The Issue With Big Epic Games

There are a few things that stand out to me. The big issues around big epic games are how long it takes to setup and tear down. How long playing through a scenario or piece of the story can take. Or how complex the rules are, and how much space it takes up on the table.

Each of these things can be valid. If it takes too long to setup that limits your playing time. And limited playing time in general for either setup, tear down, or playing is a real issue. I am lucky in that I have a game table I can leave games setup on. But for a lot of people that isn’t an option. And then the complexity of the game, for people who want that big experience, they might not be that deep into gaming. I know games well, but even I get bogged down with rules as I’m learning a game.

What Are the Replacements?

Setup and Tear Down are Too Long

Lands of Galzyr, a game that I just started is the one that I’d recommend. It does a great job of giving you a really short time to the table with a lot of story. It is a deck of cards, characters are cards, so you just slot everything into the save sections, and then pull them out when you are ready to get to the table. Now, I leave it setup on my game table all the time, but setting out a board and then a deck of cards is very simple to get going. And teardown, you slot your cards into your characters save spot and you are good to go with little else to pack up.

And Lands of Galzyr still is going to give you a ton of story. So it isn’t like you are missing out on that. Now, some of that is to be more split up, separate quests than a massive overall story, but it is good for that. And the whole point is a big game, still feels epic, but doesn’t take up all of your time.

Game Play Is Too Long

Now, Lands of Galzyr could fit into that. But I’m going with one that has a longer setup, but Sleeping Gods is going to be in this spot. The game play is long, for the whole, but you can save easily whenever you want and pick it up where you left it off. The reason it works so well is that Sleeping Gods is an open world game where you can do anything you want, sail anywhere you want, and explore the story you want.

That means that you can play as long as you want. If you stop you still keep the quest lines available for next time. And you can take notes on what you were doing. But if you have 45 minutes to play, you can play that quickly. Granted, you still need time for setup and tear down. But if you can leave it setup and you have 15 to 20 minutes to play each evening, you can play that little bit of time.

The Game is Too Complex

For this, if you want a very easy game to play, Legacy of Dragonholt. This is a box of basically choose your own adventure with small game play elements. You create a character and you then go on adventures. But the game play is simple, you reach a story choice point, make a choice, and go with it. But because you made your own character you might skills that open up different paths. Or you pick up certain things or certain keywords that allow you to go down a specific path.

The Game is Too Big For The Table

Now Legacy of Dragonholt can be played without a table. So that is an option, but wanting to present another game, I think that something like Betrayal at House on the Hill would work well. Each game is going to take up the space to build up the house and not that much for characters. It’s not going to be a campaign game, but you will still have that story.

But if you want something that is more of a story overall, Arkham Horror The Card Game is a great option as well. There is no board in the game. The locations are just cards and not big cards. You have your player area but that is also not all that large. So it’d give you that bit of story, bit of campaign in a small area on your table.

Final Thoughts on Small Epic Games

It is fun to see companies who are putting out these smaller games and the options out there. There is always the desire to play that big and story driven game, that is great to have options. I can come up with more as well, like the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game or the Marvel Champions Campaign Boxes as well for those smaller sizes. Will I get rid of games like Gloomhaven, Middara, or Tainted Grail, highly unlikely. But smaller campaigns might start to show up on Monday nights with stuff like Paper Dungeons, Bargain Basement Bathysphere, and Welcome to the Moon.

That said, smaller games will generally lack some of the feel. You give up something when it is a smaller game or faster to set-up game, or shorter to play. Often times it’s that table presence that makes the game feel grand just when you get it to the table. But not every game needs to be produced that much, so what I gave are some very solid smaller ones and some ones that I’d recommend for people who want to play an epic campaign.

What is your favorite campaign game? And which thing is the hardest thing to get the game to the table?

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Checkout the campaign over on Gamefound.

How to Play Witchbound

I already covered most of it here in the preview that I did. But I want to cover it a little bit more as to how your average action goes.

The game mechanics are pretty simple. You collect items, spells, actions, and prompts as you play the game. Each of those can be used with interacting with things are people. To do that, you take the number from the prompt of “Hello” for example and combine it with the character you are speaking to and their number. So “Hello” might be 2 and the character might be 40 for 240. And you read some story and make some choices or track a quest.

There are challenges you do as well. To succeed at those you either can spend focus or you can roll a die. Your results there will determine how well you did, in RPG fashion. Though, you do have a limited number of auto-succeeds for things that are really important.

Why You Don’t Need This Game?

Firstly, it is solo only. Now, I’ll immediately disagree with that premise here. This is a solo only game, but like most solo only games, you can split the decision making and make it a multiplayer game. Whether that’s making the decisions jointly or taking turns, you can turn a solo game into not being solo easily enough. But for some, it being solo and having to work at it will make it not the game for you.

It is a mechanically light. I’ll talk about this in what I like about the game as well, or why you need it. But the actions you do and interactions are simple. There are elements to the game that are very choose your own adventure. And getting that story from the choose your own adventure is the experience. But like something like a Legacy of Dragonholt, or Roll Player Adventures, there are good decision making points and challenges.

Why Do You Need It?

It is a solo game that is fast to the table. I didn’t mention this in the other part about solo games. That was more for people who didn’t want a solo only game. But if you like solo only games, like I do, then Witchbound should be interesting because it’s a bit story driven game. Not to the size of a box like Gloomhaven or Middara, but big in that there is a lot of story. But it takes a minute or two to get it to the table.

To go along with that ease of getting it to the table. It is also easy to play. This is a game where you don’t need to know a ton of rules, again making it easier to table. But also making it more accessible than Gloomhaven or Middara because you don’t need to dive heavily into rules before starting play. So it is a game that can work for anyone.

Next is the story and artwork. I lump both of them together because they really do create the interesting elements of the story. The artwork is great, very cute, very anime, and delivers an aesthetic where you can tell what type of world it is. The writing supports that.

Price point is the final reason you should back this. If you want a story driven game, this is $40 plus shipping for 30 hours of game play. The fancy version is 80. Yes, it doesn’t come with all the minis, because it doesn’t need them, and that also makes it much easier on a wallet.

Back or Brick – Witchbound

This was an easy back for me. When I went through all the crowdfunding games I knew of, this one made it to my Top 5 for 2023. And the price point, having demoed it, all of that made it extremely easy to back. I really like the story and artwork. And Witchbound is the perfect type of game to play on Malts and Meeples.

I also look at this and see a game that I can hand off to my wife, someone who likes games and either play jointly, or she can pick it up for herself. Or as my 4 year old gets older to play with him. I don’t think it is so juvenile that it’s a kids only game. But it does seem to offer a whole family experience in terms of adventure. I think I mentioned games like Zelda or movies like Kiki’s Delivery Service and a show Little Witch Academia. Those aren’t adult, but they work well for adults to enjoy, and I think this also hits that.

So how about for you, is this a Back or Brick?

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Fortunately there are board games that can give that feel or smaller pen and paper experiences that might offer more of a one off game play. And you can do a one off game play with Dungeons and Dragons as well a one shot, but that might not be what you are looking for.

Fiasco

Fiasco is a pen and paper RPG, but it is one that is meant to be played in a single sitting. It is also one that you are meant to play with everyone as a player. So you lose the need for someone to be leading the story and basically having a different experience than everyone else.

Fiasco leans into the roll playing side of an RPG with impro focused prompts and collaborative story telling. It is also a game where things aren’t supposed to go that great. As the same, Fiasco, would suggest, the situations you are in and the story that is generated generally aren’t the best for the characters.

Spire’s End

Spire’s End is going to offer you more of a mechanical combat in a game though very luck heavy. In this, you and another person, or just playing solo, delve into a spire that has appeared in your town. Of course it isn’t full of nice things. In fact, it is where almost everyone in the town is being held. So can you explore, fight monsters, and find an end where you save the day?

Thus far, that is beyond what I’ve been able to do, But if you want to see how it plays, you can watch my game play below.

Legacy of Dragonholt

One that I had in my collection for a while, Legacy of Dragonholt is a choose your own adventure story combined with some character building. And I think out of all of these, it might be the most RPG like well, after Fiasco, but Legacy of Dragon holt has more of a standard feel to it.

Now, my one knock on it is that the writing is just okay. It toes a line where it seems like it should be more serious in it’s story. And sometimes it is serious, but it is meant for families to be able to play. Mom, Dad, a kid, and you can pass around the book and let people read passages. You spend tokens and players take turns making decisions. But one that I think is pretty solid. I’d love to see a new version or a new setting just with better quality writing.

Destinies

Now for something with very good writing, we have Destinies or soon coming out The Dark Quarter. You can still late pledge that one. But Destinies is a competitive game where each player is trying to fulfill their destiny. You explore the world, unlocking more of the map, rolling dice to complete challenges, and interacting with story.

Destinies uses an app to tell the story. Now you might not like apps at the table, but it does a great job. Mainly, it can keep answers to the story hidden while you play. And it can be played solo, that you can play without spoiling yourself. The app also allows for simpler interactions with items. You don’t need a massive book to cover every combination, just the data in the app.

Clank Legacy

Next up is the most board game out of all of them. Clank Legacy is going to be a game built upon the Acquisitions Incorporated crew from Penny Arcade and elsewhere. But this is a legacy style game which means to get the full story you and a group need to play it several times. However, it isn’t as long as playing a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons or something like that.

At the heart of it, Clank Legacy is a game where you build out a deck of cards as you play. Using those cards you are going on quests, maybe, I don’t know all the details for Legacy. But in the regular version you delve into a dungeon trying not to make too much noise. But the legacy version adds on to that.

Dungeon Party

Finally, if you want something silly, and a number of these are silly, Dungeon Party is a great option. It is a dungeon crawling game where you just get to go in and beat up monsters. But you do that by playing quarters. You bounce your token, though recommend you use actual quarters, to get to land on monsters and defeat them.

As you defeat them you get treasures that give you new abilities that you can use. This is not a drinking game, but it could easily be made into one. And that is kind of the point of it. A chance to just be goofy and have a good time around the table with that fantasy theme.

Final Thoughts

RPG’s are hard to emulate the whole experience outside of a big game. And I kept games like Gloomhaven, Folklore The Affliction, Tainted Grail, and Sword & Sorcery off the list because they are all games that require more commitment.

But I think that they are good options. And even the longer ones here, Legacy or Dragonholt, Destinies, and Clank Legacy are all shorter than your standard campaign. Plus, there is some level with them that they are easy to get to the table. For someone who wants that feel but doesn’t want to remember a plethora of stats and abilities, these attempt to make it easier.

What are some experiences that feel like an RPG without that big time commitment. Let me know your favorites in the comments below.

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Ranking My Fantasy Games

46: The Red Dragon Inn

This should be a game that I like more than I do, it’s basically a hand management game around drinking in a bar after you’ve been out adventuring and gambling to win money and getting in fights. And I suspect I do I like this game more than I think. I just don’t like it at high player counts. Most of the time when I play The Red Dragon Inn it is over the recommended player count, to me this is a 4 player game only. I don’t want fewer, I don’t want more. At four, it’d feel like good silly fun and not a slog.

45: God of War: The Card Game

God of War is another theme in a game that I should love, but the game around it wasn’t that great. The deck building was interesting in the game. But the card play and the monsters that you fight, those aren’t all that interesting. It feels like the game was meant for mass market without hitting mass market. Or it’s a weird area in between mass market and hobby.

44: Kodama: The Tree Spirits

This is one that barely falls into the fantasy area. Yes, it does have the tree spirits, but that’s barely part of the game. It’s more about building out trees trying to create runs of the different things that you want. In concept it’s not that bad, and in game play it is okay. Kodoma is one of those games where I think a lot of people will enjoy it, and it’s not a bad game, but it won’t be many people’s favorite game.

43: Stuffed Fables

This is a game, in Stuffed Fables, I should maybe have given more tries. The theme of a being stuffed animals and toys of a kid trying to get their blanket back that was stolen, super cute. And the game was cute when I played it, but also more complex than it should be. I get what Plaid Hat Games is doing with their adventure book games, but with changing rules it just made it more complex than I wanted.

42: SeaFall

SeaFall, people would probably put that to the bottom of their lists because it is not a good legacy game. Though, legacy games, to me, have higher standards than most other games. If I am only going to get a limited use out of it, it needs to be epic. I liked the mechanics pretty well though they needed to be less punishing. But the story was a bit too scattered, though, with some tweaking, could be made better.

41: Near and Far

Well, I just wrapped up Sleeping Gods, that isn’t on the list yet, so I like it better. For me, Near and Far is a cool concept, a cool world, and just falls flat. The game has story, and even vignettes of story like Sleeping Gods, but it’s more mechanics than anything. And I think since it’s competitive the game couldn’t get away from the mechanics as much as how you score points.

40: Legacy of Dragonholt

Legacy of Dragonholt is another one of those games that isn’t bad, but could have been better. The system for an RPG/Choose Your Own Adventure game is fun. The story is okay, and that’s what kept me from diving back into it. It wasn’t that the concept of the story wasn’t good, but the execution of it felt too YA (young adult) and not a well written YA story, but one that got published because other YA books similar were well done and popular. I’d love to see Fantasy Flight come back to this system, keep some of the ideas and just improve the writing.

39: Fae

Fae is a fantasy game in cover art only. It is really an abstract game where you are a fae creature who is then hidden from everyone else and you try and score the most points. The game is good, and I like the challenge of trying to score points but not make it too obvious so that people tank your fae’s scoring. A clever idea and very abstract.

38: Legends of Andor

Another game that was in my collection and then left. And another one that is fun, it is an efficiency puzzle of how you get through the story as effectively as possible so you don’t trigger end game too early. My issue with it is only a me issue, I have too many campaign games. I let it go when I realized I would only ever play the starting scenario at least for right now. When I have capacity for that campaign, then I might get it back.

37: Sword & Sorcery

Sword & Sorcery left my collection, but that’s because I did play through the campaign. It is a fun campaign but one that I knew I wouldn’t revisit. The depth of game play is fun for a lighter dice chucking game. And the story is also light, well, in terms of the decisions that you make. I wish the story branched more, and that your powers would change up more, because once you found a few good things, you just did those.

36: Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients

Shadows of Brimstone is one that hasn’t left my collection as a campaign game, but maybe should. The only issue is that I need to glue the figures back together. My first gluing didn’t stick as well as it should have, because I didn’t use the right glue. But also, it’s a theme that I don’t have games for, the weird west. So monsters and other worlds all messing with the old west. I love that theme and there aren’t many games or good books that I’ve found with it.

35: Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

Another campaign game, and another one that left my collection just because I wasn’t going to get to it anytime soon. But it’s Lord of the Rings, and app assisted from Fantasy Flight Games. The story was fun that I did play through. The writing was well done, which I appreciated, and you can see is something that’s important to me. Definitely a good one for Lord of the Ring fans, which I am.

34: Krosmaster: Arena

This is a skirmish game with fantasy characters casting spells, summoning monsters, and hacking and slashing away. I like that you pick and build the teams that you play with. I like the dice rolling and how you can play with secondary objectives so it’s not just knock out your opponent. But you can play just with knocking people out as well. Krosmaster is one I would keep but I didn’t have people to play it with, and now I have another skirmish game or two that I put over it.

33: Too Many Bones

This one will probably move up the list when my Gamefound comes in for the latest expansions. Not that I own any other Too Many Bones, but that might start me getting more. This is kind of a short campaign game where you fight some battles and then fight against a boss. But where the game really shines is how you build up your characters. Each of them do different things, and how you level them up gives you room to explore a character multiple times. Plus it’s a different fantasy world than anything else out there.

32: Lord of the Rings: Journey To Mordor

This is a roll and write game, but it is a fun little one. Not one that I own or one that I’d go and seek out to add to my roll and write collection. But Journey to Mordor basically has you advancing your Hobbit on their journey to Mordor while trying not to let the Nazgul get you. Very simple roll and write but it has a little more player interaction, so it feels different than some.

31: The Hobbit

Speaking of Hobbits, we have The Hobbit. This is a competitive game about dwarves trying to get treasure, which is kind of what the book is as well. I like the mechanics where you are leveling up skills based off of cards you play. But you want to balance it so everyone levels up because you can’t defeat the monsters all by yourself. So it’s semi-cooperative, but not in a way that someone is working against the group, it’s just that sometimes you let another person get the better thing.

30: Deadly Doodles

Another roll and write game, and this one I think has dropped a little on my list. It’s a good simple roll and write where you are trying to get treasures, find weapons and defeat monsters. And what you do gives you points. There are some different dungeons which add in more things to do as well, which I need to play around with.

29: The Lord of the Rings

And even more Lord of the Rings, this is the classic Fantasy Flight Game. I like how it plays through the books. And you play as the Hobbits taking the ring to Mordor. It is fairly abstracted, but the locations you go and the scenes you play through are all very Lord of the Rings, so it feels more thematic than just with what you are doing. Plus it’s a really tough cooperative game and I like those.

28: Titan Race

Normally I don’t love games that have a lot of in your face, try and mess the other person over, but Titan Race is a lot of fun. This is a fast game and a silly game with great fantasy in it. Titan Race is very silly and I like how the tracks work. You can either do a race where you loop over the same board over and over again, or you can do a grand prix and go over three boards and each board does different things. And those things make the game even sillier.

27: Claim

Claim is a two player trick taking game which is odd. Plus the first hand you play doesn’t actually give you a score, it is how you build your hand for trick taking. It’s such a clever idea and I like that it plays really fast. The fantasy theme comes in that the different suits are fantasy races. And each of those fantasy races has it’s own powers, or they might. Some of them there are just more of, whereas others have powers. A knight always beats a goblin, for example. So it puts even more of a twist on trick taking in a way I really enjoy.

26: Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler

I don’t know where this one will end up, so middle of the list is good for right now. I don’t know where it’s going to end up because I’ve only played this roll and write game once. And I liked it a lot, it’s a dungeon crawler as a roll and write. But as compared to Deadly Doodles where you go into a dungeon and cross over stuff, you do a lot more in this game. You level up your heroes, you have powers and abilities, you craft items and brew potions. And the better you do in other things, better you can explore. A lot going on, but not too hard.

25: Skulk Hollow

Skulk Hollow is a game of woodland creatures, the Foxen, fighting against a Guardian. It’s a two player only game and one that is very asymmetrical. As the guardian my goal might change from game to game, depending on which guardian I am. And the Foxen, well they always want to beat down the Guardian. And the Foxen can change up depending on who their leader is. Really cute game and fast to learn and play.

24: Silver

I think I say this every time I talk about Silver, but it reminds me of a game I played growing up with a deck of cards. In Silver you have a village in front of you and you want the lowest score possible. You know what two of the cards are in your village. You don’t know the other three. So now you swap cards out or play them for powers to get rid of cards in your village and lower your score. It’s simple, it’s fun, there’s a lot of take that, yet it feels nostalgic in a good way.

23: Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Clank is a fun push your luck, deck building, dungeon delving game. You want to get the best treasure that you can, but as you get cards, make noise, and well, annoy the dragon because it’s their horde, now the dragon starts damaging you. So you could jump in, grab the first thing you see and run, but if someone else can make it out, now they have more points and better treasure than you. Really fun game and easy enough to play for most people.

22: Deranged

Deranged might fall more into a horror game. But there is a magical gate and fantastical monsters who are out to get you. And you yourself can become one of those fantastical monsters if you don’t deal with your curses and get out in time, why, because you might become Deranged. The game has a lot going on, but I like the dual use cards and the theme of the game. A little horror I’m most certainly interested.

21: Village Attacks

Village Attacks is another darker themed game because you for sure are the monsters. And after a long day of terrifying villagers, you are ready to settle down. But nope, here some villagers to break down your door because clearly you’re the monsters, not the people trying to trash your place. That sounds light, and I find it silly, but it is themed dark. Still a very nice tower defense type of game.

20: The Grimm Masquerade

Themed with Grimm Fairy Tales, The Grimm Masquerade is a deduction game. You are each a masked party goer, one of the Grimm characters. You are of course looking for something, a glass slipper for Cinderella, but also have something you don’t want. Can you get what you need or make everyone else bust before they figure out who you are?

19: Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Another deck building game, Ascension is fantasy themed. Really, like most pure deck building games, it’s about building up an engine that gives you points. I just like this fantasy theme and variability of it better than something like Dominion. But that’s not what we’re talking about. This lets you get heroes and casters and sages and constructions to fight monsters, get more income and buy more cards. I like that it offers a ton of different strategy for the game.

18: Res Arcana

Res Arcana is another in theme only fantasy games. You are basically building out an engine to get points and who can do it better to get points faster. I like it though with the theme of brewing potions and dragons and places of power. It makes it feel different, and I also like that you only have 8 cards to make your engine with.

17: The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

The Dresden Files are my favorite fantasy series. I love the world that Jim Butcher has created. The game, it does a good job of giving you the pieces of that world. But you need to know the world to connect them together. So it’s not the best fantasy game or story game for everyone, but if you know the series, it’s a lot of fun to play.

16: Small World

Small World is Risk with fantasy creatures, crazy powers, and well, a whole lot more fun. What really works is that this is a small board. The game is in your face, but it’s in everyone’s face. The option of hiding away in Australia is gone that you’d have in Risk. Plus, you get crazy combos. Flying Halflings, Seafaring Giants, Wealthy Trolls, all of them are possible. Really accessible game too for most new gamers.

15: The Lost Expedition

This one is on the list because of the expansions and promo cards. I don’t think in the base game there is anything too fantastical, but werewolves, fountain of youth, yeah, those are fantasy. This is all about surviving to get to the lost city of Z. The game is a really good cooperative one that if you have someone who is a alpha player, it keeps them from being too much of one.

14: Century: Golem Edition

This is another one where the theme is fantasy, but game play doesn’t really shine through on that. Still, the artwork and gem pieces are great, and I wouldn’t want a different theme. It’s a hand management game where you are building up cards in your hand to use them to turn gems into other gems until you get the right combinations to get golems. And the golems at the end of the game give you points. What is so amazing about this game is that turns are super fast, so while there are good decisions to be made, it doesn’t take long to get back to your turn.

13: Potion Explosion

We’ve all probably seen the app games where you get like colors to touch and that removes them from the board and if more hit, those are removed as well. That is what Potion Explosion is. You are making crazy potions by pulling dice and trying to get the like colors to hit. Light game with a great table presence.

12: Root

Root was one where I was thinking, is this actually fantasy. Well, let’s see, it’s animals fighting and building, so yes, that seems like fantasy. But really, it’s a confrontational game where you fight it out with your group trying to get points to win the game with everyone trying to keep everyone else in check. Great asymmetrical game, just know it’ll take some time to teach. And don’t let the artwork fool you, this is not a nice sweet happy game.

11: Roll Player

Roll Player is a game about making your Dungeons and Dragons (or Generic RPG) character. You draft dice to put them into various stats for your class. It’s a lot of fun as you try and match up colors and get the numbers right to score more points. Plus you buy up gear and abilities which can influence your stats or points as well. And that’s the game, it’s about building up your character.

10: Spire’s End

Spire’s End, coming soon to Malts and Meeples is a story adventure game. In Spire’s End you wake up to find a spire has appeared at the edge of your town and many people are missing. You and others go into the tower, fight monsters, make choices, and generally go on a weird and dark adventure. Really like this one as a solo game.

9: Super Fantasy Brawl

Super Fantasy Brawl, it’s in the name that it’s fantasy. Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player skirmish game where you are trying to complete objectives in an arena and knock out your opponents. Complete objectives, get trophies. Knock out your opponent, get trophies. The first to five wins. What I really like is the turn speed, you play up to three cards, one of each color and do what it says on the cards. And the cards you play determine who moves. Light game but very tactical in how you play.

8: Cartographers

The second game I have in the Roll Player world, won’t be the last. But Cartographers is a roll and write game where you are making a map of the land. And you get points for making it in certain ways. Forests surrounding mountains might give you a point or two, things like that. What makes it fantastical is that you put monsters on the map as well. And you don’t put your own down, you put them on your opponents board in the worst spot for them to make them score negative points.

7: Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods, well, you can watch me play this one I just wrapped it up over on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game where you, as the crew of the Manticore are transported to a new world. You want to get home, but in order to do that you must awaken the sleeping gods and all you know is that totems might help with that, not where to find them. So it’s really a sandbox game of exploring, finding quests, fighting monsters and more.

6: Roll Player Adventures

Roll Player Adventures, the final Roll Player world game, this is an adventure game set in the world of Roll Player, using mechanics or dice mechanics that feel like Roll Player, and it’s really good. I really like that Roll Player Adventures is an easy game to learn and a lighter game to play. A lot of the big adventure games can have a lot to keep track of and a lot of tokens. Roll Player Adventures has enough, but not too much. And the world you play in isn’t too dark.

5: Aeon’s End

Aeon’s End is another deck building game and the highest on the list. This is a cooperative game where you play as breach mages trying to fight off nemesis that come through. The game does two really interesting things for me. Firstly, you never shuffle your deck. So when you discard cards you can kind of put them in an order. And the other is that turn order is random. There is a deck, in a two player game, which has two activations for each character and two for the Nemesis. On a really bad draw you could go twice with each character and then two Nemesis turns, plus then shuffle that up again and two more Nemesis turns.

4: Lords of Hellas

Lords of Hellas is fantasy in the future, or mythology in the future. It’s a cyber world of Greek gods. An odd setting with some amazing miniatures and mechanical creatures. But a really good game with some rough edges and a lot of ways to win. To me that is one of the best parts of the game where you are able to win in a number of different ways. You might fight monsters or build and control a monument or take over areas, how you play is up to you and the powers you have.

3: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Tainted Grail, if Roll Player is light fantasy or happy fantasy, Tainted Grail is very dark fantasy. The world of Avalon is falling apart, the Menhir that drove back the wyrdness are failing and you aren’t sent out to stop it. You are sent out to find out what happened to the people who are better equipped to do this than you. But the story in Tainted Grail is amazing and one that I highly recommend people track down, which can be hard. Also know that this is a survival game with a ton of story, if you want the story, play in storymode, I am.

2: Dice Throne

Odd one to put on the list but Dice Throne is very much fantasy. It is fantasy head to battling in almost a Mortal Kombat type setting but it is still fantasy. My Pyromancer is going to blast your Barbarian with fire or then there is a Seraph or a Treant or a Gunslinger, all sorts of things, and you can take any of them up against each other. I’m so excited, it isn’t that far out to when Marvel Dice Throne will be delivered, several months but not that far. And Marvel Dice Throne is compatible and can be played with everything else I already have.

1: Gloomhaven

Finally, my #1 game of all time, Gloomhaven, This is a massive fantasy game of dungeon crawling combat. It is amazing and what really makes it is the card play. You pick two cards to play, one will determine how fast you go. Then when you go you use the top of one card and the bottom of the others to move and attack, so you can set yourself up for some epic turns or make it flexible to cover a changing board state. And there are so many different characters that are interesting to play as.

Final Thoughts

I love fantasy as a theme. A lot of my favorite series are fantasy for books in particular. And for board games, there are a lot of games that use the fantasy theme. But when you get down to some of my favorite games of all time, the big fantasy games are hard to beat. I think that my Top 3 games are all fantasy games. And I even skipped some games, like stuff in the Lovecraftian Mythos because while they are fantasy, I feel they are more horror. Maybe I’ll do a horror game ranking soon.

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Ranking My Solo Games

So, one thing that I haven’t talked about when ranking is how I rank them in each category. And that’s somewhat because this is the category that needs this explanation. In a lot of them, I can just pick my favorite game, which game is my favorite roll and write. Here, I am trying to factor in a combination of what my favorite is, but also what my favorites for solo are. So if something is harder to get to the table, I might rank it lower.

I think that is important because solo gaming is a different beast. I think that some very complex games might be high on the list, if I could leave them set-up all the time. So I could go and play them for thirty minutes to an hour in an evening every evening. But when it takes twenty minutes to set-up, that isn’t an option.

28. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows

This might be the worst game in the group, and I still own it. I have played it solo a few times and it’s a fun push your luck sort of game. But when you’re controlling three characters, or two, it isn’t as fun. And the theme of the game, Sword Art Online doesn’t come through.

27. Legacy of Dragonholt

I think I I had streamed Legacy of Dragonholt, which I had thought about doing, I might put this higher on the list. The game is fine, the mechanics are solid, but the writing on the story was just fine. And when the game play is solid and the story is fine, it wasn’t going to stick. I’d love to see Fantasy Flight use some of their IP’s and create a story in this vein. Or even an Arkham game that uses the same mechanic.

26. Second Chance

Second Chance is easy to get to the table, but the game plays out the same every time. And with roll and write games, when I play them solo, I prefer that I can then compare a score, or something like that. Second Chance you just see how well you do. Sure, you can use the empty spaces as a score, but it’s not that interesting solo.

25. Criss Cross

This one is also one where you can just see how well you can score. I have it lower on the list, even though it is easy to play, because I have played it a lot. I don’t think I’d pull out Criss Cross to play solo again. Other roll and write games, yeah, those are higher on the list, but Criss Cross I’ve played a lot.

24. Marvel Battleworld

This one is easy to play and has high toy factor. But it is barely a game, the rules allow you to play some sort of game, but they aren’t that clear. You really play Marvel Battleworld to open up the little “Thanos Stones” to get new heroes and do the blind buy. It’s not a great game, but fun toy value.

23. Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

Gravwell is a game that generally would be higher in my Top 100 games but drops so solo, not because of set-up, but because the game is much more random solo. It feels like mechanically the game isn’t as good. So I don’t want to play it solo all that often. I’d play it with people, but solo is just okay.

22. Floor Plan

Floor Plan is another one where the solo seems added on and not fully planned. You get a certain number of rolls for solo play and see how well you do. But it lacks the tension of racing to complete different features that people want.

21. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

This one I played through solo on Malts and Meeples, and it is a blast to play that way. Technically, it doesn’t have a solo mode, but no information is hidden, so you can easily play solo. But I wouldn’t play it solo again after doing that once. I would play it for the third time because the story and game are fun.

20. Marvel United

I was a little bit surprised that this one was lower on the list. But I prefer to play it with others. It again comes down to a solo mode that is okay. And you can play it solo like you’re playing multiple people, and it’s good. But the game is more fun with more players and working together cooperatively and discussing how you can set up the next player.

19. Tainted Grail

This is fun solo, and I’d love to have it higher on the list, but even three player, the game is a beast to get to the table. I’d maybe come back to it solo if I could leave it set-up. And I’d love to explore it again that way, which maybe I eventually will. But right now, three player play is great.

18. Onirim

Actually just got rid of this game, but I really enjoy Onirim and I still own the app. Onirim is a nice little puzzle of a game with a lot of shuffling. And I feel like the decision space is good. But as I get more solo only games, that are higher on the list, I know that I’m going to play it less and less. So the app is good enough for me, for now. I can always pick it up again.

17. A Gentle Rain

The first solo only game on the list. I think technically you can do two player, but it just means you split up half of the stuff, which means it’s less fun. The game is simple, but it is very relaxing to play. And for me, that’s nice. It comes in a small box, but plays large, in area, on the table. I wish it played a little bit smaller, so it was more portable.

16. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

Now back to a bigger game, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, I like to play that one at two best. But three is good as well. And the game while having a lot of cards, is pretty fast to set-up and get to the table. I think it works best as a game in general, if you know the books. The theme is there, but it’s hidden behind mechanics.

15. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

One that I’d love to play solo more. And I think the game works really well solo for keeping the game moving. But Arkham Horror: The Card Game, it takes effort to get to the table. There are a lot of cards, and setting up each scenario takes time. I’d love for a faster way to get it to the table so I could play it more often because the story is good.

14. Doppelt So Clever

We’re going to see a lot of roll and writes now. Which makes sense because they are easy to get to the table. Doppelt So Clever is on the lower end because while it is easy to play, it is less satisfying than some. Mainly because I feel like I’m not doing as well as I should be. That is a function of the game and scoring sections, but still, it’s less fun.

13. Deadly Doodles

Deadly Doodles is a dungeon crawler roll and write, kind of. I’d say it is a more like D&D where you go diving into a dungeon, get some treasure and be done. Maybe more of a classic thing, here you find treasure, get weapons and fight monsters. Very simple game, but a fun one to play solo.

12. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Now back to a living card game that is easier to get to the table. Marvel Champions works very well as a solo game. I prefer it two player, but either works. You play as a hero trying to stop a villain and thwart their evil scheme. Deck construction is fine, but I just like that this is a mechanically fun game, simpler than Arkham Horror, but still thematic game.

11. Welcome To…

Back to roll and writes, Welcome To is a game that works as a solo game. Though, I will say that it is better with more players. And I’m not 100% sure, they might have improved the solo mode in a small pack. But base solo mode is go through the deck and eventually hit a point where it ends and see how well you did. It works, and the game play is still a lot of fun, just the overall experience doesn’t feel as robust.

10. Aeon’s End

Some people might disagree with me. You need to control multiple characters, I recommend only two. But I think this is fairly fast to get to the table. Use the randomizer, pick the market, grab two breach mages and a nemesis and get going. There is more than that, and there are tokens, but Aeon’s End is easy to control two at once. I think that’s a thing for a lot of bigger games, they might be better controlling two characters, but is that easy.

9. Clever Hoch Drei

The third of the Clever roll and writes, and the middle one on my list. It’s a good solo game and this one lets you feel like you can do everything. It is more rewarding than Doppelt So Clever, but almost too rewarding. You can do everything, like every track will be filled in a lot at the end. You can optimize it still, which is what I love about the game. But huge points.

8. Ganz Schon Clever

Last of the Clever trilogy or first if you read top down, Ganz Schon Clever is just fun. I still play it on the app. And I love the game two player. I think that it helps improve the game play and is less lucky than solo while still getting all the rolls and all the rounds. But at any player count, I always want to know what is going on during your turn. And the combos, it feels like the right amount.

7. Metro X

Metro X is a roll and write that has a great puzzle. It isn’t one that has many combos, but the game play feels so tight and restrictive. You try and complete routes, and as you fill in one route, it might help another route. But since you are filling in 4 spots, if you now only can do three before you hit a filled in spot, is that optimizing what you do. The game’s puzzle feels tense from the start.

6. Spire’s End

New to the list and new to me. When I did my cooperative games, I couldn’t put this one on the list. Since it technically is cooperative, though, it just splits it up so that a person controls each of the characters. I’ve even heard of three player with one person being the dungeon master. But Spire’s End, and I’ll talk about it more in the future, is a story driven game where you take characters into a spire for some reason. And you fight monsters in there, but game play is simple and smart.

5. Sleeping Gods

Hey, this is the one that I’m playing right now. You can what last nights stream here. For some people this might seem like a lot because there are nine crew you are in charge of. But you always control them as a group and I think makes it easier. Plus this game is so story focused that if you miss a mechanic, I don’t feel bad about it.

4. Super Mega Lucky Box

One that when I played it the first two times I thought might leave my collection quickly. But no, I really like this game. It’s basically binge, you draw a card, cross of a number. So roll and write mechanics with bonuses when you fill in rows and columns on your card. The game is very fast and so much fun. And there is depth to how you try and get combos working in the game.

3. Railroad Ink & Challenge

Another one that works well solo because you are just trying to beat your previous score. I like either version, so I think that Challenge adds some good stuff to the game. It’s mainly about connecting routes of rail and road. This one also has a strong puzzle to it and the right amount of luck, I feel. The app is a lot of fun too.

2. Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game

Another true solo game, Orchard is amazing. Orchard is all about laying cards on top of each other and growing fruit. It hits that great spot of simple but interesting. The combination of layering cards, creating a few dead spots to try and score more, it’s interesting. And I can knock out games so fast while watching something from sports to cooking shows. If I don’t need to pay complete attention, Orchard is great.

1. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Finally, Pinball. I love Super-Skill Pinball, I haven’t played multiplayer yet. But the roll and write works as a pinball game. It is maybe the most thematic roll and write game that I own. And there are a lot of boards, pinball machines, you can play on. The production quality is high and game play is so much fun, and I’ll 100% be getting the Star Trek version when it comes out.

Final Thoughts

Solo gaming is something I want to do more of. And I know it’s goin to be a way to help me get through my goal of getting under 100 unplayed games in 2022. Right now, the number sits around 130, and when I can learn and play it solo, it helps. I’m curious to see how two, Village Green and Floriforous play solo. Mainly because it’d let me learn the game to make it easier to teach to others, if I’ve played it.

What are your favorite games to play solo?

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Cooperative Games Rankings

So just be aware I’m going to talk less about these games because there are a grand total of 52 that I ranked. Expect a sentence or two on each one of them.

52. FUSE

Fast paced game of rolling dice and then using them to try and complete enough cards to diffuse the bomb. I don’t love games that are only real time, and FUSE is only real time. It plays fast, but the game isn’t that interesting the more you play it.

51. Magic Maze

Another real time game, this time taking adventurers through a shopping mall. This one is more interesting because you need to work together more. But it’s going really fast without talking and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

50. Forbidden Island

This one is a great introduction to cooperative gaming and gaming in general. It follows the standard, do something and then something bad happens. My issue is that the game is too easy and generally just an okay game.

49. Arkham Horror: Final Hour

Now, on the flip side of Forbidden Island, this game is hard as you try and guess some ruins to be able to stop ritual from happening. It basically takes Arkham Horror and tries to make it shorter. It succeeds on that, but it also just isn’t interesting. The couple clever things it tries to do are just misses.

48. God of War: The Card Game

And another game that was too easy when I played it. I wonder about playing a whole game if that would make it more challenging, but what I played was fairly boring. I also feel like the decisions weren’t that interesting in the game. Most of the time it was do the obvious thing.

47. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

I talked about this yesterday. It’s a fine deck building game. It is just too slow to get to the table and too slow to get to feeling powerful. If they were to come out with a second edition and make the game play ramp up faster, I’d probably like it a lot. But right now, the ramp is just too slow.

46. Forbidden Desert

I like this a fair amount better than Forbidden Island, it offers more to do and a more clever mechanism of figuring out where to get things. It follows that Pandemic formula for things of do good things and then bad things happen. Played it a few times, enjoyed it, and have moved on.

45. The Mind

This one is an interesting one. You try and play cards down in numerical order without talking. The concept is cool, and the game works, but only sometimes. This is one where it really depends on who is in the group. And I had some good times with it but moved on again.

44. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellow

I need to try this one again, it’s been a little while. The concept isn’t bad, you are basically playing the boss battles from Sword Art Online the show, and it has the main characters. The downside is that the rules aren’t that great, and it’s pretty simple and lucky. That said, it is tiny, so I don’t mind luck as much.

43. Exit Games

Exit Games are fun, but any escape room game is always hard to rank. I’ve played less Exit Games, and I don’t love that you can’t pass it on. Granted, I did see it kind of work with them at Fantasy Flight Game Center (now GameZenter), but I don’t want to buy something I need to then replace.

42. Flash Point: Fire Rescue

This is basically Pandemic but with fires. You haven’t seen Pandemic yet on the list so you know it’s higher. I think that Flash Point: Fire Rescue might end up being one that I get. And that’s because it might replace base Pandemic for me, but we’ll talk about why later. Very standard cooperative game.

41. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

On yesterday’s list, it is one that I like the theme of. Firefly was a great show, and the game is playing through the episodes. The game isn’t that easy and the artwork is just okay. Again, the ramp speed doesn’t seem right for the type of game it is, but it’s better than Marvel Legendary.

40. Stuffed Fables

This is one that I had a good time when I played it, but ended up being one that I never wanted to come back to. The game has a cool story about a kid who has a blanket, I believe, stolen, and you play as animals going under the bed with all the broken toys to get it back for her. But the mechanics were not that well taught and things that changed up on each different storybook page were worse taught.

39. Legacy of Dragonholt

Another one that was in my collection and left. When I heard about an RPG in a box, I thought it was going to be great. And in all fairness, it is a fun game with a lot of story in the box. But the story and writing was just okay. The best I can compare it is that it was written like a YA novel, but not one of the great ones. I think the system was very good, but I wanted writing.

38. Marvel Battleworld

This is dumb little game. I know it shouldn’t be this high on my list, though we’re not even half way yet. It is just a game where you roll a die and advance a track. The fun of the game is buying blind packs and getting little Funko figures. So I have it this high because it’s a fun toy with a little game attached to it.

37. Ghostbusters: The Board Game

We’re still in the area of games that are just okay, but we’re soon to games that are still in my collection. I loved the minis in the game, and the translucent ones look cool. But the game play was just okay. While there were different scenarios, they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t all that interesting. I just wished there was more.

36. Elder Sign

Another one that left my collection, some of that was just because I had only the base game. I have heard that the expansions help improve the game, and add more to the story of what you are doing. The base game is basically a Yahtzee type game, and I wish that it played a little bit faster for what it is.

35. Legends of Andor

Story driven puzzle game, Legends of Andor is good. The reason that it left my collection is that I never wanted to just sit down and play through all of it. So when I did want to play it, I’d play through the introductory scenario again and I did that a few times. But I like the story and the mechanics are pretty cool.

34. Sword & Sorcery

I played this one a lot, I got through the base game and one expansion. And I do like this game. Once I played that, though, I got rid of it. Even though I had more characters to play with, I wasn’t interested in going back through. The story doesn’t branch enough for that. And I wish that you could retire characters like in Gloomhaven.

33. Castle Panic

I almost culled this game, and I might, the board is a bit dinged so the FLGS didn’t take it. But the game is still playable. We’re not here to talk about that, though. The game is fun, and it’s a very light tower defense game. I like that I can play it with almost anyone, and while you rarely lose, it feels like you might. If I don’t lose a cooperative game fairly often, though, I will move on from it.

32. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

This is a fun silly little game. I would say that it’s pretty much a solo game. Because you all play as one character and basically just do a choose your own adventure. You can make decisions as a group and pass around who is reading and rolling a die, but that’s how it’s cooperative. It is fun for that, though, because it’s so silly that everyone is laughing together.

31. Mysterium

Mysterium bounces all over for me. I think it was in my Top 100 games this past year and now with this ranking it wouldn’t be. If and when I play it again, it likely will move up. This is about figuring out who the murderer is. And there are rules about how that all works, but really it’s about giving clues as a ghost to everyone so they can figure theirs out. It’s cool concept that can get in it’s way with how it tries to be a game.

30. Unlock Games

The better escape room style board game. Unlock Games you don’t destroy anything, unless in a fit of rage. And I like how it counts down building up pressure versus Exit which is just see how long it takes you. And there are a lot of these with a lot of different themes. I want to play more, but it’s kind of a lot of a game night and works better with 3-4 people not 6.

29. Arkham Horror

This is the 2nd Edition, I haven’t played my 3rd Edition yet, but I need to. This is a grand epic game that takes forever to play. But it is a lot of fun. I felt like when I’ve played it that I get into what is going on in the game. The story is light, but the longer you play, the more story develops just from what you are doing.

28. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I like pirates, so that helps this game. And the supernatural twist on it is good. It again falls into that category of do some things and then bad things happen. What ended up causing this one to leave my collection is that it is that bit more. There are so many things to keep track of and the game isn’t as familiar, I didn’t pull it out over Pandemic.

27. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Another deck builder on the list, and one that I just got rid of as well. Why, because I own a lot of deck building games. This one I like the theme of it, and the mechanics are fun. The game gets a bit longer as you go, and I wish there were more characters in the base box. It’d be one I’d gladly get back when I have a group to play it.

26. Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

It’s odd how many leave my collection, and this is another. And I actually just realized that I forgot to rank Star Wars: Imperial Assault which also just left. So this counts for both. They are great games, The apps work really well, and you can pick your preferred theme. These are campaign games with a nice sense of adventure, but because they are campaign games, that’s why they left.

25. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one is still in my collection, huzzah. And it’s probably surprising because when it came out people didn’t love it. But I really enjoy this game. It is a tough cooperative game where you can play all sorts of one off missions with different focuses. Or you can do a mini campaign. And it has an app, not a great one, to handle a lot of the bad things that happen, which I like.

24. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

I really should buy a copy of this game. I played a few times at Fantasy Flight Game Center and really liked it. But never picked it up, and then played a bunch on the app. There is story, campaign, deck construction, and a lot of cool card play. I prefer the game that this is based off of, but I’d gladly have both in my collection.

23. The Lord of the Rings

While some might argue this game is fairly abstract, where you are pushing up on tracks as you go through the story of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really enjoy this game. It is a very hard cooperative game, but it gives you rewards at just the right time. It’s one I haven’t played in ages, but now that I’m thinking about it, I want to play it again.

22. Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

My favorite book series in a board game. When talking about this one, I always want to to point out that it is abstracted. And while the theme is there, it is mainly there if you know the books. I love picking out one of the books to play and then characters from that book and trying to beat the game. I like it best, I think at two, though three isn’t bad either.

21. Just One

Party game on the list, Just One is a great game. And I really like that we are getting a number of cooperative party games. Here one person is trying to guess a word, and everyone else gives them a one word clue. But any duplicate words cancel. Simple game, clever idea, don’t need to play for points, and always a blast.

20. Cross Clues

Another party game, I told you there are a few, Cross Clues I like just a little bit better. Though, last time I played it I was so tired that I messed up a few times. Here you are giving a one word clue to get people to guess the intersection of two words. So it might be day and octopus, what word is between those two? Eight might be a good option. Simple and a lot of fun again. You can play real time, 5 minutes, see how well you do, we never do that.

19. Pandemic

Here are all the Pandemic games. And I have to say, I don’t know that I need to play base Pandemic again. Pandemic Legacy games just kind of ruined it for me. Still in my collection, but like I said, I might get Flash Point and replace it. If I want to play Pandemic again, I’ll play legacy, I think.

18. Village Attacks

A bigger tower defense game, I am still waiting for my Kickstarter to come in. It funded in 2019. But I am excited for it when it does. Village Attacks has you playing as the bad guys with the villagers coming with pitch forks and torches. You might be grotesque or horrifying, but the theme is just funny to me, so while it’s a dark game, it doesn’t come across.

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I really need to play more of this game, it’s another one that I just really love. Arkham Horror: The Card Game, is the living card game (LCG) from Fantasy Flight, and it’s so cool how they can do so many different things with the game. Great card play and fun deck construction that I want to do more of. I prefer it two player, I think, but it’s good solo as well.

16. Similo

Final party game on the list, but not final light game. Similo is game where one person is it. That person is giving clues of either a card being like or not like the secret card. Then the rest of the players eliminate cards. Simple concept for a game and a ton of fun, especially to mix decks. How do you tell players that a chicken is or isn’t like a vampire or medusa?

15. Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

This is the game that the Pathfinder Card Game was based on, though the Pathfinder one came out first, it’s confusing. But I like the dark theme of this one, there is warfare going on between supernatural forces, and not everyone can see it, but you can. So how can you stop it in the different scenarios. Good game, great art, and my sort of them. Horrible rule book.

14. Say Bye to the Villains

Definitely the hardest game on the list, at least in terms of winning. The play is simple, spend time to improve your stats, look at what a villain is doing, and hope that you can win when you run out of time. And there isn’t enough time to do everything in the game. I’ve come so close to winning so many times, I’m sure eventually I will.

13. The Reckoners

Pretty high on the list for limited plays, but I love the theme of the game. The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson is a great series. And I love the game play, it’s tough, even on easy, but it has a lot of good choices. And you feel like you can do a lot on your turn as you roll dice and every face on the die is probably something you need.

12. Marvel United

Marvel United is a pretty easy game, but I love it a lot. In the game you are playing down cards to stop a super villain. As superheroes you all work together. So the last card you played, if I’m next to go, I’ll get to use as well. The villains also feel so different in this game, and while I have everything for it, the grab and go get it to the table is great.

11. Letter Jam

A game that just made me realize I forgot to rank Hanabi, I play a lot of cooperative games, Letter Jam is a game where you are trying to guess your word. But you can’t see the letters that make up your word. Only through clues and words given by other players can you infer what your letters are. There is some good strategy in figuring out what are good clues. Loads of fun and one that I think a lot of people will like.

10. TIME Stories

The highest escape room style game on my list, though this one has more going on than that. I really like TIME Stories for the puzzles that it gives. I haven’t played all of them yet, and I have heard that some are weaker than others. But every one that I’ve played thus far I really enjoy.

9. Roll Player Adventures

I’m really excited, I get to play into a campaign of this in February. Roll Player Adventures is my highlight from GenCon in 2019. Getting to playtest it was great. In the Roll Player universe, this takes characters you might have rolled up, or pre-made ones, and lets you take them on adventures. The adventures are fun, and the combat is interesting. It’s a lot of choose your own adventure and so good at that.

8. Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition

Another Lovecraftian game, and another cooperative one. All of Fantasy Flights games in their Arkham Files line are cooperative. Mansions of Madness is app assisted and so much fun. Like Arkham Horror The Card Game, the game can be so different depending upon scenario. Some might have you stopping a ritual in a mansion, others exploring a town. One that I want to play more of to see what else they can do with it.

7. Sleeping Gods

You can watch me play this tonight, Jan 26th, on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game that I’m playing solo right now where you are the Manticore, a ship, and sailing around with crew that go on adventures. The game has an amazing aesthetic and story. Even though the story isn’t linear, it works well. And the world it’s set in is really cool.

6. Marvel Champions

I like Marvel a lot, and for me Marvel Champions is the best Marvel game. The different heroes feel like that hero, and you can take them up against any bad guy. While Marvel United you play as one hero they are a bit more generic. And Marvel Champions gives you that alter ego side, so you push and pull to keep the villain at bay. And there are so many heroes and villains already and there can be so many more.

5. Aeon’s End

Another one I talked about yesterday. Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game where you try and stop a nemesis. A great solo and two player game. There are so many set-ups and so many cards for it. Now this does include Legacy as well, which is a great introduction to the game. And I like that the randomness in the game isn’t shuffling your deck, it is turn order and what the monster does.

4. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game, this one is Starship Troopers and tower defense. I like how collaborative the game is. I build my deck, but if I have an extra troop and you need one, I can give it to you to defend your part of the base and it goes into your deck. It allows everyone to really balance out what is going on and have a chance, which is good, because it’s a tough game.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I feel like this one I talk about and always describe it in a way that doesn’t sound that fun. But in this game, I feel like I am a detective. It’s a bit like a detective TV show, but fun is how I put it. You get into the case and the theme and if you allow yourself to be immersed in figuring out the story going on it is a great time.

2. Tainted Grail

Another one from yesterday, Tainted Grail is an amazing story adventure game. You take these characters and build them up through a grim dark storyline. And the writing on the game is just so well done. In terms of thematic games, I feel like this one might top my list, though, not my favorite cooperative game.

1. Gloomhaven

For my favorite cooperative game, no shock, it’s Gloomhaven. I love this game. I love the leveling in this game and the card play in this game. And I love that you retire characters and get new ones. I think that the mechanics are amazing and the story is interesting. But overall it leads to a great cooperative experience.

Final Thoughts

I’m guessing since I missed Hanabi and Imperial Assault that I likely missed others. And I also found it interesting how many I’ve gotten rid of. I think a lot of that has to do with me having so many I’ve played. It means that they are fighting for playing time. So only the top ones stick around. Especially when you get down to campaign games, for those it’s even a tighter field because of Kickstarter games coming in and time.

What is your favorite cooperative game?

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Often with this type of gamer, they are going to look at games that tell a story. I’m talking about two different types of stories here, first there is the campaign style story or games that inherently tell a story, but also board games that provide story through the game play.

Two Quick Examples

So, I hope that makes sense, but if it doesn’t, I do have a couple of quick examples to give in two games that are actually in the same family of games. That would be Pandemic and any of the Pandemic Legacy games.

Pandemic Legacy is a game that has story baked into it. You play through months and story unfolds as you go. You unlock things mid game that add to the story and as you progress month to month your goals change and story continues to progress.

Pandemic, it doesn’t have all the trappings that Pandemic Legacy does. But Pandemic still tells a story. It does that through the game play and the players as diseases pop up around the world, you name them. There are hot spots that develop where no matter how much you try and keep them down they always seem to come back up again. The medic gets tired of going back to Lagos over and over again to deal with it because you just can’t avoid it coming back up. Those stories come out of playing the game.

Story Campaign Games

So I’ve given one example of the two different types of games, but I wanted to talk about each of them in more depth. We’re starting with story driven campaign games. These are the big games that people are going to think of when it comes to story. The Gloomhaven, Sword & Sorcery and other similar games out there. These games often go through Kickstarter because they have a lot of minis and they are harder to sell in retail stores.

When done well, these games really develop and interesting narrative to them. Good storytelling should have you invested in what is going to happen next in a book and that is the same with a campaign game. If I can play a session and at the end I’m not ready to play again, that means that there are one or more of a couple of flaws with the game. This could be that the story isn’t that engaging, or it could be that the game play itself isn’t that amazing. I talk about Sword & Sorcery when it comes to this sort of thing. I think the story is fine, it certainly isn’t bad, but the mechanics are so dice chucking focused that the game feels like it removes some meaningful decisions from you just by a roll of the dice. Gloomhaven on the other hand has well balanced and interesting mechanics to the game to go with a solid story, so it kept on sucking me back in to play more and more.

Story based campaign games aren’t that hard to find, and if you want to find some, here are a list to checkout.

Campaign Games

• Gloomhaven
• Reichbusters: Projekt Vril
• Folklore: The Affliction
• Clank! Legacy
• Aeon’s End Legacy
• Pandemic Legacy (Seasons 0 through 2)
• Shadows of Brimstone
• Legacy of Dragonholt
• Forgotten Waters
• Roll Player Adventures

And there are a ton more as well, but those are just a few that I have sitting on my shelves or coming through Kickstarter.

Games That Bring Out Story

Now, this could be taken one of two ways, that’s why I wanted to give the example of Pandemic above and how that tells a story. There are games that you get stories from and then there are games that bring out story. Uno would be a bad example of this. In Uno you might tell the story of how a friend got Uno three times only to get draw four played on them each time. That’s a story about the game not the game telling a story.

What I’m talking about are those games where the theme is there, at least enough, so you really feel the story coming out of it. A game like Marvel Champions can tell a story of a super hero fighting a super villain as if it were in the comics, but without comic panels, it just gives you a very loose framework as to what the super villain is up to. Call to Adventure is another one, and this one is more intentional, but you get generic fantasy story elements for what your adventurer is doing and at the end it’s helped create this epic story for your heroes journey.

The game creates, through mechanics and minimal story telling elements, a story that is captivating each time you play. The theme doesn’t even have to be so strongly there, but the mechanics need to be smoothly integrated into the game so that you don’t see them standing out. Instead you just play the game and what you are doing in the game just makes sense. While writing a massive story for a huge campaign game can be daunting, I think creating a game that tells a story in a one off experience is probably even more challenging.

Games With Story

• Pandemic
• Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade
• Call to Adventure
• Blood Rage
• Aeon’s End: War Eternal
• Grimm Masquerade
• Marrying Mr. Darcy
• Marvel Champions
• Specter Ops
• Clank! In! Space!

These are the first games that popped into my head. I surprised to think of Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade, but it does a good job of telling the story of playing pinball. It’s a weird thing to think about, but it does a good job of it and creates a memorable time.

Is This Type of Board Game Better?

Personally, for me, I enjoy it more than a pure dice chucker or a pure cube pusher. And I think when getting people into the hobby, this is a strong selling point for a game. A euro game can be too dry, and an amerithrash game to be too lucky and sometimes just too big for new gamers. I think especially games from that second category, games that bring out story, are great to hook new players into the gaming hobby. But it won’t be the cup of tea for everyone. Some people will love the epic Amerithrash games with tons of swingy combat and randomness in them. For others, randomness needs to be highly minimized. So I don’t know that games that tell stories, campaign or otherwise, are better, but I do like them better.

How about you? What games tell the best story for you?

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Firstly, let me say that I won’t be talking about Legacy of Dragonholt. Legacy of Dragonholt is a simplified and good RPG that is meant for families, I’d say, and keeps everything very basic and simple.

Key Elements of an RPG

When thinking about what elements are taken over from RPG’s to board games, you need to ask what elements the board games are going to try and emulate. There’s a lot of things that they try to, but not all of them work as well and not all of theme are key.

Character Creation

Not one that’s used in a ton of board games, but it’s a core part to RPG’s. Most players I know of have about ten to fifteen different ideas floating around in their head. And that’s great, some board games try and add in elements like this. How does this work for board games, and does it work well? I think a lot of board games kind of half do this, and mainly focus on the next thing I’m going to talk about. When I say half do this, I mean they give you some characters out of the box to work on with maybe limited customization to start with. Gloomhaven, for example, you get your class, and you get cards with 1 on them and that’s your starting set of cards, but you can technically change things up a little bit, because you can swap in X cards, and you can buy gear, so you’d be slightly different than other characters. From what I’ve seen, Folklore: The Affliction maybe does more, but I need to delve into it. Sword & Sorcery also kind of does it with the abilities that you can take at the start.

So does this work well, I think it works okay, a lot of games kind of do it because it’s a lot of work to actually implement, and more board games play with tighter rule sets than RPG’s do.

Character Progression

This is what most board games try and emulate and might be one of the better things that they do emulate. By character progression, I don’t mean narrative growth, I mean leveling up. Who doesn’t like getting a new skill, more health, better stats overall, that’s one of the fun parts of Dungeons and Dragons for me.And there are a lot of board games that do this very well, something like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth has you progressing your deck and swapping out cards, Gloomhaven has you getting access to new cards and getting more hit points, Sword and Sorcery it’s new skills, weapons and more that you can get. Even stuff like Pandemic Legacy which borrows a few RPG elements lightly gives you an option for character progression.

I think this works extremely well in campaign games. In fact, that’s a knock I have on SeaFall and Charterstone as Legacy games is that I didn’t feel like my character continued to progress over time. Once I’d progressed to a certain point, I could optimize how I’d progressed but not progress further really. But then there are games like Tainted Grail which uses a lot of RPG elements and it’s great for their progression, and even a more limited progression like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth has interesting progression.

Story

A huge thing about RPG’s is obviously the story that the Dungeon Master and the players are weaving together. This is an area that I think some board games are better at emulating than others. The issue with story often is that the story doesn’t feel as immersive as an RPG. A good example of this would be Near and Far, it has interesting story in it, but it’s more about the worker placement style mechanics and leveling up your team to get victory points. Most of the time I just want more story and a more cohesive story, because they don’t expect the story to be read in any particular order. That was the issue and a big issue with SeaFall, there was no specific order for the story, so it felt like it started and stopped telling the story at different times. Then, however, there are other games, like Gloomhaven or Tainted Grail that tell a good immersive story, and while the mechanics might get ahead of the story at times, I don’t feel like it breaks my immersion. Now, all of those games I mentioned use some other RPG elements, but some games, like Mansions of Madness just has the story element of RPG’s that it adds in, and it works well there.

This element is interesting, because sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t. I think it can be a key component and should be the main focus for board games that want to be RPG like board games. I also think that it’s an area that games often oversell themselves on. I like TIME Stories a lot and it calls itself an RPG, it’s one of my favorites thus far, but I don’t get the story RPG feel.

Wrapping Up

Now, I’m a huge fan of RPG elements in board games. It can give a really immersive experience in a lot of different ways. For me, story is definitely king. I want a game with a great story that draws me into what is going on and gives me an experience w hen I play it. However, without solid mechanics to back it up, a game with a great story might as well just be the story. And character progression and even character creation really can give a game a great RPG feel when the story is good but not great.

One game that I’m extremely excited about is the new Roll Player Adventures that’s coming out this year. It builds upon a game, Roll Player, where you are literally just rolling up a character in a D&D manner and makes it into a board game RPG experience. I think it should work really well and the fact you can roll up characters in Roll Player and bring them into Roll Player Adventures is awesome.

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Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s

L’s

Lazer Ryderz

We’re starting off with a light and silly one, this one is basically light bikes from Tron the board game, with all of the 80’s gloriousness. In fact, the box even looks like a VHS tape collection (though slightly too large for one). This game has you basically creating light trails, trying to knock other people out, but more so trying to get to objectives before everyone else does to claim them as points. It’s a bunch of silly madness but works well, and it’s one of those board games that gets you up and has you moving around the table as you try and strategize. Now, not all games need to do that, but I like simple games that do for a nice bit of filler.

Status: Played

Legacy of Dragonholt

This is an RPG as much as it is a board game, but Fantasy Flight created what is basically a simple RPG in a box. Oddly enough, not the only one that will be on this part of the list, that kind of has that choose your own adventure feel. This one caught my eye because of how simple it is to play, you aren’t rolling dice, you’re basically just making decisions, and if you have skills, you can use them to open up other paths that might have been closed off if you didn’t have them. The game tells an entertaining story from what I’ve gotten through, and I think there is plenty to explore, I really need to just sit down and knock this one out.

Status: Played

Legends of Andor (Journey to the North Expansion)

Legends of Andor caught my attention a while back as a simple fantasy adventure game. Now, it isn’t extremely simple, the game has good challenge to it, but it is a lot of fun to play. Legends of Andor is very much a puzzle game as compared to a normal fantasy dungeon crawl-esque game, you want to kill off all of the monsters, but here if you do that, it progresses the story too fast and you’ll end up losing. So it’s a balancing mechanic of keeping monsters out of areas that they can do damage, while also completing objectives but not rushing the story along too fast. I like it for a game that feels like it has a lot of traditional board game mechanics, but gives it a bit of a different feel with the puzzle like twist.

Status: Played

Letter Jam

Another GenCon game that I got to try there, I couldn’t pick it up because it was sold out. Let me say that the first experience I had with the game was questionable, this is a cooperative word game, and I don’t think that all the players knew it was cooperative because the gal giving a demo did a very bad job demoing the game. But I’ve gotten to play it since then, including a second demo of it at GenCon and that one was much better, and I have enjoyed the game every time that I’ve played this. This game borrows from Hanabi where your cards are facing away from you, but in this one, it’s a word game, you are trying to figure out what word you might have, but everything is all mixed up in front of you and only one letter of yours is up at a time. People are giving clues that use letters that they can see (so not their own), plus any additional letters that there might be or a wild letter so that people can narrow down what their letters are and figure them out before the end of the game so they can unscramble their word. Overall, a really fun and clever game, it also plays up to six which is awesome.

Status: Played

Lift Off! Get me of this Planet!

This was the first game that I ever backed on Kickstarter. Lift Off! is a cute little game with a million little meeples whom you are trying to get your color of meeple off the planet before it explodes and before your opponent does. To do this you have to prepare you launch sites by getting fuel, gear, etc. to them, and get meeples there ready to launch and wait for the right time of the day (or night) to launch. It makes a really interesting timing puzzle as you look to maximize how quickly you can get off the planet by what you can actually launch, and sometimes a spaceship, for example, might need a lot to launch so you’ll have to leave room on the ship for your opponent so that they can help you get it launched, while others, like a slingshot, might need basically nothing. It’s a fun family weight game or just a bit heavier that looks really cute and plays well.

Status: Played

The Lord of the Rings (Sauron Expansion)

This is an older Fantasy Flight game that they just reprinted with a fancy anniversary edition, and I think the older edition looks better. This game has you playing through the Lord of the Rings trilogy and it’s kind of a puzzle and push your luck game as you try and advance down the boards, playing through the major moments of Lord of the Rings, but you need to do the right combination of cards, and you need to keep your characters away from Sauron as well. This game is a bit like The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, not in game play, but in how it handles the theme, where if you know the source material, that knowledge brings the theme more than the game play does. The Sauron expansion allows someone to play as Sauron against the group as well, which is a fun edition.

Status: Played

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth

Another Lord of the Rings game, this one, while it has Lord of the Rings characters like Gimli and Aragorn, isn’t about the trilogy. Instead, you are playing through a campaign that comes before the trilogy as Bilbo is also a character you can play. The game is app assisted which allows it to do a lot of the house keeping for the monsters in the game. This feels like it’s based off of Mansions of Madness, and I know it uses the same base programming for the app as Mansions of Madness, but it gives you more exploration as well as then tactical combat. The game really plays in two types of scenarios, that exploration and then combat, which is fun, as you get something for all types of players. It also moves away from dice chucking like Mansions of Madness to a card system which works well.

Status: Played

Lords of Hellas (Dark Ages Expansion)

Another big and epic game, this one from Awaken Realms, it is an interesting game in that it does so many things in it. There is a drafting piece to the game, happens when you build temples, there is area control, there is fighting monsters, or fighting other players for control of the areas, you can build temples and statues, unlock new powers and go on quests. This game has a lot going on but really plays in a pretty straight forward way. I like all of what you can do because it feels like what you’re doing and what you can focus on is different than everyone else. I also like that it has four win conditions, controlling two regions and all of their sub regions on the map, controlling a number of temples, killing three monsters, or controlling a statue after it’s been built. This game is also really well balanced, we had a five player game and all of us were in a couple of turns of winning when the game ended and all of us had switched what our goal was for winning by the end as well. Really love the game.

Status: Played

The Lost Expedition (The Fountain of Youth & Other Adventures Expansion)

The Lost Expedition is one of my go to filler plus games. It feels like it’s just a bit more because it takes just a bit longer than some games, but definitely is straight forward enough to be considered a filler and it’s cooperative. You are creating paths in this game for your adventuring group to go down, during the day everyone plays down two cards (generally) and they go in numerical order, and you work together to traverse that path. In the evening, you go for another hike, this time it’s playing down the rest of the cards in your hand, but they don’t go in numerical order, but the order that you play them in. This creates some interesting game play, and for people who feel like there is an alpha gamer problem in cooperative game, The Lost Expedition counters that by not allowing that much sharing of information or really any during the card playing phase, and that’s the part that really sets up what you’re going to do.

Status: Played

Loup Garou

This is another choose your own adventure style game, more so than Legacy of Dragonholt. It has you playing through a graphic novel basically. Van Ryder games has put out a lot of them which have been quite popular. I grabbed this one at GenCon and I still need to get it played, but I like the concept and I’m very curious to try it to see if this is maybe something that I’d want to get more of. They really have about one play through per book per person, but it should be something you can then pass off to another person to play as well.

Status: To Be Played

Love Letter

Another early to my collection game because of seeing it Wil Wheaton’s Table Top, though, I think this was played on the first International Table Top Day if I remember correctly. This game is a little micro game where you are trying to get a Love Letter to the princess and you are doing that by trying to have the highest value card left in your hand when all is said and done, as long as it’s not the princess. But you can also knock other players out of the round, and if you do that, that can also cause you to win the round. It’s played over a series of rounds, but even playing up to 4 wins in a two player game, that goes extremely fast. It’s a nice tiny little game that has had a lot of versions of it put out.

Status: Played

I impressed myself there, out of all the games that start with the letter L that I own, I’ve only not played one of them. Granted, with another one I haven’t played my copy, Lazer Ryderz, but I want to once I can have more people over again. There is really such a wide variety of games in here, and I am going to go through at the end and do my favorite game for each letter, though for some that might be obvious.

What’s your favorite game that starts with the letter L? What game starting with L should I add to my collection?

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There are three main spots that I can think of when it comes to table top gaming. Assuming that you don’t just decide to play something like Ascension on an app because you want more of that real time interaction. Obviously, for conversation purposes you’re going to want to have a webcam ready to chat with.

Tabletopia
This software works on all platforms and you can hook your Steam account up to it. Boasting more than 800 games to play, it certainly will give you a lot of options as to what you can grab.

Tabletop Simulator
Another digital platform, also available with Steam, that you can play a lot of games through.

Zoom/Other Meeting Software
This is the one that I’ve done thus far, but also going to be the hardest to pull off, because I have the streaming set-up for Malts and Meeples, I can go ahead and do a two camera set-up. That means that in a meeting, I’m able to have a camera on myself as well as then one of the table for the game. It’s also trickier because while Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator have all the pieces for the game, if multiple people don’t own the game, you need something with open information. However, because I played Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game with a friend and we both have it, that meant that the hidden information, what was in our hands, could be hidden because we each had a hand of cards.

I do want to check out the fully online options, but I have to say that I like the Zoom and using the streaming set-up that I did. Mainly because I still go to play with a physical game. And I think that’s a piece that’s always going to be missing from something like Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator. Now, I don’t think that those are bad systems to use and for a lot of people they are going to be the only thing that they can use because of limitations for their set-ups. Though, a webcam pointed at the game on the table would work, so even if you aren’t able to be “face to face” because of only using a camera, you’d still be able to play with a physical copy of a game.

So besides the library that they have on the digital gaming set-ups, what are some games that would be pretty easy to play even if everyone doesn’t have a copy of a game? Some of these will be easier than others because they have a smaller footprint, but all should work online.

Pandemic
Sounds like a joke, but it isn’t, because all the cards are face up, you need a single person moving pieces and flipping cards, but the decisions are still going to be able to be made by the person whose turn it is, just maybe with asking a few questions. Pandemic can have an Alpha gamer problem that might be a little bit worse if the alpha gamer is the person who has the game, but that’s not so much a problem with the game as an issue that the alpha gamer has to deal with. And if you use Zoom, the leader can mute the person if they are talking over others.

Quoridor
A simple enough abstract game where you’re racing from one side of the board to another while placing obstacles in the way of your opponent(s). You have a limited number of walls that you can place up, so as long as you can see how many you have left, it would work well online. Again, no hidden information so you don’t need to hide what you have or face a challenge of passing information to someone in secret or acting like you don’t know that information.

Just One
Cooperative games tend to work well, and this is a good cooperative party style game. In it one person has to not see the card being held up to the camera and then picks a number, everyone else writes down a one word clue, any repeated clues aren’t displayed and then the person has to guess. This should work exactly how it does in the real world simply by people closing their eyes at the right point in time. It’s also an easy game for people who might not be gamers to join in on because of how simple the concept is.

Second Chance/Welcome To…/Criss Cross/Cat Cafe/Yahtzee
Roll and writes or flip and writes are simple where you don’t need to be passing around the dice. Even the ones where you do, if they use normal six sided dice, like Yahtzee, most people can find the right number of dice. The trickiest thing is that as a roll or flip and write, you need something to write on. So it would require people to have a printer, but on Board Game Geek you can find a lot of these sheets that you can print off. Or if you have a scanner, you can scan them in and e-mail them so that people can then print them off. While Cat Cafe and Yahtzee might require a little more work, the other three would be simple to play and give you a lot of hours of entertainment. And all of them can play good sized groups.

Scattergories
This one can also play a large group and works as a party style game for more casual gamers. It works because you just need someone to display the list and you can play on a blank sheet of paper coming up with answers. Probably the simplest one to do because someone could just literally type the list into a chat window for everyone to see.

Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game
This is one that I saw people suggesting or talking about on Facebook, I believe in the Dice Tower group. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is what it says, a game about figuring out who done it. And it’s an involved and complex game. There’s an online database that you use, you can google things are appropriate times, and you can easily discuss a case and actions over a meeting. You just need one person reading off the case cards and presenting the options, which I think a lot of groups do in terms of dividing up the demands of the game. Plus, you need someone to take notes as to what has been discovered.

Legacy of Dragonholt/Choose Your Own Adventure House of Danger
Story driven choose your own adventure style games work. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game almost falls into that category, but these are really just reading through things, and House of Danger has a few dice rolls with it but it’s a six sided die so that is going to work for most people because even if people don’t have many games, they probably have a die somewhere in their house.

Small World
Last one on the list, but I’m kind of surprised as I thought about it, that it actually works. The game is simple with just putting down pieces of cardboard to take over areas. So you just need to see how many characters you have left and how many are on each spot on the board. Plus, at times, what combos are available. Yes, you would need to have a single person moving everything around on the board, but that is pretty simple, there just might be a need for some clarifying questions as to what spot to place down your characters.

Now, I’m sure there are a lot more games that could work, and certainly classic games like Chess and Checkers where there is no hidden information would work really well. But those are some that I have sitting on my shelf that jumped out to me as good options for being able to play online. And while for me this will never replace playing games with people in person, during these times, there is certainly opportunity for groups to come together and play games online through one of the ways that I mentioned.

What are some games that you think would work well to play with a web cam? Have you tried out any thus far that have been a big success or a miss?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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