1 Player Podcast

This week Julius and I revisit a classic realtime game... Escape: The Curse of the Temple, in which you Indiana Jones your way out of a cursed temple.  Hurry though, you only have 10 minutes! Escape: The Curse of the Temple ( BGG , Queen Games )

This week Julius and I talk about Flamecraft, a fun worker placement-ish game of running around being a good dragon.  It is actually worker placement but for me it felt more like running around doing errands than like placing workers.   Flamecraft ( BGG , Cardboard Alchemy )

This week Julius and I look at Cyberion, the latest Oniverse game my Shadi Torbey.  It's a cool game about fighting the Devious Cog whose trying to destroy your factory.  We really like the Oniverse and send almost an hour discussing this game! Cyberion ( BGG )

This week we learn how to start a new zoo!  Julius tells us about New York Zoo, a game in which you are trying to build a new zoo with animals and rides.  It's a rondel game with polyominoes by Uwe Rosenberg and pretty family friendly. New York Zoo ( BGG )

This week's popular mechanics episode is a bit unorthodox.  Instead of looking at a single mechanic, we talk about mechanics (or game stuff) that caught our attention in 2023. 03:10 For Northwood! ( BGG ) 05:15 Bullet⭐ (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/343844/bullet) 10:55 Wreck This Deck ( RPG Geek ) 14:20 Bruges ( BGG ) 1 7:45 Banish the Snakes ( BGG ) 20:35 Legacy of Yu ( BGG ) 21:10 Habita...

This week I go solo and talk about an RPG called Wreck This Deck.  The title says it all, this is a game in which you get to alter and craft on a deck of playing cards all while trapping demons, doing readings and casting spells.   Best of all, you are altering cards! These are the cards I've altered.   Wreck This Deck ( RPG Geek , itch.io , Reddit ) Discord ( Unofficial ) My list of demons and en...

This week I'm out, as well as next week, so Julius and family fill in to talk about a solo poker game!   Lock & Spell ( BGG , Jupiter Valley Studios )

This week's episode, I talk about a small game called Age of Civilization, in which you can play through the rise and fall of empires in about 30 minutes.  It's a fun little worker placement game with lots of choices and lots of variability.  The entire show collapses at the end when my headphones run out of battery.

This week Julius shares a game he can't stop gushing about.  It's Endangered, the cooperative game about saving endangered species.  It's a neat little compact game with an interesting theme and nice artwork. 

Poor Julius sprained his wrist pretty badly and has been struggling with shuffling cards.  This week we brainstorm games that we can play without having to do all that shuffling. 02:30 Escape: The Curse of the Temple ( BGG ) 04:15 Search for Planet X ( BGG ) 06:25 Search for the Lost Species ( BGG ) 09:00 Fields of Arle ( BGG )  10:50 Caverna: Cave vs Cave ( BGG ) 13:00 Nautilion ( BGG ) 14:50 Cas...

This week's game is Pericle: The Gathering Darkness.  It's a fantasy adventure board game set in a world that reminds me of ancient Rome or Greece.  It is app driven to simulate playing with a game master and really does feel a lot more like playing an RPG than it feels like playing a boardgame.  I very much have enjoyed playing the game and think it is a pretty unique experience. The game was kin...

This week Julius and I revisit the game PAX by Bernd Eisenstein and published by Irongames.  This game is a small, fast playing drafting game that reminds me (but not Julius) of 7 Wonders. PAX ( BGG , Irongames ) PAX: Noctornus ( BGG )

Oops, I forgot to attach the episode to the 1st post. This week Julius and I talk about The Spill, a game about saving the environment from a dangerous oil spill from a deep sea rig.  It's a cooperative game with some interesting components and lots to talk about. The Spill ( BGG , Smirk & Dagger , Smirk & Dagger Deluxe )

This week we talk about the Ravensburger game by Propero Hall, Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons.  This is a very affordable, family friendly co-operative game that isn't intended for solo but can work if you don't mind making a few compromises. Wonder Woman ( BGG )

This week Julius and I talk past each other as I try to describe games that are good if you want more enjoyment from the game than just the time at the table, or as I call it, the Game Between the Game.  Not all is in agreement here though so come listen and decide how you feel about this topic.  Let us know what you think about the topic.  Do you agree with either of us?   Lord of the Rings: the...

This week I tell Julius all about the GMT Games title Banish the Snakes.  You play as St. Patrick or some of the other saints that worked to convert Ireland to Christianity as the Roman Empire and Roman Britain and collapsed.  This is a really interesting historical title that plays very similarly to a Pandemic but with the complexity taken up a notch or two.   Banish the Snakes ( BGG , GMT Games...

This week Julius tells us about Skytear Horde.  A cooperative card game not too unlike M:tG.  In it you play cards to cast spells and summon allies.  A rift has torn the sky open and from that tear emerges a horde of demons, more or less one at a time in a pretty orderly fashion to defeat you!  You can play solo or cooperatively to defeat this horde and their boss! Skytear Horder ( BGG , Skytear )

This week I preset a cool little 2-player dueling game which also includes solo rules.  The game is set in an alternate history earth around the time (and place) of Genghis Khan. Worldbreakers ( BGG , Worldbreakers website )

This week Julius and I talk about the relatively new game, Skoventyr.  This was designed by Morten Monrad Pederson and produced by Shadi Torbey (of Oniverse fame).  This is a light but fun game of running around the forest trying to escape from the devil, or Gamle Erik as he is known in Danish folklore.   Skoventyr ( BGG )

This week Julius and I manage to fit a bunch of games into a small 30 minute space.  This Popular Mechanics episode is about polyomino games with their funny shaped pieces.  Think Tetris. Cartographers ( BGG ) Kingdom Rush ( BGG ) Spring Meadow ( BGG ) Nmbr 9 ( BGG ) ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer ( BGG ) Clip Cut Parcs ( BGG ) Honorable Mentions Eureka journal of recreational mathemati...

This week, Julius tells us about the cooperative game, Keep the Heroes Out!, in which, well, you are trying to keep heroes out of your dungeon.  You play as one of a number of dungeon denizens.  You'll go is to keep the wave after wave of pesky humans out of your dungeon by killing them, all while trying to do some other, scenario based thingy.   It's a super-cute looking game with a neat theme. ...

In a galaxy far, far away you get to be a bounty hunter after your next target.  Nothing will stop you though many enemies will try to get in your way.  Notorious is a solo journalling RPG about being a bounty hunter in a hardscrabble world.

Unable to record this week, Julius's family picks up my slack by talking about the Adventures of Robin Hood.  This is an adventure game in which players cooperatively, or one player controlling multiple heroes, explores Sherwood Forrest as Robin Hood and his Merry Men (in tights). Their description of it and the look of it reminds me a lot of the excellent video game Robin Hood: The Legend of Sher...

This week Julius tells us about the solo game Wreckland Run. It's a Mad Max kinda world and you are racing around collecting spare parts and building up your arsenal of a car in a short 7 game campaign game.  This is part of the Solo Heroes series from Renegade Games.  See what Julius thinks and how he ranks it against the rest.  Hint:  this one doesn't even rank for him!   Wreckland Run ( Renegad...

This week Julius and I look at games with modular boards.  It's one of my favorite "mechanics" in a game.  I really like games where the setup is different each round and it affects how the game plays out.  The bigger the impact, the better!   Clank! In Space ( BGG ) Under Falling Skies ( BGG ) Keep the Heroes Out ( BGG ) Descent ( BGG ) 7th Continent ( BGG ) Forbidden Island ( BGG ) PARKS ( BGG )...