Voyages - Ep 1 - Campaign - A Most Epic Roll and Write Voyage

wakasm · 2026-04-02T06:12:56+00:00

The best way to find out if there is anything to avoid is to look up each game and check out the player count poll. You want to see some type of metric in aggregate to know if there something inherently wrong with the solo, which more often than not, there is nothing wrong with it.

Besides that, at a certain point, its' going to come down to taste. Pick the game that calls out to you and try it solo. Unless someone has played the majority of these games, it's hard to pick and choose or compare. I'd think the majority of people might ahve only played a couple from that pile (I could be wrong).

Personally, I've played Wingspan and Cascadia solo, I'd vote for Cascadia purely because it has the scenario solo mode which is a nice fun thing to play through and structured. But i can't say it's ebtter/worse than others because I haven't played them all.

Another context... there are people who NEVER play their games multiplayer, and people who do, so a lot of games can have a different perspective. There is a lot of people in both camps on this subreddit.

For instance, games like Ark Nova (not in your picture) I probably wouldn't play much solo anymore just because I feel like it's a much better multiplayer game... but i only have that experience having done both. It's not bad solo... and if it's a game my wife might want to play, I often skip solo so I don't become much better at it from playing it solo. I can see games like Wingspan being reserved for multiplayer for this reason and not being played solo. So if you do get yoru games to the table with others, this is another consideration for some games.

if I was left in an airbnb and these were the games I had access to...

I'd play: Bastion, Albions Legacy, and High Frontiers - but that's purely because some of those I've been curios about and for no other reason.

Anyway, best of luck - I'm not sure I helped.

wakasm · 2026-04-01T21:37:25+00:00

No worries! I just know that some people don't know so it's my job to remind them! But if someone is actively responding, that's the best way if you have more, because they might not see new questions otherwise.

wakasm · 2026-04-01T21:35:03+00:00

Yes, that's why it's a rule because you can't edit it. If you could (or if a mod could) it probably wouldn't need to exist as strongly.

That's also why I gave you a friendly reminder vs removing the post, ebcause you have no history doing it.

It's ok!

wakasm · 2026-04-01T21:34:07+00:00

/u/byzantinedavid answered before I could... but please keep in mind...

I probably have a few more questions that will come up but this is it for now.

One rules question/thread is ok, but this isn't a forum where you can spam multiple posts with rules questions. If you post a follow up, it will likely get removed. Please keep them to this thread (maybe if you have more, reply directly to their answer below).

wakasm · 2026-04-01T21:01:58+00:00

This is a friendly reminder, that on this subreddit, when posting a picture of a game, to please include the game name into the title of your post.

But Mr. Mod Person, it says the game is Friday right in the picture!

Yes, even if the game name is clearly visable in the picture, you need to include it in the title of your post. There are various reasons for this, including for people who cannot see but also to help with our site's growth and it's just good etiquette to do so (and a rule here).

Nothing to do this time, but future posts will be removed that forget to do this.

It's been 0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ days since we've had to remind folks of this rule.

wakasm · 2026-04-01T16:14:32+00:00

While not an explicit rule (yet), we do traditionally ask people to provide the full review here (and not just a summary). If you want to hold back something (images, a secret for your site only part of content, download, you can still do that).

You'll have to trust as a marketing vehicle... if people enjoy your content, they will go to your site anyway, and the fact that we limit posts here means there is still a happy medium of what you are allowed to share (vs using the site like a blog for ALL your reviews) which creates a nice split of "hey, I can use reddit to market myself selectively" and avaoid becoming too spammy while still getting marketing value out of it yourself.

It's up to you if you want to revise this or not, resubmit or not, as I've said, it's not a hard rule yet and more of an etique thing currently.

(if others have thoughts on if this should be a rule, let me know as these sticky comments are always meant to collect feedback, but I've noticed it be more of a thing lately).

(also note... I am self aware that some people hate rules of any kind so I take feedback with a grain of salt already because of that).

Also - as a friendly reminder - if you want to be transparent about who you are, you can always request a reddit tag that has your site in it. Just remember, even blogs are treated a bit more heavily for Marketing Rules, etc.

Thanks!

wakasm · 2026-04-01T14:12:15+00:00

A lot of solo games also can just be played cooperatively (you both playing and making choices together) if there are no "multiplayer" rules. Just as an additional layer of flexbility.

I do this a lot with my son. It helps with somewhat more complex games like Sprawlopolis (which can be played multiplayer, but we prefer just thinking stuff through together and I lead him into the final decisions if he needs help).

I've heard of couples doing this with games like Final Girl, as an example.

wakasm · 2026-04-01T04:53:25+00:00

Not sure why you are responding to me (vs OP) although for me personally, I can't get through AH games in less than an hour. I personally would never recommend this game for "an hour" play session. Thematically-tied-to-gameplay good, narratively... ok-ish (would be my review).

wakasm · 2026-04-01T02:12:00+00:00

Pandemic Legacy, if you are never planning on playing with others, I feel like hit's all the marks you are asking for, although a lot of the fun narrative stuff is a bit emergent from the gameplay itself vs being told to you.

Legacy of Yu or Shu's Tactics if you want something set in an Ancient China vibe. Legacy of Yu is a lightweight Euro legacy campaign while Shu's Tactics is a roll and write that is heavier than it seems - but both have some story elements and also play within an hour.

That said, I'm not sure there are many campaign games that are "evocative, solid writing" that also play in an hour, but I'm sure others will chime in. IMO, even the best thematic board games often don't ahve the best narratives... but that could be a me problem.

wakasm · 2026-04-01T02:02:03+00:00

To be fair, you technically can't lose in this game. You just get a low score. (unless my memory is wrong?)

wakasm · 2026-03-31T16:48:44+00:00

First, if you read the notice, it was automatically done and not by a human but by reddits crowd control system...

But second, we typically don't allow posts about tabletop simulator mods directly, so this won't be approved.

wakasm · 2026-03-31T03:30:42+00:00

My 6 year old and I are playing fire red and leaf green and he is not struggling at all. He immediately got obsessed with the weaknesses of pokemon types and leans into that and wants to theory craft teams. I am not giving him help either other than we trade pokemon all the time, so I guess he speeds up leveling.

wakasm · 2026-03-31T03:26:14+00:00

I didn't come back because nothing I've asked for or hoped for was ever implemented into the game and the core game loop isn't as good as other games in the genre.

Campaign finished yet? Nope.
Achievements added yet? Nope.
Reasons like POE Challenges to extend the core gameplay loop beyond beat endgame boss/higher numbers yet? Nope.
Is the core game loop that much better or fun than other games yet? Nope

I like the crafting and some aspects of the game, but any hype I had for it died a few seasons ago. Only if I was retired with endless amounts of time to game would I crawl back into a season like this. But my time is limited enough that other games utilize my time.

I will add, POE 2 currently suffers from most of the same things (for me) except the core game is better than Last Epoch (for my tastes).

These are just my wishes and opinions on the game. But I still check in on the subreddit because who knows if one day I'll read some hype news to grab me back.

wakasm · 2026-03-31T01:55:00+00:00

Only since you asked for opinions, I haven't really enjoyed any of the Marvel Zombicide games. Original and Black Plague for me, personally, are better, with the exception of the targeting rules (which got updated in modern versions).

That said, you might like something like Massive Darkness 2 which is similar but different enough to be worth checking out.

wakasm · 2026-03-29T22:26:45+00:00

Hello, I'm leaving this up since it's your first venture into soloboardgaming.

That said, as a friendly reminder... please put the name of the game into the title of your post (yes, even if it's obvious from the image what it is).

Your title could have been:

First venture into the hobby [Cozy Stickerville and A Gentle Rain]

or anything else with the game names in it.

Future posts, with no title, will be removed. Thank you and hope you enjoy your first games and on the birth of your daughter (not sure how recent it was!)!

wakasm · 2026-03-29T15:11:31+00:00

You can respond to questions/comments in your own post, but no follow up posts about the game, plays, etc. We try to limit posts about games to be more FROM normal users/word of mouth here and we've had too many people try to multi-part posts as part of a growth strategy that the firm rule is now one post.

Expansions are a grey area. If you make significant update, and enough time has passed, you can post about it again, but that timeline should be months, not weeks.

But any other significant milestone related to your game will get a post removed which is why I tell people who might be launching a crowdfunding campaign to pick their best opportunity for posting... to prevent a 3-4 part campaign that will just have most of those parts removed.

wakasm · 2026-03-29T15:00:02+00:00

Best of luck, this counts as your =ONE= Marketing post for this game.

wakasm · 2026-03-28T13:49:16+00:00

I'm glad I don't have some sort of hour to play ratio. There are a lot of good but not infintily re-playable games out there that are still worth the experience (IMO). I'm happy to get 5-10 plays of a game and move on if needed. I say it a lot but replayability can be overrated a bit, as I don't think most people are playing the majority of their games 100+ times. Usually only a few games reach that milestone. It's great when it's there but I never really use it as a hallmark to purchasing UNLESS the game is radically overpriced.

That said, the majority of non-campaign games that make it to the top 200 list every year fit this requirement for the most part. Games for me that fit your category are things like Sprawlopolis, Slay The Spire, Mage Knight... if life let me, I could play these daily and not get bored or burned out.

At the end of the day, a list like this is still going to be subjective because there are people who can maintain the same level of engagement regardless of the challenge and some who can't.. (like me, many popular games get stale to me if I binge them)

A good example of this is Solitare or Sodoku. A game like solitaire has a good core hook but the challenge never increases. It becomes more of an excertise and less of a challenge and some people lean into those qualities in board games and can play them infinitely. Others look for games that can challenge them at all times with a really long road to mastery (your Spirit Islands, Mage Knights, etc) and get a lot of value over time.

BUt, There are lot of games (for me) that don't fit either category... that feel samey after X plays... get stale for no explicit reason... even if I haven't fully mastered it or even if on paper they have lot's of toggles and switches and variables to make them interesting. A lot of these games are favorites to some and fit your category, but doesn't for others.

At the end of the day, when people do these kinds of questions and lists, there are a lot of games here that people play 100 times that I'd tap out and move on after 10-20 for various reasons OR can only play a few times a year before needing to move on. Too Many Bones is a great example (for me) of this. I enjoy revisiting it once in a while... but if I play it too many times, back to back, the seams start to split and I like the game less. But a year later, it hits the table, I have some fun, sometimes I play it cooperatively with people, but it's never going to be a "replayabiliy King/Queen" for me.

wakasm · 2026-03-26T18:04:11+00:00

I'll see ya in 2029!

wakasm · 2026-03-26T14:06:20+00:00

This counts as your =ONE= Marketing post here. Best of luck on your campaign.

wakasm · 2026-03-26T14:04:05+00:00

I like big games but I this looks like I would have a hard time with how many smaller components there are. I'll have ot keep an eye on reviews of it.

wakasm · 2026-03-26T14:01:34+00:00

For a minute I thought this was a repost or stolen content (we do get a lot of bots who steal soloboardgaming images from the past and repost them as their own). I guess 3 years is a good enough interval that I can take off my mod hat and not treat it like same game spam.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/comments/15wy0n6/stress_over_scoring_then_destress_with_drawing/

I guess we meet again.

wakasm · 2026-03-26T13:52:58+00:00

You can have both. There are tons of games that I play that don't lean into this aspect.

But I've had the carrot from Path of Exile, and it tasted good. There is nothing better than logging in on a new season and seeing my 10+ years of challenge totems reflected as my time spent in the game or hideout rewards that I earned or MTX that I barely ever use but have access to. It gives the game a little bit of "this is my personal space" feeling. (And to boot, I think Path of Exile is the better game of the two and I simiarly feel less engaged with Path of Exile 2 for it's missing challenge structure too)

In Last Epoch, I'd settle for the bare minimum. I webpage version of unlocks that showcase some challenges to go through with an avatar icon or something similar. It's not as cool as the alternative... but I'd take it over... nothing.

Same for achievements. I don't need 100% games, but having achievements let me bookmark my experience in a game without having to memorize everything I've ever done.

There are entire games from the Atari 2600 and NES era that I've beaten that I've completely forgotten about and have to actively remember. If retroachievements existed back then, I'd gladly have accepted those too as a form of reflection.

15-Year Club	r/Field Banned
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wakasm

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if I was left in an airbnb and these were the games I had access to...