I watched the FFG tutorial video as well as read through the manual and besides racing another player to the inner sanctum it doesn't appear that you battle each other so is there any reason this wont be playable solo? I am not familiar with Talisman so forgive my ignorance.

You mean making it a racing game without anyone to race against? I suppose one could try for least number of turns to finish solo. Then it'd be a race against yourself.

I appologize if I came across as a patronizing smartass jerk. That was not my intention.

It's not like the game is anything like Jamaica. There seems to be a lot of depth and strategy dealing wiht each location and battling the game itself more so than battling the othe players. Are you suggesting that racing the other players is the main purpose of the game? I am unfamiliar with Talisman so I don't have any expierence.

Yes, Talisman (and Relic from what I've seen/read) is at its heart a race game, just one where the first to the finish doesn't always win. Not sure if Relic's ending is as variable.

Dam said:

It seems to offer a lot more with all the missions and encounters that one faces during the game. I hope there is more to it than just moving around, level up and race to the objective. I would think that it would still be viable solo, need someone who has played it to chime in. Thanks.

Just played a solo game so I could see the mechanics in action (I have to teach it to my friends tomorrow). First thing I noticed was that in a 1P game, the board wasn't seeded with enough threat. It was pretty empty and boring. You get mission cards, but they're not enough to carry the game on their own.

You might want to house rule something like:

After your Movement Phase, roll a die. Count out a number of locations equal to the die roll (just like you were moving). If that area has threat icons, fill the location with threat just like you normally would.

or

Add another character whose only purpose is to move about the board activating threat icons.

I would say that you can play it "solo" in the sense that you as one person plays two or three different characters. With just one character running around the board things don't work as they were designed to.

CenturionCajun said:

Thanks for the feedback. I wondered if playing two characters would be required to get the full effect. If there isn't much character interaction would that be viable? Is it even worth it?

IF you like the mechanics and the game system, then sure.

You don't 'have' to play it with two + characters, and in the game I finishd this evening the seeding wasn't an issue as the cards each character was chasing (played it with two) weren't cards the other character needed. It could have just as easily been two one character games on two different boards.

keltheos said:

Intersting. Are there many cards that target a different player?

There are a couple of missions that require you to be in the same space as another player but that's about it. As for the viability of playing solo I've done a couple games with just one character and they seem to fly by pretty quickly with little challenge. You arn't competing with anyone for kills to level up or items. Playing with two makes things much more interesting.

I wonder if there is a way to invent a "doom track" of sorts. Some sort of in game counter to put pressure on you.

There are also a few enemy cards that allow you to move another character to your space to 'aid' your fighting. coming up at the right time could definitely ruin someone's plans.

For the Doom Track, you could, but there's honestly enough pressure with your character's life to keep it fresh. I played with those two characters I mentioned above (Space Marine Captain and Callidus Assassin) and both were rocked around a good bit during the game. i may have rushed their end game advances, but by the end of things the Marine died one space short of the end and the Callidus was down to 1 or 2 lives when she finally made it out.

I'd play it as more a you vs. the game thing where if your character dies, it dies. How many times can you finish it without dying, etc.

One thing players who aren't fans of Talisman complain about is that the game takes too long. What I find is that players spend waaaay too much time dragging around the board to maximize their characters as much as possible, thereby stalling gameplay. I prefer to get to a 'yeah, that's pretty safe' point and head up, not waiting until I have 10's in every stat, full compliment of gear, etc. It's more challenging for me that way. Sure, I could sit there and wander around for 2-3 hours and pick up everything I need, but where's the fun in that?

CenturionCajun said:

I've also done about three games solo. It is easy, but I still find it entertaining.

If you enjoy the mechanics of the game, I don't see any reason why going one character can't be fun. Sure, there's going to be cards that are irrelevant, but a few house rules can fix any of those issues.

Just my two cents.

I picked up my copy of Relic today and for my first few solo games I played with just the Ultra Marine Captain.

To make things more challenging I tweaked the rules for vanquished and corrupted players:

In the event that a player's character becomes vanquished or corrupted, they are eliminated.

I lost my first game due to a few unlucky encounters, but it took me less than half a minute to reset the board and start up again from scratch. The following game was much better.

I found it plays okay solo, but is better with 2-3 opponents. When missions require you to catch another player I used a player token, moving it around the board after each turn. I left it in whichever tier I was in when I received the mission, but it was still fairly hard to catch. Also, a few of the scenario bosses are pretty challenging, so it was never too easy.

To learn the rules, I ran a solo game today (again with Marine Captain) and it was reasonably good fun. Not quite as coherent and consistent as single player Arkham Horror, but still enjoyable, though at one point I eneded up with over 28 Influence.

Missions or references to other players I generally discarded and re-drew. The biggest difference from competitive play is the lack of time pressure and competition for revealed Assets- I drew a library location so kept going back there to boost my Willpower for example.

I hope any expansion includes some trading rules- being able to exchange or gift assets and influence between players would help the co-op elements like they do in Arkham Horror.

SJE

I'm just curious if anyone has thought up any good house rules for solo play? I bought the game becuase I love 40k but won't have many opportunities to play with people as most of my friends don't like board games. Someone mentioned a turn count to get to the middle to win, any idea what a good number would be? I thought about having other players on the board just to activate more spaces, but not sure if that would add much.

A Youtube series by Lonesome Gamer, he is playing Relic solo, running three characters.

Tony Helion said:

Check out the one posted on BGG:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/957233/simple-solitaire-variant-for-one-character

There are two main issues with this variant: one, the PVP Missions become meaningless(maybe you have to institute an automated dummy for that),and the PVP-specifc Power and Asset cards lose their special properties.

There are characters in the game whose special abilities require an opponent's input to work coherently and effectively. The Commissar's and Inquisitor's movement abilities, for instance depend on other players seeding the board for them with specific types of threat cards. the Rogue Trader's stealing of assets won't work of course, and the Sniper may as well take influence from himself .

You can easily play the game soloing with two characters, though.

I read this threat last night and tried to play the game by myself. It is possible, but there are some Quest that do require another player for, but I can think of 3 Quest that you can do by your self.

Or just go to a space where you can draw another Mission and replace your Mission that requires another character (or the easy way out, just re-draw on the spot when you first get the Mission).