Giving CCGs the Patience makeover

Remember this classic?

Yes, Wizards of the Coast once posted an official "Solitaire Magic" variant that used traditional solitaire stacks and three-card draws. You can find the rules for it HERE.

Recalling such a variant leads me to wonder if other CCGs - particularly the dead ones lingering in the back of my closet - might benefit from a Patience makeover!

Too often, I've tried to adapt an old multi-player CCG into a solo game while trying to maintain the feel of the original multi-player rules, but I've only experienced minimal success. Creating automatic opponents for a card game can be tricky stuff since, by its nature, card games work on the balance between the cards that can be seen and the cards that remain known only to an opponent. "Programming" automatic opponents in a board game is usually much easier because, most of the time, all of the elements affecting play are in view.

So, are there any variants already in existence that merge CCGs with more traditional solitaire rules?  Do you have one of your own?

Let us know! I want to dust off my Spellfire collection (stop laughing.) and give it a go!

Star Trek Expeditions Video Review

StarTrek.com has posted a video review of the new Wizkids/Reiner Knizia Star Trek Expeditions for 1-4 players.

From StarTrek.com:

The wait is almost over. Star Trek Expeditions, one of the most-anticipated Star Trek games in recent memory, will be available starting on June 15 at hobby, game and specialty retailers. Designed by 2002 Gaming Hall of Fame inductee Reiner Knizia, Star Trek Expeditions – from WizKids/NECA -- is a cooperative board game set in the universe of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) feature film, with one to four players assuming the roles of Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Uhura, and the players banding together against the game itself. Read on for additional details, and be sure to check out the exclusive video review above provided to us by Jeremy D. Salinas of Drakkenstrike Videos.

See the video HERE.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

This week, Fantasy Flight Games released The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

From the game's description:

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a fully cooperative card game that puts 1-2 players in control of the most powerful characters and artifacts of Middle-earth. Players will select heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts, and coordinate their efforts to face Middle-earth’s most dangerous fiends. By cooperating to overcome the obstacles drawn from the encounter deck, you will complete the quest before you and claim victory!

Here is the first in a series of video tutorials:

Chronicles of Arax FAQ

Crystal Star Games just posted a free FAQ document for download via Drive Thru RPG.

From their announcement:

We get a lot of questions here at Crystal Star Games about our Chronicles of Arax solo adventure game. So, rather than spend time answering you all individually (time that could be better spent writing more stuff for the game!) we have put together a Frequently Asked Questions document for you.

If you have any questions that are not answered here, please email us at crystalstargames [AT] gmail [DOT] com and we will add these to the next version.

This F.A.Q. will be updated over time, so check back every now and then for updates.

Get the FAQ HERE.

Space Infantry

Thanks to a recent e-mail from Michael S., I've discovered Gottardo Zancani's solitaire game of sci-fi combat, Space Infantry!

From the description:

Space Infantry is a solitaire game of squad-level combat in the future, published by Lock'n Load Games. In Space Infantry you control a team of 4/8 soldiers on a series of missions that can be played individually or as a campaign.

Each mission takes about 20 minutes to be completed.

SI is a modular game; the overall structure of SI will make possible to easily add new features to the game (missions, enemies, equipment): this means that in the future additional components will add new options to the existing missions, increasing the lifetime of SI.

For more, check out the official website HERE.

Dungeon Crawler "Delve Packs"

On the heels of our interview with Dungeon Crawler's designer Jey Legarie, Gifted Vision has just announced new "Delve Packs" for their solitaire/multiplayer CCG.

From Gifted Vision:

We've listened to our customers and resorted our randomly packaged booster boxes into 5 neat little non-random bundles we're calling Delve Packs.

Delve packs are non-random 52 card expansions for your Dungeon Crawler game. We've broken down the Unbound random booster boxes and reconfigured them into these easy to collect packs. These could be used in place of a starter.

1/5, Keldorna

2/5, Stonehold

3/5, Outlands

4/5, Sylvan Woods

5/5, Barren Mountains

This makes for an easy point-of-entry for anyone considering trying Dungeon Crawler but wary of blind purchasing.

For more information, go to the official site HERE.

Campaign Rules for Heroclix Solo Wargaming

The following is the third of three optional rules that have been designed to work with the Solo Wargaming Rules for Heroclix posted in January on Solo Nexus. All three optional rules will be in effect during my November 2011 Solo Tabletop Gaming Appreciation Month campaign, a multi-battle, super-powered war played out on a real map of NYC.

Campaign Rules (optional)
Multiple games may be organized such that the outcome of one game affects the conditions and composition of subsequent ones, increasing the number of unanticipated elements for the solo player.


Preparing the Campaign

• All games are planned in advance by choosing the intended build values, opposing forces, and maps.
• The number of games planned is dependent upon how sizable the solo player wants the “war” to be.
• Campaigns are arranged in phases. Games in the same phase are considered to occur simultaneously and have no effect on one another. Games with higher phase numbers are considered to happen later than games with lower phase numbers and may have “survivors” from earlier phases added to their forces if the phases are “tied” to one another. Any number of phases may be tied to other phases.
• To unite the campaign, the overall conflict should follow a theme (e.g., heroes vs. villains, Marvel vs. DC, JLA vs. Injustice Gang, etc.) so that it is clear to which new force survivors will be added.
• The last phase of the campaign must be a single game – a final battle to determine the winning side!

SAMPLE THEME GAME: Two Phases, Two Games
The arrow below indicates that survivors of Phase 1, Game 1 will be added to their thematically-corresponding force at the beginning of Phase 2, Game 1. (Click to enlarge.)

SAMPLE TEMPLATE: Three Phases, Seven Games
The arrows indicate which phases and games are tied together on the way to the climactic Phase 3 battle. (Click to enlarge.) 

Survivors

• Any character remaining on the battlefield at the end of a game that is tied to a succeeding phase is a survivor and will become a member of its thematically-comparable force in the next phase.
• If a game ended in a rout, the characters remaining on the battlefield from the losing force are also considered survivors and will be part of the next phase’s game.
• Survivors do NOT return their combat dials to their starting lines; all damage taken during their original game remains when they move on to the next phase.
• Survivors are placed in the Starting Area with the planned force in the next phase unless the optional Randomized Mustering Rules are being used, in which case survivors will enter the Starting Area on the turn after all of the planned force’s characters have entered their Starting Area.
• If the original planned force was a keyword theme team, theme team bonuses are still in effect and will also apply to survivors that share the same keyword.
• Regardless of how many extra points of characters are added to a phase by survivors, the game’s original point value action allotment remains the same.

Weather Continuity
If the solo player considers the campaign to be taking place within the same geographic location and the optional rules for weather are being used, then the Weather Events established for the first game of a phase played on Outdoor or Indoor/Outdoor maps will apply to all games played on Outdoor or Indoor/Outdoor maps within that phase. To determine if the weather worsens, remains the same, or improves as the campaign moves from phase to phase, roll 1d6 before the first turn of the first game of every subsequent phase and consult the chart below. (Click to enlarge.)

Declaring Victory
Since all phases and games eventually lead to a final climactic battle, the victorious side is the winner of the final game, regardless of the previous wins or losses accumulated by that force’s “side” of the conflict during all previous phases. This, then, makes the cumulative effect of phase-to-phase survivors a critical aspect of the overall campaign.

Interview with Dungeon Crawler's Jey Legarie

Dungeon Crawler, the CCG of fantasy adventure, has gotten a lot of attention thanks to its original design mechanics which allow for solitaire or multi-player gaming that can be cooperative or competitive. Creating such a versatile game system was certainly not an easy task, so I pestered Dungeon Crawler's creator Jey Legarie of Gifted Vision to chat with us about what went into such an ambitious project.

Solo Nexus: Dungeon Crawler is one of those rare games that includes solo rules that are as robust as - and possibly even more fun than - its multi-player competitive rules. Clearly, this is no accident. So, which came first, the solo concepts or the competitive design?

Jey Legarie: Dungeon Crawler was designed as a solo game first, but we wanted to allow for group gaming. All four formats were always on the table, but after our hardcore testing sessions we discovered that each format required its own rule set to be entertaining.

SN: When creating a game with simultaneous solo and multi-player design objectives, regardless of the type of game that it is, what caveats must the designer heed to ensure that neither variant of the game suffers because of the other?

JL: Set balance. You need countermeasures for whatever you create without nullifying the usefulness of other cards in any given format. The power balance can be influenced on whether your are trying to just survive a dungeon in solo or cooperative, or collect as many points as possible each Round in Competitive or Multiplayer. In general we have more powerful cards with less versatility (can not be used against your opponent) and more versatile cards with lower power to force the players to make a choice when designing their decks. You also have to consider cards that are overpowered in reference to how they can be used or abused in each format.

SN: Did the CCG format make simultaneous design more manageable and flexible?

JL: Having DC as a CCG really helped to act as guidelines for which cards would be rare; and therefore which cards would be powerful but perhaps niche pieces like Reflect or cards you would want a limited number of such as Adventurers or Quests.

SN: Speaking of flexible, solitaire quests in Dungeon Crawler are categorized as "easy," "standard," or "hard." How were you able to distinguish one category from the other while keeping competitive game design in mind?

JL: In competitive there is no range of difficulty, more than likely these by default will be extremely difficult because of the nature of the format. In Solitaire, you can select your difficulty by tailoring your own dungeons (or creating them randomly). In terms of design, these two factors never really crossed over. We knew that people could put 4 of any one card in their decks, and kept this in mind to prevent overwhelming issues as best as possible.

SN: After a few months of player feedback, did you notice the need for rules tweaks because of the solo/competitive duality of Dungeon Crawler's design?

JL: As we went to print we knew there would be rule tweeks required, not because we didn't feel the rules were complete, but because we knew that no 2 players reads or interprets things the same way. Our research showed that even very large companies still required online FAQs, Errata & revisions, so we planned to use this as a fallback in delivering up-to-date information on any changes. We even caught some backlash for not having as many graphics as other rulebooks on the market. As feedback began to return to us we found that we had a particularly difficult learning curve and had to enhance our own terminology to get certain mechanics across to our new players with as little confusion as possible. Although nothing beats a personal demonstration, we are always working towards better ways to deliver our rules to new players via self-learning methods.

SN: Dungeon Crawler's fans have enthusiastically responded as much to the fantasy world of the game - as evidenced by the fan fiction submitted to the DC site - as they have to the game itself. In your opinion, does a deep solo-play experience facilitate improved engagement with a product or just a different sort of engagement than in a multi-player game?

JL: We feel that the back story and interaction with our customers can only enhance the DC experience. So definitely "improved" would be my answer to this. The fan-fiction actually gives us feedback as how people are viewing the game, and although DC has a specific mythos and chronology, it shows just how versatile it can be for any fantasy world.

SN: What's in store for the future of Dungeon Crawler?

JL: Oh the things I would like to tell you! But, of what I can tell you, our current focus is on two fronts. Primarily we are making a push to discontinue our randomized booster boxes and reconfigure them in to a new product which will be sorted small packs we're calling "Delve Packs". These products will be available directly from us only, and within the next couple months. We feel that this will allow us to close the gap between the price of a starter and the price of obtaining a completed collection. Speaking of expanding, we are also working on our first expansion set the "Mines of Khurgan", we have art orders coming in on a regular basis and we will be jumping in to the next phase of our testing of the set posthaste.We also have a few other things in the works which should help in teaching the game to newcomers and allow them to learn the game much quicker.

Thanks, Jey! 

For all you need to know about Dungeon Crawler, visit the official site HERE.

Reminder: November 2011 is Solo Tabletop Gaming Appreciation Month

Just a quick note to remind everyone that November 2011 is Solo Tabletop Gaming Appreciation Month. Solo Nexus was created to build up interest, resources, and encouragement for that event, and, hopefully, this blog has been living up to the task.

During 11/11, I'm hoping veteran solo gamers will "go big" and play something solo on a scale the likes of which they've never played before! Likewise, I also hope that those who have always thought about getting into the solo tabletop hobby - whether RPG, CCG, or war game - will finally give it a try. In either case, Solo Nexus would love to report all of the action, observations, and experiences during 11/11, whether through full after-action reports, links to personal blogs, or general musings of the solo player.

So, start thinking about what you'd like to play! Many of us are solo gamers because real life has impinged upon our leisure time in one way or another, so planning ahead (i.e. purchasing, prepping, painting, pondering, etc.) is important!

Next month marks the six-month countdown to November 2011, and, at the beginning of May, I'm going to ask solo gamers to make a public commitment to the 11/11 game of their choice. Hopefully, the last three months of Solo Nexus have given some of you the impetus to consider getting involved. Now, it's almost time to make a personal pledge to your favorite game(s)!

Of course, if you think planning your game six months in advance is too soon, then feel free to take your time. Having fun is what this is all about! However, some of us have responsibilities and schedules that demand that we scrupulously select and protect our personal game-time, and what better way to do that then by marking our calendars far enough in advance to stave off any unwanted "treading" on our special days?

So, start thinking! We look forward to your plans!