Solo Gaming – Thoughts?

[starisolator]

Hi.

I was just curious about Brimstone. Being (mostly) a solo player it’s difficult enough to find a solo-worthy game system let along one that’s good. I was under the impression you guys (by you guys I mean UH) loved Brimstone? No?

I fully trust in your instincts and if possible would like to avoid buying (expensively buying) into something as solid as a wet cardboard box with slogging battles and poorly designed miniatures.

Is it that bad?

[Universal Head]

No, I don’t love it. Not only am I waiting on the rest of my Kickstarter pledge way past retail sales and ‘wave 1.5’ where you had to pay extra shipping – circumstances that put me off a bit, I must admit – but two plays of the game have left me underwhelmed. The combat is just waves and waves of melee creatures charging at you. Lots and lots of dice rolling. The rest of the game is cards and tables, all theme and very little game. The minis are poorly designed and produced.

I’ll give it another go when I get all the stuff, but at the moment it’s sitting on my shelf behind a line of better dungeoncrawlers.

[CK Lai]

@ UH : what’s your current favourite solo-able dungeon crawler?

Mine’s Myth (as long as we’re talking about fantasy).

[starisolator]

I think that was my first impression also “all theme and very little game.”. It looks nice, but watching some plays on Youtube also made me feel it was lacking any… . wow factor.

@CK I’ve been led to believe Myth’s rules are horribly complex?

For me, I like a nice solo game of the D&D boxes (Ravenloft, Ashardalon etc). The rule set is simple enough without losing a feeling of strategy, and it keeps the fun element going, each one is interchangeable and you can drop in Dungeon Command monsters too. Warhammer Quest Card Game is also nice if your preference is card based.

[CK Lai]

@starisolator : compared to the D&D games, Myth is more complex, though I wouldn’t call them horribly so.

What they are is different. Especially if you’re used to Descent 2nd Ed (and its clones); the D&D Adventure games, and probably any dungeon crawler currently available to date.

What you have is:

1. No set hero activation. It’s a true co-op. you can go and move first and do your thing, then that opens up the way for me to do my thing, which allows you to go in again and finish off the Big Bad. No more I go first, finish all my actions, then you go next, then the next player…

2. No set Baddy activation. The enemies (called Darkness in Myth) activate depending on how aggressive you’ve been that round. Less aggressive, probably won’t activate. Very aggressive and they’ll probably activate in the middle of your activation… and then again at the end of the Hero Cycle! (Depending on how active and/or aggressive the heroes have been). But playing things timidly only means slowing down the Darkness.They will eventually activate, even if you’re going about vewy, vewy cautiously.

3. Hero abilities are a bit tricky to use until you get the hang of them. That’s why it’s recommended you play several games as one hero (to learn all the intricacies of playing the character) before you try another one. This is more so than any dungeon crawler I’ve listed above.

Having said all that, the 2.0 rules make things much easier as most of the complaint about Myth were about the way the quests/adventures were set up. Too free-form for most people who expected very clear-cut set ups and directions from a board game. The original Myth 1.0 was more a hybrid of RPG and board game, with perhaps a bias towards the RPG side (in terms of the free form quest thingy). There are also very good tutorial videos now on YouTube to show exactly how to play… with a decent tutorial quest to start off with.

I actually picked up a Captain level pledge off eBay after I watched those videos as I had also read all the negative stuff about Myth 1.0 before that. Of course, YMMV… 🙂

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