The Bloody Inn sets up pretty quickly and has a solo option, though it is just scoring against a table at the end. I still enjoy it.
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I really like Bandido and Tranquility both very quick and in Tranquility case with great artwork,
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I’ll throw out a couple relatively quick single-player-only games that I’m a fan of:
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Under Falling Skies is probably my favourite single player game. The setup is pretty straight forward (put out an arrangement of sky, city, and base tiles, grab dice and plastic spaceships, and you’re off), but the campaign mode is really well done. The decision-tree is also really neat, addition some depth and variety to what basically is a simple dice rolling game. Plus, when you lose? 100% not your fault, you just rolled badly. Nice to tell yourself lies like this sometimes…
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Warp’s Edge is a top contender. I wanted it to be better, but what it is is still pretty good… no narrative whatsoever (the “comic book” is actively horrible and makes the game much worse), but the decisions are meaningful and the mechanics are really solid. A game where better play will result in a win and loose play will result in a loss. It’s really good… but very pretty, and a lot of variety and depth baked right in.
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Astra Titanus is solid, although it is pushing your length up a bit (I recall my games taking about 30 minutes, but that could be because I was getting my teeth kicked in). Tiny bit of narrative, but a really interesting “needs of the many” kinda game where a perfect victory is almost impossible, but a layered approach to sacrifices (and when to sacrifice, and what to sacrifice) is really deep and interesting. Plus, the semi-intelligent way that the Titan operates keeps the game interesting and fresh.
Right, other than those, I usually recommend roll n’ writes (I think Super Skill Pinball is particular good as a single player game in meatspace, but I have played hundreds of games of Railroad Ink solo through the very well done app) since setup and teardown is super quick.
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I would second Village Green. It’s a lovely little puzzle and very quick. Floriferous may not be the crunchiest solo experience, but it’s quick, visually appealing, and has some fun decisions. If you’re more in the mood for something narrative/adventure Escape the Dark Sector is always satisfying for me, and it comes in around 30 minutes (maybe a bit longer at times).
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I second Under Falling Skyes, and add one that just needs a little bit of printing, Bargain basement bathysphere
I don’t think I have played it solo yet. I might give it a try.
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Fleet: The Dice Game is my go-to for a quick solitaire game right now. Unusual for a roll and write, it offers not-inconsequential player interaction in its base form, and as a result it actually has a dedicated solitaire mode. It works as a foil against your scoring potential, which adds some much-needed dynamics into the solo experience.
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I tried Loco Momo on BGA and it’s totally worth a try. A very nice puzzle in which you try to take a picture of the animals living in the forest.
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I’d recommend Skulls of Sedlec and Food Chain Island from the wallet game series, too. Regicide is also an easy recommendation, if you’ve not yet played that yet.
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I forgot to mention imperial Settlers: Empires of the North. Solo for that is nice and crunchy, short, and it has several different scenarios that create a ton of replayability with the 6 different decks.
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Let me add Mini Rogue as a suggestion if there’s any reason to keep this thread rolling? I’ve been enjoying it over my morning coffee quite a bit. The first game can run long as you grapple with the (considerable, but very good) iconography, but subsequent plays have all been around 30-40 minutes. It’s a light attrition puzzle, really, but has a fun arc reminiscent of the app Reigns.
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I’ll second Mini Rogue and if that’s not a enough fantasy I’ll add Set a Watch. It’s probably going take a longer, especially on your first plays but it’s a simple and fun fantasy game that works well solo. I’d also recommend Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin over the original too.
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Please, keep it rolling. Any time you encounter a new (or old) quick solo game you enjoy, update the thread!
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Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! is a nice little solo experience if you include the Poison and Centurions expansions.
Dimension is a spatial puzzle that you could easily play a few quick rounds of, for however long you choose.
Elevenses for One is probably the quickest micro-game in my collection. It’s pretty simple, but also doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s also super-portable, making it one of my go-to options for something to while away a few minutes away from home.
Letter Press claims 20 minutes. I need to try this again… it was a flop for me as a two-player game (the rules punish the loser of each round, making them more likely to keep losing), but I recall wanting to give the solitaire mode another try.
Maquis and Black Sonata claim 30 minute playing times.
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I did pick up Blitzkreig!, Black Sonata and Maquis and all featured in this recent challenge.
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Also worth a mention here is solo Cribbage. Especially if you already know the regular game.
For the 4x4 grid game, I like to shuffle up the deck and then play three games in a row (17 cards x 3 = 51). I had a good session the other week where I came close to winning all three games (I won the first two, and got within about 10 points of victory in the final game).
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(Edit: contrary to the box art, the official title is a single word: Letterpress.)
I’ve now had a couple of games, and I think I understand why I’d lacked any firm opinion on the solo mode – it’s going to take a bunch more plays to get to grips with it enough to feel comfortable rating it! I think it could be rather good – a solo word game involving actual strategies – but I don’t have enough experience to say how well it really works.
Whether single- or multi-player, Letterpress has you building up a “collection” of cards over the course of the first four rounds (always working with 2 communal letters and a hand of 5 drafted letters to create a word, and then adding one or more cards to your collection based on how good your word is); but the actual result of the game rests entirely on the fifth round, which has you making the best word you can from the cards in your collection. With multiple players, after playing their words, each player takes 1-2 cards for their collection from any word played that round, with the player who played the best word getting both priority and an extra card; and then the winner is the player who makes the best word in the final round. The solo game is rather more complicated and harder to get a handle on…
In the solo game, cards go either to your collection or to the “library”, the latter of which accumulates all cards which weren’t used to make a word in rounds 1-4 (so short words cause the library to become bigger, faster). Then at the end of every round you select one card to be removed from the library and either added to your collection (if your word that round was good enough), or discarded from the game (if your word didn’t reach the threshold score). Each individual card is worth a varying amount based on its letter, so when you remove a card you’re not only choosing a letter, but also choosing the remaining value of the library – which is important because you win the game if your 5th-round word is more valuable than the library. You might just try to remove all the highest value cards from the library to minimise the target score; but OTOH the cheaper letters are likely to be easier to use. You also add cards into your collection in rounds 2,3,4 by comparing your new word with the word from the previous round, and taking letters from that previous word (based on a process that I won’t attempt to explain here). These interactions with the library and with your own previous words feel interesting and strategic, with your choices in each round having potential flow-on effects; but I’d need to play a heap more to decide whether that feeling lasts in the longer term, or if there’s simply a single strategy which it always makes best sense to pursue.
One slightly negative point for the solo mode is that it doesn’t involve any of the “challenge” cards that you use in the multi-player game. This is partly understandable as some of the challenges are with respect to words made by other players; but only 4 of the 18 challenges require other players, and it just seems like a shame that you don’t get to attempt these challenges in the solo game. That feels ripe for some house-ruling.
All in all I think it’s interesting, and it 100% fits the time criteria for this thread. I intend to play it some more, and figure out whether I want to put it into regular rotation.
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“HandSolo” must be a euphemism, surely?
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It’s probably one to avoid in casual conversation, at any rate :)
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Well Letterpress is pretty good. You can just wing it – and always trying to make the longest words possible should give you a decent shot – but with some more experience under my belt, it’s startled me how much of a brain-burner it becomes if you really try to plan for the final round throughout the game…
Looking at your current Collection, you can always try to establish what final word you might be aiming for; which letters you’ll still need to get in order to make it; whether the library has any of those letters; whether your previous word has any of those letters; whether the cards you are in the process of drafting for your next word have any of those letters; and then you need to try to figure out how to proceed in order to give you the best chance of getting the letters you need from wherever they are at the time. Your collection is empty to begin with, so “anything is possible” at the start, but you’ll likely find yourself with some specific desired letters as the rounds progress.
When drafting cards, you firstly deal 5 cards and pick 1, then deal 4 and pick 1, etc, with no choice for the final card. (I deal myself five face-down piles containing 5,4,3,2,1 cards respectively, and then reveal and choose from one pile at a time.) So every turn there are a total of 15 letters for which you are pondering not only their potential use in this round’s word, but also how that letter would affect your options for a final-round word; and if you do want that letter for the final round, do you want to use it in your current word, or is it better to draft it but not use it and try to get it out of the Library in a subsequent turn? Either way there are risks of not being able to get it into your Collection at all, and higher-value cards especially might be harder to get back if you play them in a word. There’s also the persistent question of whether to draft high-value letters in the first place… on the one hand you want to make high-value words, but on the other hand you don’t want too many high-value letters getting into the Library, so you might be trying to balance that at the same time.
Unless you have a great word in the bag early, you rarely have much certainty about anything, so you’re always adapting to the cards you’re drawing. And again, you can wing it the whole way and just see what you end up with, and I’ve won several games just doing that (luck is very much a factor in a game like this); so burning your brain to maximise your success rate is really an opt-in experience :)
If you’re a solo gamer and love word games and also puzzles, I’d suggest taking a look at Letterpress.
Best result to date: Final word = 20; Library = 7. (Or final word = 24 if we allow “unfrisky” which, as I’m playing solo, I definitely allowed ;) 20 isn’t unusually high, but 7 is very low. I was also pretty pleased on the turn when I managed to put down “bunkers” from the 2 start cards + 5 drafted cards, meaning that the Library got one card smaller that round!
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