Tom is a pro at just telling you what you need to know about the basic progression of a game. I can respect Tom's reviews at least in that regard for researching if I want a game.

The top 10s are the best though because they dive into their ridiculously deep knowledge of games to pull names you've rarely to never heard of and they make top 10 topics with the intent of talking about games that usually don't get talked about.

don't really play games solo, I have a PC for that. How about a more interesting question, like what is the one game you would love to see made, even though it will never ever happen for whatever reason?

Personally I'd love a Legend of the Galactic Heroes game similar to Rebellion or Forbidden Stars. Or just an expansion for Forbidden Stars.

Name a TV show, movie, novel, or video game that you think would be terrible as a board game, then tell others how you'd adapt theirs to a board game.

Trivia games centered around the show or whatever are a lame answer.

Gilmore Girls.

space hulk death angel is without a doubt my favorite solo game. it has just enough luck so you don't feel like you're just going through the motions putting a puzzle together, but it's not too much and there are ways to mitigate it so it shouldn't piss you off too much. it's brutally hard and keeps you on the edge of your seat until you win or more likely your last space marine gets decimated by a dozen tyranids

because their top 10 lists are easily their best content. their group dynamic works well, but more importantly than that they don't go into depth trying to explain the game. if I ever watch a review on the dice tower I without fail skip past their rules explanations. none of them have great delivery and they're usually too disjointed. watch it played, board game replay, and even rahdo are way better for getting a feel of how the game plays

it can be tough to get people interested in board games because they probably have some negative connotations about what board games are. I find the best way to dispel that is with a solid light/party game when you already have people together. codenames is my go to

idk man, they go way too fucking long and I don't find any of them particularily interesting.
Who has an hour at a time to watch a top 10, honestly.

>Who has an hour at a time to watch a top 10, honestly.
I watch them when I'm not feeling well and don't want anything exciting, or when I'm writing a paper and need something slightly distracting to keep myself from getting bored as hell and just stopping.

I usually watch it while doing other things, like cleaning or working out.

A dating sim where you deal with the wacky characters around Stars Hollow and stay away from Paris because she is mai waifu.

How I met your mother

You wanna make easy money, just:
___________: The Deckbuilding Game!

Literally anything can be a deck building game. Gilmore Girls The Deckbuilding Game will give you victory points for all snarky comments you play! But better fill your deck with drama to afford them! If it wasn't for Baseball Highlights, I'd condemn the whole genre.

As for a serious answer, lets see. Stardew Valley. You'd draw certain actions based on the skills you put points into and have to do the most with the least amount of time to get the highest score. Multiple goals to aim for like farming being the most efficient source of money, fishing being the most inclusive for achievements, marriage and making the town like you more in general. Can sabotage others by stealing their waifu or making joja destroy the town hall if they're getting too many points from gold stars there.

Does anyone else find GW boardgames super shitty?
They're middle-average games (I've played Assasinatorium and AOS Quest), but with a pricetag 2-3 times other stuff out there, because they have Official Games Workshop™ Miniatures.

>How I met your mother
Party game/risk management game where a number of prompts based on the show are written on cards. Two people are selected as "storytellers" at a time, and it passes clockwise so that each person will go twice in a row with two different competitors (so if Mike, Jeff, Bobby, and Eric are playing, it'll be Mike vs. Jeff, Jeff vs. Bobby, Bobby vs. Eric, Eric vs. Mike, and then start over). The first card is read aloud, and then the two people each put a number of tokens under a cup. Then the second card is read, and each person has to tell a funny story about the characters from the show that starts with the first card and ends with the second one. Then whoever wins gets the number of points they bet by putting them under the cup, and the loser loses that many.

they're just a vessel to sell more miniatures like everything else GW does, not sure why that'd surprise you user.

>party game
still sounds terible

Good party games exist. But I admit, there are more bad party games than there are bad games of any other individual subtype.

Blood Bowl was great, Mordheim/Necromunda were great (more skirmish games than board games tho), Space Hulk was pretty good, Warhammer Quest was better than a lot of modern dungeon crawls. Talisman is Talisman.

I feel like their good to bad ratio isn't any worse than any other genre, it's just the fact that certain party games are way more popular than they should be.

My favorite show: The Sopranos. I'm not sure how to make it terrible. Maybe a bastardized take on a GTA game where you play as different guys going around collecting your take, muscling local businesses for protection money, gambling, fucking whores, bribing corrupt cops.

Home bases: Satriale's, Bada Bing, Nuovo Vesuvio.
PCs: Paulie, Christopher, Benny "Criminal Mastermind" Fazio, Furio.
Mechanics: Talisman style movement, dice everywhere, random everything.

I was actually saying take a show or something that works well as what it is, but that you think sounds like an awful game, then other people try to make a decent game out of it.

Oh. I'm retarded.

Nah, I can totally see how you'd read it the way you read it.

>everything worth playing was designed over a decade ago
It's not the same company anymore bud, let it go.

So...

My favorite games are The Resistance and Sheriff of Nottingham. I also like Small World and 7 Wonders. Ticket to Ride is fun once in a while.

I love giant monster movies but have never really had an experience above "eh, pretty cool I guess" with King of Tokyo. I used to own Catan but at some point just lost interest in it.

I suck at chess but really like it anyway.

Based on the above:

>Would you recommend I get Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition? (I highly doubt I'll have the chance to play it unless I get it myself.)
>Would you recommend I get Deception: Murder in Hong Kong?
>What party game that ISN'T social deduction would you recommend for me?
>What can you recommend for me in the way of abstract strategy games?

*sigh*
You're right, user. Guess I gotta be glad to have played them back then. Wish I'd kept my minis.

Still kinda excited about Blood Bowl 2017 ed.

What is up with so many people playing this and then whining about the "take that" mechanic?

I would like to say that I play a variety of games but, this is the first one that I have seen this much complaining about said mechanic. It has to be one of the tamest "take that" mechanic.

What kind of games do these people play? Group solitary? Are other players just there to act as randomizers?

I haven't played it, but is it a Euro style game with a take that mechanic in it? People who like Euros tend to prefer much subtler interactions.

you'll probably like deception if resistance is one of your favorite games. be warned though, it needs a group of 6-8 to really be good

Yes
Yes
Say Anything, Telestrations, Codenames, Funemployed
GIPF project, The Duke, Hive, Abalone, Santorini, Kamisado, Shogi, Onitama, Go, Mancala, Pentago, Micropul

Hearts, or 52 card magic:the gathering

>Would you recommend I get Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition? (I highly doubt I'll have the chance to play it unless I get it myself.)
Well it's certainly not giant monsters, but if you dig the theme it's a great buy.

>Would you recommend I get Deception: Murder in Hong Kong?
Yeah, I think your group would like it

>What party game that ISN'T social deduction would you recommend for me?
Maybe a dice chucker like Bang! the dice game or a card game like Coup, Love Letter or Welcome to the Dungeon.

>What can you recommend for me in the way of abstract strategy games?
No idea, sorry

>Well it's certainly not giant monsters, but if you dig the theme it's a great buy.
I do, and one of my friends absolutely loves Dracula. She's read it almost every October for like eight years. I only mentioned that I liked giant monsters to clarify that my issue with King of Tokyo wasn't one of disliking the theme.

Innovation
Hive
If you put components in a ziploc bag, as the box is far to large: Codenames

I'm a fan of the novel as well, and I definitely recommend it. The game is a kinda "what if" scenario that follows on from the novel directly, with Dracula still "alive" and Abraham Van Helsing, Dr John Seward, Lord Godalming and Mina Harker hunting him down before he amasses too much power in Europe.

Your friend will probably really enjoy it. I recommend playing it once by yourself to fully understand all the rules, and going over the Dracula combat cards with your players. Maybe leave out the Dracula power cards your first play too, it nerfs Dracula hard but if people don't have a good grasp of the game it'll make for a more fun experience.

It has territory control but, the main mechanic is building an economic engine through using cards. Each player's engine ramps up as the game progresses.

There are a few cards that give you the option to destroy a few of player's resources. Other require you to reduce a production.

I believe the developer even said he added the cards as an attempt to prevent a run away victory. It would be one thing if you accomplished it but, what cards you get are random unless you do the draft variant.

I am just amazed at the number people and their level of discomfort that the "take that" mechanic has generated.

I am not sure how they can play anything competitive. How do they handle someone taking an action or a resource they need?

I do think there is a difference in experience between having someone take resources you want and having them destroy resources you already have. Also, is there a cost to using the cards that destroy opponents' resources?

I wouldn't say it's way too large. They do make it taller than it needs to be, but I wouldn't call it no longer portable for that reason. That being said, Bang the Dice Game is a very small box that works in the love letter dimensions he mentioned.

A Godzilla game that is good and fun to play, maybe something similar to Monsterpocalypse. Or an asymmetrical game where one side plays big G and the other tons of humans trying to stop him.

> I do think there is a difference in experience between having someone take resources you want and having them destroy resources you already have.

I agree that there is a difference. This game however, you only ever lose a few of the easier to acquire resources. Losing production can be a big deal but, those cards are rare of the rare "take that" cards.

The number of people and how they act like the rare "take that" cards completely ruin the game is just mind boggling to me.

> Also, is there a cost to using the cards that destroy opponents' resources?

Yes. Almost everything you do is through buying cards. The "take that" mechanic only appears on the cards.

I am pretty sure there are no doubles in the about 200+ stack of cards. Only towards the end of a five player game, is there a chance to see discard cards again.

Even then when a card is used it remains with the player for the rest of the game. So if someone does play a "take that" card it will never appear again in that game.

>Tom Vasel

What about him?

Yes, that is a person.

>trying to stop godzilla
A group of players try to enlist Godzilla's aid against a kaiju played by the DM. When they succeed, each plays a Godzilla action and a human action. The kaiju player can win before Godzilla shows up, but once Godzilla shows up the kaiju tries to cause as much damage as possible and manipulate Godzilla into doing so, and the players have to play Godzilla powerfully enough to win before causing too much damage while as the human factions they try to restrain Godzilla, attack the kaiju, and draw the fight away from the city.

could be fun. Honestly I just want a giant monster themed game that's
a) fun to play and
b) more complex than king of tokyo/new york

fluxx works. get more people if you want max pissation.

What about a game where you and your friends control a Godzilla type monster and have to destroy a city/base/whatever.

Cribbage though that requires a lot of point tracking.
Or if you want to play with (possibly three but much more preferably) 4 players and less than half a deck, Euchre (24 cards with 9, 10, J, K, Q, A) which also needs some point keeping though only up to 10.

Played both, but euchre only a few times. It's been years and I could never really wrap my head around the rules. Probably because I was taught wrong or something.

there's really a lot of design space for games featuring oversized lizards, I'm surprised more hasn't been done with it.

52 Pickup

Maybe that they don't like senseless (purposeless? Random?) aggression that comes out of nowhere? It can be pretty jarring to be attacked suddenly by someone you thought didn't particularly care about your board state, especially when it doesn't serve them any particular purpose. With action/resource blocking you know that they're doing it to deny you something while gaining a benefit for themselves, and you usually have other options open to you as well, while with certain games like Cosmic Encounter the aggression is directed by the Destiny(?) deck, which leaves less of any hard feelings.

That's what I didn't like about Munchkin anyway, though I wouldn't be too opposed to it in other games like this one, since you can flash the card at a player and "negotiate" for something you want.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong or Mysterium?

Forgot to mention, we usually have a group of 4

Mysterium if you can have fun just watching your friends puzzle out your clues, and you prefer the pretty art.

Deception if you want to have an opponent in the killer as they will be trying their best to avoid suspicion by making nonsense of your clues.

Best solo game I own is Mansions of Madness 2E, for obvious reasons. I'd be really interested in the new edition of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, but probably only as a partner activity
Free pizza was good advice, but the best advice is honestly to find people in your area who already like board games through Meetup.
Zee's usually not bad. Sam I stopped watching almost immediately after he officially joined full time
Whole game centered around Tony/Febby hunting each other down
At that player count, Mysterium
>Not watching at 2x speed

I like Mysterium and playing the ghost, but as someone else said you and/or your group has to be ok with someone being silent and just enjoying the arguing from behind the screen.

Are VTES starter decks worth buying? I could buy 3 3rd edition decks (brujah, tremere, malkavian) and blood shadowed courts vampire deck for 20 bucks or are the rumours true of FFG re-releasing VTES in LCG format like Android Netrunner?

Does Codenames work with 4 people or do you really need to hit that 6 So there's the discussion going on.

youtube.com/watch?v=rrOzOJY18mw

>Also, is there a cost to using the cards that destroy opponents' resources?
Its also worth noting that a most of the cards that involve stealing resources or production subtract victory points from the person the played them.

Haven't yet played it with 6 but many laughs were still had with 4.

Thanks for the tip, I think ill buy a case of beer, pizzas and charge like 10$ from everyone who comes, that should cover the food and maybe even net me some extra cash towards covering the games.

Thing is I also need some way to add new people, I already told my friends to invite as many people as they like, I hope they don't chicken out..

>solo games

Xenoshyft
Nations
Archipelago
Space Empires 4x
Space Hulk Death Angel


>What about a game where you and your friends control a Godzilla type monster and have to destroy a city/base/whatever.

On a different note - there's 'Conquest of Planet Earth' and the 'Apocalypse' expansion where the players are various alien factions bent on conquering / destroying good old planet earth in the face of human defenses.

If user thinks Code Names' box is to big, then they've obviously never seen Splendor. (The one thing I do like about the current set is that the rule book is printed large enough to read easily. My beef with Space Hulk Death Angel is needing a magnifying glass just to read the rules.)

And speaking of Splendor - anyone know of a craft place / somewhere to get decent sized 'plastic gems' to use in place of the regular gem tokens in the game?

Fluxx is bingo with cards that have pictures on them and more rules to remember.

Definitely try Hobby Lobby or Jo-Ann Fabrics. Or maybe even a Ben Franklin if you still have one near you.

>'Member when Forbidden Stars was still produced?
>'Oh I member, that was before GW went full exterminatus on a perfectly good game'

goddamn GW, I WANT AN EXPANSION WHICH I WILL NEVER SEE

I feel like my group has too many board games. It used to be "come over and play catan" or "let's have an Eclipse night" but recently now that three of the people in our group have more than 50 games and the rest have a couple games here and there, it's turned into everyone vying to play their new acquisition rather than enjoying interactions in familiar games. It adds an hour or more to our game night of not playing games while we learn new rules and I think it's turning people off to board game nights.

So talk to them about it, reasonable people respond reasonably to being asked to slow down a little.

I've got both Hobby Lobby & Jo-Ann Fabrics in the area. I'll have to see about checking them both soon. Thanks.

>goddamn GW, I WANT AN EXPANSION WHICH I WILL NEVER SEE

I know 'Dem Feels' user. I'd have loved an expansion with the Nids in it, and the game devs had one planned...

Anyone knows of a way to get some sort of discount on Amazon UK?

>I know 'Dem Feels' user. I'd have loved an expansion with the Nids in it, and the game devs had one planned...

how would the Nids have worked? Lots of ground troops, little ships? Or some special swarm ability bonuses? their ability to feed on anything and spawning like hell might make them a bit OP, but it might still work out.
Or better yet, have them as some kind of AI opponent that is not player by a player, but still hinders down the other players. (potentially even allowing singleplayer, or at least better twoplayer games)

current from what I have understood of the existing factions;
-Chaos, generally good at offensive, spread fast early game
-Orks, limited navy, strong army
-Eldar, limited army, strong fleet
-Imps, weak beginning, strong defence but weaker on the offensive

Potential new Nid or Tau factions would somewhat upset the existing balance, but if they thought out the expansion well, it might have worked.

>how would the Nids have worked?

I don't have a link, but one of the other Anons in a previous /bgg/ thread posted a link to a Board Game Geek thread where one of the FFG Forbidden Stars devs described a whole set of ideas for a Forbidden Stars expansion with Nids, Necrons, and a couple other races that they would never get to put out. This was prior to the public announcement that FFG & GW were parting ways.

Oh man, Hobby Lobby has a lot of good stuff. Bags, containers in many sizes, glue and painting supplies for miniatures. I haven't been in a Jo-Anns in probably 20 years. Ma used to take me along with her to buy her crafting supplies and fabric. I've heard they've got some good stuff, though.

goddammit
WHY THE FUCK MUST GW ALWAYS KILL ALL THAT IS GOOD AND FUNCTIONAL

Does anyone own a d100? I remember seeing them years ago at a local hobby shop that has long since gone out of business. Looks like a cool novelty but without a practical need that isn't filled by two d10s.

A friend had one. I got to roll that a couple times in a session and they're not as cool/useful as they seem. They roll for-fucking-ever and can change the face that came up if you move or breathe on them. 3/10 would not reccommend

I figured as much. Just another thing to sit on the shelf.

Here's the link you're looking for, where one of the designers mentions (some of) his (canceled) plans for an expansion: boardgamegeek.com/article/23189391#23189391

Also, one person on the 'variants' section of those fora has posted homemade Imperial Guard, Tyranid, Necron, and Tau factions. They don't look all that balanced to me, but he is still testing and updating them.

A dev posted on BGG what he was making them before the expac was cancelled, gimme an hour to find it I'm in lan

user here posted it already; boardgamegeek.com/article/23189391#23189391

;_;

the game has so much potential, and it is awesome partially thanks to being Warhammer and having lots of fun/insanity/grimmdark things happening during normal games.
I just wonder how long the games would last if people were playing 5 or player 6 games, with map maybe as big as 15, 16 or 20 tiles?

From current experience, 3 player game takes 4-5 hours, 4 player game well up 6 hours... but it can be nice.

So how good is the GMT Coin series? Almost every review is glowing, but I can't tell if it's because they appeal to a very specific audience.

Specific appeal
You have to like wsrhames