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solo board game report: Desolate
Nov. 13th, 2024 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleeDesolate is a solo board game that runs off cards, a few cubes on a couple trackers (also printed on cards), and some dice. It was an early holiday gift from my sister, as I've been looking for small-footprint solo games to keep my hands busy during long (great! but long) webinars. I still adore Dungeon Solitaire, which I still need to write up for this comm; but I wanted some variety. :)
Functionally, this is a sci-fi themed solo dungeon crawler. What I like about it is that it runs off a comparatively small number of cards/dice, so it really doesn't take up much space and it's got enough variety to be engaging without being overly complex.
The three key stats are health, ammo, and oxygen. Your goal is to collect 5 power cells to power your shuttle so you can escape this desolate world you've crash-landed on, and win immediately; you start at 0 power cells. If you go to 0 health or 0 oxygen, you lose hte game.
There are three card types:
- Items: You draw three and keep two. These are things like starting with extra ammo or extra oxygen or other powers.
- Exploration: You will draw two of these face-down and reveal one. Right-side-up, it'll either reveal a room type or an alien to fight. If you like the reveal, you discard the other card unseen. If you don't like the first one, discard the first and reveal the second, and you're stuck with whatever it is. Different room types do different things, e.g. Sickbay restores 2 health; Engineering gives you 1 power cell. When you run out of Exploration (completing a "level"), you lose 2 oxygen and, if still alive, reshuffle and start over.
What's interesting here is if you turn the card upside down, it has a "crate" with two things (e.g. +1 ammo, +2 health). For a small crate, you pick one of the two things; for a large crate, you get both. How do you get crates? Well, that brings us to the third deck.
- Conflict: If you've revealed an alien, you have to fight it. The conflict deck acts as a randomizer to modify how tough the alien is and how much damage it does. If you win, it'll either award you a small crate (easier aliens) or large crate (harder aliens).
The deal with ammo and fights: Say an alien is toughness 4 (off the alien's stat card) + 3 (off the Conflict deck) = 7. You have to roll 7 or better to kill it outright, BUT it will always do damage to you first (additional number on the first Conflict card you drew). You roll 1 die per ammo spent, so if I wanted to roll 2 dice, then I lose two ammo. Say I roll 3 + 2 = 5. Then I deal 5 damage to the alien, whose toughness is now 2. I draw a new Conflict card to see what damage it does before the next round, wash rinse repeat until one of you dies. :)
Some reviews suggest that the first two expansions make this game even better; I will deffo investigate down the line! But it's pretty much what I had hoped for: a fairly quick-playing, lightweight solo board game that doesn't take up too much desk space or require a ton of bookkeeping.
Functionally, this is a sci-fi themed solo dungeon crawler. What I like about it is that it runs off a comparatively small number of cards/dice, so it really doesn't take up much space and it's got enough variety to be engaging without being overly complex.
The three key stats are health, ammo, and oxygen. Your goal is to collect 5 power cells to power your shuttle so you can escape this desolate world you've crash-landed on, and win immediately; you start at 0 power cells. If you go to 0 health or 0 oxygen, you lose hte game.
There are three card types:
- Items: You draw three and keep two. These are things like starting with extra ammo or extra oxygen or other powers.
- Exploration: You will draw two of these face-down and reveal one. Right-side-up, it'll either reveal a room type or an alien to fight. If you like the reveal, you discard the other card unseen. If you don't like the first one, discard the first and reveal the second, and you're stuck with whatever it is. Different room types do different things, e.g. Sickbay restores 2 health; Engineering gives you 1 power cell. When you run out of Exploration (completing a "level"), you lose 2 oxygen and, if still alive, reshuffle and start over.
What's interesting here is if you turn the card upside down, it has a "crate" with two things (e.g. +1 ammo, +2 health). For a small crate, you pick one of the two things; for a large crate, you get both. How do you get crates? Well, that brings us to the third deck.
- Conflict: If you've revealed an alien, you have to fight it. The conflict deck acts as a randomizer to modify how tough the alien is and how much damage it does. If you win, it'll either award you a small crate (easier aliens) or large crate (harder aliens).
The deal with ammo and fights: Say an alien is toughness 4 (off the alien's stat card) + 3 (off the Conflict deck) = 7. You have to roll 7 or better to kill it outright, BUT it will always do damage to you first (additional number on the first Conflict card you drew). You roll 1 die per ammo spent, so if I wanted to roll 2 dice, then I lose two ammo. Say I roll 3 + 2 = 5. Then I deal 5 damage to the alien, whose toughness is now 2. I draw a new Conflict card to see what damage it does before the next round, wash rinse repeat until one of you dies. :)
Some reviews suggest that the first two expansions make this game even better; I will deffo investigate down the line! But it's pretty much what I had hoped for: a fairly quick-playing, lightweight solo board game that doesn't take up too much desk space or require a ton of bookkeeping.
