1 Player Podcast

This week Julius tells us about his smartphone or, really, about his smartphone empire.  Smartphone, Inc. is a game in which you build a multinational smartphone company to rival any Android or iPhone!  Julius tells us all about interesting looking game with so-so art.  At least I think the art is so-so.   Note: This week we suffered some audio issues.  The quality is up to our normal standard but...

Unexpectedly, this week Julius tells us about this co-operative Back to the Future game.  Just in case you lived under a rock in the 80s, Back to the Future is the classic sci-fi movie featuring Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd and a Delorian.  Actually, it's based on all three movies in the Franchise.  It being that this is a movie tie-in game, you (or at least I) would expect to be pretty poor. ...

Don't be alarmed - this is not the final hour of this podcast!  Actually, we are talking about a game called Arkham Horror: Final Hour from Fantasy Flight Games.  It being an Arkham Horror game, you can pretty much guess what this game is about and like.  If you do, you'll be half right and half wrong.  Thematically, this is pretty much the same game as Arkham Horror or Arkham Horror: The Card Gam...

This week Julius tells us about a dice placement game called Artemis Project by Grand Gamers Guild.  This is a really nice looking game with some fantastic artwork and great components.  You are trying to colonize one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa, by mining and sailing the seas for stuff.  Check out what we (especially Julius who has played it) think about this game. Incidentally, there is a re...

This week Julius and I embark on a new journey of exploring interesting game mechanics.  We start off with multi-use cards.  It's more than which card should I play play.  It's which card should I play and how should I play it?  That mechanic, when done well, adds for interesting choices.   03:33 Bruge ( BGG ) 04:00 La Granja ( BGG ) 07:00 Oh My Goods! ( BGG ) 09:00 Lewis and Clark ( BGG ) 11:30 T...

This week we talk about the slasher film game Final Girl by A.J. Porfirio of Van Ryder Games.  This game is built on the foundation of Hostage Negotiator and expands on that system to make a fun but creepy game about trying to survive in a horror movie while a killer is after you.   This is a modular game series in which you need to buy at least two boxes to play, the core box with rules and a Fea...

This episode is a family affair!  Julius and his son discuss the game Sprint, in which you play as the Turtle trying to race the Hare to the finish line!  This is a co-operative game that can easily be played solo.  Check it out.. is this a game you should get?

I'm starting to feel like I'm trapped in a time vortex as this week Julius tells me about yet another time traveling game.  This time, our crack team of time agents must stop the dastardly Professor Evil from stealing famous works of art from throughout time, lest he locks them in his own private vault for all time. This is a relatively simple to play co-op game in the general style of Pandemic. ...

This week Julius and I have a quick chat about Bismarck Solitaire, a book game published by Worthington Games in an effort to quickly and efficiently deal with the global shipping crisis created by the pandemic.  It's a light wargame in which you play as the famous German warship, the Bismarck and travel the Atlantic Ocean (not the English Channel & North Sea as I thought during the recording) try...

Julius and I look at the game Newton by Simone Luciani & Nestore Mangone.  This is a really interesting action selection game with some neat mechanisms.  Each round if you take subsequent actions of the same type, they become stronger and the types of actions are all very different.  It feels like a worker placement game in that you can never do as many things as you really want to.  The game was...

This week Julius and I talk about the game Skyline Express.  This game seems to mix, trains, air travel, maybe steampunk and a post-apocalyptic past to bring you a fun experience but seems to fall short for Julius. ' Skyline Express ( BGG )

This week Julius tells us about City: Skylines a cooperative city building game by Rustan Håkansson, who designed Nations & Nations: The Dice Game.  Cities: Skylines is based on a video game IP and sounds like a big 'ol jigsaw of a game.  Check it out!

This week Julius and I gush about the game PARKS based on the US National Park system and the fantastic art from 59parks.net.  In this 1-4 player game, you play as hikers hiking through the parks, buying gear and filling your canteen along the way as you collect parks.  At it's heart it is a resource management game without enough time to collect all the resources you want.   PARKS ( BGG , publish...

This week Julius and I talk about the time travelling game The LOOP.  More specifically, Julius tells me about the game.  It's got strikingly fantastic garish art and interesting game play.  Note that both of those facts are good things.   The LOOP ( BGG)

This week Julius and I look at something a bit different.  The Curioius Correspondence Club is a subscription service that will send you an escape room style mystery every month.  It comes in the form of a letter with all kinds of papercraft items that you use to solve the mystery. Each letter is just about self contained, other than the internet you need to enter the final answer once you have so...

You ship got a bit too close to the sun and are now being pulled in. Sadly, your ship is suffering malfunctions due to the intense heat of the sun.  You need to rep[air all the modules as they break around you and divert power to the engine so you can escape the Sun's gravity. This week we have a small episode in which I teach Julius the small game Solar Storm.  This is a fun little pandemic style...

This week I interview Elli Amir, designer of the game Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate.  This is a two player card game with a solo campaign mode which will be coming to Kickstarter in March.  I really enjoyed this conversation with Elli, not only did they talk about the game and the solo mode for the game but they told me a bit about the process of commissioning art for a game.  I really enjo...

This week Julius tells us about the Plaid Hat Games game, Forgotten Waters.  This is a family friendly piratical adventure on the high seas.   Forgotten Waters ( BGG , Plaid Hat Games )

Today Julius and I bring back a classic game to the table.  We are looking at the 2013 Solo PnP Design Contest game, Maquis by Jake Staines.  The second edition of this game was just published so we look at it again.  The published version is quite a nice package and very well worth looking into.   Maquis ( BGG , Side Room Games ) Maquis New Content for first edition ( Side Room Games)

Julius and I talk about the RPG Ironsworn, designed by Shawn Tomkin.  The game is a full fledged RPG that can be played solo or co-operatively and can work equally well either way.  It's set in a fantasy world that you define.  It's quite a good game... and really an excellent RPG all around.  It's available for free to download or you can purchase physical copies of the book.  If the fantasy sett...

This week Julius and I discuss the no longer latest campaign for the Arkham Horror card game.  I am writing of Innsmouth Conspiracy.  In this campaign, you get to explore Innsmouth and environs and have all sorts of interesting adventures.  This is part 1 of 2 episodes.  In this part, we cover the first four campaigns.  Just a note, but part 2 will not be the next.. give it a bit of time :) Come l...

This week, I teach Julius about Fire of Eidolon from Magic Meeple Games and designed by Michael Lipton.  It's a fun little Pandemic style game in which you expand the dudgeon as you explore it and then watch it crumble away as you race to collect the Fire of Eidolon and get out before becoming trapped forever. I really like this game with all the variability in set-up and options.  Julius is less...

Hi folks!  Another chat with a solo content creator. This time, it's with Jon, the host of the Tale of the Manticore podcast.  This show is a hybrid solo RPG playthrough/ dark fiction podcast. The podcast is a serial story in which "the dice determine" the fate of the characters.  A story is being told and crafted by playing a solo game of Dungeons and Dragons. Jon does an amazing job of producing...

This week Julius and I talk to Jason Tagmire of Button Shy games.  We talk about small games, design contests and the upcoming game ROVE.  It's going to be released on the Button Shy website on Black Friday.  Check it out, it's a neat little spatial puzzle of a game.   ROVE ( BGG , Button Shy ) Button Shy Games ( website , Discord , Patreon ) The Button Shop ( website )

This week Julius and I talk about the game Cascadia, the game of the Pacific Northwest, designed by Randy Flynn and published by Flatout Games.  This is a tile laying game in which you are placing tiles with a mix environments and populating them with a variety of animals to try and maximize your score.  It's pretty abstract but it's pretty fun and you can try the solo game on-line to see what you...