that's such a great idea! and now i think i'll start doing so too. do you have any recommendations for board games which can be played solo?
I don't have a huge collection, but I just signed up for a board game trial (?) service. A local pop-up game company will lend you a board game twice a month, so I figured it'd be a good way to try new games out, share with my friends, without having to invest in the full price.
I just signed up, so I haven't tried them yet, but can report back: I've got
Leaf and
Mass Transit.
For games I own and have played:
I really like the "roll-and-write" genre (where you roll dice or flip cards and everyone writes on their sheet the number, Yahtzee is the best known example) because they tend to be easy to teach/learn and don't require a ton of set-up. I've got
Railroad Ink (there are a TON of variants, so you can pick your favorite theme),
Welcome To, and
French Quarter. Those are roughly in order from easiest to learn to hardest. (I play French Quarter by myself the most often, though, because the complexity adds high replay value.)
Finspan is also a favorite both with friends and by myself. Someone described it as "fish solitaire" which it kind of is! It has more setup than the roll-and-writes do, so I tend to only break it out when I'm in the mood for a few playthroughs. There is an "competitor" that you're supposed to setup too, but I've played it enough times that I prefer to not. 😅 I just aim for a personal high score/good game.
Wingspan and
Wyrmspan are similar games with different themes (Wyrmspan is the most PvP competitive of the three and Wingspan has the most "RNG can screw or save you" element, but they're all fun in their own ways.) So if you like dragons or birds more than fish, those also have solo modes. I've played Wyrmspan solo too; I just like the solitaire-esque aspect of Finspan more for solo play.
I'm relatively new to really trying to build up a board game collection -- I just got a table that's even large enough to play board games earlier this year. My general approach has been prioritizing theme (if I'm going to be looking at something for a long time, I want to like the way it looks), games that I think my friends will also like playing, and like I said, has a solo mode. I follow
SUSD and
The Dice Tower for reviews. Polygon used to have a series called
Overboard, where they played board games, which still has a ton in their playlist. So those have been helpful for finding games that I think I might like to try. (I got Railroad Ink after watching
SUSD's review on it, for example.)
So long, but hopefully that helped! I can also let you know as I get into my board game lending trial service thing... how different games feel to play solo!