Solo only games is perhaps the freshest design space in board games. Unlike the solo modes you find in your new favourite euro games, solo only games are board games designed to be exclusively played by one. They range from small boxes, like today’s subject - Unreliable Wizard, to big extravaganzas like Hoplomachus: Victorum (which we have also covered in the past).

By not having to accomodate rules for multiple players, they can really zero in on to what makes a solo game fun! But, what is that? What do we want solo games to do? What’s the thing that translates them from ticking mechanisms to delights on a table?

Today we answer that question by taking a peek at a game that doesn’t really succeed at being a fun time. And through that angle we can then cotrast it with ones that do, like Maquis and Witchcraft! and within the difference, there’s more than one answer.

No Pun Included