 What is this game about? Legacy of Dragonholt is a story-driven game in which you (and possibly some friends) work together to explore the town of Dragonholt, go on related quests, and solve a larger mystery at the heart of it all. This game is designed to be light role-playing without a GM, and it very closely skirts the line between "game" and "choose your own adventure book." At the beginning of the game, you will select a character and assign him/her a race, class, and set of starting skills. Throughout the story, you make choices and can select special options depending on your skills or on other story points you have discovered so far. But you won't roll any dice, you won't engage in combat (besides choosing it as an option in the story), and you won't be dealing with very many cards or chits as part of your gameplay experience. "Life" in this game is represented by stamina. Each character starts with a certain amount of stamina, which can be spent by straining yourself or regained by eating/resting. Your starting stamina will be higher or lower depending on the number of skills you choose during character setup. If you specialize in fewer skills, you are rewarded with higher stamina. If you choose to acquire more than the minimum number of skills, you will have more options but also lower stamina. Several of the choices you make in the game require stamina, and if you run out, you have to revive yourself by temporarily giving up use of a skill. (You can get your skill(s) back once you reach a point in the story that allows you to reactivate them.) That said, the focus of Legacy of Dragonholt is the story—this isn't exactly a game that you win or lose. How does it play solo? You can play Legacy of Dragonholt as a pure solo game or you can control multiple characters. It works fine with just one character, or it's easy to play with two if you want to build two characters with unique skill sets. The game scales to accommodate fewer players by increasing stamina for characters in one- or two-player games. I have worked through this game with one character on my own, as well as played a two-player game with my boyfriend in which we each controlled one character. I enjoy the game both ways. But if you want to read at your own pace and make all the decisions for yourself, I say that you should go ahead and play the game solo! Be warned, however--Legacy of Dragonholt is not fully replayable. You will know some of the major story beats the second time through, and then it's just a matter of experimenting with different decisions.  All you need is the right quest book and a time/story tracking sheet. (And don't be afraid to write on the character and tracking sheets in the box—Fantasy Flight offers printables online if you need more.) Overall Thoughts
If you want a game in which you move pieces on a board and develop an overarching strategy, then Legacy of Dragonholt is not for you. If you already like games along the lines of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, or if you loved choose your own adventure books as a kid, then Legacy of Dragonholt may be right up your alley. I also suspect you will have different feelings about this game depending on whether you approach it as a board gamer or as a roll player. For board gamers looking for a gateway RPG experience, Legacy of Dragonholt is awesome. If you are a hardcore D&D player who is already used to more robust campaigning experiences, then Dragonholt could feel limiting to you. I personally enjoy Legacy of Dragonholt. After each session, I found myself thinking about what might happen next, and wondering what would have happened if I had made different choices. Not every game needs to be an intense, brain-burning experience to be fun. In the case of Legacy of Dragonholt, I got a huge kick out of deciding what to do and then just seeing where the story took me. Legacy of Dragonholt works for me because I appreciate the kind of experience it offers—the game delivers a lot of story and fun for a low level of commitment. The writing is good, and there are little extras in the box (like letters, journals, and maps) that give this game some spice. I'd like to see more of that in future installments. Do I recommend it? Yes. If you know what you're getting with this game, and it sounds like your sort of thing, you are going to love it. Overall Rating: 4 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it. 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.
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 For a complete playthrough of One Deck Dungeon, click here. What is this game about? One Deck Dungeon is a cooperative, dice-chucking card game in which you explore three floors of a dungeon, then fight a big boss at the end to win. During your time in the dungeon, your goal is to defeat enemies so that you can loot them for stat boosts, abilities, or experience points (experience allows you to add more abilities and more stats boosts to your character). To combat enemies, you roll dice that represent your current skill levels in the areas of strength, agility, and magic. You can also acquire and roll "heroic dice," which count as dice of any skill type. What makes One Deck Dungeon such an interesting game is that you manage to do all of these activities with dice and with cards that can be used in multiple ways. While they are still in the deck, cards can be discarded to represent the passage of time—once you run out of time (i.e. cards in your deck) on one floor, you will need to descend to the next floor. When set out facedown in front of you, the cards represent locations you can explore in search of monsters, perils, and ultimately loot. Once flipped over as encounters, the cards come to represent perils and combat scenarios. And when those scenarios are defeated, you make a choice about what kind of loot you want to receive: Will you take an ability, an "item" (i.e. stat boost), or experience points? Once you decide, cards can actually be slid under your character card as visual reminders of the buffs your character just received. I absolutely love that every card in the game can represent different things at different moments: the passage of time, a closed door, an enemy, a new skill. So much flexibility, all contained within a tiny little box, is very satisfying to me.  There is so much information on one enemy card. You can see the die boxes that you must fill to defeat them, how much experience they are worth (up top), the die roll they could add after being defeated (left side), and the skills or potions they could represent (bottom). How does it play solo?
One Deck Dungeon can either be played co-op (with two players) or solo. The game scales nicely— each character and level-up card has one side for co-op games and another for solo games. It is entirely possible to play One Deck Dungeon as a pure solo game in which you control only one character. But if you prefer to play two-handed and enjoy the interactions between characters, that is also a lot of fun. Overall Thoughts I have a good time playing One Deck Dungeon, but with that said, you have to be prepared for one thing: this is a dice game. Although there are ways to try to mitigate your rolls, the simple fact is that a lot of times your dice are going to screw you over. You will take wounds, lose time, and even lose the game because you had too many bad rolls. If you typically want more control over your games, do not play One Deck Dungeon. Otherwise, I think you should pick it up (it's only $17.99 on CoolStuffInc right now) and have a great time. This one works great for me when I want a small, quick game that still allows me to make some decisions about my characters' progression. In addition to the clever gameplay, One Deck Dungeon is also of interest to me because all of the heroes in the game are female. This choice was made without fanfare, but I definitely noticed. As a female gamer, I love to see game art that presents women as adventurous and capable, and I would say that One Deck Dungeon is a great example of what I want women in my games to look like. Aside from the luck factor, One Deck Dungeon does have one issue: It is very repetitive. Creating an entire dungeon crawl from a single deck of cards is clever and efficient, but it also means you will see the exact same cards again and again. I definitely burn out on this one and have to give it a rest before I come back to it. If you try One Deck Dungeon and enjoy the experience, an expansion for the game has been Kickstarted and delivered to backers (sadly, I was not one). The expansion should be available to all of us around March 2018. I definitely like this game enough to pick up the expansion once it's on sale in game stores. Do I recommend it? If you can handle the fact that One Deck Dungeon is very luck-driven and that you will frequently see the same cards in the game, then yes, I recommend it. Overall rating: 3.5 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.  Yesterday, I tweeted a link to Amazon UK's bestselling board games, and I got curious. My own corner of the internet is full of people who have board game collections that look a lot like mine. Many of us have general agreements about what "good games" are, or what it means to have good taste in board games. But if you aren't fully immersed in our hobby, the world will look different to you. VERY different. To get a sense of what "board gaming" means to the overwhelming majority of people, I created a table that juxtaposes the BGG top 25 with Amazon's top 25 best selling board games (as of today, 12/22/17).
Here are some decidedly unscientific conclusions that I will shamelessly draw anyway:
1. Ticket to Ride and Catan really ARE "new classics." These games were my own "gateway games" back in the day, and it's clear that they have really broken through to the wider gaming public. Ticket to Ride is Amazon's #6, and Catan is #8. I find that very encouraging. How many more people can we bring into our already-booming hobby, if these two games are doing so well? I was also very excited to see Codenames come in as Amazon's #15. 2. Board games are still mostly being purchased for kids. Many of the games on this list are skewed towards a younger audience either thematically or in terms of complexity. Most adults are not going to buy Yeti in my Spaghetti to play with other adults. Other entries like Candy Land, the Trolls game, and the Googly Eyes Drawing Game are strong indicators that most consumers are turning to board games as a way to entertain children. I would be very interested to see sales statistics based on age. What games are adults buying for themselves? 3. Old classics die hard. Connect 4, Clue, Monopoly, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Yahtzee... there are some familiar names on this list, and that trend continues past the 25 spot. There are several editions of Monopoly further down the list, as well as more than one iteration of The Game of Life. As much as hobbyist board gamers pooh-pooh these classics, they have such a strong place in our overall culture that they won't be going anywhere soon—especially if a lot of board games are being bought for kids. These board games are among the ones that parents buy. A new generation of children is at this very moment being groomed to start their own children off with old school games like Yahtzee and Monopoly. 4. Hobbyist board gamers are VERY different from the mainstream. You might have noticed that there is very little overlap between BGG's Top 25 games and Amazon's top 25 bestselling board games. The only crossover game is Codenames. Further down the list there are a couple more overlaps. Ticket to Ride: Europe is #84 on BGG. The Dominion base game is in the 80s on Amazon, while Intrigue is #53 on BGG. I see articles every year about alternative (i.e. "better") games to play with your family. In fact, I wrote my own holiday guide for 2017. But the fact is, the world of gaming looks very different to different groups of people. There are, however, a few points of contact. That's great news for the growth of our hobby. What, if anything, should we do with this information? I won't mince words—I want to see our hobby grow. I think everybody should play board games, and that there are games out there for everyone. I don't see Amazon's top sellers as a reason to bemoan the tastelessness of the hoi polloi or whatever. Instead, I think this list can give us perspective as ambassadors for board games. When we talk about games to newer players who want to know what else is out there, what connections can we make? What messages are we sending? Are we making choices that will include new people and help our community grow, or are we turning interested people away because we aren't able to connect with where they are coming from? The best thing about the board gaming community is its ability to welcome anyone, to help anyone connect with other people. Knowing how other people might see the world of board games can only help with that.  For a full playthrough of a one-spirit game of Spirit Island, click here. What is this game about? Spirit Island is a cooperative game in which you and up to three friends can play as island spirits battling against European colonizers. Your ultimate goal is to protect your native people, the Dahan, and get your uninvited guests to go away for good. You can achieve your goals by destroying enemy explorers, towns, and cities, as well as by terrorizing the invaders—fear weakens their hold on your island and makes it easier to attain victory. In fact, if you inspire enough terror, that can count as a victory condition. One of the more mechanically interesting aspects of Spirit Island is that spirits may be powerful and on their home turf, but it is the colonizers who have the advantage towards the beginning of the game. While your powers are still building, they will ravage your land and bring blight—which can ultimately cause you to lose. Over time, spirits can increase their presence, power card options, and energy levels (energy allows you to use your powers). But if you don't catch up quickly enough, your island is doomed. Each spirit in the game operates very differently. Some are faster and more aggressive, while others are slower and have more defensive powers. Spirits also operate within different ranges—some can affect several areas around the parts of the island where they have established their presence, while others must operate very close to "home." Spirits also interact with each other in interesting ways, which makes this game very rewarding if you play it cooperatively or two-handed.  There are many spirits to choose from, and they are all interesting. How does it play solo? Spirit Island is a true solo game, in that it is possible to play with only one spirit. Overall, however, I recommend playing with two—it gives you a bigger area to play with, and you can experiment with more interesting synergies and card interactions. Either way, you are going to have a great time—this game has become a go-to solo choice for me. Overall Thoughts It has been a long time since I enjoyed a game as much as I enjoy Spirit Island. I really wish that I had backed it on Kickstarter so that I could have everything for it. (This is the first time I have ever said or thought this, ever.) I will snap up the expansion the moment I get a notification that it's back in stock. After so many games that present European colonization as good thing, it is about time we had a game from the opposite perspective. I am so glad to see an anti-colonial game, especially one that is just so good. If you want to be even more overt about the historical realities that underpin Spirit Island's theme, you can play some of the extra scenarios from the box, in which you explicitly pit yourself against England, Prussia, or Sweden. (Not Spain, for some weird reason, but maybe in an expansion...?)  A four-player game in action. Spirit Island scales well. Spirit Island is also great as a multiplayer experience. Most of the people I have taught Spirit Island to have had a fantastic time and expressed interest either in buying it for themselves or in playing it again. This game won't be every single person's cup of tea, but it will appeal to gamers who like a challenge.
That said, I would not, under any circumstances, teach Spirit Island to people who are not ready for more intense games. Once you get into the flow of things, it's not difficult to play (although it can be difficult to win). But the game is complex, and it takes time to appreciate just how delicious it really is. The first time I played it, I knew it had potential, but it took a couple of tries to really make the game sing. Do not try to make an unwitting casual gamer sit through this with you. Do I recommend it? Yes. If you are willing to put in a little bit of time and you enjoy difficult games with a puzzle-like feel to them, Spirit Island is going to rock your world. I think it's going to end up as one of my all-time favorite games. Overall Rating: 5 stars 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.  After a pretty punishing year for wallets on Kickstarter, things have slowed down for the holiday season. Nevertheless, there are a couple of active projects that offer options for solo play. My own dollars are tied up with Nemo's War at the moment, but maybe one of these projects is for you: Stalingrad: Inferno on the Volga If WWII is your thing, you may love Stalingrad: Inferno on the Volga. This project is very obviously a labor of love, with game maps based on actual photographs of the areas you encounter in the game. Stalingrad also started life as a solo game, which means that it is tailored to the single player experience rather than having a solo mode tacked on at the end. If you are both a gamer and a history buff, this might be a good choice for you.  Postcard Dungeons
It's simple, it's quick, and it fits on a game board the size of a large postcard. Postcard Dungeons is currently designed for 2–6 players, but solo play is possible if you don't mind trying to beat your own score. One of the later stretch goals is a co-op mode that would make more interesting solo play a possibility.  What is this game about? Escape room games have been all the rage recently, and it's not hard to see why. There is something thrilling about being "trapped" and using your wits to escape. The Exit series offers you a number of small-box escape room adventures, each for about $15. I tried three of them for this review: The Pharaoh's Tomb, The Abandoned Cabin, and The Secret Lab. In each game, I found myself trapped in a different location. I had to solve several puzzles and open their related locks in order to emerge victorious. In each box, you will find a short instruction manual with a story scenario, a decoder wheel, a book of clues, and several piles of cards. Riddle cards provide you with further puzzle clues that allow you to make progress. Answer cards confirm whether you have solved a puzzle correctly and give you next steps. Help cards give you a bit of a boost when you are feeling stuck. To maintain a sense of tension in the game, there is a score card on the back of the instruction manual where you record how long it took you to "escape" and how many help cards you needed to do it. I should note here that each Exit game is meant to be played only once. As you solve puzzles, you will draw on, tear apart, and otherwise destroy game materials. Maybe you are the sort of person who would rather make photocopies than write on a card, but really, destruction is part of the adventure. I was impressed by how well everything ended up working together. The answer card deck had some clever ways to tell me whether I was right or not without accidentally revealing too much information, and when I did need a hint, the cards scaled nicely. (I only wanted a gentle push, so I would have been really mad if I had overturned a hint card that gave too much away too quickly.)  All set up to escape The Secret Lab. How does it play solo?
Although I have not played an Exit game with others, I suspect that they do not scale well. Each box has only one book of clues, one decoder wheel, and one set of cards. That means that if there are a lot of people working on the puzzles, there will always be someone with nothing to do but wait around for others to finish looking at something. I think I could definitely enjoy a game like this with my boyfriend, and could see Exit working for 2–3 people who don't mind sitting close together. But Exit is probably best for very low player counts. Overall Thoughts Overall, I found the three Exit games I played to be a fun and absorbing experience. Solving puzzles makes you feel smart, and you get a real sense of progress as the pile of riddle cards shrinks and you realize you are getting close to the end. Some of the puzzles in the Exit games were a little too "clever" for my tastes, but for the most part I had a great time with them. There is no feeling of satisfaction quite like the one you get when you solve a good puzzle—and appreciate the additional level of intelligence it took to design the puzzle in the first place. There were a few puzzles that annoyed me because I thought it was unclear what I should do next. In one puzzle that involved drawing on game materials, I am 100% sure I did the right thing, but an alignment issue forced me to flip over a hint card. But for the most part, the puzzles are both fun and fair, and I associate the Exit games with pleasure rather than with frustration. At $15 per experience (I paid a bit less for a 3-pack), I am not unhappy with the time I put into the Exit games or the joy I have gotten out of them. I'd say that it's no different from paying to go to a movie or buying a book of sudoku puzzles. Actually—and I say this as a puzzle lover—the Exit games feel much more like puzzle activities than like tabletop games. A lot of solo gaming has a puzzle-like feel to it, but the Exit games took that feeling a step further for me. If someone said, "Hey, want to go play a board game?" it would not occur to me to suggest Exit. As fun as the Exit games have been, I don't feel compelled to rush out and buy the next set. Maybe the mood will strike again down the line, but the games are just similar enough that they start to run together if you play a lot of them in quick succession. (My three plays were only days apart.) Do I recommend it? If you like puzzles and don't mind games that are both short and disposable, then I recommend Exit. Each scenario I played was good fun and a great way to while away 60–90 minutes on a quiet evening. Overall Rating: 3 stars Rating Scale: 5 — I love it! 4 — I really like it. 3 — I like it. 2 — It's okay. 1 — Meh.  To watch a full playthrough of The Cards of Cthulhu, click here! What is this game about? The Cards of Cthulhu is a game in which you play an investigator bent on stopping evil minions from awakening an Old One and bringing about the end of the world. If you've ever played a board game based on the work of H. P. Lovecraft, this will sound very familiar. But Cards of Cthulhu is its own game. In Cards of Cthulhu, your job is to prevent four game boards, each of which represents an Old One, from being overrun by minions. If you outlast the entire draw deck, you win. If every minion space on one of your boards is filled, you lose. Each turn, you draw at least four cards and distribute them to the relevant Old One boards. It is possible for you to draw minions, horrors, gates (which cause you to draw more cards), and cursed objects. Alternatively, some cards are helpful—items and assistants enter the marketplace and can be purchased using experience points you have accumulated during gameplay. To manage all of the evil beings spewing out of the draw deck and onto your game boards, you need to roll dice. You start with only three, and you can lose dice by being injured. But you can also spend experience points to cast spells that add dice to your pool or allow you to attack multiple times. Given that experience points are needed both for spells and for items or assistants, you need to carefully manage a limited supply.  Sure, these boards look clear and manageable NOW... How does it play solo? Technically, Cards of Cthulhu can be played either solo or cooperatively. But I think it's one of those games that truly shines when you play it alone. Once you get into the flow of the game, it has an almost meditative feel that would be disturbed by the presence of another player. For me, Cards of Cthulhu is the kind of light, chilled-out game that you play when you want a step up in complexity from Onirim, but you still want an easy set up and quick gameplay. Also, there aren't enough dice or experience tokens to go around, which can be very irritating. The experience tokens are really awesome-looking metal coins, but there are too few of them. They sell accessory packs on the DVG website, but extra coins and dice are pricy.  These components are pretty, but in short supply. Overall Thoughts
If you don't mind that you can be utterly destroyed by some bad die rolls or unfortunate card draws, Cards of Cthulhu is a rewarding solo experience. I typically feel like I have just enough control over my gameplay through spells, assistants, etc. that I want to press on even when I am losing. Cards of Cthulhu is probably the most relaxing game I own that happens to be about the end of the world. It's the kind of game I pull out on a work night when I'm tired but still want to play a game, or that I lay out on a Sunday afternoon when I want to sit around in my robe and drink hot chocolate. Now that the weather's gotten cold, I find myself pulling Cards of Cthulhu off of the shelf and fending off the forces of evil while basking in the light of my Christmas tree. If you want a light, Ameritrashy game to play solo, this is a good one. Overall Rating: 4 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.  I've already mentioned most of the solo-playable Kickstarters that have recently caught my eye, but last week we got a good one: Victory Point Games is doing a reprint of Nemo's War with a new expansion. I missed the boat (ha!) on Nemo's War the last time around, but reviewers I trust have generated so much positive buzz about it that I plan to pledge this time. Also, the price is right: For $59 plus shipping, you can get the game and its new expansion.
One thing I find refreshing about this particular Kickstarter campaign is its simplicity. No complicated tiers, no stretch goals, no hype. It's just a straight-up pledge for a copy of the game. I know a lot of people feel uncomfortable with publishers using Kickstarter as a glorified pre-order system, but that ship has sailed. I'm just going to enjoy the fact that I can feel sure of getting a copy of Nemo's War with minimal drama and without inbox-clogging updates about endless stretch goals. I haven't played it yet, but Nemo's War is also important to me because it is a smash hit solitaire game. Supporting it is a way of communicating to publishers that solo-playable games—even games made just for solo play—are worth creating. Sail on, Nemo!  To see a full playthrough of Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy, click here. What is this game about? In Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy, you play a patriarch or matriarch who carefully tends to the growth and social development of a family across three generations. Throughout the game, you can use your limited action tokens to arrange marriages, produce children, purchase titles, make important friends, buy mansions, try out business ventures, and undertake secret missions. In the multiplayer version of the game, you will also work towards secret goals assigned to you by a famous patron—goals that will grant you even more honor points (i.e. victory points) at the end of the game. There are a many paths to take in this game, and you'll want to do everything. But there are only so many rounds, and there are only so many actions you can perform in a given round. The goal of your hard work is to accumulate prestige (and points!) for your family. How does it play solo? There are two ways to play Legacy solo. The first is simply to play the main game by yourself and try to beat your high score. Honestly, the game is sufficiently entertaining that you might want to do this a couple of times—especially if you are testing out strategies to use against other players in an upcoming multiplayer game. Certain cards have good synergy with each other, and regular practice will help you to figure that out. But the true gem in terms of solo play is Testament, a dedicated solitaire game that differs drastically from the main game. In Testament, you are not building a new family—you are trying to work backwards to reconstruct your family tree and lay claim to a fabulous inheritance. The friend cards that you use in the main game as marriage prospects for your children become your long-lost ancestors in Testament. For each generation, you receive three hint cards that give you clues to your relatives' identities. Was your grandfather a writer? Did your great-grandmother marry an Englishman? Throughout this solo variant, you also have to check for consistency between generations. For example, you lose points if a Russian and a Spaniard produce a French child. (After all, you can't claim that inheritance if you don't have a consistent story, right?) If you successfully create a family tree that fulfills the requirements on all of your hint cards, then you win the game—and the life-changing inheritance. If you lose, then, well, you go back to being one of the hoi polloi. No one will ever acknowledge your true, illustrious heritage.  In Testament, you have humble origins... or DO you? Overall Thoughts
Legacy is a worker placement game, but it's one of the most fun and thematically consistent ones I have ever played. While several scoring tracks and card types can initially seem intimidating, every action you take in the game makes so much sense that you won't find yourself constantly scouring the rules to help you understand the details. The game also lends itself to storytelling—you will find yourself creating bizarre and hilarious stories about "your family" as you go, which makes it a lot easier to invest as you play. I also want to praise this game for being inclusive. Without making a big deal out of it, Legacy allows you to play as a male or female head of a family. In addition, there is racial diversity among your friends (and potential members of your family through marriage). Most board games with European settings don't do a good job of acknowledging that not everyone in society at that time was white. It's refreshing to see diversity in any board game, but especially one with this sort of theme. Although I think I prefer to build up my family in the multiplayer game, I really enjoy Testament. The solo game can be puzzly and surprisingly difficult as you try to make the cards in your hand work with the information you've been given about your family history. I also truly appreciate any game that puts so much thought into a solitaire design—not only is it still rare to find games with official solo rules in the box, but it is rarer still to find a game that puts so much thought into solo play. That's something I would like to see more often. Do I recommend it? Yes. Legacy is an awesome game all around. If you want a more fun and thematic worker placement game, it's a fantastic choice. You will get your maximum value out of this game, however, if you occasionally enjoy it multiplayer. Overall Rating: 4 stars (3 if you are thinking about it strictly for solo) Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.  What is this game about? Rune Age is a deck building game set in Terrinoth, the same fantasy world that provides a backdrop for Fantasy Flight games such as Descent and Runebound. Rune Age is not one single game. Instead, it has four different scenarios for players to choose from. Two of these allow for solitaire play, one focuses on player elimination, and another is competitive but with minimal player interaction. Each player takes on a different race, with options including elves, barbarians, generic fantasy humans, and the undead. Each player will be able to acquire some cards that are unique to his or her race and some neutral cards, which are available to all and specific to the scenario. Rune Age has several interesting mechanics that work together in the game—you can use combat, influence, or gold to make things go your way. The combat system has players set down military units from their current hand, then roll an attrition die to determine how many of them survive. How does it play solo? There are two solo-playable scenarios included in Rune Age. One, "Resurgence of the Dragonlords," is a race to build a good deck and gain enough strength to take out one very powerful enemy. In multiplayer, this scenario is a race against other players to accumulate enough firepower. When playing solitaire, you are racing against an event deck—when it runs out, game over. The other solo-playable scenario, "The Cataclysm," is a test of endurance. It is playable either solo or cooperatively, but either way the goal is to outlast the event deck. Bad things will keep happening, and it's your job to handle them all. Rune Age also has an expansion called Oath and Anvil, which adds some variability to the game. It includes two new races, as well as cooperative (rather than competitive) rules for "Resurgence of the Dragonlords."  The art is very pretty in this game, even when depicting the undead. Overall Thoughts
Rune Age is a beautifully-produced game with some very interesting concepts. I particularly like the added influence and combat mechanics. Deck builders can always use a little more spice. But speaking of spice, Rune Age is bland on the whole, particularly for solo play. Although you can get some variation by playing as different races and trying different strategies, the solo scenarios just aren't interesting enough to keep me coming back. "The Cataclysm" can be challenging, but I'm not interested in trying to survive without a more satisfying end goal. "Resurgence of the Dragonlords" doesn't offer enough variety to justify repeated play. If you want to pick up Rune Age to play with a gaming group, it might be a solid purchase. But for pure solo, I would recommend you pick up a different deck builder. (Or, if it's Terrinoth you're after, stick to Descent or Runebound.) I love deck builders. If it's a deck builder, I am going to want to try it, guaranteed. But I think that Rune Age lost something when it tried to be all things to all people. It's like a rock and roll supergroup—it just doesn't add up to the sum of its parts. Overall Rating: 2 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. |
AuthorMy name is Liz Davidson, and I play solo board games. A lot of solo board games... Archives
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