One is the Loneliest Number...

I don't consider myself a solo gamer. What do I mean by a solo gamer? Someone who buys games with the intent to play them solo. Games that don't have a way to play with only one player are often passed over by a solo gamer, not to say that they won't buy games at other counts, but that one player mode is pretty important to a solo gamer.

Don't get me wrong. I own and have purchased games that play solo. I have and do play some of my games solo - I'm going to cover those in a minute. That being said, I think the number of games I have purchased with the intent to play solo is two. One of those, I purchased in the last month - Marvel Champions. The other is Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Turns out they have a lot in common.

Generally speaking, I don't love playing boardgames solo. Generally speaking, I play boardgames because I like playing games with my friends and family. Generally speaking, I'd rather play an average game asynchronously online if I can't sit down with friends to play a game. Generally speaking, if I want to play a game solo, I'd rather pull out my iPad and play one of the many app versions I have against the AI.

I play boardgames because I like the mental puzzle of doing well at a game and I enjoy the challenge of trying to do better than my friends. I enjoy the banter at the table and I enjoy the conversations that have nothing to do with the game we are playing. Boardgames are a social thing.

Now, I understand that some folks have trouble finding other players to game with. Maybe they are deeply introverted. Maybe the people they like to play with are very busy and the meetup times are really rare or don't match up. Whatever the reason, I'm not knocking people playing solo games.

But honestly, I don't get much satisfaction out of playing a game using some automata system. I don't enjoy playing a game to see if I can figure out some super efficient pattern that will let me score more points than the previous time I played. The games I do play solo tend to tell a story and that is what keeps me interested, not my personal efficiency at a game or scenario. I think this is why I tend not to really enjoy playing co-op games as well. Co-op games that tell a really good story, like Eldritch Horror, I can enjoy. Something like Pandemic? That's just a multiplayer solo efficiency game where one player takes on the Alpha role and leads the others (I don't need to play a game where I'm told what I should be doing the whole time and neither do I want to do that to/for the other players).

So why bring this up at all? COVID-19.

Like a lot of people, I'm trying to find things to do to keep my mind active and keep from going stir crazy. I've been playing lots of online games. I'm doing lots of reading (and like a lot of people, lots of watching TV). There seems to be a limit to each of those things that I can do before I don't want to do them anymore, so I've been turning to boardgames. As I said above, the ones I'm willing to play solo tend to be games that tell me a story, so here are the ones that I've am willing to play and why.

Shockingly, Descent makes the list. I played Dungeons and Dragons as a young child and fantasy has always been something I really enjoy. Anyone that reads this blog (all three of you) knows that I have been painting my Descent collection. Because of all that effort, I almost feel an obligation to break this out from time to time and play. Because of the Road to Legend app, it is very easy to break out and start playing when I need a quick dungeon crawl fix. I also have a set of automated monster cards so that I can run through the official campaigns. Now, I know that I said that I'm not interested in play automata systems, but this isn't a game that you score - its a story game and you win or lose. Yeah, the story is meagre at times, but there is still a story and a fantasy adventure to be had here, so I don't mind playing at all.

That is a lot of tentacles to try and shoot off

Eldritch Horror is the first of the two Lovecraftian games on my list. I'm not sure what the pull is here for me - I wasn't a huge fan of the genre growing up and I don't have a huge horror interest, nor an interest in the occult. However, for whatever the reason, the stories have some sort of satisfying appeal to me. FFG produced a number of games before EH came out, and it shows in how well done EH is - and I don't just mean in production values (which it has). The stories the game tells are interesting, and despite a large randomized component to it, it all feels coherent. Now, a large portion of the story is designed to be coherent, but after numerous plays, I love that each time I play it still feels new, even replaying against the same bad guys (again, all while telling a coherent story - something I don't think the Arkham Horror 2nd edition game did). I don't tend to play this a lot because it takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot to set it up, a long while to play it, and then tear it all back down. I usually love it, but it definitely isn't my go to when I have 90 minutes to blow before bed.

I am a comic nerd. I used to buy comics in my youth - not to collect, but because I loved the stories and characters. Marvel was always my preference over DC, though I read both. So it is no surprise that Marvel Legendary is on my list. Not only does the game feature the characters from the comics, the actual Mastermind schemes are straight from a lot of the major storylines from over the years. Legendary lets you create your own team ups. Want to play the X-Men taking on Dr. Doom?  Go ahead - he might even have been the mastermind behind the Legacy Virus! If that doesn't mean anything to you, then you won't quite understand why I love this game. Don't get me wrong, this is not just a game I love because of the theme. There is a great great game here. When they re-skinned the game for the app version on my iPad, I fell in love with it all over, because the core of the game was so well done. The fact that the tabletop game has a Marvel theme just puts it way over the top for me. Yes, there is a score that is kept, but on the table, playing solo, all that matters is beating the Mastermind's scheme.

This is a recent COVID-19 acquisition. I heard there was a Marvel based LCG from FFG that had recently come out. Recently enough that I hadn't yet missed a bunch of content (like the next game on the list...). Again, I'm a comic nerd. So despite learning that there isn't (yet) a real campaign and that it doesn't seem to be setting up quite like their other LCG lines, I pulled the trigger and grabbed this. What I have found (so far) is something like Arkham Horror: The Card Game for Dummies (with a Marvel Comics skin). And that's ok - I don't mean that in a bad way. It is faster to setup and play than Legendary and still scratches that comic story itch. And yeah it kinda feels like I'm directing/creating my own comic story. I don't know if the leadership at FFG aimed for a lower barrier to the game just to widen the target audience or if this will eventually go down their normal LCG path, but I've decided I don't care and I'm enjoying it for what it is.

I guess he didn't kill all the tentacles on the first box cover

The last game on my list of solo games is Arkham Horror: The Card Game (another LCG). When this was first released, I was interested, but not sure. At the time, I really had no desire to play solo games - I could just get together with friends and play something and I had EH to scratch this particular itch (though due to the time commitment, we still didn't play as much as I'd have liked). Some friends told me they had tried AH: TCG and liked it and I should check it out. So I did.

I tried playing the first scenario. It was ok, but still I just wasn't into playing solo games. Fast forward to two summers ago. One of the other PBM guys LOVES this game. His enthusiasm gets me to pull it back out and try again. Yeah, this isn't a bad game and, it scratches an itch like EH, but without the same amount of work. But, after a couple plays, I don't go back - for two reasons. One, I just don't play solo that much. The other is: the game is on like the third season already at that point. Trying to find all the chapter packs is not cheap nor easy. So I kinda give up on it.

Fast forward again, to a couple days ago. FFG must be starting a reprint of the original cycle, because the first chapter pack for the Dunwich Cycle (the first "season") was available on Amazon - for the regular price. So, I grab my box, pull out the rules and spend a few minutes starting over with the instructions.

The whole time I'm sitting there reading them, I'm like - yeah, ok, that is pretty much just like Marvel Champions, but:

• Instead of a hero deck (built with a set of aspect cards and some filler), I have an investigator and I have to go find a bazillion separate cards to build the deck.
• Instead of a villain deck (built with the villain cards and a side threat set of cards), I have a scenario deck, that I have to build from a number of sets of cards
• Instead of villain plot cards, I have an agenda deck (more or less similar)
• Instead of a bad guy I beat up directly, there is an "act deck" with varying ways of advancing the story along
• Instead of just taking my turn, then the bad guy does their routine, and back and forth, there is going to be a map that lays out and I place my investigator and move. And there are skills and other complicated stuff (semi-complicated, maybe just complicated comparatively speaking).

Hey! I was right! Marvel Champions is seriously just AH: TCG, but simplified and with a different theme. People want to play these games, but not all that many people want to spend the time building and tweaking decks for a co-op or solo game. They want to mash together some cards and play the story. And yeah, I totally get that. I don't know how they are going to figure out a campaign for Marvel Champions. Maybe it'll be lightly tied together (at best) so that they don't overly complicate what that game currently is all about.

The fact that AH:TCG is MORE is fine with me, because I know from previous plays that the extra work is going to mean a good narrative, and that's why I'm willing to go back and give it another try. And if I don't feel like exploring all the cards and tweaking my deck, I won't. Or I'll go play Marvel Champions. 

Maybe, this will all be over sooner rather than later (I truly hope so, but I also doubt it very much) and I'll abandon these games because life will return (or maybe I'll have discovered something else I really enjoy). In the meantime, if you are looking for some good options for playing at a table for one, there are some games out that with good narratives if you want to give them a shot. 

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