Solo gaming; playing with yourself (or 'solitaire' as we prefer to call it!)

Perhaps I should update this thing! Most of my musing has been on Facebook as I find the interface quicker to use, but with a few larger hobby projects on the horizon it's time to blow the dust off this blog yet again.

Much has happened since May 2011; I've moved house twice (and purchased a house), lost contact with old gaming buddies and reconnected with them again, stumbled around the local gaming clubs, tried my hand at whipping up an MMO with Unity, given up on 40k (but still refusing to offload my figures just in case I am hooked again), repainted/repaired/consolidated my collection of late80's/early90's Rogue Trader Ultramarines as proxies for their contemporary equivalents, collected an Undead army for Kings of War, collected a Forgefather army for Warpath, briefly played Bolt Action, attempted to play GHQ micro-armour, currently playing In Her Majesty's Name and eagerly awaiting delivery of Deadzone next week.

Amongst all that I've been playing Zombicide and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game in solo mode. Whilst it may seem a little sad to play with yourself (lol!) as a nightshift worker my only opportunity to meet up and game with other humans is Friday evening, Saturday and occasionally Sunday mornings. With such a small window of opportunity I seem to be able to get some gaming in but it requires careful coordination, commitment from friends and crackerjack timing. So during the week I indulge in self-satisfaction; Zombicide and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

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Solitaire: Zombicide

Having missed the initial release of Zombicide I decided to jump in when the second 'season' was Kickstarted this year (or should that be Kickstartered? /shrug). I ordered the original game, Prison Outbreak, Toxic City Mall and as part of the Kickstarter deal they threw in some extra characters, extra zombies and a selection of dogs (both friendly companions and nasty zombie-dog versions). To be honest I feel squeamish about the dogs; the thought of faithful hounds succumbing to a zombie horde or forcing my heroes to slaughter zombie dogs doesn't appeal. Yet.

Zombicide is heaps of fun. I imagine it is even more fun with friends and booze but it's still a blast as a solitaire game. The components are lovely, the rules are very easy to learn and the feel of the genre is captured (the action sequences if not the classic cabin fever - but it is an action game not a cabin fever game!). Firing a gun or using a chainsaw creates noise tokens which attract zombies. Any zombie which starts in the same square as your survivor automatically causes damage, which also strips you of an item - so as you lose wounds you also lose the precious weapons required to fend zombies off... and you can only suffer two wounds! Well, heroes are too heroic to become mindless zombies so they rise up as 'Zombivors' (Zombie-survivors) more durable than their human lives but less versatile - it's an optional play mode but it definitely helps the solitaire player. As players dispatch zombies they earn experience points which can be used to unlock extra abilities BUT as their effectiveness increases the number of zombies which spawn also increases!

Exploring zones permits the player to flip the next card in the loot deck which can provide food (required to complete some missions), materials (bottle + gas = molotov!) weapons and occasionally more zombies. As a solo play experience it is therefore possible to modify or stack the deck in your favour although my recommendation is to play the equipment deck as instructed - so when an Assault Rifle shows up it feels like a real treat!  

The tiles which are used as a game board are dense cardboard with a textured surface similar to the high quality game tiles released for 4th ed D&D a few years ago. The figures are nicely sculpted and colour-coordinated to speed up gameplay. I found some of the tokens a bit fiddly and the experience point tracker (clip) is quite annoying but these are minor gripes. 

In my last game three of my four survivors became overwhelmed at a crossroads when they couldn't get away from a Fatty (as the name suggests; a large zombie which is surprisingly durable). They were able to destroy waves of walkers and runners as they surged into the crossroads but didn't have enough actions remaining after the carnage to move away from that Fatty. Alas one by one they succumbed to the relentless wave of undead while their friend who had escaped scurried from building to building trying not to make too much noise and desperately attempting to secure the objectives to end the game. Of course once the crossroads were overrun the next target was our short-lived friend!

I haven't added cars to my games yet and I tend to keep playing with the same four heroes; Ralph (re Woody Harrelson in Zombieland), Raoul (veteran medic, apparently the product of a customer's design from season one), Kim (a 'lucky' underground casino worker?) and Shannon (popularly considered to be inspired by Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3 but others have suggested Demi Moore's GI Jane). Ralph and Shannon are the shooters with Steady Hand and Point-blank respectively while Raoul tries to unlock his Medic ability and Kim is just Lucky.   

It takes a bit of effort to set everything up on the kitchen table and some missions are completed faster than the premise seems to suggest but the game is fun and fast with a creepy feeling of dread as the zombies start to amass.

Raoul's heroic last stand.

{Click for large version}

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Solitaire: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 'Rise of the Runelords'

This is another game I jumped into with an order of the Base Set, Character add-on and second adventure pack - a decision I reached quickly after reading a few reviews and watching a demo game on Youtube. A few days ago the whole lot arrived on my doorstep and after peeling back all that plastic wrapping I've managed to play through two scenarios.

Again the rules are straight-forward. There are some concepts which require a few re-reads to understand but I found the learning curve shrank quickly once I set a game up and worked my way through the mercifully thin rulebook. The cards are lovely and the base set box includes a component tray to keep your cards organised! This is a great idea. Thoughtfully there is enough space to fit all the planned expansions too.

The feel of D&D (or D&D 3.75 if you prefer, or Pathfinder if you prefer) is captured with familiar character classes and classic monsters. Locations have their own mini-decks that are made up of a mix of random 'boons' such as loot, allies and blessings and 'banes' which are monsters, traps and henchmen. This gives a feeling reminiscent of the old random encounter tables I loved so much in the late 80's; poking around in a dungeon can reveal goblins, treasure chests, pit traps and many many other things. 

The game includes a range of polyhedral dice (everyone except big d20) which are used to resolve the challenges your character faces while exploring locations. It's essentially the D20 system without a d20, so my Rogue who is not-very-academic resolves her Intelligence challenges with a lowly d4 but when she attempts to Disable a trap she rolls a mighty d12+2. This is another way the game recreates the feel of the old tabletop D&D experience - success or failure are only a die roll away :P 

Character creation consists of choosing one of the pregenerated characters and building a custom mini-deck for them of fifteen cards. Spellcasters require more spells in their deck while Rogues require more items - the quantity of each card type is provided on the flipside of the character card. Other than custom building your character with their personal selection of cards the characters can be improved as adventures are completed by ticking checkboxes to increase key abilities. At later stages of their career characters can even specialise with 'role' cards, each of which is tailored to their class - so the Ranger can become a Tracker or a Sniper, the Wizard can become an Illusionist or an Evoker, etc.

Time ticks by in the form of a deck which counts thirty turns, although in the two games I've had time wasn't an issue. Your character's health is measured by their character deck - if you are required to draw a card when your deck is empty your character dies! So you can burn through your deck discarding those blessings and allies which allow you to explore your location again or conserve them while the timer ticks down.

As a solo experience I found Pathfinder Adventure Card Game quite enjoyable although much of this joy comes from nostalgia. A clever take on card gaming to capture the feel of old-school tabletop dungeon delving. The game is fairly quick to set up although sorting locations and their decks out can take a few minutes.

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Overall

Both Zombicide and Pathfinder Adventure Cards capture the feel of their genre. Zombicide may be more appropriate for non-gamer friends (ie 'normal people') whilst Pathfinder Advenure Cards is perfect for old D&D grogs. Both are equally well designed for solo play and both have equal opportunity for stacking the deck in your favour if you are so inclined.   

Zombicide with all its' expansions will take up slightly more than three times the shelfspace as Pathfinder Adventure Cards which is the usual situation when comparing a miniatures boardgame to a card game. Still, this may be an issue for some readers. My hobby room is already full so both these games have spilled into my bedroom...