Worth buying if I have no friends

[Tony]

Hi everyone,

I have amassed a vast fortune of $15 over the past few months which I wish to spend on a video game. I have known of this game for sometime. It is currently going for $10, so is one which I can buy.

But I'm in a dilemma because most of the reviews on YouTube suggest this is good with friends.

I have none.

How is the experience of anyone who has this, if you think of this only as a single player sandbox?

[ulia]

Boardgames are traditionally a social and multiplayer experience. There are single player games and activities for sure, though I would urge everyone purchasing this game or any kind of board game for that matter to go out of their way to make some friends or at the very least find people to play with through public lobbies or community hubs.

[SaltyO]

What says "I have no friends" more than collecting obscure board games that nobody but you and 20 other people on the planet play? TTS is the best!

[EzekielJK]

I was in your position when I bought TTS. If your question is "does this game have a single player experience?" Then the answer is no.

But, if your question was "Can I still have fun although I don't have a group coming in at the same time as me?" then you don't need to worry about that. The community is one of the most open communities I've seen in many games only slightly beaten by Guns of Icarus.At least in m case, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it but later found myself using my mic and actually having a ton of fun. You WILL end up breaking out of your comfort zone if you start playing this.

[ulia]

Originally posted by 30phil1:

I was in your position when I bought TTS. If your question is "does this game have a single player experience?" Then the answer is no.

I raise your no with a no of my own because there are plenty of solitaire or otherwise single player games available, including puzzles and single player variant adaptations. My previous point still stands however.

[oneshotrawk]

Sure. There sre plenty of Discord communities where you can meet people to play games with.

[Tony]

Thank you everyone.

Purchasing this game is what I deemed worthy to invest my fortune in, so I have it now.

[Arcturus Asriv]

However, if you do like to play solo adventure or rpg games, you can do it without cluttering your living room with maps, tokens, cards, miniatures, dice and whatever else.
And setup and clean-up is a breeze.

(There's also communities for solo gamers, too.)

[Tony]

> if you do like to play solo adventure or rpg games, you can do it

What are some that are easy to learn? I tried a few ones from Workshop, it's cool and all but I couldn't find any rules on the game (I tried the "Notebook").

> There's also communities for solo gamers, too.

Where, Discord? Steam? Reddit?

[DecadeRX]

Originally posted by Tony:

What are some that are easy to learn? I tried a few ones from Workshop, it's cool and all but I couldn't find any rules on the game (I tried the "Notebook").

Check the description of the game, sometimes there's a hotlink to an online rules page.

[Marquise*]

Also, try to find in TTS game groups or around the treads of this forum wich games you wanna play and see if there is offer and demand. That way you know you can make friendly player come to your games or... get to theirs!

Also, if you have ideas what to host and are social and creative this problem will all resolves by itself.

Also, I spend so much time in Solo in that game making maps that even not to be disturbed I love it and... sometimes I get invited to other tables when they need other players.

[Arcturus Asriv]

Originally posted by Tony:

> if you do like to play solo adventure or rpg games, you can do it

What are some that are easy to learn? I tried a few ones from Workshop, it's cool and all but I couldn't find any rules on the game (I tried the "Notebook").

> There's also communities for solo gamers, too.

Where, Discord? Steam? Reddit?

Games that play well solo:

The D&D Adventure System board games
Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game (2010)
Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game (2011)
Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game (2011)
Dungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil Board Game (2015)
Dungeons & Dragons: Tomb of Annihilation Board Game (2017)
-These take a bit of learning, but if you start with the simplest rules they're a lot easier to learn than most of the others. Basicly they're 'dungeon crawlers' where map tiles are randomly drawn and placed as you move with each tile possibly spawning a monster, treasure, trap and/or encounter.

Arkham Horror
-One of the more difficult ones to learn. But TTS cuts down a lot of the setup for you.

Barbarian Prince
Star Smuggler
-Two advanced 'paragraph' adventure boardgames by Dwarfstar Games. The print-and-play versions are free to download from their website.
Barbarian Prince (which I've seen in the workshop) is notorious for being Dark Souls-level hard, even for an '80s game.
Star Smuggler is pretty much a 'Traveller' type game where you play an independent space adventurer ala Han Solo. I haven't seen this one on TTS, yet. But with the game being free to download, it wouldn't take too long for someone to adapt it.
Both games are reading-heavy, though, and require you to jump between two books- the rule book and the events book.
A bit complicated at first, you get better at them as you play.

Doctor Who Solitaire Story Game
-A modern spin of the Barbarian Prince and Star Smuggler type games, using the Doctors.
Probably the easiest intro into these if you stick with the basic set. But the dev added so much content in additional add-ons that you can quickly get confused if you don't stick with just the basics for a while.

Star Wars: Corellian Smuggler
-A game insert in the '90s magazine, Shadis, SW:CS is a great starter game for playing solo.
Unfortunately, the magazine is long out of print and tracking down a copy online can be nigh-impossible.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
-I haven't played the physical version or any TTS version, but I've played the mobile version, which runs perfect for solo play. Gameplay is much like Arkham Horror, where you control a small party of characters.
(Note: almost any game that involves co-op play, like Arkham Horror and Pathfinder Adventures, can easily be played solo.)

1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
-Has probably the best random dungeon crawl system, and easily played solo. For a Diablo-esque experience, with less campaign fluff and more straight-up hack and slash. Just select a random treasure table that matches the edition of D&D you prefer to play.
When I played this solo, I would have a 'shop' that would carry 1-3 healing/mana potions and about eight to ten items, split between weapons and armor, with a 10% chance of any being magical. Then on each trip back into town, I'd randomly determine if any of the stock had rotated.
If you can find the Diablo II gamebooks for D&D, they can help you with structuring a gameworld.

Any RPG system
-Using tools like the Mythic Gamemaster Emulator and some random charts for events and other details, any RPG can be played solo.
To learn to play solo, it's best to pick a system you're most familiar with so you're spending less time learning the rules.
You'd also want some form of note-taking, since as you're playing solo, writing down things helps you 'commit' to your actions to avoid fudging.
TTS can also help by using props and miniatures to help keep things organized, visualizewhat's going on and also help with the commitment of actions.
If you need an RPG, I'd recommend the D20 editions of D&D or the D6 system.

Resources:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/116965157741523529510 -Lone Wolf Roleplaying G+ group. Very Active.
http://www.wordmillgames.com/ -publisher of Mythic Gamemaster Emulator. Available at DrivethruRPG and RPGNow.
https://www.storycubes.com/ -Rory's Story Cubes (these are on TTS, btw)
https://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/alone.html -homebrew rules for playing the Traveller RPG solo. Some of this is very similar to the gameplay in both Star Smuggler and Star Wars: Corellian Smuggler.
https://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_barbarianprince.html -Barbarian Prince on Dwarfstar's site
https://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_starsmuggler.html -Star Smuggler on Dwarfstar's site
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42142/doctor-who-solitaire-story-game -resources for the Doctor Who Solitaire Story Game.
http://nexus10tablet.blogspot.com/2011/01/solo-wargaming-rules-for-heroclix.html - homebrew rules for playing Heroclix solo
https://medium.com/there-will-be-games/how-to-be-your-own-worst-opponent-2cc0879d0f63 -info on The Solo System, another Gamemaster Emulator type thing, but more inclined to board games than Mythic, which is good for RPGs.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/11710/item/196581#item196581 -an exhaustive list on BoardgameGeek of boardgames that can be played solo
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2010/11/the-ultimate-toolbox-the-busy-dms-best-friend/ -info on the Ultimate Toolbox, a book of just random charts that cover almost everything. Available at DrivethruRPG and RPGNow.
https://donjon.bin.sh/index.html -an extensive list of random generators, covering both fantasy and sci-fi, all hosted at this site.
http://opend6.wikidot.com/start -the books for the D6 system, all released for free by the publisher.
http://www.antipaladingames.com/p/mini-six.html -MiniD6, a streamlined version of the D6 system, available for free at DrivethruRPG and RPGNow.
http://www.d20srd.org/ -the SRD for the D20 system.
http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Home.php -the SRD for the D20 Modern system.
http://www.fightyourownbattles.co.uk/Home -Fight Your Own Battles, some rules for solo wargaming
http://blargedyblarg.blogspot.com/2015/10/superhero-open-world-sandbox-hexcrawl.html -resources for solo Superhero RPG playing.

Also, try googling "Solo miniatures rules", "Solo Heroclix rules", "Solo Heroscape rules" for more leads on miniature gaming solo.
And the Google group mentioned at the top of the list is full of helpful people.

[Bing Chilling]

quick answer no

[stankiem]

Host a few popular games that people like to play as public, people will join, you'll enjoy playing with them, say "I enjoy playing with you, can I friend you?" and voila, you now have friends to play with.

[Arcturus Asriv]

Btw... I did just find a Star Smuggler in the workshop.