TURN 1 - Player Count
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whose turn is it Anyway is excited to announce that we are helping to organize and sponsor the much loved Devon Board
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game weekend at the Fox and Hounds hotel in Eggesford near Exeter this event begins on Friday the 8th of November
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until Sunday the 10th of November for more details about the event and where to get your tickets Please check out the
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show notes and we'll direct you to where you need to go hope to see you there
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[Music]
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hello and welcome to the whose turn is anyway podcast a podcast about our gaming group and all the shenanigans
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that go on with it joining me today we have the everpresent evervescent cult
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leader himself JP howdy there tea dog himself Tambo how do St and everybody's
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favorite compact Cube all of Joy Rob hello please please do not adjust your
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sets this is not a normal broadcast they have rather foolishly allowed me to do a guest episode my name is Stuart today we
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are going to be talking about solo gaming and that's why there are four of us I'd just like to say welcome St uh this kind of came about because we were
Welcome to an experiment
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talking and I got accosted by stew as to why we haven't done a single player sort of game topic so I said well why don't
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you do it yourself um which you foolishly agreed which we we know that you're regretting massively oh yeah um
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but obviously this is bit of an experiment this is a bit of a different uh different episode um so we're kind of
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treating it as an expansion but obviously if if it goes well it might be a way of kind of bringing other listeners in to kind of join us and and
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talk about subjects that they specifically want to talk about so uh if you like it let us know and and we'll
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sort of go from there but um in the meantime welcome sh cheers mate yeah welcome to the podcast mate ste's been a
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longtime supporter of the Pod obviously he's been part of the gaming group um for well probably since day do no it's
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what probably three four years you JP and I worked together we didn't know each other did
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board games for a while no so that dirty little secret do do you do you yeah I do do you
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yeah cool do you want to buy some vs yeah you want to play a game with me so obviously youve supported the podcast
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from day one uh with your questions comments everything you're so engaging with with everything that we do and
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we're incredibly grateful so we thought well rather than you shouting at me for doing stuff that you want to do you can
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just do it yourself I'm sure you can equally [ __ ] it up just as well as we can I have been practicing all week and
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know it's great to have the opportunity um and I am living proof there is a bottom of the barrel and you are now listening to
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it you'll find that you'll probably be elevated among many of us on the podcast
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of just being awesome what if there's a public outcry that like Stew's on and we're all off this is like a premier league where
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somebody might actually get relocated yeah and if you're listening uh players then you might need to step your game up
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that's what I'm just saying I'm just
TURN 2 - Welcoming Stewart & learning about his favourite games
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saying so all of our guests that we've had on in the past we asked them one critical question gun to your
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head what is your favorite game of all time I've been preparing for this and
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I'm still nowhere near the right answer um I think I would have to go in my gut and
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it's always still triron Darwin's journey is coming up close and playing a lot of that on BGA at the moment but triron is still
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probably the one I'd always latch on to yeah I've never played it and I really
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should do do you call them Wizards or or magicians only when curly tells me to
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annoy you and it does it pisses me off it does it pisses me off what magicians and wizards and spells yeah Wizards and
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spells in Tron does it cuz he knows it FS me right up why the other way around
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to annoy curly that's why toou [ __ ] yeah doesn't seem much but you know I have to say it cuz he's like
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you know he winds me up so if you're listening curly so you Wizards and spells and spells no
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yeah obviously it's a very popular game in our group I've never played it but everyone kind of whacks his lycal about
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it so maybe I should actually get around to playing it at some point it's pretty heavy Rob I've leveled up T yeah I can
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voucher is leveling up I mean he's moved past Katan only just but but I'm getting
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there I thought it was Katan Jr yeah o par why do you have to let people know
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that like I'm big a big boy I have on proper Katan now um and kind of how did you get into
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the hobby stew is it something that that kind of snuck its way into your life or were you were you kind of inducted into
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a cult like we were no the cult came later um JP is quite a force majure when it comes to
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that sort of thing but no I mean I when I was a kid it was risk and the nword um
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then later on all the Talisman there were a lot of Talisman expansions stuff like that we did that did a little bit of D and D in time um and then it kind
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of went away and compter computer games came in was doing all that and
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then um my son Josh my Josh not your Josh um put me on to will Wheaton's
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tabletop YouTube channel what a channel and that got me right into the Hobby and that got me into all the games I'd never
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even heard of I forgot that existed yeah even the types of games you never really played started building my collection
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from there and then by chance I think I came across you guys chatting about your gaming group and I sort of shared a
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picture of my collection and that's how I got into the group and then it's been no backwards step since then yeah that's
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usually the entry phase and it like show we'll show you yours and we'll show you mine I mean collections definitely yeah
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you need to say that for the people listening absolutely although the other is true we're a friendly Bunch little over
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friendly sometimes so what what games are you really enjoying right now so at the moment um I'm trying to get through
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the various kickstarters that are arriving um you're worse than I am I know I was supposed to have an off year and it's been a really off year um but
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at the moment I did have nuclear Mount ready to play and then realized I was going on holiday and wouldn't do it so packed it away I'm playing Darwin's
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Journey on BGA a lot at the moment yeah um and I'm probably gonna go with the Barcelona expansion comes out this I get
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it on Friday and I will get that out and play the solo on that because I haven't done the solo for yet so that'll be the next one but I I need to get to nucleum
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I want to play that having played that with you the other night I would definitely want to get out for the solo mode and then I might be going back to
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Lera in a minute your Boomerang back you always do can you hear that what it's
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curly throwing up that's weird he's not even in the
TURN 3 - Me, Myself & I - Solo Gaming
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room so thanks for that mate uh with that we will hand back to you and we can go through the the the topic that you
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want to talk about you know what I'm I'm really excited because none of us actually kind of know what's coming yes
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which is a weird one is it we we usually plan all this we have an idea so we weirdly live guests that that's you know
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a struggle to believe some days that we actually plan some of this stuff we yeah as a it's it's very different and I like
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it it I like it bring it on Ste what you got so the topic for today's episode is
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solo gaming um and first all to say that you know we're not experts on all the
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different types of solo games all the different genres out there this is just a chat about the solo games we play
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because within our group it's quite a small core of us who actually do the different types of solo games I think we
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probably covered off most of them within our group at this stage and I just wanted to have a conversation about you
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know why people solo game how you get into to it I mean I know my journey and obviously we'll talk about that in a
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minute but I think I'm going to start with JP simply because you know you are probably the loudest proponent of solo
Why did we start solo gaming and what was my first one?
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gaming in our group just the loudest full stop most annoying person in the world um but when did you start or why
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did you start solo gaming and do you remember your first one oh God should
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have prepared that answer shouldn't I I I remember
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anacron is the one that sticks out yeah um because I had that pretty early on in
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the in my in my gaming life um obviously you know uh when I kind of have my reass
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surgence back into the board gaming hobby I remember having it out for pretty much a whole week just doing solo
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over and over and over and over again and I've been wanting to play it for for you know a long time and you know how
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hard it is to get people around the bloody table and I'm I just want to play it and obviously DAV tury design he
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designs some epic solo modes and uh yeah trying to get your head around that that
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one is you know is a lot of work but when you crack it it's actually a really good experience but that's the one that
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sticks out it's probably not my first but it's the one that's most memorable yeah and and it just yeah I felt wow
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like that's an experience that you can have just you know at the table where it's just you talking to yourself for
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about 3 hours and gibbering and people looking you know walking past the the dining room going is he all right CU
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you're literally just having this crisis of just yeah literally talking well I can do this one I'm do oh no I can't do
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that but yeah so I think I think that's the the one of the the first ones like proper meaty ones that's what yeah mind
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that's a pretty deep end it is first go yeah but you know what I'm like I like my heavy games anyway and I think like
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in the early early days a lot of the games I had didn't really have solo mode so um the my first game was XCOM and you
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could play that by yourself but you have to play all four roles right it's quite stressful enough we one I was going to
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say that sounds horrible didn't really fancy that one next was like Game of Thrones if you ever do that can you video it because it would be hilarious
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can't anymore I don't have it but uh Game of Thrones again can't really play that solo and uh maners of Madness first
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edition can't really play that solo and so a lot of them just didn't have it so yeah I think uh I think as would kind of
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moved forward and a when he the one that sticks out cool thanks for that talking to Mansions so TG isn't that one you
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soloed I have soloed Mansions it wasn't my first one though my first one um was
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actually Terri m o yeah cuz I went when I went to play around yours JP's first
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yeah when I went around to JPS to play it first I played I loved it so I went out and bought my own copy it was a knockoff copy crap copy but I got it and
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then I put on The Bard and that's what I first play solo um so that was my first experience solo it was good fun very
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hard on your own terraform yeah you have to read you have to like terraform in a certain time and
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it's just horrible but you still learn that you got to just concentrate on not worry about your engine just run just
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build just concentrate on terraforming getting the oxygen in getting your heat up as bun as you can so you don't really
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do an engine building time of game you just pump into that but it was good and i' played that a few times but generally when I play solo games is if I want to
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learn a game if I was if I bought a game and it's got a solo mode I'll play it to learn the rules
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that's one of the main reasons I play solo but then I find out actually how good it is um so yeah it's a terraform m
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is my first one I have played mansions on its own but that's you just control two characters so it's it's not really
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AED yeah it's just an action game so it's not you take your actions and stuff but yeah D like good solo games play a
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lot cool Roberto for me it was lockdown it was the fact that we
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couldn't get together and play games so it was like I needed that itch we all play um Champions online we played it
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with camera setups and we all had our own hands and it it worked well for what it was but forgot we did that yeah and
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for me it was such a weird time and such a miserable time I was like do you know what I just want a little bit happiness
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in my life so I popped open descent and did it you know dual wielding but that
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was my first time I've I've set up a board game and played it on my own and found out I actually thoroughly enjoyed
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it so for me that it was it was descent and I didn't play it seriously I I
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created like really ridiculously overpowered characters and just ran through dungeons slaughtering everything
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that's kind of what I wanted to do but a little bit since then like T said if if I if I want to learn a game I'll happily
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play it solo to kind of figure out and and that pressure is you know if I [ __ ] the rules up if if that first
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playthrough isn't as well oil is what you expect a game night to be it doesn't
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matter it's only my time so yeah for me if if a game's got a solo mode I'd much prefer to play it solo before I book in
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a game night so that I can kind of get the gist of of kind of how it all works MH MH yeah I mean I think most people
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are probably similar I mean for me it was I mean for years I would roll my eyes every time JP banged on about a
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solo mode I just didn't get it I didn't understand because I just assumed it was you know two-handed but if you know what
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you've got in your hands I didn't the whole concept of automas and Bots and AIS was you know I'd never even
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encountered that in the board game so I didn't get it and every time you saw a Kickstarter with a solo mode went why who who cares and then I got to the
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point where it was legacies by um Brooks buun games I'd had on my shelf for like 18 months since the kickstarter had
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arrived and I needed to play it I'd offered to play it with the group I didn't know how to play it so I
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two-handed it and then solo played it to learn the game like you do T and
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then it just kind of clicked and then it was I looked at my shelf and go right what else can I way so a gria came off
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the shelf sidee that's a light bot on that one um and I just literally
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was it was then an opportunity just to play games I didn't have time to play in the group or I wasn't just going to get to the table and I think the other thing
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for me is if you're doing it solo and you've got the space at home it goes out it stays out and you can just come back
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to it or not work and do it instead I'll take the afternoon off no
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one in might work listen to this so we're fine that's go but yeah so I mean I think most Journeys seem to be the
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same it's either you want to play the games or you're trying to learn games the only downside to solo is a lot of a
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lot of the solo modes do change some of the gameplay so learn it can be a little bit tricky some of them kind of have to
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yeah like because it just doesn't work the fact that you've got um you know another mode to be able to play that
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game with especially if like sometimes I just want to be on my own but I want to
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play the game yeah it's like not not that I don't want to hang out with any of you guys is that I just don't want
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anybody in my space at the minute I need to completely decompress you know kind of take a step back I don't want to I
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don't want to sit on my Xbox I don't want to sit and watch a movie I want to be active without being pressured does
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that make sense it is you know if if I've set you know I remember we set up um burn cycle mhm and that that was on
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my table for two weeks like you know it's like just come back I do like an hour an hour you know hour and a half or
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whatever and then think oh cool I'll finish that tomorrow and then kind of come back to it in stages so so for me it's it's that kind of you know when I
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want to play a game but I don't necessarily want to spend you know I'm not I'm not in the head space to be
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around people I just need that downtime yeah yeah and I mean I think for me as well I don't know how you guys find it
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but a lot of the games we play you do need to kind of pay attention to what the other players are doing and I've
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just about got the attention span to play attention to what I'm doing um so when you're solo play you although you've got to run the bot you do need to
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see what's going on you're completely focused on your turn and you are talking to yourself endlessly yes yes I think
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it's mandatory for solo play there is a rule that says you will dictate your entire term yes no one then you have to
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then switch it off when you do multiplayer so you're not telling everybody what you're trying to do but it is one of the weird facets I I
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never realized how much I would talk to myself until I started solo gaming is very very bizarre it's like a
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Reformation to to make sure you're doing things right as well and even the Bots turn I find myself narrating right so
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they pull this card right that means this this is going to go over there they're going to collect that you bastard you've collected that I was
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going to collect that and yeah you end up with this in a turmoil of nonsense
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which is it's good forun yeah no it is enjoyable and I think for me I mean I don't buy games
Do we buy games if they don't have solo modes?
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now that don't have a solo mode I mean I don't know if any of you guys buy games specifically because they've got a solo
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mode or don't buy games because they don't it's more of a kind of seals the deal kind of thing if there's a game
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that I'm interested in and I think if I'm not 100% sure on if I want
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to pull the trigger or not the thing that can swing it for me is that it's got a good not even a good like a fairly
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decent solo mode will kind kind of swing it for me it's not something I look for
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but if it's there then yeah if if if you know if I'm 80% I'm you know I'm
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interested in this game and it's got solo yeah it's probably going in going in my collection yeah I mean I have sort
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out games for solo only the one again the one that Springs to mine is hopo
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hopo mockus victorum and actually the reason why I got it was for
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for victorum and not the remastered which is the multiplayer Skirmish combat version of it but yeah the fact that
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they sold it as this Grand solar experience and you know that you play through multiple acts you'll take a
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character from nothing to to something and and and the way they over produced
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cuz chip Theory you know they love overproducing everything you you're sitting there like a freaking Gladiator
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with the stadium with all the chips in it and it's you know it's a real treat to yourself it's a real love letter to
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yourself of of you know of of playing that game and and I was like oh fancy of that that's great something I can get
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lost in now the the the r in is I probably haven't played it as much as I should have that's not cuz it's not good
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it's just it's the time investment of of actually getting through a whole entire for R game it's quite a lot but but yeah
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I do seek some games out their solo only I'm like yeah quite I'm up for that I'm down with that you can go through a bit
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of a phase sometimes don't you just like do you know what I'm busy everybody just go away and let me game but it's that
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reason you said Rob I think it is the sometimes I just you know had a busy day
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of work or I'm just not mentally ready to kind of host a group of people around
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the house you know and I just but I want a game so it kind of then scratches the itch and go okay I'll play solo and I
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can just kind of get the same the same Vibe and the same experience and I don't have to kind of deal with the social
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side so sometimes I'm like that but you know I'm quite social person anyway so it's it's quite rare but there are times
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I'm like just don't want to deal with it thank you I'll just game on my own that's great and for listeners social
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equals annoying they know they listen to me what about you T cuz I'm generally I'm
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with you I actually do look for solo play on games generally I mean I think of I got one game that only that has two
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players or two games in my collection that you have to have two players most of mine off solo play I'm also a theory
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of like if I don't get the table if I got a solo play I'm going to get a table so I'm going to get the money's worth
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yeah as well cuz you're going to play it cuz I can play it I'm not waiting for other people to play it so I can always
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get the money's worth on outside but I do look for a solo player yes it's definitely seller for me I think that's
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that's a fair point actually because I mean we do spend a lot of money on this Hobby and this money this hobby has got
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ridiculously expensive over the years um and over produced on a lot of games but
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if you can play it solo as well you're not riing on finding people who want to play it people who like the games or
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fitting in around everybody's work life socials you can just get your money's worth of those games yeah definely and I
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think that's that is a definite Advantage so it's for me it's yeah it's a must now I I I there are games I'd
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like to buy but I won't because there's not a solo mode yeah and I'm not big on fanmade but we'll talk about those in a
The different types of solo modes and our favourite examples
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bit yep right then um I'd like to get to we'll talk about a bit more about the solo modes and the different types there
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are now and first of all I would just like to shout out to Adam Richards at punchboard I did crib um he's got a couple of articles on his site about
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solo mode and the different types so I have crib that so thank you for those Adam you should check his s out good guy
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good dude we did an episode with with Adam I think it was a couple of years ago now punch. co.uk check it out it's
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awesome really really good guy and we we were worried what game did we play at the weekend at the gaming weekend with
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him Lorenzo that's the one yeah and we were like oh we better rain it in a bit Yeah and within about 30 seconds we like
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no he's going to fit right with us we don't need to rain anything in he's fine one of us one of us see now Lorenzo a
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game I wish had a decent solo mode correct that is a bit of a blow for me because i' I'd really like to get that
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yeah anyway sticking on topic so we talked about solo mode now again we're not all experts we're not you know
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across EV every single thing um but in ter of broadly speaking you've got
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solitaire games so these are oneplay count games that you're designed purely for you to play on your own mhm then
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we've got your sort of beat your own score type Sol modes which are really just you playing the game against a
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timer or a clock or something to try and beat your own score it kind of says what it does then you've got the automas in
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the AIS and they are different things whether they're quite simply driven things to either get in your way or block things off to full-blown AIS that
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are trying to replicate other players and then on top of that you've also got things like campaign automas
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where you've just got this Legacy playing through multiple scenarios I mean hot pl's got a bit of that m in terms of of campaign mode in terms of
22:07
solo so so the first question is we'll start with TG what's your preferred solo
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mode um I was definitely say AI because
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that's generally what I've got to be honest it's um AI driven games um so
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yeah I think cuz that they nor well the ones I've played all got a little stack of C decks and you shuffle them they can
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all have different turns and um some of my favorite one is out of Rim cuz the AI
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on that with the expansion um you can actually have two AIS at the same time
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and you actually fre got a three player game on your own which I find's really cool and it's really simple you just turn their car do their actions and it's
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that simple um so yeah I think AI is my most favorite um um that yeah definitely
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I don't like the Bea your own score thing is n yeah no I I don't really go for that um I played Starship captains
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on my own and that is literally you get your best score and you look at the back of the book and what score you've got give you a little phrase you well done
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well done you're extremely good Captain you just crashed a ship your [ __ ] something like that did you not see the
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asteroid Muppet yeah so it's that that was like well it's good fun the Sol but that now bit you know we really achieved
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anything but I know they're one and done kind of thing yeah interestingly enough talking
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of yeah B SC I'm not a fan and it actually killed games for me yeah cuz that's all they are yeah they're all own
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I had Agri I tried at Expo loved it bought it played it and then went no my
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my only experience with that game is two player and I loved it a two player there was kind of left your own
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devices would they which is I think the whole I think the whole point of that game is contention but I love you not being in
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my way for a game it was actually quite nice like nobody was bothering me I was just doing my own thing it was great it
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was peaceful It was friendly agricul it was lovely I had I had a great time happily building a farm together it was
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great and this is suddenly turned into a therapy
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session so go on then Rob your preferred well the whole beat your own score
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mechanic I like the idea of it but I tend not to pay attention to it about
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halfway through and just like The Witcher is kind of you know you have to defeat the game in so many turns well
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that game went on for two days for me CU it was so overpowered and I just enjoyed hunting monsters so you know it was It
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was kind of you know defeat the game in 12 turns or whatever and I'm like on team 36 having a blast so I don't want
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to I kind of get a bit lost with that but to be honest most of my games are app driven you know most of my games
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descend um Imperial Soul um you know that the solo mode is there because
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there's an app that's driving the game so for me a lot of those games really you know with with the app and and
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everything else it's different enough that it's you know it's exciting because it's a different scenario but I can do
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it on my own so for me it's app driven so app driven and what and more like scenario based yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
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more RPG kind of narrative yeah narrative story driven
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shock yeah I know that's surprising for a lot of people but but that's it kind of makes sense cuz a lot
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of those games are Co-op based and I know you like Co-op so I mean technically your dual wielding and in
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some cases your du wding I think descent you can just have a single character than one yeah um but but yeah that's
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that's the games that I enjoy and the fact that you can play them with other people is for me you know a bonus Billy
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bonus yeah go on then JP yeah I think the ultimas are the ones that I I tend
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to to enjoy and yeah there's loads of them out there I mean David tury I've mentioned a lot
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of his I do enjoy some of them are a lot of work and to try and learn a game and
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learn a solo for a heavy game is quite a tough ask cuz you're like oh I've got to
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learn the I don't know how the game works let I learn how the solo works so so yeah depend not all of them not all
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of his are like that some of them are quite streamlined um but I have to give a
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special nod though to a beat your own score in void fall oh good I got it in void got I
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slipped it in anything to do with that game but it for a beat your own score which is essentially what it is it's
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like you play easy normal and hard right so you got to get over I don't know 60 points 100 points or whatever it
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is and it does twist the game up so it does feel different because you you going through these events and things
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like that but essentially you're just beating a score but it it's great it
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doesn't feel like like an uve where you play the game and you go I got 67 points
26:57
now what did it tell me yeah you did well feel like what you said about Starship captains too but yeah this it
27:02
just feels different even though it is a bit your own score so I don't know how the hell they've done it but it actually is more engaging than than maybe it
27:10
should be but yeah so I give a special not to that but generally AI decks
27:15
ultimas things like that are just more interesting is could the void for thing be more because there's not many single
27:21
player games that are like 4x's that you can play on your own yeah maybe it's a
27:27
it's a good way not Forex is it though but well it it it's no it's not it's is Euro dressed up as a Forex but that but
27:34
that kind of genre there aren't many single player games in that in that kind of genre no exactly so fits a nice niche
27:40
in in that respect yeah I just changed the subject we played vo4 the co-op and that's beat your own score or beat the
27:45
AI score it's the same exactly the same and I really enjoyed it cuz you in the first round you're thinking how the hell am I going to get that score and then
27:51
suddenly it's all Kone and it's all going oh yeah and it's a big achievement at the end of that game when you get it fun yeah I agree with that journey to
27:58
get to there is satisfying so when you actually get there you go I earned that
28:04
and you've had the game and it's not just like the game's standing still it's reacting to you and it's doing you know
28:11
the events that come out you have to weave in and out of them and so it's a bit more interesting than play the game
28:17
see how high you get it's actually play the game it's going to stab you along the way and if you can survive that and
28:22
beat it well done so it's it's quite good it's going to stab you and you're going to smile about it love it love it
28:28
youve just been kicked in the face well done how' you feel I mean but that is an interesting Nuance cuz I mean we've talked broadly about you know the
28:34
different types that are out there but each one of those has got a Nuance to void for is such a huge game anyway this
28:41
is rapidly turning if you're doing a drinking game at home please stop because void falls on about a seventh reference um it's it's not just beat
28:50
your own score like you said it you you're doing the whole game and the outcome is what the outcome is but to me
28:57
that doesn't feel like the kind of beat your own scores I've only ever played which is you know you've got 15 turns to do all these actions what did you get at
29:03
the end of it and maybe the AI has blocked a few things off in the process because I
29:09
mean ano 1800 kind of the the the base solo play for that one is just it's a
29:15
Time deck you just play the game until you've done it so you are just playing it and that is fairly limiting so I'm must I don't
29:22
like be here in school because I've not experienced something like a void for scenario where it's a little bit more than just go through 15 turns of motion
29:30
yeah so it's interesting I mean I think that's that's the thing is there are always twists coming and new versions I
29:38
mean Scythe AI was like the heaviest I'd ever done at that point and probably
29:44
still is because all the placement rules around where the AI is going to go and the fact you can have multiple decks why
29:50
You' want to do that to yourself most solo games are two player and I usually come third so with these
29:57
things um I don't want to play with more of them um but yeah it's it just feels like
30:05
the more the game interacts with you it's not necessar it's not a beat your own score anymore it's doing things
30:11
to you and forcing you to make decisions away from just I've got a plan for 15 turns and that's what I'm going to do
30:17
yeah Sly you can't um yeah you can't just rinse and repeat the same strategy
30:22
cuz it will change just like a player would so it's that player simulation that's that's what you're after so it's
30:28
kind of like you know can't have the multiplayer experience but it's as close as I'm going to get you know without
30:34
actually having to touch people to talk to people or look at them yeah just got to look at dec of cards usually yeah but
30:41
the good thing about C I found that with C when I first started to learn the solo and I think that was mainly around
30:47
lockdown as well for the same reason I just itch to play side and I have to learn the solo now but I had an app or
30:53
still have an app Scythe kick yeah and that was great cuz it's literally you
30:58
just tell tell it what what the placement is on the map and then you press the button and it's like there's
31:04
the card and it goes that goes there okay that goes there and it just literally it it interprets the cards and
31:10
movement for you as long as you keep the placement of everything up to date which sometimes you forget then it it stream
31:17
purpose yeah oh whoops oh we not done that but it does streamline it um to the point where this is some of the
31:23
downsides of of solos you I don't know if you're going to get to this St apologies but if you ultimate decks are
31:29
too complicated it takes you out of your own game to try and run it and and
31:35
therefore you you're kind of like well I want to play my game but now I'm to look at a flowchart well it depends if it
31:40
does this and then that and then if if this if then yes no all that and you're like right what was I doing again oh
31:46
yeah get wood so yeah for me if if I was playing like that the other deck like you were talking about if it's too
31:51
complicated I'd be like no [ __ ] this I'm out it's too much yeah I'm doing it for
31:57
fun I'm not doing it for like a really intense challenge so um so yeah if it's if it's too heavy I'd lose interest
Have we used apps to help drive solo bots?
32:04
pretty quickly mhm all right so we all talked so has everybody used an app at some stage 4 solo play yeah
32:11
yeah no not Mansions well man is always in an appp I don't class that as a solo
32:16
that is part of the gameplay isn't it yeah yeah you have to well second edition you have to use to use the app so I don't really class that no I don't
32:23
think I've had a so you're just a normal deck of cards yeah yeah I mean I find the apps are a little
32:29
bit they're good and they are also a bit done I mean SI I haven't actually used the app properly because I keep
32:35
forgetting to do things with it and then I've set up and oh I've done told it that by now can't be bothered yeah it um
32:40
but certainly uh weather machine I learned solo with the app first because this all the cards are so icon based
32:47
until you've learned them it's quite hard it is um but then I'd have weaned
32:53
myself off the app because I want to use the cards and I want to I I like tactile
32:59
yeah I'm not allowed to touch most things so I like any chance I get to
33:04
hold yeah so um I'm with you on that though so yeah I have we but I have I I
33:09
agree I think certain apps just to get it down until you're comfortable does help but I I don't use them heavily but
33:15
yeah that was the first one I'd used because it was my first lero game as well so getting into grips with that was
33:21
a bit chunky and I think I've used it for wingspan occasionally but again half the time I just forget to update them or I forget to do it because I'm too busy
33:27
to concentrate on but I know what you're saying rob about if it's got to be a floater then yeah I'm not playing my
33:33
game anymore I'm trying to make sure I don't make a mistake and that's too much like hard work yeah that's not the game anymore takes you out that that it takes
33:39
you out that sort of fun element yeah I mean there are two things I hate having to think so hard about the AI that I
33:45
can't play the game and packing away becomes an art form on its own right yeah I've played a ball game I don't
33:51
need a puzzle at the same time and I'm with you on that gives me access the only thing that
33:58
stresses me out massively is putting a board game away teasing this when we open up Marvel zombies and I had to take
34:04
a picture of how everything went back in the Box just cuz it was like oh how on Earth are we going to get all this back in that that was a great shot there Rob
34:11
I was quite impressed on myself to be fair yeah that's normally what I reserve for DIY when I'm doing the electrics
34:16
just fph before I un black absolutely yeah DIY chat got to love it he doesn't
34:23
like a bit of power really um has anybody got a solit EG game a proper one
Some examples of our solitaire only games
34:28
player game what have you got well if you start with me I've got Gloom Haven buttons and bugs oh you've got that have
34:35
you yeah cool yeah so it's that's completely slow player it's like a travel game isn't it yeah but uh it's
34:40
quite clever it's very clever the whole scenario the story of it is that they get shrunk down yeah yeah so they're like little tiny and they go into um
34:47
buttons and bugs City so it's like a big city so it's like a little mini shrunken City hidden in Gloom Haven somewhere but
34:53
yeah it's really cool fun I mean it's quite it's not a hefty setup like Gloom Havens normally are I mean basically you got like a book if you keep it in order
35:00
in the Box it's fine but it's falling out my box I took a travel inut I got sort all out again that's going to be
35:05
pain but um the books there tells you the scenario I read it all out and then at the bottom it's got the items you can
35:11
have or choose and then you just flip over it's got the little the scenario map on the other side and then you set
35:16
up all your creatures you have three setups and you got a little damaged tracker and you got two little dice roll
35:22
it's it's really simple and it's good fun it's just typical Gloom Haven you have a you don't have as many cards as you normally would like
35:28
like a 10 deck set you probably have about five but they've got two sides to it so once you're' done side a you go to
35:33
side B and once you done side B you've burnt them so it is time but it's good fun it's Gloom Haven traveling and it's
35:39
very clever I did about five scenarios I think I haven't played it since I probably play if I traveling I think and
35:45
on my own but that is the only Sol game I've got personally just one player okay
35:51
yeah so the other than talking about H marus victorum I've got the the fall in Skies by check Games edition and that's
35:58
what I haven't played it for ages and I was thinking about this the other Dayo I should bust that out again CU it's quick
36:03
you play in like a half hour and if you like Space Invaders it's kind of like Space Invaders except you roll a bunch
36:10
of dice and you got to assign them into rooms on your uh base and uh you can
36:16
kind of you got this big kind of drill that you can kind of drill into more rooms and and actually use more spaces but the crook of it is that the number
36:22
dice you place the ship that's in that column right the above will come down that many Pips and you try to align them
36:29
to these explosion spaces so that you can then basically use the guns to blow them up and they're coming down they're
36:36
shifting left they're shifting right and it's it's a really interesting puzzle and it has a little campaign mode
36:41
doesn't it and I've only played that like twice and I need I need to do that I need to finish that yeah I know I've
36:47
got that one as well um I had to get over my dicer version to play it because I'm not a big fan of having dicing games
36:52
at all but um yeah I've got that one it's a good little fully soliter yeah
36:58
Roberto I don't own any soliter games so yeah like I say most of my games they've
37:04
got kind of solo mode bolted on but yeah no specific you know single player games
37:11
there is one that I'm interested in though that we played at ukg and that was time Troopers obviously it was a
37:17
demo um I think it comes live on Kickstarter I think was it November I
37:22
think uh I can't remember if it's coming to Kickstarter or not I think it was going to Kickstarter I thought they just released it for next year's ukg I
37:29
certainly hope so because it was a lot of fun time traveling again that's probably the only solo specific game
37:36
that I've played but I loved it so I will be getting that as soon as possible yeah it's good fun that was I should
37:41
have to keep an eye out for that one didn't I don't actually remember seeing that it's uh bonarius games um we did an
37:48
interview with Lee on the UK games Expo episode that we did so you can hear all about it there if you want it was really
37:53
good I really enjoyed it quite light um on on rules quick setup shuffle a couple
38:01
of cards and you're in so you know the barrier to entry is that they designed it so that you could play it while your
38:07
other half watches an episode of something on tell and then you're kind of done so it's kind of like that that
38:13
time of it's not an all evening experience but it not everyone wants to
38:18
solo game for like two or three hours right so it's just a nice wasn't episodic but there were different eras
38:23
and time that you go through so obviously that that hour slot was roughly while you're in one time zone
38:29
and then when you come back you'll be in a different time zone continuing kind of the thread so yeah for me it was really
38:35
interesting cool and is it a big table presence or is it really compact just like your standard card game really oh
38:41
okay yeah yeah so for me I don't own any yet but I will do soon watch this space
38:49
yeah so Falling Skies is the only purely solid a game I've got and I must Adit
38:54
I've looked at things like final girl and coffee roaster and stuff but it's not enough I I mean I enjoy the solo
38:59
modes on the multiplayer games I've got M and obviously like the theer ones
39:05
Imperium Horizons and the collection to late I mean to me that's a game that feels like it is a solo game I know it's
39:12
not designed as a solo game per say I agree with you though but yeah I think I
39:17
well out of all my plays of the Imperium system that's Classics Legends and Horizons I've played it solo a hell of a
39:25
lot more and that is my top I think it is my number one solo game of all time
39:31
that one because it it's just as crunchy as hell it gives me that that you know
39:37
what I mean that that kind of like feeling of I've played a bloody game here tonight and you'll know if you played imperian before um and the bot
39:46
system in it is so easy to run for you know for for a tsy design it's just you
39:52
got the card you flip the card you tell what it is do that thing good next and
39:57
it's just you flow through it like really easily and it's just fast I say fast it's not fast but it's faster than
40:04
a two or three player game for sure um so you can kind of crack through it in 90 minutes if you know what you're doing
40:11
so yeah I love I love it love that game yeah I mean I think that probably leads on to S the next question of Are there
Are there games we just prefer to solo or really change the multiplayer experience?
40:18
games you prefer to play solo so T is there one you'd rather play solo than not I can't believe it's terraforming
40:24
Mars cuz that is an absolute bastard of a solo man yeah I'm definitely not that one that's I don't think so to be honest
40:30
I'd rather play with other people most of the time on what games I've play [Music]
40:36
solo no uh there I play Marvel Champions lows
40:41
on my own yeah I would sometimes say there's some villains I rather play on my own than with other people cuz they
40:48
get harder but I can't think of a game that I would say I would rather play it on my no I'm sorry just you no all the
40:55
multiplayer games I've got I personally think they're better with other people but I do enjoy them on the solo but I I
41:02
don't prefer to set up just to play on my own and then think I'll always just play thisone because it's much better no
41:09
yeah but I think that goes back to your point doesn't it that solo is another way playing games you enjoy but your
41:14
preference is still for the multiplayer experience yes so yeah Rob Dog yeah the
41:20
same for me really I think I guess the only thing that's different is kind of my personal head space that I'm in at
41:25
that time yeah you I mean if if I want to play too many bones just for the drinking game if anybody's sure yeah y I
41:33
didn't say it I've not said it you know if it's a Saturday like morning 11:00
41:39
a.m. and I've got nothing to do that day I think you know what I'll just get out boned take me a good couple of hours
41:46
happy days but I mean if if we had something on you know if it if it was later on and people were coming over I
41:55
said then happily play something else with with them as opposed to playing that on my own but it's hell of a lot
42:00
quicker on your own as well yeah so you know that element of it it's like I want to play bones but I don't want to sit
42:06
there for five six hours some cases I think actually you know I'll just play on my own so yeah it's more kind of my
42:13
head space on where I'm at when I want to play a game but I'd rather play the majority of the games that I own as
42:19
multiplayer yeah so there's not a game you go actually I I don't like it when I play with other people no no not at all
42:25
Mrs Robbie is listening apparently he's got too much time on his hands at the weekends find some stuff for him to
42:30
do she's good she ain't listening to this no no that's that's true she has
42:37
stated that she listened to the first three and went no thanks this this is not for me first
42:44
three that's quite good she got through three fun for most TV shows you have to watch the first three episodes before
42:50
you been it all B mind Rob's wife does not like gaming full start doesn't
42:55
matter what version or medium is right or anything anything to do with geek culture in general she's not into not
43:02
into not unless Chris Hemsworth is in it she she don't really want to know no he could be though couldn't he which is
43:07
fine cuz then I don't have to think about her when I'm buying ball games so it's all good fair
43:13
enough match made in heaven yeah pretty much so solo modes for multiplayer games
43:20
they do tend to obviously Sonos first thing they do is cheat a lot when they
43:25
playing against them yes but but are there solo modes that you feel substantially change a game from the
43:33
multiplayer experience so I've got I think the obvious example is probably something like AR NOA so the base solo
43:39
mode a little bit of T Soul just left his body the mention of that game stay
43:45
with me T stay with me T you're on own doubt sorry but I mean arova has a base
43:52
effectively a timer you've got like X number of goes to do something but one of the biggest problems with it is it doesn't cycle through the market row
43:58
enough the cards aren't moving through enough like you get a multiplayer experience and that does impact your
44:04
ability to play the game the way it should be done I know the aroot has come along and a much better version of that
44:11
and I mean I've got um a very light game called botany which is about Victorian plant Hunters fabulously overproduced
44:17
for quite a light game it is stunning though isn't it it is stunning to touch and to look at is just absolutely beautiful but it's basically a pickup
44:24
and delivery game you got a card hand of cards of flowers and they're on different locations to the map and you
44:30
just got to travel there and manage your money to make sure you don't run out money while you're in an expedition you come back you put your flowers in your
44:35
garden that generates more income increases your prestige and it's just first one to 12 points of prestige does
44:40
it when you but the one thing that's in there is some events kind of interrupt the game and affect players and affect
44:48
yourselves but that's the only bit of player interaction is you can pick up poisonous plants and they are negative
44:55
gain points and you can either just put them in your flower press and turn them into a single point or you can go back
45:01
home and stick them in someone else's garden and screw them over but when you do the AI that doesn't do it so the only
45:08
bit of interaction you got with the player is suddenly gone and you just put you through doing your own thing and it
45:14
kind of just for me that kind of taints the game because it's it's the whole experience of what you're trying to do with it and part of the little bit of
45:20
strategy in there just kind of goes away so on on that sort of theme Are there games that you guys have played where
45:26
the solo mode does differ quite a lot from the multiplayer experience well in
45:32
a negative way or well either way I mean if it's good or bad yeah the the one that's just screaming at me right now is
45:41
cloudspire so Cloud Spire solo and Cloud Spire multiplayer I like two different
45:47
games in my opinion even though what you're doing is essentially the similar
45:53
thing it's the way it feels in Solo play it's a puzzle and you're just trying to
45:58
crack the puzzle and you got a bunch of scenarios there's loads of them and you're like right how we're going to get
46:04
my head around this what you know what what's the scenario wanting me to do and you'll do it and you go damn that didn't
46:10
work try again damn that didn't work and then when you crack it and you're like
46:16
God I feel like a genius and you do you get to the end and go Jesus that I was cheating but you just feel like yes
46:23
you're really cheating if you get caught and it's it's just a different vibe to the multiplayer where you know it's
46:28
basically me versus you trying to outthink you and and and do all that kind of stuff but yeah SOLO is just a
46:34
it's like that solitire puzzle that you're trying to crack through in that rule set and yeah just feel different in a good way and actually it's probably a
46:41
game to answer your previous question that I would prefer to play solo so yeah
46:46
so it's yeah that's I can think I know there's more yeah I mean there was I
46:51
mean t obviously you like your multiplayer and you play solo because you can is there a solo mode that changes the game a lot played um Great
46:58
Western Trail New Zealand on solo B pretty much and um that I find that the
47:06
solo play is very hard because what he gets to do so basically the AI gets to put a
47:12
disc out at the end on TW when you get to the you sell your sheep and the amount of money you get you put the discs out to um get your VPS but the AI
47:21
does it anyway so it doesn't matter what he's doing he gets to that point he's putting a disc out twice or I think it's
47:28
one disc out all the time so his VPS are going to go up and up and up um when I first played I made a mistake and I
47:34
forgot to do that when I ReRe the rules and I played it a second time it did it and he doubled my score so it's like
47:40
really hard so I think when you play other people they might not have a good round or they might not do as well so
47:45
you might get that when you play other people but the AI will not falter so it's it makes it really really hard it's
47:51
a good point isn't it it's like they they don't go whoops I made a mistake they literally go I'm GNA Hammer this
47:57
strategy till till it comes home and you just got to keep up that's right and the other thing on rep Trail as well if you
48:02
put buildings out you get more movement which can slow the game up the AI just moves load so he doesn't really flop out
48:08
buildings he's got one card that flops out building and and that's if it happens and then so it can go really
48:14
quickly as well so it doesn't slow the game up so when you play with other people the game can last a lot longer and have more fun but with the AI it's
48:19
just fast all the time so that's one game I think that hits me that affects quite a lot so would you consider that a
48:26
good solo mode or just it is just different for me personally no I don't like ex solo mode where it's really hard
48:32
and I can't see how I'm going to beat it um I say someone like Curley who can really think out good engines and stuff
48:37
he might be able to beat the AO for me at the moment I've never I can't do it since I played the all right I've not been able to beat the he would beat the
48:42
solomo because he wouldn't play it no he wouldn't play that's true but I'm just saying for me myself now it does put me
48:48
off a little bit if the a is too hard and that is the easier I mean the harder mode for Great Western Trails they start
48:53
off with two more extra discs out on the VP track already so when the put the extra one out it's already further up so
48:58
that's how it makes it harder so the easy mode I can't even do so it's like so yeah so that's a big p off that one
49:04
yeah I I know what you mean there are some solo modes you just think what am I even doing it why am I why am I playing
49:10
this also in the back of your head you got they designed it so they must be able to beat it yeah and you're thinking how you know I basically is it that
49:18
there's a certain strategy or series of strategies that will work in Solo play that you've not found yet or yeah and
49:25
that might be where the game differs as well because what you're playing in our meta in our group works because that's
49:32
what you're dealing with but the solo mode might yeah be dealing with a certain strategy just don't know how to
49:37
to compensate for or whatever so it can actually when you figure those out can make you a better player or to
49:43
understand the game a bit more but you're right it doesn't feel good and you're like can't even be easy I'm I'm just going to go with bed never play
49:49
this again what about you rob uh for me not really because of the types of games
49:55
that I play um for me it's the fun element you know
50:01
it kind of it scratches an itch but it doesn't give you the full experience so
50:07
for me I'd much rather play my games with other people cuz that enhances the
50:12
experience of the game so I mean it makes the game better the solo Mode's fine but it's the enjoyment around the
50:19
table and I've said that from day one for me it's the it's the interactions around the table that make a game for me
50:25
so um so no to be honest I like I say the solo mode for me scratches a itch it
50:31
will pass the time it all kind of it serves a purpose but I'd much rather play with
50:37
with you know I'd much rather play a game with other people unless it's syy unless it's scye yeah and again it's a
50:44
good game it's just not for me how diplomatic have you rob well I'm trying
50:49
to be you're growing up yeah but just because I don't enjoy it doesn't mean it's I know [ __ ] game or anything like
50:56
that cuz I think there's a you know there's very different people out there and you know for a lot of people who
51:02
don't have a gaming group for example the solo mode might be the only way they get to experience that game full start
51:08
mhm so the fact that you have got bolt on single player modes like you know they might not be like I say the full
51:15
experience but they might be enough to see whether it's worth investing more time and getting but I think it's
The importance of solo play in our hobby
51:20
important that games have that solo player one player mode um because
51:27
out there in the Hobby and I think it's getting better actually but you know rewind 5 years ago there's a bit of
51:33
stigma attached to certain people in the hobby going well you solo game well you're not a real gamer and that's
51:39
obviously [ __ ] but you know and I think it's a lot more accepted now like you know if you only play solo and
51:45
that's your entertainment you're as much of a gamer as anybody else in my opinion 100% And you know probably playing more
51:51
games in yeah I think you are playing more cuz you just got to book yourself in for a night and off you go haven't
51:56
you but I I I still think it's it's massively important and I see it as the same thing as if you were sitting down s
52:03
on your Xbox or computer whatever it's the same thing it's escapism It's Entertainment yeah reading a book in you
52:11
know it's it's that kind of solo task it's good it's good for you it's good for the
52:17
soul anyway run over this mess this message has been
52:23
brought to you by JP it does annoy me because yeah the the you go on threads and th forums which is always a bad idea
52:29
that's your worst a bad idea in it but some people God you think gatekeeper attitude is shut up honestly let let
52:36
people do what they want to do man it's fine well if you will go on the internet we have told you about that yeah you
52:41
know there way better sites to go to than threads about board games well one of our um our friends Mark dainy does
52:48
not board gaming right and uh he's he does solo only that's all he does he review game solo modes and things like
52:55
that and did a video on it a few years ago stuck stuck in my brain about some
53:01
comments people were making and he just broke it all down it's just absolutely stupid what people can come up with so
53:08
yeah just want to it's a solo episode I want to bring it up and so if you do do solo you're welcome yeah absolutely I
53:15
mean i' I've watched that episode as well because I found it very interesting that I mean like I said I gave you a bit
53:20
of stick in the early days about solo mode mostly cuz I just don't really need a reason to but I it was nice to have
53:26
one um but yeah I I didn't understand solo mode I didn't understand what it was for um but now I totally get it and
53:34
it is a legitimate way to play games and like we said it's an opportunity to play games more than you could do because
53:41
we've all got busy lives we've all got things we need to do getting our game group together I mean this group does a
53:46
huge job of getting a lot of games to the table I mean it's a ridiculous amount of games I mean some of you really need to get lives um but there
53:54
are a huge number of games aailable aable for us to play so I would say this is probably quite unusual for a gaming
54:00
group to have so many opportunities to play games together but yeah SOLO games is just it is a legitimate way to play
54:06
games and for me it is a mental exercise I really enjoy I mean I really enjoy talking to myself that's a bit weird um
54:15
but I I I do enjoy just talking through it and working it out and trying to figure out what that puzzle is and they
54:20
are puzzles they are nothing more than puzzles just try to work it it's not about the opal moves it's not about it's just about
54:27
how do I make this work yeah how do I get my Combos and because you've got the time to think and you're not battling
54:32
other people you're not trying to watch what someone else is doing just focus on it and yeah getting a nice combo move
54:39
when you it's just high-fiving yourself self Five Bo but also the same thing when you make a mistake it's not as
54:46
impactful you don't feel like you've ruined somebody else's night because you got a rule slightly wrong you learn from
54:53
it you're like oh fair enough and and you either do it again or move on it's you know rack let's do this again
54:59
properly yeah I've done that a few times I had to do that with Gloom M Hill for really enjoying it I oh this game's a
55:05
lot easier than it made out to be like oh I forgot one of the major rules ah crap yeah going to have to play again
55:10
now exactly we've all done it yeah I mean I think yeah I've I've done it he like oh yeah I forgot to do that one or
55:17
I forgot to move that or take that coin or flip that token which if you're going to an event and it's a learning game
55:23
fair enough yeah but if if you're going to a game and you're expecting a not
55:29
well even a competitive kind of environment and there's a you know there's a rule that breaks the game it's
55:36
funny and you laugh about it for years but you know is ultimately a little bit disheartening when you've invested quite
55:42
a bit of time into a game you're going ah crap everything I did was null and void but when you're on your own there's
55:48
none of that pressure there's none of that you know you laugh about it to yourself and you move on you don't give it a second thought at least I don't
55:55
anyway and like I say if I'm not cheating at a game I'm not trying to win hard enough
56:00
so as we keep telling you the thing if I cheat myself I'm okay with that if I'm in that mood if I want to play around
56:06
with the game and think actually you know what would happen if I did this like I said I'm not going to mad is
56:12
it I'm not going to beat myself up about it your game exactly play it however you want yeah I mean I don't I don't when we
56:18
play multiplayer games because I don't play them as often as you guys I don't like the idea that I'm handing someone
56:25
else Victory just because I'm making mistakes or doing something and obviously with solo mode you don't have to worry about that I've never won yet
56:30
so I defin don't um I don't believe you you must have won one yeah but I think I
56:36
got a move wrong forget about that a win's a win baby take the win when no one's
56:42
looking so moving on because we're getting sort of to the end of the questions now have you
Have we tried fan made solo modes?
56:48
tried fan-made solo mode so there are a couple I I said I don't buy games without solo modes I have bought Forest
56:54
Shuffle it doesn't have a solo mode but there was a fan-made one and I did try it when it first came out and I've also
57:01
tried the ano 1800 fan-made solo mode which is now in the official expansion
57:07
anyway but has anybody else tried fanmate or do you only use official one I kind of forget there a thing I kind I
57:13
kind of forget to look to be perfectly honest with you again I'm not in deep of the hobby as most of you guys are so I
57:20
kind of forget there a thing so I mean there's there's new stuff for Imperial salt fan made there's new stuff for you
57:26
know quite a few of the games that I play I just kind of forget to look what I mean yeah no I have um I'm a
57:33
bit weird though cuz like house roles I'm not keen on and people like
57:39
yeah I just house R this and that and I'm I'm against house walls in general
57:44
but fan-made solo modes are a different so it's kind of like well it's just someone coming up with a a solution to
57:51
maybe something that doesn't exist or or maybe it's an improvement upon the the base um you know solo so weirdly you're
57:58
talking about agricul there is a fan-made app that um simulates someone
58:04
else on the board blocking and doing all of that and I much preferred that than the the standard solo mode because it's
58:10
literally like you say here's the amount of turns do what you can at least with this you feel like there's some logic
58:16
that is trying to block you or get in get in your way and all that kind of stuff so that was quite a fun experience
58:22
when I just I wanted to scratch that agricul it but I thought I just don't want to do the solo beat score thing but yeah no I'm I'm up for it I think wasn't
58:29
Arno when you talk about AR NOA that Arno was a fanade or is a fanade which has now been quite widely accepted in in
58:37
the um the the the community in the hobby space and I think even terraforming Mars had a a fan-made solo
58:44
bot which is now officially a product that you can buy um so now is official
58:50
so that's quite nice to see a fan go to to an official state so yeah I think it's great that people kind of come up
58:56
with that and um yeah trying and give it a go and especially when there's a needle there isn't one that exists but
59:04
at risk of it maybe maybe been a bit janky who know it depends on who does it and how it's tested right so yeah yeah I
59:10
mean I I've tried a few what about you too um I'm not really I've I've done um
59:16
the Marvel Champions go back to that again I've done it I'm on a Facebook page where it's all about the Marvel Champions community and they they put
59:21
challenges up so they they give you a villain with certain modules and like like say over Gordman go and they said
59:28
this is this is a weekly challenge try this yeah so I do that but it's not really a solo Fe you could do it with other people if you want to but you
59:34
could do on your own basically yeah that's how Marvel Champions works so that's about as far as it goes for me I hav't really seen the fan page part from
59:40
that but there is mean but that is giving a game more life I mean absolutely and I think that is that's
59:46
always a positive thing is just cuz I mean I know there are people who play games to death and you kind of think at
59:52
some point you just get fed up of it but if you can keep refreshing it with is stuff that isn't broken and isn't stupid house rules and stuff like that then
59:59
it's just another opportunity to give that game a bit more life yeah the other one I think this brings to mind Feast
1:00:05
for Odin I think um had a fan-made campaign that someone pulled
1:00:11
together for solo only and it basically goes along your your kind of tribe of
1:00:17
Vikings and in every scenario it twists the game up a little bit so it's like
1:00:22
well actually this strategy you can't do this strategy cuz all these row actions have now buggered off and there's a thematic reason why that's happened and
1:00:29
it's like well off you go and they seeed the occupation deck which is the the cards that you can play to give you your
1:00:36
engine and and again it's that twist the game up a bit give it a bit more life
1:00:42
and replayability and and vity culture did the same thing and I I still haven't properly attacked that um but
1:00:48
thematically it was like well you're in 1940s and you just acquired a Vineyard
1:00:53
and then off you go okay great and then it's like this has happened and you're going to have to deal with this event or
1:00:59
or something so again it just allows you to kind of try different strategies then you would used usually do you know like
1:01:06
the usual way you'd play a game you can now have to rethink and that's quite good it's like not tried that strategy
1:01:11
before and again in the feast roadin it pushed me into a completely different Avenue and I was like this has never work and it did and you're like wow I
1:01:18
didn't realize there's only points in that that's cool and again you can take that to your multiplayer experience so yeah it's good fan mes great yeah I
1:01:26
think so for for me the one I've enjoyed the most is ano 1800 so we play as a
1:01:31
group it's it hasn't got we didn't have an official solo mode and it was just this engine building pretty reasonbly
1:01:38
based close to the actual computer game itself um but there's a scenario where you basically play a series of scenarios
1:01:45
and they're literally tied to the computer game chapter so if you played the computer game all the different chapters of how you discover your Island
1:01:51
and build it and each one has restrictions like you can't trade this round or you can't have this level of
1:01:56
ship or you can't do this or by the time you get to later chapters the villains of the computer
1:02:02
game are going to rock up and start burning down your priority buildings so that just makes it completely different
1:02:08
as a game because all a sudden you you like as you said te to the Marvel Champion ones you're forced to go to a
1:02:14
scenario and you've got to build a strategy around that yeah and I think that makes it a little bit more interesting than just you've got 15
1:02:20
rounds do something yeah so but brings you into the world a bit more doesn't it and aut atically there's a reason why
1:02:27
you can't do certain things and you're this is quite good it's good fun even if it's a little bit janky for somebody to
1:02:32
kind of create that out of nothing but love because there's no Financial benefit you know if it's a bit janky but
1:02:39
if it provides you a way of one playing a game that potentially you wouldn't be able to play without other people or
1:02:45
injects longevity to a game that would kind of coming to the end of its play
1:02:50
time for you I mean what a great thing I mean you don't get that in many other communities
1:02:56
you know I just hats off basically if you if you love a game that much you're prepared to put that much time and
1:03:01
effort into it and it's good Fair place you yeah and to be honest even in the
1:03:07
modern world of the internet putting yourself out there in the first place is is a big step to particular to the
1:03:12
gaming like you said there are elements of The Gaming Community which can be a little bit fractures so to take a game
1:03:19
that you know is well is extremely popular and then say I want you to play this because I think this makes the game
1:03:24
better or it's a solo mode is is it's a big old step but I think broadly speaking Yeah the stuff you see out
1:03:29
there is pretty good quality especially as well considering it's quite an intrinsic hobby yeah you know what I
1:03:34
mean it's it's it's not you know it's not football for example it's not something that everybody is aware of let
1:03:42
alone takes part in yeah um and like you said putting yourself out online is a big step for anybody on any
1:03:50
topic let alone you know open open yourself up to criticism in that way is a big deal for anyone I care who you you
1:03:57
know kind of what you do to do that is a massive step so the fact that people even do that in the first place for me
1:04:02
is mindblowing one because I don't care enough about a game that much but two the like the creativeness of of certain
1:04:09
people I mean it's just like fair play to you it's it's it's something that I can't even comprehend how you begin
1:04:15
doing that let alone achieve it so yeah fair play to I think that's the
1:04:20
importance of board game geek in in that respect so you could probably look at any game that's sat on your shelf
1:04:25
whether it has a solo mode or not go on Ball Game Geek and just search in Solo mode on the threads and you'll probably
1:04:31
find someone has has knocked one together even one for Netrunner which I was like how how have
1:04:38
you done have we done a solo mode for Netrunner when you've got bluffing and that's like but someone's figured it out
1:04:46
not tried it but don't know how good it is but again someone will have a go of these these things like if it gives you
1:04:51
a way of playing that game when potentially you didn't have that before I mean that's that's all especially like you said it's not cheap
1:04:58
these games you know and and any way of getting more value for money out of out of it and and fair play I'd love to solo
1:05:05
net run I'm [ __ ] at it so you practice it would be good but anyway I'm
1:05:11
desperately trying not to go down that rabbit hole having played it with pool that evening do it do it do it so good
1:05:18
just no it is a good game I I was surprised um I've moved Beyond card games for some time now but I that the
1:05:24
elements of that just were really really interesting yeah so clever tough and it
1:05:29
can kick you in the balls but it's clever it frequently does does yeah yes balls for kicking
1:05:36
please so I mean that's pretty much it for um my topic of questions I suppose the
1:05:42
last thing I'm just going to ask is where do you engage with a solo
1:05:48
Community online I mean we've talked about you know there are a number of streamers who produce content which is purely solo based so Mart Dain is not
1:05:54
board gaming then there's Tom from Slicker drips is another one I follow a lot of solo play and obviously Paul Grogan does solo plays as well but do
1:06:01
you engage in things like Facebook groups or the BGG forums looking for advice or guidance or strategies on solo
1:06:09
play or do you just usually get on with it yourself and not partake I mean for me it's it's I just
1:06:17
kind of crack on I I I play my solo games by myself no differently than when
1:06:22
I'm around the table I pull levers and kind of see what happens you know I mean I like going in not
1:06:27
knowing so for me it's just set it up see what happens yeah I I definitely engage with
1:06:33
the content creators uh that that do it and I kind of see my solo gaming Hobby
1:06:39
and my multiplayer gaming hobby they're not there's the vend diagram where they cross over but they they do feel
1:06:45
separate as well so you know I've got my content creators I like for that stuff I've got my content creators for the other stuff so so yeah so there's
1:06:52
Facebook groups out there forget the one that I'm part of but I think it's solo game it's quite a big one that's out
1:06:59
there and there's loads of people in there just having a blast and they're like sharing like I just play this it's awesome and it's great to see um and you
1:07:06
know lots of people in the kind of similar circumstances where maybe they don't have the gaming groups and that's
1:07:12
the that's their outline and it's cool um so yeah it's usual methods really but
1:07:17
it's not load I would say it's not all the time um but yeah definitely like you
1:07:22
say Mark Dy the onstop co-op shop um there's another one that I kind of
1:07:27
jump on every now and then so yeah that is me me no yeah there you go I just be
1:07:34
straight for I don't know that's mean um I I got the Marvel Champions board gaming group on Facebook thing this the
1:07:42
community but apart from that though well that brings us to an end of our solo mode discussion I hopefully some of you found that interesting um thank you
1:07:49
for your time boys thank you for coming along mate considering you were dreading it so much
1:07:54
I you did a wonderful job it's good to talk about it like we we don't bring this topic up
1:08:00
enough I think in our normal episode that's why you've been knocking on the door um and yeah it's just good to have
1:08:06
the opportunity to just chat solo isn't it but also from another point of view that we we haven't had around the table
1:08:13
yeah true you know another another a different point of view and I think that's what makes our gaming group so
1:08:18
good is that there are so many different opinions and so many different points of view so to get a new one is it's felt to
1:08:24
be honest it's felt pretty [Laughter]
TURN 4 - Stewart's Niche Number 1's
1:08:34
refreshing so before Stuart goes should we do some nich number ones with him it's bit of fun yeah so quiz him and see
1:08:41
what what comes up oh dear see if we can make him smile at least once during the
1:08:47
podcast wow just just sorted out guest well done mate well done he's done nothing but insult me all even I know
1:08:54
well we're used to it that's cuz you're short I'll take that right question
1:09:01
number one this was from my very first round eons ago so what's your favorite
1:09:06
game that you've lost your [ __ ] over um it probably is scthe actually
1:09:11
when I first started soloing sidethe it did my head in and I just sat there going how the [ __ ] hell am I supposed
1:09:18
to win this yeah why is it teleport why does it move four hexes doing all that
1:09:23
all these guys I mean there are a couple times when there are some of the Lera solos where it goes seriously just how
1:09:30
many extra things are you having this turn but no scy was the first one I it almost got sold after I a really bad
1:09:39
game and scy was almost out the door but it has stayed now on his phone so good
1:09:45
good choice good choice what's your favorite game that
1:09:50
you're reluctant to play just because of the way it looks it's artist presentation
1:09:55
but then obviously when you played it he was like H surprised no I don't know I got pretty
1:10:01
games I like pretty games that's a problem I do like pretty games
1:10:07
um Seattle rebuilding Seattle it's quite Bland it looks a bit basic for a Tetris
1:10:16
game I do love it yeah but it's not a it's not a looker I mean we're talking
1:10:23
two bagger yeah a 10 to T
1:10:28
yeah it's an old reference from from when I was young um all right cool okay
1:10:34
so the final question is what is your favorite game that you should sell but you just
1:10:40
can't bring yourself to do it oh that's that's yeah okay so well I've actually
1:10:47
got two right now I'm just going back and forth on go on it's hard to say it's
1:10:52
a favorite game cuz I haven't played it but it's um League of dunge Engineers I kickstarted it I've got the expansion so
1:10:59
it's it's Rob it be right up your street I was just thinking yeah this I'll buy it so it's it's yeah it's a tabletop RPG
1:11:06
it's very much descent like I played at Expo loved it backed it but I'm now looking thinking I'm just not going to
1:11:14
play it oh have a solo mode yeah it does but it's I'm just looking there's so
1:11:19
much in the Box it's just insane please wipe your mic off Rob um
1:11:26
and and I'm just thinking it's it will probably have to go because I just I can't justify having it on the shelf and
1:11:32
not playing it when I've got other games I will play more readily unfortunately so it's not a favorite game but it's a
1:11:38
game that I've always I wanted really badly I went all in on the kickstarters but I just don't think I'm going to play
1:11:44
it now and it kind of breaks my heart but it's probably going to go can I ask potentially a new Niche number one
1:11:50
question go on slip it in and the question go on are you in
1:11:56
what would be the game that if you could go back and play it for the first time
1:12:01
again which game would that be like you know and knowing now how good it is you
1:12:07
wish you could go back and experience it for the first time it's good question
1:12:12
that is a good question actually um like for me it's Arkham
1:12:18
Horror cuz it's story based obviously you know what's going to kind of happen but yeah for me if I could go back and
1:12:24
play any game for the time again it' be Arkham I think for me
1:12:31
actually it would probably be Martin Wallace's disc world so it's
1:12:38
an old game you can't get it anymore and you can get it for stupid money online um secondhand and it's quite a simple game
1:12:45
and now I've now I've played all the stuff I have played and JP's led me down the dark path of complex games I don't
1:12:52
enjoy it as much as I used to and we still play it when the boys come home
1:12:57
and stuff but I want to have that first Joy I want it I want to like it as much as when I first played it and I don't
1:13:04
quite now I won't get rid of it cuz it's Terry pratchet and it's sentimental but
1:13:12
I'd like to enjoy as much as I first did and I just can't anymore because of the games I played so that is yeah it's a
1:13:18
difficult one actually kind of bit sweet a little bit yeah I'm going to cry now thanks sorry man it's a good question
1:13:25
I'm not sorry should add that to the bank mate that question was a good one that's a
1:13:31
good one I cuz I I thought about it and I was like I really should sell Arkham Horror but I just it led from that
1:13:37
question do you know what I really should get rid of it but I just can't quite bring myself to do it yeah even
1:13:43
though I know that if I play it again it's a different experience completely different but I really want it to be
1:13:51
yeah and I think that's part of the problem of our Hobby to a degree and like you you and I about leveling up as
1:13:57
Gamers and this kind of stuff the more games we play the more complex the heavier the more interesting
1:14:03
the more varied those first loves do lose their luster yeah the the first time we's
1:14:10
played Battle Star blew my [ __ ] mind yeah first time we played it I was like this this isn't a board game this is
1:14:17
this is an experience and it was funny and it was ridiculous and honestly I've never swore
1:14:24
it strangers much for my life like you know to go back and have that again would be that would be beautiful but I
1:14:30
mean most of the games that I started with the hobby I don't own anymore and it's because of that same reason it's
1:14:36
just they were incredible when I first played it absolutely incredible XCOM
1:14:41
there's nothing else like this game it's such an experience but now I've played loads more and I've got into loads more
1:14:48
I kind of found my My Lan in Hobby and what I really enjoy and what I probably
1:14:53
don't enjoy as much now so yeah we'll never get that that that feeling it's that chasing Nostalgia isn't it you're just not quite the same so now I think
TURN 5 - The Final Turn
1:15:01
that about wraps it up Stu and say massive thank you for for joining us this evening it's always good to see you
1:15:06
and uh yeah for this experimental expansion pack episode where who knows we might get some more listeners as
1:15:13
guests on in the future we'll see how it goes but no thank you for listening to to the show um if you enjoyed the show
1:15:19
then please like subscribe and do all of the lovely things that just makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside um
1:15:25
and if you want to support the show we have coffee which is K fi and you can support us and make sure that we can
1:15:31
keep producing content and keep the uh getting the equipment that we need and just keep growing this great podcast
1:15:37
that we're we're all a part of and that we love to do you can get engaged with the show as well all our details are in
1:15:42
the show notes and you know email socials all that lovely stuff but all that's left to say is whose turn is
1:15:51
it turn's turn is it that is anyway baby