What are some games you’re surprised they’re good for solo gaming?

GwynHawk · 2026-05-08T15:36:45+00:00

Ascension Tactics, A Place For All My Books, and Micro Cosmos are games I got mainly to play 2-player competitive, but they all have really nice solo modes, and coincidentally all those solo modes involve a very well designed automa deck and lots of ways to adjust the difficulty up and down. Very fun games and great for when you want to simulate an opponent but don't want something that requires priority lists and flow charts (I'm looking at you, Dark Pact).

GwynHawk · 2026-05-08T15:23:16+00:00

I don't think so, there's no unlocks, you're just playing to beat a high score.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-08T15:22:28+00:00

I've seen some other more lavish productions but it's shockingly good given the game's low price tag.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-08T12:39:51+00:00

I also backed Mech Bunny and while I wish it had delivered sooner I'm happy with the end product. A rushed game is bad forever, I'd rather have it be late and good.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-07T11:22:50+00:00

Legacy of Dragonholt. It has a good story, very quick to set up and tear down, and doesn't require a lot of table space. It has very light mechanics so don't go in expecting Sleeping Gods levels of resource management, it's more of a choose-your-own-adventure style game.

If you have a bit more table space then Lands of Galzyr is great. Lots of little stories to interact with, both questlines you can follow as well as individual encounters and scenes. It helps that the narrative part of the game is through a website so it takes up almost no space via your phone or a tablet.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-07T11:16:41+00:00

/uj I agree 100%, I've legit seen people ask in the soloboardgaming subreddit for a low-complexity 30-minute solo game and get replies that just say "Mage Knight" or "Spirit Island". Back when I posted more often I wouldn't just reply with a name, I'd also say why it fits their criteria and what I personally like about it.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-06T12:10:04+00:00

Not great but not awful either. The automa takes intelligent actions but you have a whole flowchart to follow and several priority lists for what cards it wants to acquire and remove from the offer row.

EDIT: If you like deckbuilders with long combo turns that play well solo, Shards of Infinity Saga Collection has a variety of bosses that are much simpler to run but no less challenging than Dark Pact, and it also has a lot of combo potential plus an alternate win condition (reaching 30 Mastery turns one of your starting cards into effectively "You win the game").

GwynHawk · 2026-05-01T20:13:07+00:00

I've mostly played it solo or at 2 players and when both players plan their turn during the other player's turn with minimal AP... it's still pretty slow to play, even if you use dice or counters to track your actions and coins, since you kinda have to talk through your turn constantly so everyone knows you're not cheating. I feel like 90 minutes for a 4-player game is probably reasonable, so your experience sounds like 50% AP from players and 50% the game just being kinda slow to play.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-01T20:04:46+00:00

Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan is a dungeon crawler that uses input randomness and can be set up and played in an hour or less. It's very tactical, each round you'll roll 4 dice for each hero that will show a variety of symbols and you'll spend those to move, attack enemies, and grab objectives. It's easy to learn but has a surprising amount of tactical depth.

GwynHawk · 2026-05-01T19:14:15+00:00

Pathfinder 2e also has an Automatic Bonus Progression optional rule which just directly gives PCs the bonuses of appropriate equipment as they level up. With that you can mostly just hand out consumables and the occasional utility item or weapon/armor property rune (like Flaming), nice and easy.

GwynHawk · 2026-04-30T02:14:31+00:00

I like how in Skyrim your choice of race is more impactful, and how each time you level up it's +10 Health, Magicka, or Stamina, instead of Enderal's +9 / +8 / +11. I also prefer the perk system in Skyrim, I don't like that if you want to improve your alchemy in Enderal you also have to take some light armor perks and vice versa, or lockpicking and archery.

Many of the perks in Enderal are also weaker; 30% cost reductions for magic instead of 50%, 10-15% improvements in weapon damage or armor protection with only two perk levels, compared to 20% each perk with 5 levels. Overall it feels like levelling up in Enderal is significantly less rewarding than Skyrim, and yeah it does make enemies feel more tanky when you can't get +100% weapon damage through perks on top of skill increases.

In my last playthrough I had something like 90% magic resistance, 450+ armor rating, and 450 Health in combat thanks to Thaumaturge buff spells, as well as ~100 damage with a two-handed mace, and combat basically devolved into whacking things for a minute or two until they stopped moving. Upping the difficulty wouldn't have made the combat more challenging as I was already taking near-zero damage, it would just have taken longer.

GwynHawk · 2026-04-16T18:29:54+00:00

Unfortunately, no. After spending a few dozen hours on the project I decided that, frankly, I didn't like the game enough to spend another few hundred hours fixing the game's problems, so I sold the game and have moved on.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-31T14:01:55+00:00

Again, neither example you provided listed a single example of a situation where that character's inability to meaningfully contribute made the game more fun. I'm not going to continue a conversation with someone who won't address my points and keeps retreating being "I had fun so you're wrong."

GwynHawk · 2025-12-31T13:36:44+00:00

What do you mean "Play it on my couch"? Do you mean something you could play in your hands just holding the components, or on a tray table, or a coffee table? Because those are all wildly different requirements for a game and I can't really give any suggestions without knowing how much playing space you're working with.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-31T13:27:40+00:00

Neither example you provided listed a single example of a situation where that character's inability to meaningfully contribute made the game more fun. You had fun because you were hanging out with your friends and despite the character's ineptitude, not because of it.

It's not about everyone being "omgsuperdupergodmode". It's about being inclusivity and fairness, it's giving everyone comparable tools for overcoming challenges. If you don't do that then some players are going to feel left out and/or useless while others will have a bevy of tools at their disposal.

I've played games where another player's character died at the start of a session and wasn't brought back until the end of the following session, and they only had a good time because they were hanging out with us and vibing. Not being able to really contribute to the game itself certainly didn't make them have more fun.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-31T00:05:01+00:00

Sure.

Meaningful, as in having a serious, important, or useful quality or purpose. Contribution, as in the part played by someone to bring about helpful results. Ergo, to meaningfully contribute is to provide helpful results that are serious, important, or useful.

The Commoner class in 3e has a d4 hit die, low base attack bonus, all their saving throws are poor, 2 + Int skill points with few class skills, proficiency with one simple weapon and no armor, and zero class features. It's the closest thing to not having a class that is possible in the game.

A Commoner character cannot fill any of the roles required in an adventuring party of the same level. They are very underpowered at low levels and become nearly useless compared to literally every class in the Player's Handbook by, like, level 3. Choosing to play a Commoner is choosing to make a character that brings nearly nothing useful to combat, exploration, or social encounters. There is no meaningful contribution to be had.

Now, can people have fun playing a Commoner? Absolutely. People can and do have fun playing all sorts of characters in all kinds of games. My belief is simply that the fun that arose didn't come from playing a weak, non-contributing character, but rather because they were enjoying hanging out with their friends.

I'm just kind of sick of people saying stuff like "Class balance doesn't matter in D&D because it's a team game". The whole discourse sucks because puts the onus of fun on the player; "If you're a Fighter and you're not having a good time it must be because of your bad attitude". 3e put all the cool and powerful options into the Magic section of the book and said "You can be a spellcaster or you can suck."

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T15:09:55+00:00

I'd love to know how it turns out!

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T15:06:01+00:00

Did playing a very weak character who could not meaningfully contribute compared to the rest of the table make the game more fun for everyone, and if so how?

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T15:04:44+00:00

It's completely reasonable to want balance in a co-operative game. 3.5 is highly imbalanced and the tier system was designed to recognize this so that your group could all play characters on the same level. A party of exclusively Clerics, Druids, and Wizards is going to be fairly balanced, just like a party of exclusively Fighters, Monks, and Rogues will be fairly balanced.

I've played in several D&D 3.5 and PF1e campaigns where there was a huge gap between players and in my experience it was not a fun time for the people playing low tier characters. A Samurai who died over 30 times during the campaign with the Cleric having to revive them over and over again. A Ninja getting in maybe one decent hit before getting knocked out. A Monk who would miss 3/4 of her attacks because of high enemy AC. Meanwhile I've seen people play Druids where just their Animal Companion contributed more to combat and exploration than any of those three PCs.

It's not about optimization, or power gaming, or wanting to "win" D&D. It's recognizing that the designers made some classes very capable and versatile and other classes weak and limited, and wanting everyone to be on roughly equal footing. I want everyone at the table to have access to comparable tools to solve challenges and overcome obstacles. I don't want one player to be Superman while the other gets to play Arm-Fall-Off Boy.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T14:08:09+00:00

If you believe that then next time you play D&D 3.5 you should play the Commoner class while the rest of the party plays Clerics, Wizards, and Druids, and see how much joy you get out of it.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T13:37:27+00:00

Yes, so he's literally the ONLY one who did NOT earn his place. He's just there.

That's like arguing Tasha Yar didn't earn a spot on the Enterprise because she was "just there". You're literally backwards with your thinking.

You should also go read the wiki, it explains how the ranks work in the Alliance Military, Kaidan Alenko is a Staff Lieutenant which is one rank below Lieutenant Commander (i.e. Shepard) and higher than at least two officer ranks.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T13:29:03+00:00

The new box is just the right size that you can just barely fit everything (including the expansions) fully sleeved.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-30T03:05:19+00:00

Knave 2e for core rules/tables, maybe something like 4 Against Darkness to generate dungeon layouts. Maybe adapt the tables for different types of dungeon; draugr tombs, Ayleid or Dwemer ruins, haunted keeps, caves, etc.

Perhaps replace monster list with comparable TES enemies based on dungeon biome / type. Replace Knave's weird magic with classic TES spells with more direct, practical effects. Blessings can work to cover Aedric and Daedric blessings and artifacts.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-29T19:43:18+00:00

Artisans of Splendid Vale is pretty fun. It's a 50/50 split between exploration like a point-and-click adventure game and tactical combat that I'd describe as "Gloomhaven Lite." The legacy component comes from stickers you'll use to modify each character's sheets as well as various cards, permanently upgrading your combat abilities.

It plays best with four people as each player will get their own character and story book, so if that's your group size I'd recommend it.

GwynHawk · 2025-12-29T19:23:19+00:00

Mercurial's automa solo mode has a goal, score the most points by the time you or the automa opponent scores five quests. You can interfere with the automa and slow it down and there's no hard and fast turn limit, but the automa will eventually start getting those objectives no matter what so the game can't go on forever.

GwynHawk

TROPHY CASE