So, most people are going to be somewhat familiar with the idea of an escape room. They have been something very popular in the US at least over the last handful of years and have been a concept for longer than that starting in 2007. The idea of these are that you and a group get placed into a room with a time limit on how long you have to escape. You need to work together to find clues, solve, puzzles, and get out of the escape room. These are generally themed around something, maybe you are trying to get out of an asylum or you are doing a jail break.

They’ve taken this over to board games in a few different ways and series of games. Some of the games are intertwined stories that expand over time as you go. Others are one off games that pit you and a group against a certain amount of time or will give you a score based off of how long it takes and how many clues you use. In these games you have things like ciphers to break, numbers leading to the next thing hidden on cards, in images, and so many more different puzzles.

Players in these games work together to solve these puzzles, it might be somewhat on their own, but generally there is free communication and collaboration around the table as you try different solutions and race against the time. Fairly often that means that these games could play an infinite number of players, but since everyone needs to see what is on the cards, there is limited real estate to do that, so more than a handful starts to become a little bit cramped.

But let’s look at some games in this style:

Gateway Game

Unlock – This is a series of games that aren’t connected except around mechanics. In these games you are using cards to find items, figure out puzzles and get to the next room so that you can eventually escape. It might be something like escaping from Oz or a submerged submarine or a haunted house. What these games do different than some is that you buy them as a one off or in a set of three. And each is playable once by the same group, but they aren’t destructive in nature. What I mean by that is not pieces need to be modified to solve any of the puzzles. It also uses an app integration for the timer and for entering in codes to see if you can unlock some doors or open a safe. This allows them to create some nice thematic tension with a sound track for the game you are playing.

Medium Weight

Exit – Now, there isn’t a massive difference between Unlock and Exit, both of them are pretty light weight, Exit is just going to have you stretch your brain more because you have more puzzles and more almost disconnected puzzles in it. Along with that, Exit is a destructive game. That means that you might end up pulling apart some of the box to get something or cutting up a piece of paper in order to able to easily solve the puzzle. The reason I say that this is medium weight versus Unlock’s gateway level is because that you can’t just focus directly on the puzzle, you have to go over everything because you don’t know where a clue to solve the puzzle might be hidden so it stretches the brain more but can be more frustrating as well for that reason, but if Unlock seems to easy, Exit is a slight step up.

Heavy Weight

TIME Stories – Now, I actually, again, don’t think that TIME Stories is too heavy, and there might be some people who disagree with this being an escape room game, but it certainly has a lot of the elements of it. You’re trying to figure out what is going on in a timeline after you and your team are sent into the past, future, another dimension, to stop something that is about to royally mess up the timeline. Your memories and knowledge are put into a body there so you can blend in, You go on runs trying to solve the case, and if you run out of time with the event happening the TIME agency can send you back in again, equipped with the knowledge that you have to try and solve it again. For this reason TIME Stories, while once you complete the case is basically a one and done, has a longer playing time and more game that you can get out of it. It’s also is easier to play over multiple sessions because you can more easily save between the runs that you make. Overall, not an extremely complex game, but it has more moving parts than the others do.

There are a lot more Escape Room games out there or games that have a similar feel to them. I did a Board Game Battle recently between TIME Stories and Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, and while there are similarities, TIME Stories has more of an escape room feel versus Detectives more deductive feel. What are some of your favorite escape room style board games? Do you like escape rooms in real life, if so, how do the games compare to the places?

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Aeon’s End: War Eternal – This one showed up on the epic list as well, but it works in both spots. I’ve actually only played this one solo, and I had a lot of fun with it. In this game you are playing as one or more breach mages (I’d recommend more as it’s easy to play multiple), who are defending the town of Gravehold from the monsters that are attacking it. It’s a cooperative deck building game with an interesting mechanic where you don’t shuffle your cards, so if you are smart, you can set-up a good turn. I’m not to that point yet.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game – While I think that Mansions of Madness can be good solo as well, it’s a big game, so it’s nice to have multiple players for helping track everything. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a smaller footprint of a game and really plays well solo. In multiplayer, between book keeping and turn down time, it might be a little bit slow, but as a solo game, you can go through the story fast. The story in this game works well, the only downside is that it’s a living card game, which means they are coming out with new story packs often.

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger – Hence forth this game will be known as CYOA:HoD. But this is a really fun game and one that you can easily play solo. Now, with solo play, I think you lose some of the laughing around the table, but if you want to get through a game quickly, solo play is going to be great as you make choices going through the story and push your luck rolling the die. This game is really just a CYOA book with a little bit added to it, so you could just check out the book, but it’s a good time and works well in game form.

The Dresden Files: Cooperative Card Game – So many long names of board games to type out, but The Dresden Files is worth putting on the list as it’s a fun and challenging puzzle. This one is definitely for a fan of the series, though I do know of someone who played the game first and then read the series because of the game. It’s challenging to solve enough cases while beating enough bad guys, but if you have to come down to a roll at the end, it is every more tough. A well balanced game that does a good job of setting up different player counts and works well as a solo game.

Gloomhaven – Now, to be fair, I haven’t played this solo and I’ve loved it at a three player count. But I know of a lot of people who have played it solo and like it. This is a massive story driven dungeon crawl style game that plays a bit like a video game. It’s challenging, it’s grand, and to me, that’s probably the downside of solo. We just started using the app, but I can’t imagine not using the app if you are playing solo. There’s so much set-up and tear down, that without the app, it would be hard to manage everything, with the app, which is free, it shouldn’t be too bad. This is the spendiest game of the list, so just be aware of that if it sounds interesting.

Onirim – After the biggest game on the list, we have the smallest on my list. This game technically can play two, but it’s really a solo game. It’s a fun solitaire puzzle as you are playing down cards trying to find doors in your dreams, while also hoping not to pull a nightmare. If you do get a nightmare, you have a few choices of what to do, but none of them are good. It’s an abstract game, but it’s one that works well and it’s small so it’s easy to play solo in a lot of different settings. The version I got of the same comes with “expansions” as well, though I’d more call them modules that you can either add to your game or take out. They give a few new things that add to the challenge. Definitely a good small one for someone who might be interested in solo gaming.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault – Now, maybe you have someone who prefers Star Wars or at least Sci-Fi to fantasy, Imperial Assault is the game that they can solo. It’s a bigger game where you take your group of heroes through an app driven story. It’s a good dungeon crawl game, just with a fantasy setting, and it feels like Star Wars. In it, you are playing adjacent to the main storyline of the original trilogy, but it works well that way. What’s nice as well is that the app has a tutorial that gets you up and running also. Overall, it’s a fun dungeon crawl style game and for someone who doesn’t like fantasy, it’s going to be a great option.

Sword and Sorcery – But, maybe they do like fantasy, but Gloomhaven is just too much to jump into. Sword and Sorcery provides a good option for slaying monsters in this story driven dungeon crawl game. It has a good challenge level, though the treasures that you find can swing it to your advantage as time goes on. Definitely has a bit of a video game feel to it, and the death mechanic, in particular, works really well. This game offers a more limited campaign than Gloomhaven does, but at a much lower price, and it has monster minis as compared to cardboard standees like Gloomhaven. Definitely a fun, dice chucking, dungeon crawl game.

Unlock/Exit/Escape Room Games – I am basically putting a category here, but I believe that all of them can be played solo, I’d just double check on the box. Any of the escape room style games works well, because you are racing against a clock trying to solve a puzzle to escape a room, but instead of it costing $20 per person to go and play in a group in a physical location, you can get the same thing through Unlock or Exit for around $15. The games are challenging and a good time as you try and puzzle through how you can combine items to get what you want. I really like the Unlock games because they are non-destructive, which means that you can pass them on once you are done.

Village Attacks – Those pesky villagers are at it again, attacking you “peaceful” monsters with their pitchforks and torches. It’s your job to drive them back in this cooperative game. I had a lot of fun with this game in a group, but I think it’s going to be strong as a solo game as well, either controlling multiple monsters up against the villagers, since turns are pretty simple, or one monster holding them all off. It’s a bigger game again that requires some set-up, but once you get going, the game moves along nicely and offers a really good challenge.

Welcome To… – It’s hard to create a list without putting a roll and write on it as they generally offer you a chance to hit a certain score total. Welcome To… for me is the best solo play as it offers a good limited time crunch in the game, and forces you to make some tough decisions about what you’re going to do. The game also has more depth to it, which I think a lot of solo players will like as compared to some simpler roll and write games. The theming works in the game, but mainly it’s a fun puzzle to crack as you try and get your houses into order and build your perfect neighborhood.

There are a ton more games out there. Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, I’ve heard is a good solo experience. I know that Mage Knight is a game that people love to play solo, and I have several others sitting on my shelf that I haven’t gotten to yet, such as Tainted Grail. It’s a good time for solo gaming, and if you have someone who likes to relax and unwind with board games, some of these might be great options for them.

What is a solo game that you like? Are there any that I haven’t played or don’t have on my list that you think I should check out?

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Part 1

Part 2

Zombie Dice is one of the simplest games on the list, but it works well because you can be gaming while you are talking. There’s every little involvement by people in the game when it’s not your turn and that works out just fine. Even when it is your turn you don’t have to pay that much attention as you are just grabbing dice, rolling them, and then deciding when to stop and cash your brains in. It’s a simple die rolling game of push your luck where you are trying to be the first player to 13 or 15 or whatever number people pick, by collecting brains, because that’s what zombies do. But you got to be careful, because if you get shot three times,  you don’t cash any brains for the round. Once someone has passed the end game total, then everyone has one turn to try and beat them. It’s very much Farkle like, but simpler and less math.

Tsuro is another game that falls into the simple and fast games. You can plan out your turn in advance, but normally that’s a pretty simple process. Tsuro, the game of the path, is about staying on the board the longest and can play up to eight people. You play a tile in front of your pawn and move it each round and you can only use the tiles you have in your hand. It’s not a highly interactive game between players until later in the game when you have to put your pawns fate into someone else hands. A nice thing about this game too is that you have a limited number of tiles, so if you have two people or if you have eight people, the game is going to take basically the same length. Just with more people the game is more interactive earlier on in the game. It’s also a game where when you get knocked out, you know you aren’t going to be sitting there long. This can be an issue with some of the social deduction games that eliminate players.

We Didn’t Playtest This At All! Legacy also falls into the category of very simple games. It’s a draw a card play a card game and be the last one standing. There are several versions of this game, but I prefer the legacy version. It adds to fun of the game which is extremely simple otherwise. We just got rid of our non-legacy version, so just We Didn’t Playtest This At All!, because it’s a little too simple.  However, I do think for some groups there is a good spot for this on their shelves. It’s a good game for when people are showing up, because a single game lasts only a few minutes before everyone is eliminated. It’s also a goofy game, so it’s a good ice breaking game as well for people to interact a little bit.

Sushi Go! Party falls into a different category of game with the card drafting mechanic and is a bit more complex. It also lasts longer than most of the others that I’ve mentioned in social deduction and in this post (the party games can last a long time if you want). As players you are drafting a card in three rounds, each round is a full hand of cards, and then passing the cards to the next person. It’s a fun game with a lot of variability in it if you have the party edition. I highly recommend that. It’s also a game that is a bit thinkier, and people can form strategies, but because the artwork is very cute, people who haven’t gotten all the strategy with a particular set of scoring food items will still enjoy it because of the artwork. It’s a game that is quite aesthetically pleasing, and for all the cards and options you get for the game, it’s quite cheap as well. This is the first game where I’d say there’s less luck involved with it than a lot of others.

Say Bye to the Villains is one of my favorite resent purchase games that I think works well on this list. It has a maximum of eight players and is a cooperative game. You play a group of samurai who all have their own powers trying to defeat a bunch of villains. You have ten days per character to get your samurai ready to fight. You can do this by increasing your stats, speed, health, and power, or by finding out information on the villains. It’s a very tricky game to win, I think in three games I haven’t won, though it’s been close a couple of times. But it’s cooperative, so even if one person finishes up their days sooner, they can still be part of the strategizing. This game plays as a puzzle but you never know if you’ve cracked it, because you don’t know if you have all the information that you need, which inevitably you won’t.

Magic Maze and Captain Sonar are two games that fall into the same category in some ways. They are both real time games that can handle a large number of players. I’m not sure what the max is for Magic Maze, but Captain Sonar can play eight, and I think Magic Maze is similar. In Magic Maze you, as a group, are trying to get an adventuring party through a mall and out after they have stolen the adventuring goods that they need. Yes, it’s actually that and actually that silly. Each player has a specific action or two that they can do which is moving the adventurer meeples (small wooden pieces representing the characters) on the board. So someone can only move them north, someone can only move them east, and so on. There is some overlap on things, but not that much. It’s a timed game and everyone is in there, trying to work together to get them on the gear and  then get them out.

Captain Sonar is also real time, though can be done turn by turn, where there are two teams out trying to sink the others submarine. The captains are barking out orders, the first mate is trying to keep the systems prepped and ready to go, the engineer is trying to keep systems in working order, and the radar operator is listening to the opposing teams captain trying to figure out where they are on the board. This game is stressful and hectic, as is Magic Maze, but a ton of fun. There’s some strategy that can be employed and there’s some luck that goes into it as well. There’s also an expansion for this game, but I don’t know what it adds.

Both of these games are a lot of fun as they get the blood pumping for people, however, because they are stressful for some people, you have to know your group. In the case of Captain Sonar, there is also fairly high lower bound limit as while the Captain and First Mates jobs can be combined, you are going to want to have at least six people to really get the full experience of the game without it becoming too confusing. There’s also the issue with these two games that they are a bit more complex than some of the others on the list. They have good themes for the games so good ways to explain what is going on without it seeming like too much, but be careful not to over explain it.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the games that you could play with larger groups and each group is going to have their own sweet spot for games. Try and branch out and try a number of these games and see what works the best for your group. With these games it also helps keep you from getting stale. And if you want to play something heavier, like I said before, split into smaller groups, but a lot of these games are great for kicking off a game night before jumping into heavier games, or closing down a game night as people slowly leave.

One game or type of game you’ll see that I left off of the list is Escape Room Games. While these games can technically have an infinite number of players, they say that six is the max. I would say that is a pretty good maximum otherwise people won’t be able to see the cards being played. Id’ recommend splitting into groups if you have more than six for games like Unlock and Exit.

What are some larger player count games that I haven’t mentioned that you enjoy?

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