5 Great Tabletop Games for Solo Adventures
We know how it is. Game night rolls around and the 1st friend calls and says he’s got to stay home with the kids. Then that great fun couple cancels due to something they ate. Your best friend says he finally got a call from that girl he’s been chasing all year. Suddenly and without warning, game night is all but cancelled. Or, is it? Here is a list of great games that allow for a solo adventure.
1. Gloomhaven - Cephalofair Games (2017) From the web: “Players will take on the role of a wandering mercenary with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this remote corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make. This is a persistent game that is intended to be played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.”
2. Fallout - Fantasy Flight Games (2017) From the publisher: “Fallout is a post-nuclear adventure board game for one to four players. Based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks, each Fallout scenario is inspired by a familiar story from the franchise. Survivors begin the game on the edge of an unexplored landscape, uncertain of what awaits them in this unfamiliar world. With just one objective to guide them from the very beginning, each player must explore the hidden map, fight ferocious enemies, and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance feuding factions within the game.”
3. Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island - Portal Games (2012) From the web: “RC takes the players to a deserted island, where they'll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure. They'll be faced with the challenges of building a shelter, finding food, fighting wild beasts, and protecting themselves from weather changes. Building walls around their homes, animal domestication, constructing weapons and tools from what they find and much more awaits them on the island. The players decide in which direction the game will unfold and – after several in-game weeks of hard work – how their settlement will look. Will they manage to discover the secret of the island in the meantime? Will they find a pirate treasure, or an abandoned village? Will they discover an underground city or a cursed temple at the bottom of a volcano? Answers to these questions lie in hundreds of event cards and hundreds of object and structure cards that can be used during the game...”
4. Imperial Settlers - Portal Games (2014) From the web: “Imperial Settlers, as the name suggests, is an empire-building game. As such, your main goal is to grow your area to get more resources and increase your economy. You can achieve this by growing produce and discovering mines. You also need to train soldiers to protect your land. The best part is that you can choose the civilization you want – whether it’s Romans, Japanese, Egyptians, or Barbarians.”
5. Scythe - Stonemaier Games (2016) - From the web: “Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction's stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.”
As always, play more games!