I read the description, and this is more for the makers of the game, but are you guys considering making this solo-able? I'm not sure how the mechanics work for PvP but I do know that a point system of downloading as a bar to enable escape may be a way of doing it. Just a thought because I am more prone to purchase a game that I can play both with friends and by myself at home. Otherwise, good work! I am excited about your product.

I'd really like it to be soloable, but the icon on the product description page says "2 to 6 players". So I'm afraid it won't be suitable for solo-play.

Anyaway, seems an interesting game. Let's hope FFG will do a good job this time

I hope they will use this title to revamp Android main one also.

Too much cards are stil there waiting to be re-balanced

Also, woundering if this has solo.. if not I will prob not get it. Looking for another Space Hulk. I like stand alone card games that have solo play.

The premise of the game, as I understand it, is multiple thieves competing against each other to steal some fancy new cybernetic plans from the Big Corp. Can't really have a competition like that with only one thief.

Then again, the fluff mentions something about how you all came in working together and then the team broke up as individual motives took over. The official rules may not support solo play, but there might be a way to kitbash a solo variant where all the thieves continue working together. (We won't know for sure until we see the rules, of course.)

Yeah, we'll have to wait for more info on specific play mechanics but if there ever appeared to be a game that could be soloed this looks pretty promising. Even Rune Age shows 2+ players on the box but has 2 soloable scenarios in the manual. They get old pretty fast but there's nothing saying that that we won't get the same option here. I love card games, and this one seems to be right up my alley, but if it can't be soloed, I'm out. I'm a father of three young kids with a wife that doesn't like playing games, so solo games like Death Angel are my best source of gaming.

Phiveball said:

Phiveball, have you ever been interested in Arkham Horror? Having a filing system for it can make set-up quicker too if time is an issue or just have it on a table in the corner and go back and forth finishing it when you have time.

A couple of other FFG suggestions: Dungeonquest, one of my personal favorites, is also 1-player. Some, including myself, say Infiltration resembles Dungeonquest in many ways. And though I haven't played Runebound, I know that is solo-play too. Both games have fantasy Terrinoth theme, either way.

@Tromdial

You are dead on with the set-up time being the one thing that has kept me from Arkham Horror. I love all things HP Lovecraft, and was really excited for Elder Sign, but was a little let down with it. Don't get me wrong, Elder Sign is fun, but I tend to use alternate rules suggested on this forum where the room cards are flipped upside down and arranged in a way that you travel from room to room, giving you that sense of exploration and not knowing what is beyond the next door. The brief description of how Infiltration is played really reminded me of that alternate way of playing Elder Sign without the "Cthulhu Yahtzee" component. Dungeon Quest has been on my list of games I intend to pick up at some point for a while now. Just have not gotten around to it. My main concern was it's longevity. The thing about Rune Age was each solo game played out almost identically, and from what i can tell, Dungeon Quest looks to have the potential for that same problem when played solo. I would love to hear if you don't think this is the case.

Phiveball said:

That - is - awesome! I will do that from now on. I otherwise don't care much for Rune Age or Elder Sign myself: RA needing a big expansion with more card variety and ES "Chthulu Yahtzee" is just a fun party-game.

Dungeon Quest, however, is a gem whether you play with or without friends. The game is darkly humorous. I just played it last night with a friend of mine. At the start I got cursed by a wandering phantasm, and every upkeep if I roll snake-eyes I die. We continue to play, the tiles creating a random labyrinth that blocks are entrances (meaning we will have to find another exit later; fairly common). As my friend enters the treasure trove, he gets burned up by the dragon, bumping me immediately from second to first (no opponent now!). I stole as much treasure as I could try reasonably for (I keep high scores, one of the few board games that let you do so so well), and the only way I could make it would be by using the catacombs. In the end, I rolled snake-eyes on my dice just as I was coming up towards freedom. The game usually ends with either disbelief someone escapes or maniacal laughing when all adventurers die.

I have not once experienced a dull game of Dungeon Quest (played over 20 times), nor any of my gaming group who dislike it. Very entertaining game. It's brutal but sickly funny. What's more is the manual gives you tons of variants, and I made up some of my own that enhance the game's quality.

My version is each player gets 3 random runes instead of 1 (game is really, really hard with only 1), you must draw at least 1 Dragon card (usually how you get Treasure in game), and escape with at least 1 Loot card. Also, fighting and killing a monster in battle drops a Treasure card for the adventurer (classic version fighting a monster is a drawn-out consequence with no rewards) and Treasure cards are kept secret unlike all other cards (unless one has a text ability, like the tome that lets you escape dungeon, then the player may reveal to use text abilities).

Solo play usually can take anywhere from 15 mins to an hour (at longest). This is one of my games that I never hesitate to play and is actually very simple to play if anyone else wants to. Amazon currently is selling it for $36. Well worth it.

Phiveball said:

Although not intended as a solo game, Fury of Dracula is a new addition and I just played it as both Hunters and Dracula, and it was very enjoyable.

Chiefly, you are the Dracula player. I wondered if it would work, and it does well. The Event cards dictate well what happens next mostly. It did not feel like playing against yourself at Chess. Just as a normal game goes, the Hunters have a lot of guess work, and instead you roll a die for random movement to bump into Dracula at first or until an Event decides where he was or is.

When starting out or when Dracula has eluded greatly the Hunter NPCs, roll a die to determine in a clockwise manner which direction a Hunter goes. For example, if a Hunter is in Manchester with no clue about Dracula's trail, he will roll a die between Edinburgh (12 o'clock), London (5 o'clock), and Liverpool (8 o'clock). Roll a white die and treat 1 and 4 as Edinburgh, 2 and 5 as London, and Liverpool as 3 and 6. Proceed in this division of the die for when a random move must be ascertained.

Hired scouts or last-resort use of Sense of Emergency is determined by first a 1d6 roll. 1 = 10 or under in Location cards, 2 = 20 to 11, 3 = 30 to 21, etc. etc. Next you roll 2d6 - 2 to determine the first digit. Snake-eyes or a resultant total of 14 (i.e. Castle Dracula) is rerolled. Example, 5 is rolled first, so Location range is 50 to 41, and then 2d6 - 2 is rolled, which equals 9; thus, Sarajevo, Location 49, is inquired as being on Dracula's trail or the random destination of Sense of Emergency.

As I said, Event cards for the Hunters tell easily where Dracula has been, so once that occurs and a piece of his trail has been revealed, the Hunters march toward the clue or Dracula himself especially if he is revealed. That is a lot where the game takes over by itself and you are left with Dracula finding out how to best flee.

When the Hunter NPCs collect around your area, you do then start to figure out for them that if Dracula, heading North for example in Western-Europe, was not in Lord Godalming's space in Paris when he then checked on Naples, which Naples indeed had a piece of Dracula's trail revealed, he must have gone to Le Havre seeing as Clermont-Ferrand was his last move before Naples thanks to Mina's discovery last turn.

I will do a more detailed solo-variant post in the Fury of Dracula, but that is pretty well everything you need to know anyways on how to play Fury solo. If you do get Fury of Dracula, they have a 2010 reprint available.

Phiveball said:

I've been working on a virtual table top version of arkham (not vassal as i do not like that app) for arkham for a while.. it is slow going as I have little time... but I can already play the core + a few expansions... so much more fun playing it in a computer.. no set up time.. just makes it awesome.

It seems to me that the crux will be how each thief can affect other thieves. The old "I don't have to outrun Security...I just have to outrun YOU" gambit. Because surely that HAS to be in there somewhere. Now if you can take those out of the game, will the game's autonomous counter-measures be enough to provide a challenge? If you can finagle this into a "multiple solitaire" (like Dungeonquest), solo could work.

I see so many people on these forums talking to game designers or something like this, but I never see those designers respond.

Does they ever respond?

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

If they even look, then I have accomplished enough. At best, FFG can census that their customers like solitaire options for their products.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

They used to, but I think it has at some point become FFG policy not to.

They sometimes appear over on BGG, but usually only just after a game is released and only to clarify relatively simple rules questions on that game. And even that I've seen dry up recently.

Donald X is on BGG a lot. You'll almost never see an FFG employee post on these boards, though - they have strict policies in place not to post unless it's very important (like saying what cards will be legal in advance of an upcoming tournament).

I don't know about any official policies, but Corey still seems to post every once in a while

Having read the rules now, I don't think it would be too difficult to tweak the game to permit solo play. I don't know what player interaction is created by the various cards, of course, but it looks like everyone is really fighting against the board and the system, especially given the randomness of card draws. So I think it would not be that difficult to solo this game.

David Spangler said:

I agree that it wouldn't be too difficult, but I think you'd need a little something extra. Obviously you'd have to get out of the building, but is that enough to declare a win in a solo game? All you'd have to do is get one data file and leave and you will have technically won. I suppose that the soloists will try to see how much data they can mine without getting caught and play against personal best scores.

That's how I assumed solo would work: all you are doing is mining for more data and personal high-scoring.

Having the box in hand, I can tell you really the main thing against solo-play, is how do you determine "victory"? Some threshold of DF tokens to hit? Even if injured, theres never anything that can make you actually die or unable to leave the facility. The big issue might be getting too far inside, let the proximity meter get up there, and then be injured with not enough time to escape.

I did play a 2 player game "against" myself, but that doesn't really count. I will say the two player game is quite interesting (given how it changes up the turn order with operatives, each player controlling two and what not).

For solo play, I guess the big thing would be to set a threshold of target DF points, based on the amount of operatives you choose to field.

If you can choose a good target value, then you certainly have a game you can play solo. The two player rules already account for a notion of a single player controlling 2 operatives (separate item hands, DF pools, etc.). Just play the game as normal, and add up all DF tokens at the end (minus the ones for any operatives who could not escape). Some item cards may need to be removed, as they serve no purpose in a single player game (anything that raises the proximity level, or causes operatives to be delayed).

Too bad. Gonna have to pass on this one, at least for the time being. I was quite excited for it too. Playing for score just doesn;t do it for me. Also, while some randomness is good and can add excitment, I'm not digging the amount that this games appears to have in it.

Hello,

The problem in playing solo just for scoring is that it would depend mainly on luck. If you set a DF target score low, it will be too easy, and if you set it high, you will be dependent on the rooms in the facility : you'll need for them not to raise the alarm counter or the game won't be "winnable" in the amount of time.

Someone posted on BGG an idea where the goal is to build an AI which will play two opponents, and you have to best it. Both you and the AI will be subject to the effects of the alarm raising or not. Another advantage is that all items will be usable (playing only one thief in the lab requires to discard some items which are usable only with several thieves in play).

The thread is titled : Infiltration for one .

I just found it and haven't given it a try yet, but I definitely intend to…

I imagine this game has some descent solo varients or ideas.

Maybe you can play each character to benefit themselves the most but later roll the die to see who will be the first player will be. if 3 people want to extract maybe the 4th wouldnt want to stay there and try his luck so he will do something else. Winner of the role in multiple extracts should gain more benefits than the rest.

FFG showed that in Rune Age scenarios make variety. It will be super easy for them to release new scenarios cards and new objectives. It will also be easy to have co-op scenarios though i imagine the text and instructions wont be "neatly" displayed on one card, but will need the instruction booklet.

the lord of the rings game is pretty popular and thats only solo/coop. Why stop there?

Don't own the game (yet) but watched the videos- I have absolute confidence that someone'll devise a Solo variant.

Seems to me you should just have to get X amount of Data before the clock reaches 99. (Maybe start the counter at 50?) Or you have to go thru ALL the rooms and get out in time….

I really hope there's a good solo variant soon cause this game looks awesome.