The Top Ten Solitaire Boardgames of All Time

Games
81

In fairness, there is this little bit in the rules:

"There are only two things that may not be done:

  1. Players may not reveal what cards they have in hand, though they may freely talk about them with other players.

  2. Players may not exchange cards or tokens with each other, unless a card specifically tells them to."

By playing this game solitaire, you’re definitely violating the first rule – one player gets absolute knowledge of all characters’ cards.

In a multiplayer game, you’re also dealing with the fact that individual players can (and likely will) die, and be booted from the game. A victory would still be shared among all hobbits (even deceased ones) but it’s human nature to try to stay in the game anyway. And regardless, you’d have to convince a potential sacrificial hobbit that it’s for the good of the group that they die. That’s part of the gameplay. An important part, I’d say. And, not for nothing, but very in keeping with the spirit and themes of the books.

In a solitaire game, there’s absolutely no obstacle to the sole player making life-or-death decisions with the cold tactics of a ruthless dictator.

I’d say that fundamentally changes the nature of this game, stripping some of its core magic, and rendering it not worth playing solo.

82

Yeah, but when you read this rule, don’t you think it’s totally nonsensical & stupid?

83

You never did say what you consider reasonable, but my Amazon UK copy of box one came today, for around £60. Definitely more than it’s advertised elsewhere, but it’s in stock and came the next day.

84

If I thought that, I would probably replace it on my Top 10 Solitaire games list with a game whose rules I didn’t consider nonsensical or stupid!

85

Look, Mr. Top Ten Cop, he explained his pick was for nostalgia and how it was an influential game for him:

You get to police anyone’s top ten list until you post your own. So get to it. We all know your #1 is Ambush, a game in which the first scenario is literally unwinnable. So pony up with the other nine already!

-Tom

86

My own top 10 of solitaire tabletop games…

1. Arkham Horror LCG Just very well executed on narrative and I honestly do really like the random number generator that isn’t dice, but instead pulling the numbers out of a bag.

2. Apocrypha Another game where I’m just a huge fan of the narrative and theme, but this time there are a bunch of interesting game mechanics going on, too! I do wish that the character progression was a little more dramatic, but with that said…I do feel like my team of Saints is advancing, even just in Candlepoint, without any enduring fragments just yet.

3. PACG: The Mummy’s Mask Of all the games that use – or were inspired by – the PACG system, this is the one that for me hits the sweetest spot of game mechanics and and satisfying character leveling.

4. Eldritch Horror Yes, yes, I know all about the sprawl of rules and new mechanics and cards and everything else. But…I can’t quit you game. At some point I decided that I absolutely enjoyed the Indiana Jonesing of the Cthulhu universe WAY more than the actual canon Cthulhu universe, and started playing this game campaign-style as a sort of open-world board game. And for me, played like that, it works. (It also helps massively to have an aftermarket EH organizer to make setting up games and even playing them go at a snappy pace.)

5. Elder Sign Yeah, shoot me: it’s another FFG sprawling Cthulhu thing. I’d played this on iPad and found it enjoyably amusing enough, then set it aside. I couldn’t imagine having an entire game system like this. And then…along comes the third ES expansion, Gates of Arkham, and everything gets way more interesting, and the almost non-existent narrative comes floating to the surface. Plus…I love chucking dice, if I’m being honest. And this game lets me chuck dice like crazy.

6. Darkest Night (2nd Ed.) This is still a fun one to dig out, set up quickly and then draw 3 or 4 random heroes and see if I can beat the big bad Necromancer with what is usually an unbalanced party of adventurers.

7. 7th Continent There are criticisms that are on the money, and fully acknowledged. With that said, so much of this game – from the way the cards interplay with one another, to the twisty narratives (that are probably only twisty the first time you see them) – I still unreservedly love. It’s essentially a solitaire, card-driven tabletop point and click adventure game. For lots of folks, that may sound horrific. For this folk, that sounds kind of awesome.

8. Robinson Crusoe (3rd Ed.) I sold my copy of RC 2nd edition at a gaming auction, having tried to play it exactly once and feeling bewildered. The 3rd edition fixes a lot of problems with the original rulebook and makes for a mechanically-driven euro thing that manages to retain a lot of the flavor of its theme. Knocked down a few spots for releasing an intriguing expansion that has conflicting, confounding, and otherwise indecipherable rules.

9. Nemo’s War (2nd Ed.) Love the theme. Love, love, love the theme. In fact, I’d say that 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is an IP that’s been begging for some great games, and here it got a pretty good one. If there’s a knock I have on it, it’s that what I wanted to be a big part of the gameplay – ship-to-Nautilus combat – is barely part of the gameplay at all. Assess modifiers, roll a d6, ship sinks or it doesn’t. To be fair, the game systems do their thing and are part of a taut design that was never meant to incorporate that.

10. Mansions of Madness (2nd ed.) The idea of an app-driven boardgame is phenomenally attractive to me: You could, conceivably use a tiles and cards and dice system refereed by an app to do some incredible things. Unfortunately, for now I think this system is better at concept than execution, but I’ve still been engaged by this system in this limited scope.

87

I’m loving all the love for the PACG system here. It’s one of my favorites.

If anyone is interested in running through the new PACG it’s on TTS officially and I would be up to do a mulitple session campaign of it.

88

Andon, if we’re not already friends on Steam, add me: “triggercut1”. Would love to give it a go, as I’ve only ever played the PACG system solo, and am multiplayer curious. :)

89

I’ve not spent very much time with 7th Continent yet, compared to the scope of the many Curses I own for it, but every time I wander over to my set up table, just intending to maybe take a turn or two, I end up sucked in longer than I ever planned. It’s such a fascinating design. I think I’d describe it more as a sprawling, multiple narrative shared gamebook world? (Kind of like what Fabled Lands was trying to do.) Except with more actual mechanics than most gamebooks, and yet probably less story. It’s the sort of thing that I don’t think would really hold up very well if played for the things most boardgames are played for, and I’m not sure it would much benefit from being played multiplayer (I say this as someone who almost always prefers to play boardgames with other people if supported). But the experience of exploring and learning this strange land is…really like nothing else in boardgaming. It’s super cool.

(Tainted Grail checks some related boxes, but now that I’ve had more time with 7th Continent than just the tutorial island, I think they actually feel quite different and are going after different things.)

90

At the risk of falling into “This is a great take!” for a take I fully agree with, I’ll just say that this is very well-said and expresses what I really love about 7C. The way the design just interlocks with itself is just neat. And yeah, it’s probably a little narrative light to be a full-blown CYOA style thing, but it makes up with it by having more mechanically going on than you’d maybe first suspect.

I cannot imagine having a satisfying multiplayer experience with this design, however.

91

The only way other than solo is with an equally enthusiastic second player who is into the game play as well.

Otherwise, solo only.

92

Yeah, I was thinking that if you were playing a new curse with someone who was completely enthusiastic about the design, you could sort of do it with one person who was, essentially “playing” the point-and-click adventure, while the other person suggested, tried to solve stuff, and/or backseat-drove. That might work.

93

My review of Apocrypha so far: 10/10 would sleeve again.

94

I’ll add my name to the list, if you need a third. I’m told the new version fixes quite a bit and I’m finding Apocrypha quite a bit of fun despite some initial misgivings.

I’m messing around with TTS mod as we speak, and it’s pretty damn slick once you figure out what they mean by “Card Sorter”.

95

Sweet, another list! C’mon, @justaguy2, get in here with us!

Those coin protectors really do a number on the literal tactile feel of the game, too. I’m so glad you posted about those (I’m 99% sure it was you).

I’ve been keeping up with all the sets out of a sense of OCD, but like @hassanlopez mentioned with Lord of the Rings being about the deck-building, I feel like the game has run away from me at this point. The prospect of sitting down to build a deck just seems to daunting, and I’m sure as hell not going to play someone else’s deck. I know a lot of folks are okay with that – finding a deck online rather than building one themselves – but that just strikes me as so antithetical to what deck-builders are about.

Wait, you can’t put this and Apocrypha on your list! Can you? Is this allowed? But, yeah, Mummy’s Mask is really cool and I would be inclined to finish playing it before moving on to the rebooted Pathfinder (which I have here, patiently waiting). I just love the setting, and I especially love the maturity and refinement of the Pathfinder design by the time it gets to Mummy’s Mask.

It’s astonishing what a difference Gates of Arkham makes.

I had this out the other day while I was arranging a bunch of solitaire games and was aghast to discover the rules book is NOT in the box! Where are my Endless Night Second Edition rules? Who took them? How can I get them back? A copy of a boardgame is nothing without its rules!

(I guess I could just print out a PDF? That seems so ghetto, though…)

I think I respect 7th Continent more than I actually like it. I love that after all these years of boardgaming, it feels like something completely new, completely different, without precedent. The sense of persistence in the geography and how you learn it is such a brilliant idea.

God, I hate Tainted Grail. It’s such a clusterfuck in terms of pacing, progression, style, execution. I sometimes watch videos by a pleasant Dutch (?) fellow named Niramas and I’ve been having a laugh at the poor guy’s expense as he fumbles his way through Tainted Grail here:

It’s such a perfect expression of how awful that game is. I’m really down on Awaken Realms after Tainted Grail and Lords of Hellas. I need to get on the Nemesis train to see if it improves my opinion of them.

I’ve come around on this a bit after 3rd edition as well. It also helps to understand that some (many? all?) of the scenarios are puzzles to be solved rather than the dynamic survival game I was looking for.

And, yeah, that supernatural expansion? Ugh, what were they thinking?

Welp, you had a great list going there, Hornbostel, until you went and put an app-driven turd on top of it. :)

-Tom

96

Working on a top 10, but has anyone played Assault on Doomrock, It’s easily in my top 5.

@charmtrap friend me on steam if not “Andon” and we’ll get something going.

97

OoooooOOOOoOoOoOOOOOOoooh!

I’m so glad someone else has played that! How about combat system, right? Do you have the Apocalypse expansion? Because it makes a huge difference.

-Tom

98

@tomchick Very much yes. The Terrain and gameplay moving around them really adds and amazing depth on how to complete a boss battle.

99

If you are “Andondn”, we’re already Steam friends.

100

I hope it works for you. Be warned it’s a bit of a pain to put the cow stickers on the cow meeples, but as you’ll see, it’s well worth it.

And a big “yes!” on Legends of Andor. I know some folks don’t like how puzzly it it with monster combat, but that element gives it so much of its unique identity. It’s a real “thinky” overland fantasy party-based RPG strategy game instead of just a “roll and move and hack and slash” adventure. I hope you enjoy it.

-Tom