RogerBW's Blog

The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, organised on BoardGameGeek. I do this occasionally, and when the inaugural real-world meeting was suggested in the UK, I went along. What could work better than a bunch of solo gamers getting together in one place? Actually, it was an excellent day - in a village hall in the middle of nowhere, bring your own food and drink (but much in the way of snack makings provided by the organiser), eleven people.

With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

The day began with F**k. The game, which is more or less the Stroop effect system of "say the colour rather than the printed name of the colour", with bonus swearing. Actually quite fun, though I wouldn't want to play it often.

We went on with Grand Prix, since all eleven of us could play at once. It's all about careful positioning and getting your cars carried along by other people's movement as well as moving on your own. There was very heavy elimination in the early turns, and I got knocked out significantly before the end; I'd really want to fix that, though it's probably better to remove cars from the race when they've fallen far enough behind than to get them to carry on hopelessly.

I'd brought along Firefly: The Game, and three of us went on to that, playing Monty in the Artful Dodger, Mal in Jetwash, and me as Atherton in the Interceptor. The story was Niška's Holiday, so heavy on the Misbehaves; I was able to put together a solid and keyword-heavy crew, which allowed me to avoid the worst consequences of the new Crime & Punishment misbehaves. I even got by without any wanted crew most of the time, though I couldn't resist a forgotten Zoe at Silverhold. One player was a turn or two behind me, but I made it to the end to claim the prize.

Some people had gone to the pub for supper; the rest of us had an eight-player Lost Legacy, which is a bit like Love Letter on steroids, with a "ruins" series of cards and a single treasure card that everyone's looking for. It's all a bit uneven but rather fun.

We went on to Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg, a social deduction game where I felt completely lost: some players managed to work out their team-mates and what to do, but I didn't get the information I needed until it was too late to use it. Nonetheless I wouldn't mind giving this another try some time, and the art is pretty decent.

Some of the others had wanted to try Aeon's End, so I got that out next. We had a very tough fight, but did manage to beat the Rageborne, with one non-exhausted mage and Gravehold just barely hanging on. Great fun, and I think some of the others will be buying it.

Last game of the night for me was Sagrada, where I had a great time coming last. Alas, nobody has this in stock at a sensible price at the moment.

All in all it was a very fine day, and I look forward to possible future meetings.