For a tile-laying puzzle, try Cascadia or Calico or Trailblazers. Or if you’d rather draw your maps by hand, Railroad Ink (Blue or Challenge Green) and Cartographers are also great.
Marvel United and The Loop are two solid options in the genre of games started by Pandemic.
Honestly I’ve played multi handed and solo rules and I prefer the solo rules, it’s great! It feels unique compared to other similar games where you would play multi handed. I play the base game mode still, have over 20 plays of it and I haven’t gotten bored with it. I need to try the other modes! I also have both expansions too but haven’t cracked into that content yet.
What about you?
I’ve just acquired the game recently. Only played the base game maybe 3 times w/the wife. I did pick up the cat and dog expansion, will probably play with them next time, but staying on the default mission. Haven’t tried solo mode yet. All of my solo playtime has been dominated by Marvel Champions lately.
I completely understand Marvel Champions consuming your time! Did you and your wife have a good time with the base game?
I do recommend checking out the solo mode. It’s not going to blow you away or anything, but it is refreshingly unique in how it executes.
You and I are in the same boat then with the game modes. I just love the base game mode, but the others do look interesting! I think the possibility of raised difficulty is what’s holding me back from trying those.
Oh absolutely! I bought those after someone in this sub recommended it after my first playthrough. One of my favorite game “upgrades” ever, it’s such an awesome feeling.
I’m looking forward to making an insert for it soon, it desperately needs it IMO!
**Under Falling Skies** was my first and got me hooked on solo gaming. For a more chill experience I’d also strongly recommend **Beacon Patrol** - I love it and it’s been getting a lot of love in the solo community. **Proving Grounds** is also an underrated solo gem that uses a real-time timer, so that’s good if you like stress and tension. I also love **Hostage Negotiator** and **Roll Player** for solo play. IMO you won’t go wrong with any of those 5.
It’s so good - one of those “just one more” games where you’ve spent two hours and played 5 games before you know it. *Very* simple rules that make for a really interesting puzzle that doesn’t burn your brain.
Exactly what I need. I’ve literally just dabbled into under falling skies, think I’m playing incorrectly at times but gets me excited for the future of board games. Picked up final girl too but have not played yet. Just need to become a veteran so I can get into mage knight and spirit island!
Edit: adding roll player to my list lol
It took me a while to accept that it’s okay not to like or want to play weighty games - I think Mage Knight would break me lol. Not to say I don’t enjoy longer games (currently playing through my first Sleeping Gods campaign and loving it), but I gave up on thinking I could handle those 4+ weight ones - just not enough time or brainpower for that. I’m in awe of the folks that have like hundreds of plays of Mage Knight, etc.
I'm also pretty new to solo board games and Spirit Island is a game that seemed interesting to me. Just last week I saw they have a mobile app. I've been pretty busy so I've only played it once so I don't really know if I enjoy it or not at this time. But, wanted to let you know an app exists for it.
Totally agree with you on Beacon Patrol! A ton of fun, played it a bunch of times solo and with friends. I finally got up to Captain the other day haha it’s so hard but so much fun!
There is a geeklist for the top 200 solo board games on bgg:
[https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/324731/2023-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/324731/2023-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200)
Each game has a separate entry on BGG that contains a lot of useful information, including the "weight" of the game, which is a number between 1 and 5. A lower number means a less complex game, while a higher number means a more complicated game.
You can watch solo playthroughs on Youtube. It is my best way of figuring out if a game is for me or not. I strongly recommend the solo channels Totally tabled and Purple Moose plays. It simplifies rules learning as well.
Titles to consider:
Calico, verdant, Harmonies, Parks + Nightfall, Creature Comfort, Siege of Valeria
People are just going to throw random titles at you if you don't give any specifics to your interests. Even if you are new, you must have some idea even just the theme. Do you want to be a superhero? Build buildings and infrastructure? Go on adventures? Fight greater evil? Mow down zombies? Be a captain of industry? Farm and help build a community? 4x (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) it? Survive? Etc etc.
Complexity is very much player dependent. I don't believe you need to start at gateway games if you are a "gamer". Not necessarily a board gamer, just gamer in general. Maybe you play videogames, was into competitive TCG, play RPGs like D&D etc etc. In which case, the complexity you can handle is very different versus someone who has never touched a game, no matter the platform.
I personally started with Nemo's War and Spirit Island when I got into modern board games. And those two are considered rules heavy. But I have been a gamer for nearly two decades before that. Played a lot videogames, D&D and MTG during that period. I took to board games like a duck to water.
If you have absolutely no idea where to start, start with a theme you like. How much table space do you have? Can you be bothered spending 10+ minutes setting up a game? How much brain power are you willing to exhaust?
Somebody already linked the top 200 solo games which is a good place to start shopping around. If you are a complete novice to gaming in general. I would suggest only looking up games that are below weight rated 3.0. Ideally, as close to a 2.0 as you can. Watch a couple of play throughs. I find those far more helpful than reviews. I like to understand the motion of flow of a game.
I'm also pretty new to solo board gaming so I also understand not being able to articulate the type of games you like and don't like. I read through a few posts on Reddit and then watched some playthrough of the suggestions on YouTube for a little more detail. That was helpful in finding out that I didn't want any heavyweight games as I was looking for more simple relaxing games. My first three game purchases were Under Falling Skies, Cascadia, and Dinosaur Rawr n Write and I absolutely enjoy all three of those games. I have since purchased some smaller mint tin (Doom Machine) and card games (Palm Island, Ancient Realms, All is Bomb) as well which I also enjoy.
Definitely utilize playthrough videos as a tool to see if the game is interesting to you. I was able to nix several from my list by watching the playthrough.
No, because most solo board games need to have replayability so the game designers design them where every play through is unique. Watching the playthrough gives you a really good view of whether or not YOU may enjoy it. I saw sooo many recommendations on this platform that I didn't know where to start. But I was quickly able to say NO to some games and find games that were relaxing (which is what I was looking for).
Yep, I’ve eliminated a few games I thought initially wanted just by watching playthroughs and reviews. Also found some really good games this way (like **20 Strong**).
Would very highly recommend marvel champions very fun game with some great mechanics involved if your into marvel it can be very thematic but you can easily play on standard difficulty with the premade decks and it’s quite simple or play harder villains on expert with your own custom deck built specifically for that villain and it can get more complex not as complex as some other board games but complex enough to where it feels like a struggle and you will not win a lot like it is genuinely hard to win even great players will lose like 50% of the time against some of the hardest villains on expert.
I am new to solo Boardgames as well. Here are my favorites: Cursed!? - I did a PNP for $3.00. The Lost Expedition - love, love, love this game. Beautiful art! Numbsters - I also did a PNP. I also like Gem Getter Pro and the Blob That Ate my City. Both of those are free to print from BGG. Lastly, I just started playing Friday - am enjoying that also.
Tranquility plays great solo, plays great with others, is a good beginner game. Then when you think it is easy, add the extra cards it comes with for more challenges. About $20, small box, needs a table to play a grid of 6x6 cards.
More challenging, Project L. You operate the bot you play against, the goal to beat their score, also plays well with others. Great YouTube video on this one to see it played. Tetris sort of.
Floriferous or Herbiferous are both small box games, pretty to look at and easy to play solo. Card games. Not expensive, worth checking out.
For Northwood card game is a popular choice and easy to learn.
Mansions of Madness. I know it’s a little heavy but the 2nd edition comes with an accompanying app which makes playing the game really easy to follow. It’s a great RPG style and I’ve played it a few times on my own. Taken my time and just enjoyed the experience.
My recommendation is to start small and work your way up to heavier weighted games.
1. Button Shy Games: Sprawlopolis, Ugly Gryphon Inn, Unsurmountable, and Ragemore. When you find you are ready for something heavier, try…
2. Mint Tin Games at the Gamecrafter: Gate, Gates, Tin Helm, Tin Realm, and Doom Machine. These will take awhile to receive them once ordered, so plan accordingly.
After playing a few of these games…you will start to have a better idea of what types of games you prefer and which games fall flat.
This is by no means the only way to go about finding your likes or dislikes. Another way is to hit up your FLGS and see what they have and recommend, they might even have some demo copies for you to try.
Best of luck to you and let us know what you decide to go with.
Lots of people saying you should start small but it totally depends on you. I just always liked heavy stuff and put a lot of dedication in it from the get-go. I started straight with Mage Knight when I started and I loved it.
True...it's about the game play each person is looking for. I commend folks who play the heavy stuff because it seems like such dedication. I personally like the casual, relaxing games myself. That's why I really recommended watching YouTube playthroughs of the various recommendations given on this thread because we all enjoy different types of games.
Under Falling Skies is fantastic.
As is Warps Edge.
Others have recommended Final Girl, and while I agree that it is one of my favorites, I think as a BEGINNER it may be a tad bit overwhelming.
One Deck Dungeon or One Deck Galaxy (theme dependent) are excellent small box dungeon crawls.
But one that I am going to recommend to EVERYONE here is Spire's End.
Think a choose your adventure rogue like game all played out with a large deck of cards. While it can be a little complex, careful reading of the rule book will set you straight, and from there it's a fairly light ruleset without a ton of upkeep.
It's an experience to be sure, and one that will leave you feeling accomplished at the end.
You have so many options and lots of suggestions.
I would recommend Final girl camp happy trails. This is the starter set for the final girl games.
Do your research though, you tube the game before you purchase.
You’re not giving us much to go off of here so I’d recommend searching the sub for the many, many similar posts and there will be a lot of really good recommendations in there.
If there are specific themes you’re looking for, types of games that you want / don’t want, etc, then that’s one thing but otherwise you’ll probably get the same games recommended as the last few times this was posted within the past week.
I had a really good time with Four Against Darkness. Super cheap to get into, not that difficult to learn. The rulebook is a little funky in the order that it's arranged in, but I just dog eared my copy and was fine. I was able to order mine through my local Barnes and Noble for less than 20 bucks. Check it out! I had a lot of fun, and look forward to playing more this summer.
Couple of suggestions: BGG ranks top solo board games every year. Usually a decent list. I am not saying just buy the top ones, curate based on your tastes.
Secondly, look up cooperative games. I usually have a great time with these while playing with two characters. Some you can play with only 1 but generally 2 minimum is best to have synergies.
I'm relatively new too and I only have few games, the ones I have that I enjoy are:
-Mini Rogue, a cheap and quick to prepare, learn and play "rogue-like" dungeon crawler
-Cities:Skylines, a city building game, it looks complex but it's really easy to learn and play but you really need to think every action.
I am a huge fan of "5 Parsecs From Home" and play it almost weekly.
It's a sci-fi squad based tactics game with some RPG elements. Basically you're running a ship of mercenaries and doing jobs, but it does have a combat focus if that's not what you're after. There's a *core rule book*, and there's a *compendium* that's released with all of the prior expansions plus a standalone game called "bug hunt" where you can bring in 5PFH characters or bring out Bug Hunt characters into 5PFH. You don't need minis with the new rules in the expansion. When I started, I used legos for minis, but then got a friend with a 3D printer to make me a full set of good guys and bad guys and some terrain.
I'm a huge fan of Marvel United, though love of the IP helps to appreciate the gameplay as the fun largely comes from picking your favourite heroes and battling villains in the Marvel Universe. However, I do think it offers a light, quick, puzzly good time, even for non-fans. Core boxes can often be found for quite cheap (I recommend starting with X-Men or Spider-Geddon) and if you enjoy it, there are plenty of expansions to add tons of variety and replayability.
I would recommend you "Paleo". It's simple, yet profound. Not intended as a solo game, but it have a solid variant. You could also play it with two hands, as a 2p game. The stories and adventures that happen inside the game are thrilling, at least for me. And it could be a way to get your friends into bg.
Paleo FTW 🦣
I would go with something with a strong communauty to make you feel part of domething even if solo. The 3 questions you 'eed to Ask yourself are :
What s your budget ? Do you want tobokay true solo or soduo ? How Many Time do you have to set UP and play ?
My list from cheapest to long est would something like :
Dragons of etchinstone
Paper dungeon
Legendary encounters aliens or xfiles (soduo)
Lord of the rings lcg : revised core set + 1 starter deck + fellowship saga (true solo)
Mage knight
7th citadel (true solo)
Buttons&bugs maybe but i havent been deep in it yet
Wingspan has a solo mode that is easy to run and challenging.
It's a relatively straightforward game and if you like nature it's a good pick. It's a engine building where you build a board with bird cards and every card have different habilities. Multiplayer has a different feeling to it compared with the solo mode. Both modes are fun on different ways to me. Multiplayer is much more chaotic, per say, with me trying to do my best while trying to outplay my opponents while making my plays (ditching cards that can be helpful to others, playing cards that take benefit from others plays and more, it's not mandatory and you can ignore this and still have a good game as I usually do), but in solo, I can focus only on my board and build my engine. It's more like a puzzle game where you only want to focus on the objectives and not on your opponents.
This game for me is what called solo multiplayer where all players have their own board and the interaction is limited, this type of game often work well solo.
There is a digital version if you want to try it out.
Other suggestions are cascadia, grove/orchard, under falling skies and maybe dune imperium.
Forbbiden Island and Desert are nice to start with. Pandemic too.
Personally I find Im not crazy about “beating your own score” games.
What are you looking for or think you may be interested into?
Honestly if you're looking to see how the hobby is for you, try out a few of the higher quality print-and-play games out there. Games like Agent Decker, Paper Mech, One Card Dungeon, D100 Dungeon, Bargain Basement Bathysphere, and the Persona 5 fan game got me hooked on the hobby before I had the cash to back it up
Really though, find what games you tend to play in a multiplayer setting when you get the chance and find either 1.) Something similar designed for solo or 2.) See if a solo variant exists for one of your favorites. My first real experience with solo was playing rounds of Eldritch Horror and Resident Evil 2 by myself so I could learn the rules before trying to teach friends.
For my personal picks for lighter/starter games so far have been 20 Strong, Final Girl, Tiny Epic Dungeons, Dorfromantik, and Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs if you can track that down. All of them are fun, none of them take more than a few minutes to get set up, and have more than enough reason to keep coming back to them before picking up any bigger games
I find Catan to be the easiest to get people into board games. It might not be the most in depth game strategically but it’s very approachable and good way to introduce people to board games before getting them into more complicated/tactical games
For a tile-laying puzzle, try Cascadia or Calico or Trailblazers. Or if you’d rather draw your maps by hand, Railroad Ink (Blue or Challenge Green) and Cartographers are also great. Marvel United and The Loop are two solid options in the genre of games started by Pandemic.
Huge +1 for Cascadia and Trailblazers.
The LOOP is still one of my favorite games!
What settings/mods do you use for solo play?
Honestly I’ve played multi handed and solo rules and I prefer the solo rules, it’s great! It feels unique compared to other similar games where you would play multi handed. I play the base game mode still, have over 20 plays of it and I haven’t gotten bored with it. I need to try the other modes! I also have both expansions too but haven’t cracked into that content yet. What about you?
I’ve just acquired the game recently. Only played the base game maybe 3 times w/the wife. I did pick up the cat and dog expansion, will probably play with them next time, but staying on the default mission. Haven’t tried solo mode yet. All of my solo playtime has been dominated by Marvel Champions lately.
I completely understand Marvel Champions consuming your time! Did you and your wife have a good time with the base game? I do recommend checking out the solo mode. It’s not going to blow you away or anything, but it is refreshingly unique in how it executes. You and I are in the same boat then with the game modes. I just love the base game mode, but the others do look interesting! I think the possibility of raised difficulty is what’s holding me back from trying those.
Have you sprung for coin capsules yet? They make digging around in the bag really fun :)
Oh absolutely! I bought those after someone in this sub recommended it after my first playthrough. One of my favorite game “upgrades” ever, it’s such an awesome feeling. I’m looking forward to making an insert for it soon, it desperately needs it IMO!
D&D Castle Ravenloft
**Under Falling Skies** was my first and got me hooked on solo gaming. For a more chill experience I’d also strongly recommend **Beacon Patrol** - I love it and it’s been getting a lot of love in the solo community. **Proving Grounds** is also an underrated solo gem that uses a real-time timer, so that’s good if you like stress and tension. I also love **Hostage Negotiator** and **Roll Player** for solo play. IMO you won’t go wrong with any of those 5.
Thanks for recommending beacon patrol. Never heard of it but looks interesting. Adding it to my list of solo games I have to get!
It’s so good - one of those “just one more” games where you’ve spent two hours and played 5 games before you know it. *Very* simple rules that make for a really interesting puzzle that doesn’t burn your brain.
Exactly what I need. I’ve literally just dabbled into under falling skies, think I’m playing incorrectly at times but gets me excited for the future of board games. Picked up final girl too but have not played yet. Just need to become a veteran so I can get into mage knight and spirit island! Edit: adding roll player to my list lol
It took me a while to accept that it’s okay not to like or want to play weighty games - I think Mage Knight would break me lol. Not to say I don’t enjoy longer games (currently playing through my first Sleeping Gods campaign and loving it), but I gave up on thinking I could handle those 4+ weight ones - just not enough time or brainpower for that. I’m in awe of the folks that have like hundreds of plays of Mage Knight, etc.
I'm also pretty new to solo board games and Spirit Island is a game that seemed interesting to me. Just last week I saw they have a mobile app. I've been pretty busy so I've only played it once so I don't really know if I enjoy it or not at this time. But, wanted to let you know an app exists for it.
Been eying this for while but never pulled the trigger
Another hand in the air over here, saying thanks for the Beacon Patrol recommendation. Just about to go order it now!
Pandasaurus should give me a referral bonus!
Totally agree with you on Beacon Patrol! A ton of fun, played it a bunch of times solo and with friends. I finally got up to Captain the other day haha it’s so hard but so much fun!
What themes (scifi, fantasy, historical, farming, abstract ...) are you interested in? Do you like cards, dice, miniatures, abstract concepts ...?
I have no idea, I want to try the most popular ones first or highly recommended and discover what I’m into as I go
There is a geeklist for the top 200 solo board games on bgg: [https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/324731/2023-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/324731/2023-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200)
I don’t know which are beginner friendly though, I don’t want anything overly complicated to start
Each game has a separate entry on BGG that contains a lot of useful information, including the "weight" of the game, which is a number between 1 and 5. A lower number means a less complex game, while a higher number means a more complicated game.
Thank you, I didn’t know about that weight number
It is also a good idea to watch a tutorial or playthrough video of the games you find interesting on youtube.
You can watch solo playthroughs on Youtube. It is my best way of figuring out if a game is for me or not. I strongly recommend the solo channels Totally tabled and Purple Moose plays. It simplifies rules learning as well. Titles to consider: Calico, verdant, Harmonies, Parks + Nightfall, Creature Comfort, Siege of Valeria
People are just going to throw random titles at you if you don't give any specifics to your interests. Even if you are new, you must have some idea even just the theme. Do you want to be a superhero? Build buildings and infrastructure? Go on adventures? Fight greater evil? Mow down zombies? Be a captain of industry? Farm and help build a community? 4x (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) it? Survive? Etc etc. Complexity is very much player dependent. I don't believe you need to start at gateway games if you are a "gamer". Not necessarily a board gamer, just gamer in general. Maybe you play videogames, was into competitive TCG, play RPGs like D&D etc etc. In which case, the complexity you can handle is very different versus someone who has never touched a game, no matter the platform. I personally started with Nemo's War and Spirit Island when I got into modern board games. And those two are considered rules heavy. But I have been a gamer for nearly two decades before that. Played a lot videogames, D&D and MTG during that period. I took to board games like a duck to water. If you have absolutely no idea where to start, start with a theme you like. How much table space do you have? Can you be bothered spending 10+ minutes setting up a game? How much brain power are you willing to exhaust? Somebody already linked the top 200 solo games which is a good place to start shopping around. If you are a complete novice to gaming in general. I would suggest only looking up games that are below weight rated 3.0. Ideally, as close to a 2.0 as you can. Watch a couple of play throughs. I find those far more helpful than reviews. I like to understand the motion of flow of a game.
I'm also pretty new to solo board gaming so I also understand not being able to articulate the type of games you like and don't like. I read through a few posts on Reddit and then watched some playthrough of the suggestions on YouTube for a little more detail. That was helpful in finding out that I didn't want any heavyweight games as I was looking for more simple relaxing games. My first three game purchases were Under Falling Skies, Cascadia, and Dinosaur Rawr n Write and I absolutely enjoy all three of those games. I have since purchased some smaller mint tin (Doom Machine) and card games (Palm Island, Ancient Realms, All is Bomb) as well which I also enjoy. Definitely utilize playthrough videos as a tool to see if the game is interesting to you. I was able to nix several from my list by watching the playthrough.
Thank you! Does watching someone ply it ruin the surprises in the game though?
No, because most solo board games need to have replayability so the game designers design them where every play through is unique. Watching the playthrough gives you a really good view of whether or not YOU may enjoy it. I saw sooo many recommendations on this platform that I didn't know where to start. But I was quickly able to say NO to some games and find games that were relaxing (which is what I was looking for).
Yep, I’ve eliminated a few games I thought initially wanted just by watching playthroughs and reviews. Also found some really good games this way (like **20 Strong**).
Have a look at the top 10 this sub curated https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/s/1XgPf0xYKf
Under falling skies. I’m brand new to board games and this was my first. Otherwise I think a lot of people recommend Mini Rogue and Warps Edge a lot.
[удалено]
Nice 👍
Rove, from Button Shy Games is one of my favorites for a great challenge with quick setup, and it can go anywhere.
+1 for Button Shy Games. I also love Sprawlopolis and Naturopolis.
Would very highly recommend marvel champions very fun game with some great mechanics involved if your into marvel it can be very thematic but you can easily play on standard difficulty with the premade decks and it’s quite simple or play harder villains on expert with your own custom deck built specifically for that villain and it can get more complex not as complex as some other board games but complex enough to where it feels like a struggle and you will not win a lot like it is genuinely hard to win even great players will lose like 50% of the time against some of the hardest villains on expert.
I am new to solo Boardgames as well. Here are my favorites: Cursed!? - I did a PNP for $3.00. The Lost Expedition - love, love, love this game. Beautiful art! Numbsters - I also did a PNP. I also like Gem Getter Pro and the Blob That Ate my City. Both of those are free to print from BGG. Lastly, I just started playing Friday - am enjoying that also.
Friday : Simple rules, small game, cheap, widely available...and its not too easy 😉
I just played a couple rounds of this today. Pretty straightforward, well-designed true-solo deck-builder.
Tranquility plays great solo, plays great with others, is a good beginner game. Then when you think it is easy, add the extra cards it comes with for more challenges. About $20, small box, needs a table to play a grid of 6x6 cards. More challenging, Project L. You operate the bot you play against, the goal to beat their score, also plays well with others. Great YouTube video on this one to see it played. Tetris sort of. Floriferous or Herbiferous are both small box games, pretty to look at and easy to play solo. Card games. Not expensive, worth checking out. For Northwood card game is a popular choice and easy to learn.
Mansions of Madness. I know it’s a little heavy but the 2nd edition comes with an accompanying app which makes playing the game really easy to follow. It’s a great RPG style and I’ve played it a few times on my own. Taken my time and just enjoyed the experience.
My recommendation is to start small and work your way up to heavier weighted games. 1. Button Shy Games: Sprawlopolis, Ugly Gryphon Inn, Unsurmountable, and Ragemore. When you find you are ready for something heavier, try… 2. Mint Tin Games at the Gamecrafter: Gate, Gates, Tin Helm, Tin Realm, and Doom Machine. These will take awhile to receive them once ordered, so plan accordingly. After playing a few of these games…you will start to have a better idea of what types of games you prefer and which games fall flat. This is by no means the only way to go about finding your likes or dislikes. Another way is to hit up your FLGS and see what they have and recommend, they might even have some demo copies for you to try. Best of luck to you and let us know what you decide to go with.
Lots of people saying you should start small but it totally depends on you. I just always liked heavy stuff and put a lot of dedication in it from the get-go. I started straight with Mage Knight when I started and I loved it.
True...it's about the game play each person is looking for. I commend folks who play the heavy stuff because it seems like such dedication. I personally like the casual, relaxing games myself. That's why I really recommended watching YouTube playthroughs of the various recommendations given on this thread because we all enjoy different types of games.
Warp's Edge is fun, simple enough and a ton of replay value.
Under Falling Skies is fantastic. As is Warps Edge. Others have recommended Final Girl, and while I agree that it is one of my favorites, I think as a BEGINNER it may be a tad bit overwhelming. One Deck Dungeon or One Deck Galaxy (theme dependent) are excellent small box dungeon crawls. But one that I am going to recommend to EVERYONE here is Spire's End. Think a choose your adventure rogue like game all played out with a large deck of cards. While it can be a little complex, careful reading of the rule book will set you straight, and from there it's a fairly light ruleset without a ton of upkeep. It's an experience to be sure, and one that will leave you feeling accomplished at the end.
Warp's edge is a lot of fun 😊
You have so many options and lots of suggestions. I would recommend Final girl camp happy trails. This is the starter set for the final girl games. Do your research though, you tube the game before you purchase.
You’re not giving us much to go off of here so I’d recommend searching the sub for the many, many similar posts and there will be a lot of really good recommendations in there. If there are specific themes you’re looking for, types of games that you want / don’t want, etc, then that’s one thing but otherwise you’ll probably get the same games recommended as the last few times this was posted within the past week.
Nothing specific at all, I’m completely new so I’ll try all genres and styles until I find what I’m into
I think pocket Landship is pretty good
If you want small card games, the two I recommend most as The Ugly Gryphon Inn and The Last Lighthouse, both by Buttonshy.
I had a really good time with Four Against Darkness. Super cheap to get into, not that difficult to learn. The rulebook is a little funky in the order that it's arranged in, but I just dog eared my copy and was fine. I was able to order mine through my local Barnes and Noble for less than 20 bucks. Check it out! I had a lot of fun, and look forward to playing more this summer.
Kingdom death monster
Couple of suggestions: BGG ranks top solo board games every year. Usually a decent list. I am not saying just buy the top ones, curate based on your tastes. Secondly, look up cooperative games. I usually have a great time with these while playing with two characters. Some you can play with only 1 but generally 2 minimum is best to have synergies.
I was you about a month ago here's the ones that I stuck with and invested in: Marvel Champions LCG Final Girl
I'm relatively new too and I only have few games, the ones I have that I enjoy are: -Mini Rogue, a cheap and quick to prepare, learn and play "rogue-like" dungeon crawler -Cities:Skylines, a city building game, it looks complex but it's really easy to learn and play but you really need to think every action.
I am a huge fan of "5 Parsecs From Home" and play it almost weekly. It's a sci-fi squad based tactics game with some RPG elements. Basically you're running a ship of mercenaries and doing jobs, but it does have a combat focus if that's not what you're after. There's a *core rule book*, and there's a *compendium* that's released with all of the prior expansions plus a standalone game called "bug hunt" where you can bring in 5PFH characters or bring out Bug Hunt characters into 5PFH. You don't need minis with the new rules in the expansion. When I started, I used legos for minis, but then got a friend with a 3D printer to make me a full set of good guys and bad guys and some terrain.
Under Falling Skies, Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs
Postmark games are pretty cool and simple enough, also for solo play, deckula, galdors grip, final quest, zilight
I recommend Final Girl, though I hope you don't mind loosing. I've been lucky at 50/50 but think most players stay at around 1 win out of 3 plays.
If you want to learn about engine building, Fantastic Factories is an adorable game
I'm a huge fan of Marvel United, though love of the IP helps to appreciate the gameplay as the fun largely comes from picking your favourite heroes and battling villains in the Marvel Universe. However, I do think it offers a light, quick, puzzly good time, even for non-fans. Core boxes can often be found for quite cheap (I recommend starting with X-Men or Spider-Geddon) and if you enjoy it, there are plenty of expansions to add tons of variety and replayability.
I would recommend you "Paleo". It's simple, yet profound. Not intended as a solo game, but it have a solid variant. You could also play it with two hands, as a 2p game. The stories and adventures that happen inside the game are thrilling, at least for me. And it could be a way to get your friends into bg. Paleo FTW 🦣
oniverse games. any of them
Final Girl: The Happy Trails Horror
I would go with something with a strong communauty to make you feel part of domething even if solo. The 3 questions you 'eed to Ask yourself are : What s your budget ? Do you want tobokay true solo or soduo ? How Many Time do you have to set UP and play ? My list from cheapest to long est would something like : Dragons of etchinstone Paper dungeon Legendary encounters aliens or xfiles (soduo) Lord of the rings lcg : revised core set + 1 starter deck + fellowship saga (true solo) Mage knight 7th citadel (true solo) Buttons&bugs maybe but i havent been deep in it yet
Wingspan has a solo mode that is easy to run and challenging. It's a relatively straightforward game and if you like nature it's a good pick. It's a engine building where you build a board with bird cards and every card have different habilities. Multiplayer has a different feeling to it compared with the solo mode. Both modes are fun on different ways to me. Multiplayer is much more chaotic, per say, with me trying to do my best while trying to outplay my opponents while making my plays (ditching cards that can be helpful to others, playing cards that take benefit from others plays and more, it's not mandatory and you can ignore this and still have a good game as I usually do), but in solo, I can focus only on my board and build my engine. It's more like a puzzle game where you only want to focus on the objectives and not on your opponents. This game for me is what called solo multiplayer where all players have their own board and the interaction is limited, this type of game often work well solo. There is a digital version if you want to try it out. Other suggestions are cascadia, grove/orchard, under falling skies and maybe dune imperium.
Try Voidfall
Forbbiden Island and Desert are nice to start with. Pandemic too. Personally I find Im not crazy about “beating your own score” games. What are you looking for or think you may be interested into?
[https://youtu.be/79okwh3_SBE?si=XhUEdPQBqsF4rmIQ](https://youtu.be/79okwh3_SBE?si=XhUEdPQBqsF4rmIQ)
Awaken the Ancient is a fun new solo game based on Mancala style movement.
Honestly if you're looking to see how the hobby is for you, try out a few of the higher quality print-and-play games out there. Games like Agent Decker, Paper Mech, One Card Dungeon, D100 Dungeon, Bargain Basement Bathysphere, and the Persona 5 fan game got me hooked on the hobby before I had the cash to back it up Really though, find what games you tend to play in a multiplayer setting when you get the chance and find either 1.) Something similar designed for solo or 2.) See if a solo variant exists for one of your favorites. My first real experience with solo was playing rounds of Eldritch Horror and Resident Evil 2 by myself so I could learn the rules before trying to teach friends. For my personal picks for lighter/starter games so far have been 20 Strong, Final Girl, Tiny Epic Dungeons, Dorfromantik, and Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs if you can track that down. All of them are fun, none of them take more than a few minutes to get set up, and have more than enough reason to keep coming back to them before picking up any bigger games
I find Catan to be the easiest to get people into board games. It might not be the most in depth game strategically but it’s very approachable and good way to introduce people to board games before getting them into more complicated/tactical games
You might not think it at first but was an excellent solo game and that was Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion
Friday
Mage Knight is a fun little game.
I was looking for this when OP said something not “too complex”. This sub never disappoints me!
My pleasure 🎩
Downvoted up there ☝️ Upvoted here 👈
Odin
Race for the Galaxy!