To solo or not to solo?

Matthew McHale


Before I get into the blog I just wanted to say that I'm not much of a writer. I can't spell, I have no grammar skills(thank goodness for spell check). So why am I writing a blog? Well, because I love games, board games and especially RPGs. When Jim asked me if I would like to be part of NJAGP I immediately responded with “I could be the RPG guy”, hoping he would ask. So here I am part of the podcast. OK with that out of the way onto the blog.

I want to talk about playing board games solo. I have an affinity towards RPGs so it's no wonder I love
co-op games. (I'm sure I'll write about that in another blog). Most co-op games you can play solo and there are solitaire games out there. I do enjoy playing these game solo when I get the chance.

Given the chance of course I would rather play games with people, I know a big part of gaming is the interaction with other players. Lots of laughter around the table does not happen playing alone. But a lot of people love playing games alone against a computer AI. So why not against a board game AI.

The games I feel play really well alone are a couple of the Flying Frog games A Touch of Evil and Conquest of Plant Earth. I have played them both several times and will again. The D&D games Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon are also a couple of good ones solitaire. Both games come with solo scenarios. You could also play with multiple heroes against the game using the multi player scenarios.

The game that I feel plays best solo is Dungeon Quest. If you like the type of game where the game plays you more than the other way around you will like this game any way you play it. You mostly just play a tile and do what the game says to do(which most of the time is you die). OK so there is not many decisions to make but I find it fun to run into monsters and traps with little hope of winning the game. I like seeing what horror is around every corner. When you do get out of the dungeon with some loot it's a big deal playing with people or not. If you don't like games where you don't have much control over what happens to you I would stay away form this game altogether.

So how do you feel? Do you solo or not?