1 Player Podcast

This week Julius tells us about a game as big as a school bus!  Endeavor is a game about exploring the world's oceans solo, cooperatively or competitively.  It's a big game that sounds like lots of fun and very thematic. Endeavor: Deep Sea ( BGG )

This week I talk with Mike & Olga Rimer of Caravel games.  They have been making video game content for years and years in the excellent D.R.O.D. series (Deadly Rooms of Death).  A few years ago, they released a solo puzzle game called Twisty Little Passages. Now they have Time Fenix coming to Kickstarter in a month or so.  We talk about all their games and then have a bit of a chat about tari...

This week Julius and I talk about dexterity games.  It's not a category you see often when talking about solo games, but there are a few fun ones we've tried (mostly). 02:04 Flip Ships ( BGG ) 05:47 Nekojima ( BGG ) 09:50 What Lies Beneath ( BGG ) 12:30 Hunted: Mining Colony 415 ( BGG ) 15:43 Slide Quest ( BGG ) 21:20 Hoverkraft ( BGG ) 25:36 Menara ( BGG ) 31:14 Jenga ( BGG ) & Clever Girl (...

This week Julius and I talk about the smaller version of Terraforming Mars.  Well, one of the smaller versions.  The game is the very lovely  love-child of Terraforming Mars & Race for the Galaxy, Ares Expedition.  In this game, you are working to make Mars a habitable planet by managing the temperature & oxygen levels while raising oceans.  The theme is straight out of Terraforming Mars. ...

This week, we talk about Harvest, the farming game from Keymaster Games, publishers of PARKS.  In this game, you are trying to farm and harvest your fields as often as possible.  It's a worker placement that can be soloed by playing against Gairy, the Dairy cow. Harvest ( BGG , Keymaster Games )

This week Julius takes us back to the table with Lewis & Clark.  Go on a slow boat ride accoss the North American continent to explore lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and explore the yet unclaimed Pacific Northwest.  That is, not yet taken from the native populations of the are.

This week Julius and I explore a RPG about exploring a giant castle.  Giant doesn't do this castle justice though.  This is a world inside a castle so immense there are seas in it.  The castle is filled with room so large there are cities and villages in them.  You will wander around exploring and fighting Rooks, massive creatures made of stonework.  When you defeat one, you can gain powerful magi...

This week Julius and I talk about looooong games.  These are games that take 3 or more hours to play!  Serioulsy, these are the kind of games I wish I could play more often but find it hard to get out on the table... <sigh> 03:44 7th Continent ( BGG ) 04:25 Sleeping Gods - Distant Skies ( BGG ) 08:28 Mr. President: The American Presidency (2001-2020) ( BGG ) 12:12 Cantalopp ( BGG ) 15:30 Sil...

This week, Julius introduces Fit to Print the newspaper layout game.  It actually sounds like a fun game with a timer.  In this game, you are buying the best stories and laying out on your newspaper to make the most captivating paper in town!  It sounds a big goofy but it also sounds really fun. Also, Final Girl contest reminder! Fit to Print ( BGG , AEG )

This week I tell Julius and the audience all about Free Ride, the train game by Friedemann Friese and published by Rio Grande Games.  This is a fun pick-up and deliver game with quick turns that includes a solo challenge.  Hop aboard and hear all about the game and what I think. Also, listen in for the Final Girl Season 3 giveaway!

This week Julius tells us about the small game Welcome to Reckoning.  This 1 player game by Mike Heiman set in a wild wild west with cosmic horrors.  Gotta love those cosmic horrors.

This week we talk about a Vital Lacerda big-box game on wine making.  The game is the 2016 release of Vinhos: Deluxe Edition.  It's a fun game that lets produce wine, compete in wine fairs, sell and export.  All this in an effort to become the pre-eminent wine producer of Portugal.  It's a pretty neat game with an interesting theme but maybe too big for me. Vinhos: Deluxe Edition ( BGG , Eagle-Gry...

This week, we look at a year of gaming.  Well, sorta.  We look at games that have a year in them or somehow use the flow of time in them.  It was harder than expected, but we found a few games that do have a pretty decent sense of time passing. Check out the sample fancy map someone drew for Cartographers: 02:30 Creature Comforts ( BGG , KTBG ) 04:30 Project Ecco ( RPG Geek , More Blueberries ) 07...

This week Julius and I look at a game about growing magic herbs and plants in a communal wizard's hedge.  Position your helper sprites to help you get the most plants from this shared garden.  This is an interesting game of area control in which, each turn, you are placing plant patches to trigger a variety of powers and increase your control over the garden.  This game's solo experience closely m...

Julius and I talk about Bot Factory but Vital Lacerda.  Mostly Julius describes the game and I talk about how much it reminds me of Kanban and how I want to play either of those two games.  Bot Factory is based on Kanban in both the theme of managing a factory and the mechanics which are simplified quite a bit without making it a simple game at all. Bot Factory ( BGG , Eagle-Gryphon ) Kanban EV (...

This week we look back at a classic co-op game, Castle Panic. Monsters have decided to attach your castle in a clearing surrounded by dangerous woods.  Waves of monsters charge the castle.  Fortunately, the clever design makes it hard for the monsters to get at your castle and your highly trained warriors (knights, archers and fighters defend the castle), each specializing in combat on a certain t...

This week tells us about a Monster High-ish game called Mythic Mischief.  In it, you play a group of monster kids in school, trying to cause mischief in the library and get one of the rival cliques in trouble.  It's a head-to-head sportsball type game of out-maneuvering your opponent's team members so they get caught by the library's Tomekeeper.  The game also features a solo mode that sounds pret...

  04:20 - Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age (BGG, Eagle-Gryphon) 08:55 - Cartographers (BGG, Thunderworks) 14:40 - Yahtzee! (BGG) 17:40 - Dungeon Dice (BGG) 22:45 - Railroad Ink (BGG) 27:39 - OctoDice (BGG) 31:27 - Clip-Cut Parks (BGG) 34:28 - Three Sisters (BGG) 36:23 - Catan: The Dice Game (BGG)

This week we talk about the game Aleph Null by Tony Boydell and published by Capstone Games.  The art is by Alex Leigh and music by Nicholas O'Neill.  I did not include music as I mentioned I might do, primarily because I didn't see it available on-line for public consumption. Anway, this game is about summoning the demon Baphomet, the Sabbat Goat.  It's a bit creepy and would be creepier if not f...

This week Julius and and daughter join this week to talk about the very lovely Wild Gardens.  This is a game about foraging for natural ingredients to put into your delicious recipes. It's a beautiful game that reminds of Studio Ghibli animations - think Totoro.  Wild Gardens ( BGG , Rose Gauntlet )

This week I talk about a small solo RPG called Anamnesis.  This is a game about forgetting your past and then rediscovering who you are.  I found it hard to start because you begin with no information and you are making it all up as you go along!  That even goes for the setting!  I found as I played, the story comes together nicely and I have had a really good time every game I've played. Anamnesi...

This game seems to come up again and again and it's for good reason.  Pandemic is a classic games in line with the likes of Monopoly, Clue or Scrabble.  Fight off diseases ravaging the world in an effort to save humanity.  This game has inspired variants, legacy games and made cooperative games popular.  It occurs to me that we didn't credit the game.  It was designed by Matt Leacock and originall...

While still struggling slightly (very slightly), Julius and family recorded an episode about tragic games.  That's right.  These week we look at games that are overall about sad events.  No tragedy here though, it's a very fun episode! 02:00 Endangered ( BGG ) 03:55 Leviathan Wilds ( BGG ) 05:30 Anachrony ( BGG ) 07:45 Pandemic ( BGG ) 11:20 Mysterium ?? ( BGG ) 13:00 Horrified ( BGG ) 14:30 Under...

This week we talk about Deck of Wonders, which currently has an expansion out on Kickstarter.  I'd hope to get this episode out with plenty of time for listeners to decide if they want to back this.  Saddly, Hurricane Helene set back my production schedule and the Kickstarter ends in just a couple of days. This game is a light deck construction game similar to Magic: The Gathering.  In fact, it dr...

I am still struggling with outdoor home internet. Julius and family picked up my slack and recorded an episode. This week's game is the sequel to The Search for Planet X.