1 Player Podcast

Julius and I are back with a look at Uwe Rosenberg's Field's of Arle.  It's a lovely game in which you get to relive the lives of Mr. Rosenberg's ancestors, well, more or less. It's at least a look at what life might have been like in the province of Arle, in Germany in the 18th century (as a worker placement game).

This week I go it alone in my little lighthouse.  I look at a small journaling RPG about keeping a lighthouse with, um, something supernatural underneath.  In this real-time game, each day you roll a few dice and record an entry in your logbook... # of ships, weather and any brief notes.  Then, you can also write in more detail about the day in a journal.  There, you will keep track of your comings and goings as well as any issues with the thing under the lighthouse.  It's a neat little game with a great idea that fell a little short for me.

• Log-book of the Lighthouse-keeper (Drive Thru RPG)

It's that time of year again!  It's time to make your Top 20 solo games list for the annual Top 100 (Top 200) list managed by Kevin Erskine!  Listen along with Julius as I prepare my list for Kevin

• 2022 Top 20 announcement & discussion thread (BGG)
• My Top 20 (29)
  1. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
  2. Onirim
  3. Nusfjord
  4. Ragemore
  5. Sentinels of the Multiverse
  6. Castellion
  7. At the Gates of Loyang
  8. Nations: The Dice Game
  9. Conflict of Heroes
  10. Final Girl
  11. Navajo Wars
  12. Newton
  13. Elder Sign
  14. Disaster on K2
  15. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
  16. Escape: The Curse of the Temple
  17. Kanban EV
  18. AstroNavis Merchant Advanced
  19. PAX
  20. Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island
  21. Imperials Settlers
  22. The Isle of Dr Necreaux
  23. Outdoor Survival
  24. Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game
  25. Hostage Negotiator
  26. Silverton
  27. Snowdonia
  28. Urbion/.Equilbrion
  29. Fields of Arle

This week Julius teaches me about the game Project L. L stands for that shape of piece in games like Tetris (or Project L), for example.  This is a polyomino game in which you are collecting and upgrading pieces to fit onto boards in order to complete the boards and get points.  It's a rather interesting sounding game and, by the way, the components look really good.

This week we have one of our Popular Mechancis episodes; but, this week we cheat!  We don't talk about a game mechanic per se.  Instead, we talk about big games.  What the heck does that mean though?  Julius and I talk about good games we each think are big.  What are your favorite big games?

• 06:00 Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (BGG)
• 09:15 Arkham Horro (2nd Edition) (BGG)
• 10:40 Anachrony (BGG)
• 15:25 Ironsworn (RPG Geek)
• 21:10 Mechs vs. Minions (BGG)
• 24:20 Mage Knight Board Game (BGG)
• 24:55 SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD (BGG)

We brought in our in-house real-time game expert, Julius to discuss Paramedics: Clear. As hinted above, it is a real-time game in which you play a paramedic rushing to save lives at time runs out.

This week Julius and I finally get around to talking about the 3rd Fantasy Flight co-operative LCG, Marvel Champions.  In this game you play as a super-hero trying to stop a villain from their evil scheme.  The game can be played with the pre-built hero-decks or you can do some pre-game deck construction to build some really powerful heroes.

• Marvel Champions (BGG, FFG)

We took another 1 week break but we come back with a two game discussion!  Okay, they are both small games and this episode ended up being a bit shorter than most but that's okay.  This week's games are similar in that in both you are lining up cards in numerical order.  Each supports 1 to 5 players and each seems fun.  Mind you, Julius and I each have only played one of the two games so we can't really compare if one is more fun than other but we can both say the game we played is definitely fun!

This week Julius tells me all about the game Kingdom Rush: Monsters, based on the tower defense for mobile devices.  The game's art and theme comes straight out of the video game and does a good job of copying the setting, but is it a tower defense game?  Julius doesn't think so.  Listen and get the scoop!

This week is one of our "long running" Popular Mechanics episodes.  This time around we look at deck building in solo games and talk a bit about some we like.

• 04:11 Friday (BGG)
• 07:08 Maiden's Quest (BGG)
• 11:27 Star Realms (BGG)
• 12:15 Star Realms: Frontiers (BGG)
• 14:13 Big Book of Madness (BGG)
• 15:00 Lewis and Clark (BGG)
• 20:20 Newton (BGG)
• 20:57 Rune Age (BGG)
• 24:18 Edge of Darkness (BGG)
• 27:31 The LOOP (BGG)
• 30:14 Warp's Edge (BGG)

Games I wrote down but didn't talk about

• Lost Ruins of Arnak (BGG)
• Thunderstone Advanced (BGG)
• Paperback (BGG)
• Valley of the Kings (BGG)
• Groves (BGG)
• Clank! (BGG)

This week, we look at a board game based on the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by Bantam.  In these classic game books, you are the hero of the story and as you read through, you get to make choices that very much affect how the story continues.  This was managed with a branching story in which you would read the book out of order.

This game tries to recreate that experience using one of the classic books, number 15 in the series.  It does a great job of making you feel like you are reading an old CYOA book but using cards instead of a book.

• The House of Danger game (BGG)
• The House of Danger book (gamebooks.org)

If you want to explore the House of Danger, listen to episode 264.

If you would rather avoid the House of Danger, go back to episode 263.

This week Julius and I, after taking a 1 week break from the podcast, take a 1 week break from talking about games. That's because this week we talk about puzzles in their various forms.  This is just a friendly chat about the types of puzzles we enjoy.  There are sooooo many types of puzzles it's not hard to find one that will suit you.

Here are some things we mentioned

• Math logic puzzles
  • Sudoku
  • Kakuro
  • KenKen
  • Nonograms
  • Bridges/Hashi
• Word puzzles
  • Wordle
  • Crosswords
• Think Fun
  • Rush Hour
  • Brick by Brick
  • Shape by Shape
• Logic puzzles
  • Pinochio "green hats" puzzle
  • LSAT
  • Montigue Island Mysteries
• Jigsaw puzzles
  • Heye Black or White
  • White puzzle

This week I tell Julius about the rather large Kanban EV.  This game is a re-implementation of the original Kanban and designed by Vital Lacerda.  This quite complex and challenging game was rather fancily produced by Eagle-Gryphon Games.  We talk about the game play and mechanics of the game without getting too deep into the details of how to play.

• Kanban EV (BGG, Eagle-Gryphon)

This episode is a bit different from the typical episode and that it doesn't really talk bout a game.  This week I have the pleasure of talking to Al Leduc, the designer of Yukon Airways.  Julius and I discussed this game two weeks ago.  I found the designer notes in the beginning of the rulebook really interested so I invited the designer to come talk about the back story of the game.  I found the conversation interesting because it gives some perspective to theme of the game and, hopefully, makes the game more interesting for those folks that are playing it.

• I think this is the Taco Bar at the confluence of the Wind River and the Peel River in the Yukon. (Google Maps)

This week Julius and I look at solo drafting games along with the helping, I'm sorry to say, of some barking dogs.  We talk a bit about what is or isn't a drafting game and briefly go over a half dozen or so games worth looking into.  While editing, I realized we completely overlooked a very obvious choice... Gates of Loyang. Darned, darned, darned.  It's an excellent example because the drafting mechanism in solo is much better than the multiplayer drafting.

• 03:45 - Clank! (BGG)
• 04:25 - Cascadia (BGG)
• 05:50 - Nations: The Dice Game (BGG)
• 07:30 - Hostage Negotiator (BGG)
• 12:55 - Canvas (BGG)
• 14:45 - Mechs vs Minions (BGG)
• 17:00 - PAX (BGG)
• 19:30 - Ilse of Cats (BGG)
• 21:50 - Imperial Settlers (BGG)
• 23:45 - Sylvion (BGG) & Aerion (BGG)
• 26:00 - Suburbia (BGG)
• 29:50 - Lux Aeterna (BGG)