Soul Raiders: A Solo and Cooperative Review

Soul Raiders is a cooperative fantasy adventure game that was on Kickstarter back in July 2021 and promised delivery in December 2022. I backed the deluxe Grimoire Edition (above). Well, it finally arrived last month (March 2025), so it’s about 2.3 years late. This wasn’t on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2022, but it probably was my #11 or #12!

This sat unplayed in the box longer than it should have; I think I was scared of how big it was! Look how big it is!!! Did I have the cycles to even try it?

Well, I finally got around to getting out and trying it … was it worth it?

Unboxing

Although this unboxing here is to show you what’s in the box, it’s also here to remind me how to put the box together! So, it’s for me and you!

This is a BIG box. This is the Grimoire Edition.

It’s got a lot of stuff packed in: see the character boxes above (this is a cooperative fantasy adventure game).

This game is so grandiose, it has it’s own lore book!

If you really want to get into a fantasy universe, this might be the right game for you!

This dual-layered board (above) keeps track of a lot of shared attributes and state of the game.

There’s lot of little boxes to store your game between sessions.

There’s some fabulous minis.

The campaign notebook allows to save the game between chapters.

There’s a bunch of cardboard tokens.

And boards for the characters.

Underneath all that, are the three main chapters of the game.

The cards of the game are in two boxes: see above.

Each of the chapter boxes has huge Location cards and little cards.

This game is GORGEOUS. The production is GORGEOUS.

Consult the pictures above for when you need to repack your box!

Rulebook

The rulebook is good. Well, ish.

It gets about a B+ on the Chair Test: it overhangs on the chair next to me just a little (see above), but it lays flat and open, it has a big readable fonts, and it has lot of pictures.

The components page is well-labelled and notated (see above). It even breaks up the cards by chapters.

The set-up works pretty well, although it doesn’t show how the story cards will be laid out (which we need to discuss more).

This is a gorgeous rulebook that’s written pretty well, it has lots of examples and lots of pictures.

It even ends with a very useful summary of icons on the back!

Although I liked this rulebook a lot, it made the mistake of putting too much content into the examples. I like it when rules have clear definitions, then maybe use the examples to help explain and/or clarify. Unfortunately, I think this leaned a little too much into using the examples AS the rules a few times. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad the examples are there, but I wanted clear succinct rules as well. (I think the last time we noticed this “rules in examples” phenomena was back Sleeping Gods rules: see link here).

The rulebook was generally good, and it frankly looks gorgeous (like the rest of the game).

Gameplay

The best way to describe this game? It feels like it a video game: a Point-And-Click (fantasy) Adventure game with lots of monster fighting.

Each player takes the role of one of six characters: see the character boxes above.

Each character has his own set of cards: there’s basic Action cards (above top) and Heroic Action cards (above bottom). Notice the Heroic Action cards have a special foil on them so you can tell them apart!

These Heroic Action cards are earned (in order) by spending Heroism tokens (3 to earn a new Heroic Action card). Cool fact; you can spend 3 Heroism tokens at ANY time to immediately earn a new card! Very useful when you need a card immediately!

You get Heroism tokens are various plot points in the story, but the most reliable way to getting Heroism Tokens is by defeating BIG BAD MONSTERS! Defeating the one above opens Story Card 14, but also earns the player 2 Heroism tokens!

By the end of Chapter 1, I had been able to earn 6 new Heroic Actions cards! (Heroic Action Cards must be earned in order: note the numbers on far right).

The cards are you primary currency for “getting things done”. Some cards are more attuned to movement (as you must explore) … see above …

… and some cards are more attuned to fighting! See above. Basically, you can always use the value on the card for whatever you want, but the card will have “bonuses” if you use it for the specific specialization!

For example, Heroic Action card #6 (the top one) has a basic value of 5, but if you use it for fighting, you get an extra +3!

Example above: Even though the cards I drew were all movement-centric, I can use the values on the cards for fighting: 4+4 = 8 takes out the first shield on the bad guy, and 4+2 = 6 takes out the second shield! I used all my cards, and I didn’t get any advantages, but I was able to do what I needed!

Basically, your character explores the world, moves around, interacts with the world, and fights monsters! All actions are based on the values on your cards!

Basically, you character(s) move around on the Location sheets and explore!

The Locations have arrows which tell you how much its cost to move between Locations: see above and below.

For example, to move to Location 2, I need to spend 4 points from my cards.

This is kind of a choose-your-own adventure tale! You decide which paths to take, which monsters to fight, which puzzles to interact with! It feels very much like a choose-your-own adventure!

What’s cool is that each Location has pretty great art (a little comic-booky, but I like it) which describes all the things you can do at that Location … kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure book does in each section.

See above as the character starts on the maps!

An interesting thing that happens is that there is a “clock” pushing the game forward. At the end of every “turn” after you’ve played all your cards, the Vitae track moves down. Basically, every time it “wraps around” back to 30, you drop the Action token one space (upper right). If your threat or the action space ever get to the end, the game is over!

To win, you need to find the Red Stars on the story cards. If you don’t find appropriate story cards, you lose!

Explore, fight monsters, interact with your world: this is an adventure game! The way the movement works, it feels very much like a choose-your-adventure game (as the Locations could just be pages numbers in a book!) This game also feels like a Point-And-Click Adventure game too! See our Top 10 Point-And-Click Adventure Board Games for more discussion of this genre!

Solo Play

So, this game supports the solo player (thank you for following Saunders’ Law). This is a true solo game: the solo player operates one character.

The only real change for solo play is on the Game board:

On the Game Board, the final space has a “3” marker on it (instead of 2). This is the number of cards you draw every turn, so the solo player has that extra advantage that (on the last set of rounds) they get three Action cards instead of two. And that’s the only change!

The solo player explores, fights, and interacts … but just by himself! There’s no real balancing anywhere else. It seems a little weird that there are no other balancing mechanisms, but basically what tends to happen is that more enemies come out as more people play, so that tends to balance the game. We’ll address that a little more in the cooperative section.

Cooperative

The cooperative game brought up a lot of rules I didn’t have to deal with in the solo game! When you explore new Locations, whether or not someone is already there “changes” how the Location works!

Unfortunately, the Icons were very confusing about this. A slight change of color AND whether its on side A or B makes a big difference. It actually took us almost half the game sessions to get this right!

Although the cooperative game has a sense of Player Selected Turn Order, there really is no turn order! Players just play when they want and support each other if it made sense. Although I love this idea, as it should make the game go faster, the game tended to serialize as each player waited to see what happened to see if they needed help. “Let’s wait to see what Sam gets!” I love this from a cooperative point of view, as it lets us support each other!! Unfortunately, what really happened more often than not is that the game really just slowed down behind one (the current active player). To be fair, there were also plenty of times when concurrent play kept the game moving forward. This system worked pretty well from a cooperative point of view. From a length of game point of view, this was not optimal.

Although this game is a 1-4 Player game, I was the fifth player and “the rules guy”. I just read the rules and taught the game and looked up clarifications. Sadly, this was a very busy position for most of the game! I would constantly be looking up rules clarifications, icon clarifications, and other things. I had played the solo game for about 8 hours, and I was still struggling to find some rules!

There are good moments of cooperation as the players supported each other. Me being the “rule guy” actually worked pretty well, although it was sort of depressing that I had to fill this role.

Urgency

This game has, essentially, a built-in clock. Every time you have finished playing all your cards, you have to take “Vitae” damage (basically, a shared hit point pool) based on the the current. The threat will go up occasionally as monsters or other things happen. And you can’t “usually” just rest on a Location: almost all Locations force you to fight new monsters if you stay there.

So the game is just always pushing forward: This is both good and bad. If you are looking for a contemplative adventure/exploration game, this isn’t really it. If you want an adventure game that doesn’t stand still, but presents a sense of “you have to keep moving“, this is the adventure game for you. Here’s a very bad analogy; some sharks have to keep moving in water or they die. That’s kind of what you feel like here: players always have to keep moving (exploring) or you die.

Whether you like that urgency or not is up to you.

Kind of a Big Mess

When you take out the Location cards, there’s no real rhyme or reason to them. They don’t form a map (like Arydia Locations did: see that review here), they are more like “pages of a book”. See my big mess after finishing chapter 1!

The problem is that you WANT to see the connections from previous Locations you visited! So you try to keep a lot of Locations out as you play so you can see how you came here. And you can see my big mess above as I try to keep some Locations out. To be clear: the Locations DO NOT form a map! (The rulebook even emphasizes this point).

So, the Locations that come out are kind of a mess. Shrug. It feels like there should be a better way to deal with it?

Portals

There are some very cool minis for portals! See above!

You can see above as I have built at least one early in the game! I was hoping to make this spot an easy one to come back since there are no “monster spawners” there!

And yet, I don’t think I took full advantage of the portals. At all. I don’t think I used them once. Which is a real shame, because they are so nice!

This is where I feel like this is even more like a Video game … where you replay the level to get the highest score and use the portals to their best advantage. I played Chapter One and got a few extras, but not enough. I feel like what I would do in a video game is replay it until I got the perfect score for that level! I think to do that, I think you’d almost have to use the portals.

Maybe the portals will become more useful later on. I was … disappointed with them. Given how you never really get to just “think” (see Urgency section above), the only time it feels like you might be able to take full advantage of them is to replay the level. Remember how I said this feels like a video game? That min-max feeling emphasizes that point even more …

Save Game

This is a campaign. You will need to save you game between chapters. Unless you can leave the game set-up (and it is a table hog), you will have to save your game.

You can either use the campaign book (above) …

Or just take a picture of your game and extras at the end (see above). The cards are pretty well marked.

Let’s be clear: this is a campaign you can reset! I have a solo game going, but we are also playing a cooperative game at the same time. Sure, I’ll have to “pick” the cards out I want, but it’s fairly easy to reset the campaign to replay it from scratch. This is not a legacy game.

Too Many Rules?

For such a lavish game, it’s both really simple and really complicated. The basic card play is really straight forward, but all the little rules for combat and especially movement feel very complicated. If you enter a Location with someone else, it has a different effect depending on the Icon in there, which has subtle difference between other Icons.

The fact that my role as “The Rules Guy” (as the 5th player and NOT playing the game) was pretty active the entire game might be an indicator that maybe there’s a few too many rules.

Reactions

Oof, Soul Raiders did not go over well with my group. My friends compared this to Tainted Grail (see part I and part II here) where it was just a grind to explore. Andrew even commented: “This doesn’t feel like an exploration game, even though it kind of looks like one! I have no mental model for how the map lays out because it’s so clumsy!” Sara commented that the “.. Exploration feels like Tainted Grail because you just keep getting monsters! You don’t really feel like you advance!”

Andrew pointed out, “It’s not even really choose-your-own Adventure, because you don’t really have a lot of choices! You left, right, or forward most of the time! And it feels randoms!”

The reactions were ok to not great.

Sara and Andrew: 5/10. “Don’t really want to play it again. It didn’t feel like exploration. It felt too grindy like Tainted Grail.”

Sam: 5.5/10 “I’d play it again, but I really didn’t love it. I thought Luddite from last week was more thematic than Soul Raiders!”

Teresa: 6.5/10 “I had okay fun and would play again.”

Rich: As a cooperative game, I definitely saw what my friends saw with the grindiness, and I could see why my friends didn’t love it. As a solo game, I’m right on the fence of recommending it: I’ll give it a 7/10 for the solo game, and maybe I could see it working as an intimate 2-Player game. I think as a solo player, I became more invested in the story, but I still had some of the problems that my friends had. I love the art, and I really like the simplicity of the card system. I also really like the upgrade system (where you can IMMEDIATELY grab a card with 3 Heroism). I think there is some interesting stuff happening in the story, but the game does fall to the grind sometimes.

Conclusion

Soul Riders is a gorgeous cooperative adventure with a sense of urgency. That urgency adds to it’s video game feel: it’s kind of a Point-And-Click Adventure in a board game, with exploring and interacting, but also lots of fighting!

Unfortunately, this game didn’t go over very well with my friends as a cooperative game, with scores ranging between 5/10 and 6.5/10. Soul Raiders reminded my friends too much of the grindiness of the original Tainted Grail in both its exploration and fighting. And that grindiness was a big turn off. Having said that, the system worked well from a cooperative perspective, because my friends seemed to cooperate well!

As a solo player, I become fairly invested in the story and I enjoyed it a little more. I think the solo player can reflect a little more than a cooperative team, so maybe that urgency in the game is less intrusive for the solo player? I do think that an intimate 2-Player game could go over well as the solo game.

Hopefully this review can tell you whether or not that Soul Raiders is right for you.

Luddite Can Be An Experience, If You Let It. A Review

Luddite arrived at my house about a month or more ago, but I have been afraid to open it. Why? I mean Luddite was the #5 entry on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2024! I paid money and Kickstarted it!! Why was I worried?

Luddite “looks” big because it has a graphic novel associated with it; there’s a lot of story here. I was afraid I’d mentally have to prepare myself to embrace it.

I don’t know why I worried! At the end of the day, this is “just” a roll-and-write game! You roll 3 dice, mark off spaces on your sheet above (See above) and try to score points (aka damage)! The base game is pretty straight-forward!

The object is to do enough damage to move to the next level! You need 60 at easy difficulty; see above as I miss by 1! Heart-breaking!

In order to inflict the damage, you have to “move” the metal token (left side above; from the START to the END): if you don’t move that token, you can’t do any damage at all! So, while trying to get “points” (aka, damage), you also have to make sure the token above moves!

The game plays solo, cooperatively, and competitively. The solo game is all about doing enough damage, and the competitive game is “who can do the most damage to win”. The cooperative game is really just multiplayer solitaire: take the scores of all players and average them to get a score; if that score is high enough, players collectively win!

To be clear, there is NO cooperation in the cooperative game; each player just takes their own book and plays completely independently. Players can’t help each other, they can’t share anything, they can’t use a dice on another players board … nothing. This is as multiplayer solitaire as you can get. If you want an experience where you are working with your friends, chatting, strategizing, working together, … this isn’t the game for you. BUT if you have friends who are “suspicious” of cooperative games, or people who don’t like the cooperative games, this can still work for you!

No one will tell you what to do, as everyone’s head is down and looking at their own board! See above! And no one gets in anyone else’s board in any way!

I made the mistake of getting 3 more “Additional Player Packs” (see above), but what this means is that 3 more people can play! Basically, Luddite can scale to as many people as you want because there is no interaction between players!! I am thinking of trying a 7-Player game of Luddite at RichieCon this year! (I have 4 packs in the base game and 3 packs from additional buys = 7 player boards!)

So, you can view this complete lack of player interaction as a good thing or bad thing, depending on the group you are playing with.

Solo Experience

If this was all there was to Luddite, there’s not much making it stand out, is there? It’s a pretty good roll-and-write game for the solo player, and it’s a pretty good cooperative roll-and-write that scales to any number of players … even if there is no player interaction.

However, if you let it … this game can be an experience! The Graphic Novel that comes with the game tells the story of some people who have been “made redundant” by AI and how they are fighting back!

The Graphic Novel gives you a back-story, then at certain places, tells you what chapter/pages to turn to! See above!

This was more immersive than I expected. If you let it, this game can feel very immersive. For my solo experience, I read the graphic novel that came with the game …

… and each new game is a progression of the story, even if the boards look very similar. See above as I win (solo) chapter 3!

Somehow, it seems for a game named Luddite (Luddite: someone who eschews technology) … that you HAVE to read the physical graphic novel, right?

Cooperative Experience

It turns out, the comic book is also online … in a video! It has voice-acting, and shows the comic progressing! See above!

For the cooperative game, it’s “harder” to enjoy the graphic novel in its physical form … you have to pass it around, or wait for others to read it, or read over people’s shoulders. But, if you go to the Cotswold Group website, they have the entire graphic novel online! (And even a little tutorial)

So, even though it’s seem against the spirit of a gamed named Luddite, the cooperative experience is made so much better by watching the comics-turned-to-videos! Arguably, that experience engulfs you and all your friends into the game! It’s a shared story you are all experiencing!

To be fair, it helps the experience if you can show the video on a big screen or TV: see above. It feels more immersive that way.

House Rule/Hack (Get it? Hack? In a game about Hacking?)

The dice are a shared resource everyone shares in the cooperative game: they are rolled and placed in the middle for everyone to see! But sometimes, in the heat of playing, you may forget which dice you used for which activity. Surprisingly, there’s no place on the sheet to “notate” which dice we used !!

Since you don’t compute your damage until the very end of the game, you can use the Damage section!

This little house rule/hack made it easier to play the game cooperatively, as you could all independently note the dice rolled and how/when/where you used them.

Conclusion

If you let Luddite be an experience that carries you along in its story (either as a graphic novel or comic-turned-video), I think this can be a really fun and immersive experience.

A reductionist might say “Luddite just a roll-and-write” … but at least it’s a good one. I really enjoyed all my plays of this. The base game is pretty straightforward and quick, and it has lots of meaningful decisions.

The cooperative game has literally no interaction between players, which can be a curse or a blessing, depending on the group you are playing with. But, because of that lack of interaction, this game can scale to pretty much any number … as long as you have the boards!

This is a good solo roll-and-write (7/10), and a pretty good cooperative roll-and-write (6.5/10 or 7/10, depending on what you want), but it’s the story and experience that elevates this just enough that I would recommend you try this: 7.5/10.

I still think it’s hilarious that a game called Luddite has such a great online presence. I mean, a game called Luddite should ONLY have the physical version, right?

Appendix: Binding

I normally despise this kind of binding, especially on something you need to hold open! See my review of War Story, Freedom Five, and Forests of Admiron if you don’t believe me! For a graphic novel, it’s “okay” since you are just reading it and holding it open. See below.

Where this binding fails is when you have to read the directions in the back of the book! See below as I try to wedge the book into the edge so it’ll stay open! I hate this kind of binding for rulebooks!

See above as I attempt to hold it open!!! Honestly, the rules should have been in a second standalone book that could be lain flat and open. As a graphic novel, this kind of binding is “fine”. But the rules portion of the graphic novel (in the same book, this really made me grumpy.

Top 10 Cooperative Cat Games (Board and Card Games)

Yes, yes. We are really doing this: we are doing a a Top 10 Cooperative Cat Games! To be clear, these are cooperative board or card games that have an upfront and distinct cat theme to them! Some games have cats in them (like Cyber Pet Quest from a few weeks ago), but those games aren’t “cat-centric”. The 10 games below are all cooperative games where the cats are the main focus … and that’s just how the cats like it!

10. Max

Players: 1-8
Ages: 4 to 7 Years old
Time: 10 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes
Type: Cooperative Roll-And-Move

It’s kind of hard to recommend this, as it’s a game meant for very very young players: the recommended age range for Max is 4-7 years old.

And the production isn’t great: see above.

But, this may be just what you are looking for to give your younger cat lover! It’s a cooperative game for young kids, and that right there makes it worth mentioning! (even if it’s not the most beautiful game in the world)

Trying to save the creatures from Max is a fun little theme that is surprisingly charming. Be aware: this is a roll-and-move game, the production isn’t great, it’s meant for young kids, and the game is very light. But, it’s kind of charming as a cooperative cat game, so it makes our list.

9. Endangered

Players: 1-5
Ages: 10+ Years old
Time: 60 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes
Type: Cooperative Dice Placement Game

This is a cooperative dice placement where players play in together in multiple realms: diplomacy in the UN, conservation in the jungles, and gaining resources in the real world!

This only made out #9 because just a few scenarios are about cats (Tigers in the base game and Jaguars in the expansion), but they are constantly making more and more expansions all the time! And during those scenarios, the cats take center stage!

This has some really interesting ideas; the cooperative dice-placement mechanic is very well implemented!

Take a look at our review of Endangered to see if this might be for you.

8. Magical Kitties Save The Day!

Players: 2-7
Ages: 6+ Years old
Time: 60-120 Minutes
Supports Solo? Sort of, there’s a solo Adventure that comes with the game to teach it
Type: Cooperative Role Playing Game (RPG)

So, I am in the camp that views RPGs as cooperative games; I view the Dungeon Master/Game Master (DM/GM) as a shepherd for herding cats through an adventure (analogy chosen on purpose). The players are cooperating to get the best outcome for the group, and the GM is just trying to help the players. I know this GM view isn’t shared by everyone, but the vibe of this particular RPG is certainly very cooperative.

magickittiesback

Players plays as cats going on adventures to save the day … that sounds like a cooperative game to me! This is a fun and goofy cooperative game that will require a GM to run it.

The solo comic book that comes with for teaching the game is pretty awesome!

7. Cat Crimes

Players: 1+
Ages: 8 to Adult
Time: 15-30 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes, solo first! Cooperative by group
Type: Cooperative Logic Puzzles

Cat Crimes is more of a solo logic puzzle than a game per se, but you can play it cooperatively by having all players work together as a group to solve the puzzles!

Player(s) take a challenge card (from Beginner to Expert: see above) and try to solve the puzzle! Who Ruined The Shoes?

Players use the hints on the card to deduce, via logic only, the order of the cats around the table!

Once the cats are placed around the table correctly, that pinpoints the culprit! See above as Duchess ruined the shoes!!

This is a fun little logic game where the cats are cute: the theme helps keep it from taking itself too seriously. But the puzzles are whatever challenge your group is up for!

6. Space Cats Fight Fascism

Players: 2-4
Ages: 13+
Time: 45-60 Minutes
Supports Solo? No (although you can play solo via 2-handed solo)
Type: Cooperative Dice and Card Management Game

This little cat game came out of nowhere for us: it’s from a very small publisher (TESA) and it really doesn’t have a lot of buzz around it.

The components are a little wonky and the art is a little wonky. It’s a pretty small game.

But this little game is surprisingly fun! It has a Pandemic feel as cats fly around the galaxy trying to stop facism (removing cubes like Pandemic). Space Cats Fight Fascism isn’t really political (despite the name); it’s really just a surprisingly cute cooperative game with its own “vibe”. The cat theme works surprisingly well, considering this game could be just an abstract, but somehow the cats in this game give it its own flavor, its own soul, and its own sense of humor.

5. Cat Rescue

Players: 1-4
Ages: 8+
Time: 15 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes
Type: Cooperative Tile Placement/Tableau Management Game

Cat Rescue is a very cute game that was on Kickstarter, but it’s actually incredibly hard to find now. I ended up finding the original blister pack version (see above).

Players put some very cute cats in a 4×4 grid (see above and below).

The main mechanic is that you “push” cats along a row or column, trying to push a cat that’s “ready for adoption” (flipped) out of the grid. You continue until you run out of cards and then score how many you saved!

It’s very cute, simple to explain, and easy to play. Cat Rescue is sort of a cross between a tile placement game and a tableau building game. It is hard to find, but there is hope for a reprint.

UPDATE: As of right now, March 30th, 2025, there is a Kickstarter coming in Spring 2025! See information here! Thanks to Lon for pointing this out!

4. Run Run Run!

Players: 1-4
Ages: 8+
Time: 30 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes, minimal rule changes
Type: Cooperative Tile-Laying Game

This cute game about cats invading an Egyptian tomb is quite fun!

The components in this cooperative tile-laying game are gorgeous! The tiles are thick and easy to read!

The game is easy to teach, easy to play, and plays rather quickly in about 30 minutes! Take a look at our review of Run Run Run! here to see if it might be something you might like!

This game could easily make our Top 10 Cooperative Tile-Laying Games! But that list came out before we played this game …

3. Nekojima

Players: 1-5
Ages: 8+
Time: 15-30 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes, minimal rule changes
Type: Cooperative Abstract Dexterity Game

Nejokima is a very cute cooperative dexterity game for 1-4 players; this can probably best be described as cooperative Reverse-Jenga! In Nekojima, players work together adding wood blocks on a platform, hoping not to knock anything over! (whereas Jenga has players removing wood blocks from a tower, hoping not to knock anything over)! In both cases, players try not to knock the structure over! See below!

At the end of the day, this is almost an abstract game, but the game leans so heavily into the cat theme (with a cat placemat, the cat tokens, and the “cat always lands on its feet” in the rules), that I think you can call it a cat game.

Take a look at our review of Nekojima to see if this is something you think you might like.

2. Hissy Fit!

Players: 1-4
Ages: 8+
Time: 20 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes, minimal rule changes
Type: Cooperative Hand Management game

Hissy Fit! is a light little cooperative cat card game (20+ minutes) about trying to get your cat into its carrier! Players move the kitty (above) along (using cards) until it reach the carrier!

Players cooperatively play Human cards (purple) to try to keep the Cat Cards (orange) under control! This is a light, quick game that really encourages cooperation with a simple follow mechanic (allowing other players to play cards even when it’s not their turn)!

The art is absolutely adorable and is quite thematic! The Towel Wrap keeps the cat from scratching you and from moving away! The Robot Vaccuum moves the cat closer to the carrier!

This game is light and adorable and quick and easy to teach: there is a very good chance this will make our Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2024! UPDATE! It did! See here!

Take a look at our review of Hissy Fit! to see if this is something you might enjoy!

1. Race To The Raft

Players: 1-4
Ages: 8+
Time: 40-60 Minutes
Supports Solo? Yes, with some changes to base game
Type: Cooperative Tile Placement Game

Players need to work together to save the cats (see above) from the burning island (see below)! They need to move the cats to the raft before the fire consumes the island!

This cooperative tile-placement game has players making all sorts of choices cooperatively or solo: which cats to move, which tile stack to draw from, where you place a tile, where to place burning trees, when to move cats! There so many great decisions in this game! This was such a great surprise it made the #3 position on our Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2023! Honestly, it should have been #1, but 2023 was such a strong year for cooperative games!

See our review here of Race To The Raft to see if this cooperative tile-playing game is something you would enjoy! It’s probably the most complex game on this list, but it also has the most choice!

Santorini: Pantheon Collector’s Edition and Riddle Of The Sphinx Review, Mostly the Solo and Cooperative Experiences

Santorini: Pantheon Collector’s Edition and Santorini: Riddle of the Sphinx both arrived at my door February 28th, just in time for weekend!

These were originally on Kickstarter back in April 2023, and promised delivery May 2024: so it’s not quite a year late, but it is pretty late. At least it finally made up! I have been waiting a while for this game: it was #8 on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2024!

I was very excited for Santorini: Riddle of the Sphinx (which we’ll just call Riddle of the Sphinx from now on), as it promised to take the base game Santorini and make it into a solo and cooperative experience!

However, Riddle of the Sphinx is an expansion: you must have one of the Santorini base games to play it (for some of the components). This particular Kickstarter offered up the “deluxe” Santorini: Pantheon Collector’s Edition, so that’s the one I backed.

I ended up playing pretty much all weekend, so let’s see how that unraveled! Was this worth the wait?

Day 1: The Game Arrives and Santorini Gets Played!

February 28th, 2025: The package arrives with both games!

The acrylic tokens bag opened up and spread them everywhere … make sure you pick up all yours!

You can’t play Riddle of the Sphinx until you know how to play the base game of Santorini. So, that’s where we started.

This edition has quite a bit of extra stuff.

The white blocks and domes are the key components to the game: these are what gets built on the main board. Those little white blocks have quite the toy feeling!

These blocks are the main pieces that will be shared with Riddle of the Sphinx.

There’s some neat bags with lots of components. A lot of these aren’t necessary for the main game.

But the workers (in the blue bag) are important; they are what moves around the map.

The purple bag has a lot of stuff … that I don’t think you will need until you play a LOT of Santorini and want more content.

The most important piece for the main game is the board (packed upside down).

It looks gorgeous!

There’s even a lazy susan for it to rotate on!

There are some God Cards here (God Cards give each player special powers). We need these cards for the base game, but we will NOT need them for Riddle of the Sphinx.

This is a really nice production. It just looks gorgeous. I probably spent too much money to get the deluxe Pantheon Collector’s Edition, but it looks nice.

The rules are hidden on the bottom of the box!

Normally, I would give rules that take up the whole box an F on the Chair Test, but since the rules are ALL ON ONE SIDE, I am going to give this an A! The rules lay out and are easy to consult!!

These rules are succinct and terse, but still pretty darn clear. The game can be described in one page!

There’s a really nice little “first game set-up” which takes you through your first step or two of Santorini with Demeter vs. Artemis!

As you play your first game (I played Me vs Me), you get a sense how everything works. And the buildings that pop-up look really cool! See above!

At the end of my first game, I felt like I understood the mechanisms! This was a simple abstract strategy game that looks really cool! I see why Santorini has survived in the board game zeitgeist for so long! It’s easy to play, easy to describe, easy to learn, but has tons of interesting and strategic decisions. This is a neat game.

For the record, I do want to mention that it’s not too hard to pack everything back into the box … there’s a little graphic on the side that shows how to do that!

So, I was able to play and learn the base game! I look forward to learning Riddle of the Sphinx tomorrow!

Day 2: Unboxing and First Games of Riddle of the Sphinx

First thing Saturday morning, March 1st, I woke up and was excited to get to Riddle of the Sphinx!

It turns the competitive base game of Santorini into a co-op and solo game!

Riddle of the Sphinx has a weird form factor: see above.

It’s a very wide box that opens like a book: see above (with Coke can for perspective).

The Acrylic tokens replace the cardboard tokens.

Off to the left are the bridges, figures, dice, and cards. I am glad I took a picture of this, because when I went back to repack the game, I had to consult my pictures!

The rulebook … is huge. Not from a length perspective, but huge as in “the form factor of this book is very wide and very tall!“

This rulebook completely fails the Chair Test as it droops over the edge and makes it very hard to consult on the chair next to me. See above.

The standard workaround for rulebooks this big is to put them across TWO CHAIRS, with the spine in the middle. (We first discovered this “workaround” when we looked at Batman: Gotham City Chronicles: see here). This makes it so can consult the rulebook on the chairs next to you. Sigh: this rulebook has a terrible form factor! It’s far too engulfing!

The weird thing is, you almost don’t need the rulebook???? The Book of Riddles (which we’ll discuss below) has an EXCELLENT tutorial built in!

The Book of Riddles (see above) is the main component of this expansion. There are 22 “riddles” in here which the player(s) must solve!

The Book of Riddles throws you into the first game with some pretty pictures and flavor text …

A quick note: we’ll be playing solo, which means we have some weird special rules. We have to have a figure called the “Wanderer” whose sole purpose is to make sure we never do the same action twice in a row!

The Wanderer is the middle guy (we’ll see the Sphinx and other dude later).

Using the Wanderer, the solo player selects an action each turn (one of the four above), but can never choose the same action twice in a row.

The first Scenario is Sunshine and Seashores: see above!

The opposite side of the page has a painfully precise (in a good way) description of how to play the first riddle! This is a complete, step-by-step run-through of a winning game so you can see how all the rules work together! This tutorial is a fantastic way to learn how Riddles work!

The only thing you “really” need from the original Santorini box are the blocks and the workers. That’s it! See above! All that other stuff you saw as I unboxed Santorini: Pantheon Collector’s Edition? Completely useless here!

In fact, I made the mistake of thinking we needed the original board (above right) when I played my first game! Nope!

Riddle of the Sphinx has its own God Cards: see Base Gods above and Friendly Gods below!

There’s even a notion of Blessings that comes out in later games!

The Gods are a little different here; you kind of use them up and throw them away!!

The Gods give you powers, but if you complete their quest (at the bottom of the card), you (usually) get a new piece you can build. Why is that so important?

Riddle of the Sphinx is a game about scarcity. You don’t have all the pieces you need to build your towers and edifices, so you have to earn them as you play. By having Gods complete their quests, you get new pieces so you can build as you need to.

The coins on the map describe what you need to build: see above as I need to build a level 1 building underneath the coin to get it!

And then I do!

The coin goes to the top (or bottom) of the page to denote you have “finished” that subgoal. Usually, you need to get all Gold coins to complete the Riddle, and all the Silver coins give you extra help/bonuses.

See above as we build everything, as we try to understand how to solve a Riddle! It’s all about building towers when pieces are scarce! You have to earn the pieces to build what you need!

I need to be clear here; this tutorial is great! I jumped right in and was able to start playing right away! The tutorial held my hand for the first game, and then threw me into my second game. And I was felt so comfortable jumping in after that!

See above for an example of how good that Tutorial is!

After the Tutorial is Riddle 1! As I jumped into Riddle 1, they added some new rules: The Sphinx’s game!

The Sphinx’s Game allows you to roll the dice and “hopefully” get one of the gems! If you get a gem, you get free piece to build! If you fail (because the gem is gone), you lose a worker!

Just like our Tutorial, the game board does a real good job describing set-up on the same page as the Riddle itself. It’s interesting, I don’t think I ever looked in the rulebook for any rules in the first few games: almost everything I needed was presented in the set-ups of the various riddles.

Look how great this looks: see above.

At the end of Day 1, I unboxed Riddle of the Sphinx and played through two scenarios solo; this gave me the sense of how everything worked.

This is a puzzle; you have to figure out when to build, when to recruit god powers, when to finish a god quest (so you can get more pieces), and when to finish the Riddle (which usually means building a tower on a gold piece place!).

Day 2: Campaign and More Play

So, Riddle of the Sphinx is kind of a campaign game. Included in the rulebook are two pages per campaign: The Adventure Map and the Constellation Tree.

The Adventure Map has you “mark” off bubbles on how well you did when you finished a puzzle. (There are multiple conditions you can satisfy, see below).

See above as there are Silver, Gold, and Heroic (above) conditions you can satisfy. Godlike not pictured.

The bubbles you mark off in the Adventure Map corresponds to how many bubbles you can mark off in the Constellation Tree! See above! Basically, the Constellation Tree unlocks what are called Friendly Gods! The more Friendly Gods you have, the more control you have when you attempt a puzzle (remember, God powers are pivotal to doing the riddles, especially if the powers are useful).

Rather than sully my pristine books, I went to make a copy of the two pages … well, it’s too big for my copier, but you CAN just print them directly from Roxley’s web site. So, to play a campaign, you need both pages (see above). After every Riddle, you mark off how many achievements you did! And then you can “maybe” unlock a Friendly God or two!

I used a pencil (see above): Warning! You should probably use a red marker or something VERY distinct. It’s REALLY HARD to tell what you marked with a pencil. Can you tell above? Even zoomed in, I can barely read it! Learn my mistake, use a more “colorful” writing implement so you can see the marks.

So, the first part of my Sunday was getting the Campaign maps marked up for my first few games, when I headed into more puzzles!

At one point, the Sphinx even made an appearance!

By the end of Day 3, I had played 6 Riddles and started my way into a solo campaign.

This is a puzzle; make no mistake about it. It’s more puzzle than game. I loved it. You may not.

Cooperative Play

So, this is different week: I am at Dice Tower West and not with my normal gaming group. I brought Riddle of the Sphinx with me to play it cooperatively with “some people”. My core game group and I have a base level of trust and respect, so cooperative games are easy for us to jump into. Sometimes, it’s a little harder to jump into a cooperative game with people you don’t know. How did that go for us with Riddle of the Sphinx?

I met a real nice fellow named Charles. He and I had a very frank discussion about the Alpha Player problem before we started the game. I worry, since this is more of a puzzle than a game, that Riddle of the Sphinx might drift towards having Alpha Players take over.

From our very frank discussion, we made it clear that we would be supporting each other but still occasionally having suggestions: no Alpha Playering. I admit, I had never thought of this solution to the Alpha Player problem: just talk about it and agree to not do Alpha Player each other. And you know what? That worked fine!

Charles and I started from scratch and played the first 4 riddles (plus tutorial) in about 2 hours. We had a good time and got some riddles done. (Since I had played solo previously, I was able to shepherd the game and make it much faster to teach and learn).

Two observations came up during co-op play:
1) Even though this is a puzzle (which tends to attract the Alpha Player more), because we have God Powers (i.e., assymetric powers: Charles had Asklepios, see above, and he was pivotal!), it’s harder to Alpha the other players because all the God Powers are very different. It’s not impossible, but it does make it harder to keep track if each player is cycling through God Powers fairly quickly.

2) You can solve the game without burning your brain(s). In a convention environment, you just want to have fun and play. If you “ignore” the silver goals and just concentrate on “winning” a game, you can just do the gold goals, and the game isn’t too hard. It becomes a lot harder if you want to do ALL the silver goals! You can adjust the level of difficulty of the game as you are playing! You can choose to just go for the win, OR you can choose to get as many objectives as you want! The former is a more “light-and-fun” mode, whereas the latter is a more “brain-burny” mode.

So yes, because this is more of a puzzle, it could have easily turned into an Alpha Player experience. But, between diverting the Alpha Player with a frank discussion, and having the asymmetric God Powers, the Alpha Player Problem wasn’t a problem.

The puzzle was fun cooperatively.

Curse and Blessing

One of things that blew me away was how easily I was able to learn the game as I wen by reading the little blurbs on the board: see above as a Riddle 3 game introduces “Blessings” and “Friendly Gods” to the base game. I mean, this was absolutely a fantastic way to learn the rules. New rules are explained AS THEY COME out, and it makes sense.

… until I turned the page and started working on the next puzzle. “Wait, what were the rules for Blessings again?” Once I had set-up the next puzzle, I couldn’t go back and re-read that rule. Frustratingly, the rulebook sometimes didn’t have this same text. How do I look up that rule again? I did go to BoardGameGeek a few times, and I did Google some things.

This way of learning is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it’s so easy to jump right in, and the rules are on the page themselves! It’s a curse because you can’t go back and re-read those rules once you’ve set-up the next puzzle.

The rulebook probably should have replicated the on-page instructions from the Adventure book in the rulebook (or somewhere). The same text I used the learn the rule would help me solidify the rules in my head. If you feel like you CAN’T go back, it’s frustrating. Imagine in a classroom:

“Teacher, could you explain the Blessings rule again? I didn’t quite get it.”
“No, that’s on a blackboard in another classroom.”

I found the rulebook, especially for the Riddle of the Sphinx to not be great at helping me find rules and disambiguations. See next section for another example!

Occupied/Unoccupied

One rule that particularly seemed frustrating was the occupied rule. You can’t build a piece on a space that’s occupied. Or move onto a space that’s occupied. In the base game, the only things that can occupy spaces are workers/figures or blocks/domes. Is a coin or a blessing on a space considered occupied? Physically, yes!! That coin or blessing coin is physically occupying the space, so it prevents me from moving there, right? Intellectually, I think the idea is that the coins/blessings are just goal markers, so they are NOT occupying, just notating!!

It wasn’t until 100% clear until Riddle 5, when one of the workers actually started on a space with the Coin (bottom left, blue worker), that coins don’t block you. It’s pretty clear you can move through coins, I think, if you can start on a coin.

The rules for Riddle of the Sphinx, and especially Santorini, are brief and succinct. But I think they omit some clarity. A few more sentences here and there would have helped. This particularly issue seemed vexing, and I felt like I was “cheating” if I moved through/onto a Coin. “It’s physically blocking me … should be it a game blocker too?” I think that it is NOT a blocker but a notation … it could have been clearer.

Things to Watch Out For

Magnetic Clasp Not Secure: The binding holding the Riddle of the Sphinx box closed is a magnetic clasp. It did’t feel very secure; I would recommend a rubber band or something to hold it more secure. See above for my rubber band solution.

Use Bright Marker: When you mark bubbles on the Constellation Tree or the Adventure Map, don’t use a pencil like I did (see above). Use a sharpie or red marker or something that really stands out.

Print out: Rather than sully your Adventure book, just print out a copy of the Adventure Map and Constellation Tree from your printer. See above. Not only do you keep your original books pristine, the copies from your printer will be on paper that you can actually write on (the paper from the original is very slick).

Conclusion

Riddle of the Sphinx is clearly more puzzle than game. There are elements of randomness that make it more gamey (which base gods do you get, do you risk rolling a die, etc), but in general: this a puzzle. You need to know that before going in; you may love the idea of a solo or cooperative puzzle using the base rules of Santorini! You may hear that it’s a puzzle to solve and run screaming. Do what you will.

The solo game worked really well; it’s easy to come back to because the rules are pretty straight forward, and it’s easy to save in campaign mode. You can play as much or as little of the campaign as you want.

The cooperative game can succumb to the Alpha Player problem if you aren’t a little careful; Riddle of the Sphinx is a puzzle after all is said and done, and puzzles tend to bring out that Alpha Player. We suggest having a frank discussion about the Alpha Player problem (it worked for us), or just play with a group you already trust and respect. The rapid cycling of asymmetric God Powers did help alleviate the Alpha Player problem a little.

I would absolutely play Riddle of the Sphinx again as a solo game; it’s like an 8.5 or 9 out of 10 for me. It was really fun, and the components were great. The cooperative game, I would play again, because you can adjust the difficulty as you play. I would, however, be very cautious of the Alpha Player issues before I suggested Riddle of the Sphinx to a group, just because, as a puzzle, it’s too easy to fall into the Alpha Player trap. That trap make it a little harder to get out as a cooperative game, so maybe it’s a 7.5 or 8/10 for a cooperative game. It’s fun, it’s adjustable, but you have to be a little careful.

Good game.

War Story: A Choose-Your-Own Adventure Game Where Choices Really Matter

I pre-ordered War Story from GameNerdz on Oct 17th, 2024. I wanted to play it as soon as possible, so I went ahead and paid full shipping for it (I normally try to get to $75 or so to get free shipping); that’s how excited I was to get this! I paid for shipping to get it sent separately ASAP!

War Story arrived at my house on February 21, 2025 (I noted the date on the tab on the back). Over about three days I played the entire campaign solo: one chapter a day for three days. (This is a fully replayable campaign game, but you can also just play single chapters if you like).

What is War Story and why was I was I so excited to get it? This is a Choose-Your-Own Adventure game set in World War II, but it is unique and different.

Let’s check it out!

Unboxing

This is a smaller box (see Coke Can above for perspective) but it’s actually quite heavy; it’s brimming with books!

There’s thee Mission Books (see above), three big envelopes, one small envelope, a status pad, cards, and tokens. See above: there seems to be quite a bit in here for a Choose-Your-Own Adventure game!

To preserve the longevity and replayability of the game, I went and made a few copies of the status sheets (see above). See, even though this is a Choose-Your-Own Adventure game, it’s fairly replayable! You need a status sheet for each game/campaign you play.

There’s a bunch of punchouts and tokens. The cubes all have different uses that become clear as you play. Spoiler: the orange cubes are the Nazis! (Although the are called red, they look more orange to me).

As you might guess from the components, there’s more to this game than first meets the eye. Don’t be fooled by the Choose-Your-Own Adventure monicker: this is a pretty different game.

Rulebook

The rulebook is good.

The rulebook gets an A on the Chair Test: it can sit wide open on the chair next to me, within easy view when I need to see it (which is weird because the Mission Book completely fails the Chair Test: see more discussion below); they really got the Rulebook form factor right.

The Components and Set-Up pages are fine. It’s a little confusing because the set-ups are intermingled between the mission books and the rulebooks, and there’s a few things that aren’t quite clear (unless you read closely): I had trouble finding where to setting the entry for starting tokens (at the top of the Status sheet). Just be patient and I think everything reveals itself to you as you read.

And the Rulebook ends with a nice summary of Icons.

One quick note: I usually don’t like it when rulebooks use “thematic” fonts (this one uses a typewriter monospace font: see pictures above). This thematic font doesn’t detract too much from reading the rules here, so I’ll give it a pass.

Good rulebook.

Gameplay

There’s a few minor minor spoilers in the pictures below, but they are from the first few minutes of the first mission, so they shouldn’t spoil too much. Out of context, they aren’t much of a spoiler, but feel free to skip this section if you don’t want any surprise.

War Story nominally plays 1-6 players, but honestly it’s just a solo game where the other players just all help decisions together (kind of like Eila and Something Shiny: see review here). The player(s) lead a group of 8 resistance fighters in France during World War II. Your first choice in the game is to choose your crew of 4 for the first missions.

These 4 characters, whose names you must write down, will serve as your Agents during the missions. You use the tokens to mark where the Agents act (there are 2: one to keep on the card for and one to move into the field; this way you remember which agent is which).

Your Status Sheet gives you a hint of what can happen to your Agents as you play: Survived, Killed, MIA. See above. If you think all your Agents are getting out alive, well, good luck to you.

And again, notice we wrote their names down. I think it brings an emotional connection to the characters a little more than usual.

At this point, you open the first envelope and being reading the Mission Parameters! See the Top Secret note above (too small to see anything unless you go zooming in, but that’s on you). See above! This tells you what you need to do to “win” this mission!

Off to the right of the Status sheet are marks for the Primary and Secondary Objective(s); did you succeed? Partially Succeed? Fail? These will all influence your final score.

From here on out, it’s all about making choices and reading from the Mission Book. (Mission Book page blurred on purpose).

As you read from the book, things will happen, you make choices turn to entry 17, make a choice, turn to entry 31, and so on.

You have Locations you can visit as you start, and what entry you get in the rulebook depends on the time of day.

As the game unfolds, you will be told to “advance time” and move to the next time space (see As we move fro Early night to Late night). What this means; what happens when you visit a location depends on the time of day.

It’s a Choose-Your-Own Adventure game! Player read and choose, read and choose, read and choose … until it’s clear their chapter is up!

Combat

You will get into combat as you play, and combat will also be resolved using a Choose-Your-Own Adventure mechanism. That’s right, your French Resistance fights the Nazis using a Choose-Your-Own Adventure mechanism! “Do you shoot the guy coming right at you? Read section 12! Do you shoot the guy hiding in the bushes? Read section 701!”

And let’s be clear, your Agents can die.

Death

Death is part of this game. You kill Nazi guards with your gun. You blow up Nazis with grenades. And your Agents will die. See above as Christian is the only survivor of Chapter 1. He definitely has some PTSD going.

Granted, you are generally “trying” to sneak around to achieve your objectives, and usually the sneakier you are, the better. But, combat will inevitably come up. And even it though it might seem weird at first to use Choose-Your-Own adventure books as a combat resolution mechanism, it does work. In some sense, you feel more vested in the combat as you are making hard decisions: “Do I shoot the guy coming at me because he is an immediate threat, or do I shoot the guy trying to come up behind me who might be an even worse later threat?” Somehow it feels more immediate.

So, combat will happen. People will die. Your Agents might die. Or you might have to put a bullet in the Nazi’s head. Be aware that death is at the forefront of this game. If that sounds too intense for you, then I suspect this game is not for you and you should just get out now.

Choices Matter

I know some of you (including myself) blanche a little when you hear Choose-Your-Own Adventure. I still remember (40 years later?) how random my first Choose-Your-Own Adventure book was: The Cave of Time (see above). What seemed like the right choice lead nowhere and the dumb choice led you to a cool adventure! It didn’t seem like your choices mattered, you just “did stuff” and see what happened. Choices didn’t “really” matter; you were just along for the ride.

That is very much NOT the case in War Story. Of all the Choose-Your-Own Adventure games I have played, it feels like this is the one where the choices matter the most.

First of all, there are other choices in the game besides which entry you read. There will be Skill checks: “If your Sneak is 4+, read entry 12, else read entry 11″. You can choose to raise your Sneak by using Advantage tokens (either from a shared pool or sometimes a separate pool, depending on the Agent): see tokens above. You start with a limited amount of Advantage/Firearms tokens, and you have to choose when it’s best to choose a middling result or when you REALLY need an extraordinary success!!!

Second of all, as the progresses, the choices you made earlier WILL AFFECT your outcomes. Did you let that Nazi survive? Maybe that was a good choice, maybe that was a bad choice, but either way … it affects what happens to you later in the game! See the State Tracker above for game 2 as Events G and M were circled. Was it good I left that Nazi alive and showed mercy? Or not? Was that Event G? I hope that doesn’t came back to bite me!! And it might bite you, or it might help you.

Your choices matter here. They really matter.

Emotional

So, this game is pretty emotional. You feel … close to the war, you feel close to the resistance, you feel close to death. My second game of the campaign, all my Agents on the mission died.

I was left with one Agent left (poor Francois) as I headed into Chapter 3. How well could I do with one agent? There was so much emotion as my entire squad died … and poor Francois was all that was left.

Over three nights I played through the story. This game is pretty emotional. Be aware.

Binding

I need to say something about the binding on the Mission books: I hate it. War Story uses the thick glue binding for a large book. This binding does NOT stay open; it is the worst choice for board games!

We had this same problem with the binding on the Freedom Five books from last year (see review here), and the binding on the rulebook for the Forests of Admiron (see review here), and the binding on the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Solo/Cooperative Expansion (see review here). This type of binding does not lay flat.

You can’t hold these books open unless you completely counterfold the books! (See above as I try to hold the Mission book open with a little leather thingee). Even then, the books don’t really stay open! It’s very frustrating! If you “slip” and lose your place in the book, you lose the page you were on, as the book closes on you!!! In my third chapter, I slipped a few times and had to literally replay the introduction three times so I could find where I left off! It was very annoying and almost put me off the game.

This binding does not work. Please, I beg you board game companies, don’t use this binding ever again!

I came in to play this game the first day I got it … I was so excited!!! I saw the binding on the Mission books and I was immediately turned off. In fact, I was so turned off by the binding, I went inside my house and did my Income Taxes. The binding was so debilitating that I did my Taxes instead of playing this WONDERFUL game.

Conclusion

And I don’t feel like I can say too much more, because I don’t want to give anything else away. I liked War Story! This is NOT the Choose-Your-Adventure books of yore, where nothing really matters: this is a Choose-Your-Own Adventure game where choices really matter! And you feel like you have choices!

Be aware that War Story is not for everyone: it’s gritty and people will die. Nazis will die. Your Agents will die. You will actively take part in the resistance and shoot Nazis in the head. But this was the life of the French Resistance in World War II. I think this game really captures the spirit and vibe of that time.

I can’t give it a rating except to say you will probably know if you will like it based on the description in this review. I liked it, and I am glad I played it: It felt very emotional and really captured the vibe of World War II (I think; I wasn’t there). But I think you will know if this is for you or not.

Dice Throne Missions and Dice Throne X-Men! A Solo and Cooperative Review!

Follow me, dear reader, as I invest three days of my life into unboxing, sleevening, tokening, and playing the new X-Men Dice Throne and Missions! Watch as I play solo (me vs. me solo and true solo) and cooperatively (with a group of 4), but encounter some unexpected things along the way! Hopefully my journey will inform you if this is something that would be for you!

Dice Throne: X-Men and Marvel Dice Throne: Missions (and a whole bunch of stuff) arrived at my house at 12:30 pm on Monday, February 20th, 2025. I was very excited to get this Kickstarter, so I happened to note the time when it arrived! This was #2 on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2024! And it was “only” 7 months late! (promising arrival in August 2024)! But what is this giant thingee?

The first big box in here is the Dice Throne: X-Men box; you each play a member of the X-Men! This is a dice-chucking game with a Yahtzee-type re-roll mechanic: you roll dice, trying to roll a straight or full house or 5-of-a-kind (stuff like that) to activate your super powers! These powers, when activated, nominally do damage or other crazy things to your opponents. This is a fully competitive game where the heroes beat each other up: think of the X-Men Danger Room! You are training in the Danger Room! (That’s why heroes fight heroes, ya, that’s it: don’t ask too many questions about why heroes are fighting heroes….just enjoy the game)

But why are we talking about a competitive game on this solo and cooperative blog? Because the second big thing that came with this was Marvel Dice Throne Missions! Marvel Dice Throne Missions (we’ll call it Missions from now on) is an expansion that takes the competitive Dice Throne system and makes the game both solo and cooperative!

The next three days of my life were consumed by the Dice Throne stuff above. The Dice Throne: X-Men box and Missions box are very closely tied together, as you need a set of heroes to play the Missions! Although you can use any of the Dice Throne heroes (including the original Season 1, Season 2 (see review here) , and Marvel heroes (see review here)), we are going to look at Dice Throne: X-Men and Missions together!!! … because that’s how we played it …

Let’s go back in time and see how three days unfolded ….

Day 1: Unboxings and First Plays

Day 1 was a long day: I got the box at 12:30pm and pretty much unboxed, sleevended, tokened (yes, that’s a word … now), and played non-stop until 8 at night! There was so more unboxing and sleevening and tokening than I expected …

What arrived at my house was a giant box! See Coke Can above for perspective.

The crazy thing was that this was a box in a box in a box in a box situation! See above!

On top of the Dice Throne: X-Men box (above) were all the acrylic tokens and some of the figures (right).

Day 1: The Figurines Unboxing

You don’t need the figurines for plain Dice Throne.

The figures are only for the cooperative expansions Dice Throne Adventures or Missions, as figures for the board … you don’t need these figures at all to play competitive plain Dice Throne! See all eight figures above in the package … and below on a Missions board.

Because the original Marvel Dice Throne did NOT have an option for figures, they included that option here in this Kickstarter! See above for the Marvel Dice Throne figures and below for their standee equivalents!

To be clear; the X-Men Dice Throne (and Marvel Dice Throne) come with cardboard standees so you don’t need to buy the figures (see below for X-Men Dice Throne punchouts, including the standees).

If you are on the fence for buying the figures, remember: they aren’t strictly needed! You can just use the standees and “probably” buy the figures at a later date if you are so inclined.

Day 1: Acrylics and Sleevening

Another upgrade I got were the Acrylic tokens; again these aren’t necessary.

The acrylic token upgrades packs are for Marvel Dice Throne, X-Men Marvel Dice Throne, and Missions—These just replace the cardboard tokens.

Again, the games include all the tokens you need, so these acrylic tokens aren’t necessary. I really thought they made the game pop a little more, so I liked them.

I also picked up the premium sleeves: see below.

Again, strictly not necessary. But very nice!

After ooggling the figures, basically, I spent the next 2 or so hours putting the acrylic tokens and sleeves into the X-Men Dice Throne character boxes!

Whew! Look at all those tokens above!! See below for all 6 characters sleeved and … tokened? (yes, it is a word now: I’ve used it twice).

Yes, this was a long and tedious 2 hours. But the characters looks great!

Oh yes, and Deadpool wants you to know he is an expansion! He is a character you can play (he also came with this Kickstarter, but he is a separate expansion you have to pay extra for). I went ahead and unboxed, sleeved, and tokened him too. See above.

Day 1: First Play

As a reminder, you “probably” don’t want to jump into Missions (cooperative) if you haven’t played the base Dice Throne (competitive)! See the warning above from the Missions rulebook.

I love Dice Throne, but it has been a while since I played. So I decided to do a Me vs. Me solo game, and play against myself! This was mostly to remind myself of the rules and see the new characters! Those of you out there are thinking that I will “pander” and play Wolverine vs. Deadpool. Nope!

I ended up playing Wolverine vs Cyclops. Me vs Me!

Basically, I’d literally switch seats when I had to play the other character: I always like this swapping because it really feels like you are playing both sides well!

It was an interesting match: Wolverine won, but just barely. Cyclops looks like he will do best in a cooperative game, as his abilities have some emphasis on helping other players! He has leadership cards and support tokens/abilities that help others! Wolverine just heals and does damage … as you’d expect.

This game was reasonably quick, maybe a hour? It went by pretty quickly and I got to learn about Wolverine and Cyclops.

Day 1: Missions Unboxing

Yes, we are still in Day 1. I told you this was a long day! But a good day! I finally got to unpack Missions!

The most AMAZING thing is all the little mission books that come with the game!! Holy cow!! See how many there are? I put a Coke can next to them for perspective!

My only real complaint with the missions is that they are hard to keep open! We’ll see that more later.

There’s some Momentum dials (this is a new mechanism in the game: each character gets a dial), Allies (another new mechanism: these must be bought with Momentum), and some other tokens.

The Momentum is a major new mechanism in the game; you can actually level-up your Momentum card (as you play more games)!

I mean, this looks great! See above!

At the top is a tray for tokens: see above.

There are a lot cardboard tokens in Missions … but I ended up replacing them with the acrylic tokens. This took about the next hour of my life.

At first, putting tokens in the token tray looks VERY DAUNTING. And it is. Until you notice the side of the box!!! See above!! The side of the box shows you how to put the token into the tray!

Sounds like an easy job? Oof. This was the most tedious thing I did on Day 1.

I basically had to separate out the tokens into piles and start putting them into the box, all while trying to match the picture on the side of the box!!

I mean, it does look cool when you are done … see above.

Finally, I sleeved the Alllies: these sleeves were extra (I had to pay for them).

But they look pretty cool.

Day 1: The rulebook

There are a few things I have to say about the rulebook.

It completely fails the Chair Test: it droops over the edge of the chair and almost falls off!

I ended up using the workaround I discovered in my review of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles! You need two chairs to hold the rulebook, with the spine in the middle!

The rulebook was generally good otherwise: it had a good components page (see above).

It had a good two-page spread for set-up: I got going right away.

The rulebook had a big, readable font, useful pictures, and even little parenthetical text to emphasize issues.

The best part was that the back cover had a list of all the statuses on the back. This was generally a good list of statuses and their effects, but we did have some questions as we played… some of the status descriptions needed more clarification.

This was generally a good rulebook, but I hated the form factor. It seems like the worst form factor I have seen in a while. I actually had to change chairs in my cooperative game so I could sit somewhere where I could set-up the the two chairs to see the rulebook! The rulebook is huge and there is no almost no way it’ll fit on the table.

Day 1: Set-up for Solo play

I know, it’s hard to believe we are still in Day 1. I had just finished dinner, and I am still setting up my first Mission!

Missions have two sides; the front side is generally fighting some henchmen … (see above) …

… and the back side is Boss Fight (Scarlet Witch in this case.. see above)!

To win the mission, you need to complete both sides! See above as I start setting up side one of the mission … and get grumpy that it won’t stay flat …

I chose Wolverine to go on the solo mission: see above! Note that the rulebook suggests the mission above to start on … so that’s the one I am playing!! This is true solo play; I will be playing one character as I take on the Henchmen … on side 1 of the mission.

Day 1: Side One of the Mission

I was approaching the end of my Dice Throne Day (yes, I am still in Day 1!!!), as I got a chance to try out solo play with Missions on side 1 of my first mission.

Momentum is a huge new mechanism in the game: you are rewarded with Momentum when you take out a henchman or something in the game! It’s kind of like experience points, but it’s a little more dynamic in that you can spend it anytime! You can spend Momentum to give you range (typically, you can only attack things next to you) or to buy Allies.

The Allies give you extra abilities/powers that make the game more interesting. They typically can be used for a “minor” ability without discarding, or for a “major” ability if you discard it (see Nick Fury above).

What I liked was that when you “cleared” a bad guy, you put down a clear token (see above) to note that he was dispatched! And the token reminds you of the 2 Momentum you get for killing … I mean clearing him!

Another major mechanism is the Crisis Clock: at the end of each round, the hands of the clock move 1 per player and may invoke some harsh penalties (depending on the mission).

There’s other things going on, but that’s generally most of it! See above as I cleared the board and made my way towards fighting Doc Ock! …. but that would have to wait for tomorrow … it’s been a long day!

Day 2: More Missions

I had to work most of Tuesday, but after I got home, I was consumed with playing more Missions!
Note! When you flip the mission to the other side, you keep you character’s Hit Points, Momentum, and everything the way it was! While you reset BETWEEN missions, you DO NOT reset when you FLIP the mission!

The Boss Fight side of the Mission 1 basically just has you straight up fight the big boss! And the Crisis Clock is much more damaging!

You are in harms way as you actively are right next to the Boss! See above! No moving away!

One interesting note; there are tokens that, if you end your turn there, you get a bonus. So, you can get the +2 token if you go to space 3 above. But if the space has the red tokens underneath, you always get those … but only AFTER The bad guys attacks you! And there is a cost for moving to a space with red tokens … the boss typically does more damage (crit) to you!

In the end, I defeated Doc Ock pretty handily; I think my Ally made this much easier.

I went into the Boss Fight with 15 Momentum and basically kept the crisis track completely under control using Nick Fury.

After you defeat a Mission, the player gets “Perk Points”! These are another thing that are kind of like experience points! You use them to make your character better. You may spend some Perk Points to start the next mission with a little more momentum, or have a focus fire, or other things!

There are 6 levels of difficulty in the game; they are marked on top of the mission sheet you choose. See below.

You reallllly don’t want to try harder missions until you have some Perk Points from previous missions! So, while this isn’t a campaign “per se”, the game encourages you to keep playing and get Perk Points so you can handle more difficult missions!

You could always cheat and just give yourself a bunch of Perk Points to level up yourself ….

I moved on to a harder mission: level 2!

You can really see the Mission board problem above …

Sauron’s Hunger was my second mission … and I had a blast!

Wolverine went after the tree so he could get the Perfect Reward (see above) and more Perk Points at the end of the game!

The second side of the Mission was another Boss Fight: see above!

This one was a little harder, but I expected it to be for a level 2!

In the end, I was able to win and finish another Mission! It was definitely a little harder. I had two missions under my belt, and I looked forward to another!

Day 3: Cooperative Play

With two days of solo play and set-up experience, I felt ready to teach my friends! We ended with a 2-hour Mission fighting Doc Ock again!

This was a 4-Player cooperative game.

I took Cyclops because I wanted to test his Leadership abilities. Sara and Teresa took their favorite characters: Ororo and Rogue (respectively). Sam doesn’t know the X-Men as well, but he knows Wolverine.

Although we beat the first side of the mission, we lost to Doc Ock as he killed two of my players.

Solo Play

The solo play was a hoot to me! I kept wanting to do more Missions and get more Perk Points!! What are some of the other missions that lay ahead?? Wolverine is probably a better character to play solo; he is good at damage and he can heal himself. I worry that Cyclops or other heroes might struggle with hit points a little.

I had fun, I was engaged, and I felt like all my rolls mattered!

I was able to push my luck (and I usually hate dice games), but usually there is a good roll or card that can help you get “something good” on your turn. With Wolverine especially, even if you didn’t have a good roll, the lesser abilities typically healed him, so something good always happened.

Over the course of two days, I had fun. I was engaged, and I saw how important Allies are (especially their Exhaust ability) and how Momentum worked. These are both new things to the Missions mode and they really made me feel like I always had more options.

I would give the Missions solo mode an 8.5/10. It was great. It may be that you have to choose a hero that works well with solo; I am not sure Cyclops would have done as well.

Even the me vs me solo mode was fun! Not quite an 8.5/10, maybe 7.5/10, but that was a fun way to play solo too!

Cooperative Mode

This was a surprise for me: my friends didn’t enjoy cooperative Missions very much. And they (mostly) love the X-Men!!!

Although there is simultaneous play keeping everyone involved (you only serialize your turns when you do damage; all other times, every one is rolling and re-rolling and playing cards simulaneously), no one felt like there was a lot of cooperation. As Sara said, “it feels like Dice Throne is not a cooperative mode and this feels a little forced.”

I even played Cyclops to try to elicit more cooperation: I’d always say “Hey! I’ve got some support tokens! Use me! I can help you reroll or get CP if you need it!” … and I think my players used me once. And I tried really hard to get them to use me!!

You might think that “Well, your players don’t like co-ops, or they just don’t like to co-operate” and that is patently untrue! I play co-ops all the time with this group!! And they cooperate very well together! For some reason, this just didn’t work. And Sara even said, “Eh, you can cooperate, but there are many other co-ops I’d rather play.”

I actually have a theory about this! When we played King of Monster Island a while ago (see review here), we liked the King of Monster Island game, but it also seemed to not promote cooperation as much!! Why? It also has the familiar Yahtzee re-roll mechanism (roll 3 times, keep the ones you want) just like Dice Throne Missions!! And while that mechanism is very engaging, people seem to become TOO engaged in that to the point they don’t cooperate! It’s a weird thing to say, but too much engagement on your own stuff lessens the cooperation! And I think that’s what happened here: we all got so caught up in our own characters, we forgot to cooperate!

Maybe this problem would go away after repeated plays, but you have to want to continue playing! And I am sad to say my group mostly doesn’t really want to play this again.

Having said that, maybe if you have a group that really likes cooperative multiplayer solitaire games (no Alpha Player), maybe this is something your group might enjoy! There doesn’t seem to be a lot of cooperation, just a bunch of heroes beating up stuff and rolling dice! Maybe that would appeal to your group!

Reactions

Rich: I liked the game solo a lot! 8.5/10: I was engaged and I liked my decisions. Cooperative was probably a 7/10? I still liked it but there wasn’t much cooperation.

Teresa: I got to play Rogue! And I had fun! 7/10

Sara: I don’t know, I just didn’t think it was great. There wasn’t much cooperation, and even though I love Storm, it wasn’t that interesting to play her. There are a lot of other cooperative games I’d rather play. The cooperative mode just feels tacked on. It was okay. 6/10

Sam: It was okay. 6/10.
Sam actually had a very full write-up on his cooperative experience, which he emailed to me! I will reproduce that at the end of this review, after the Conclusion. Read that for another perspective!

Conclusion

I expected X-Men Dice Throne and Missions to go over like gang-busters! And while it did for me (for the solo mode especially), my group wasn’t that impressed with it.

The game has gorgeous components, even if you choose not to upgrade everything. My only real complaint was the Mission mats frequently has trouble staying flat. This looks like a comic book world on the table, with its colorful villains, colorful heroes, and gorgeous dice and cards.

I think the cooperative mode didn’t go as well because people tended to be too focused on their own mat and their own rerolls … and this self-focus seemed to actually discourage cooperation! I thought that my group, who love the X-Men, would adore this! And they did not.

As a solo game, I am very comfortable giving this an 8.5/10. I will play again, and I look forward to getting more Perk Points to try harder and harder missions!

As a cooperative game, it feels like the game lands at a 6.5/10. Although Teresa and I would play it again as a co-op, I don’t think Sam and really Sara would. For more details, see Sam’s Perspective below.

So, that’s my journey: Three Days of Dice Throne! I loved it! My friends … not so much. Your group may still love the cooperative Missions especially if they love co-ops that are more multiplayer solitaire.

Sam’s Perspective

Overall score: 6 – would play again if everybody else wanted to but X-Men as Wolverine combined with the Missions mode isn’t something I’d necessarily request or suggest (I could see it being 7-7.5 with avengers)

TLDR version:

I feel like this is turning into a scathing review and that’s not my intended tone. This particular combination of theming (X-Men aren’t really my thing) and components (flat printed enemies against hero minis didn’t really feel like we were fighting bad guys) just didn’t land for me.

The essay:

Because I’m an uncultured swine :), I’m not familiar with X-Men or their lore or anything other than the Deadpool movies (1 and 2) and being able to pick wolverine out of a lineup. Therefore, the characters didn’t really speak to me and I was unable to appreciate the references/accents/etc. Because of the movies, Doc Oc is also linked as a spiderman villain in my mind.

I feel like I could have used a “sparring match” or two of the competitive version to get used to my character before taking him against the villains cooperatively.

The components felt a bit jarring – minis for us vs enemies printed on the map just felt like I was standing around and taking swings at air. I feel like I would have felt more immersed if the bad guys were also minis (even though they didn’t move) or if we were flat tokens in the same plane as our opponents.

I can’t quite put my finger on it but the movement and momentum mechanics also felt a little bit off to me.

I remember enjoying the original dice throne (though I missed out on the adventures and the original marvel set) probably because it was a set of generic archetypes I could get into – the rogue, paladin, gunslinger, monk, pirate, etc.

I think I would also have enjoyed this more with the “original”marvel characters (avengers) even without having as much time to get into how my character works. Wolverine might also have been too simple – basically 9 variations on “get angry, hit hard, heal” depending on what you rolled. It didn’t really feel like I had much to set up and pull off, just wander around and try to roll good combinations so I could swing really hard at the air where an enemy was.

Top 10 Cooperative Light/Party Games of 2024!

What’s a party game? A party game is usually a casual game you can pull out with a fairly large group of friends and jump right into! Many, if not most, of the cooperative party games we see are Cooperative Guessing games, where the players collectively guess something based on clues from a clue-giver!

Surprisingly, the year of 2024 produced quite a number of cooperative party games! That’s right; cooperative party games! And most are Cooperative Guessing games! We saw some really good party games on the Top 10 Cooperative Party Games list … and here’s 10 more below just from 2024!

10. Word Traveller

Player Count: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Time: 30-45 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

Like many of the games on this year’s list, this is a Cooperative Guessing game! In this game, a clue-giver will give word clues to “guide” the others around the board, trying to get to a destination on the board!

This feels a lot like the cooperative word guessing games Mystic Paths or Landmarks (see below), as you use words to imply directions to travel. What makes this a little different is that the words you choose refer to tourist spots in the maps! There are 4 maps in the game for London, Paris, New York City, and Tokyo! See below for the map of London!

This is a real unique game and has some really neat idea in the crowded cooperative word guessing genre!

9. Landmarks

Player Count: 2-10
Ages: 10+
Time: 20 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

Landmarks is a cooperative word guessing game where one player gives word clues, trying to guide the rest of the playing (cooperatively guessing) to water, treasure, and finally the exit! This game is very similar to a game called Mystic Paths where players are moving across a map of hexes.

There’s also elements of Codenames in here, as the clue-giver has a hidden map as he tries to guide the players around the map!

We have played this game with several groups, and it seemed to go over pretty well! It takes a few plays to get the sense and spirit of the game, but once you do, it is fun. Some people didn’t love this (because sometimes it was just too vague or the map is wonky), which is why it’s lower on this list. The components are quite nice (with the cloth map and dry-erase hexes), and it was generally fun!

8. Adventure Party

Player Count: 3-8
Ages: 10+
Time: 20-60 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

This looks like a role-playing adventure game (see picture above), but it’s actually a role-playing game PARTY game! It even says that on the cover!

It’s quite silly as a game; a player will have to do an activity and then roll a 20-sided die (secretly) behind their character shield (see above). The Berserker has to open the door; what does a “19” mean? The player then roll-plays what they do (based on the number they roll) and the other player have to “guess” what the roll was on based on what they roll played! It’s a silly game that just gets sillier as you play it!

In fact, it’s so simple to play this that the directions for how to play are summarized very well on the back of the box! See above. My friends and I had fun playing, pardon me, ROLL-PLAYING this silly adventure party game.

7. Message From The Stars

Player Count: 2-8+
Ages: 11+
Time: 45 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

So, this is another cooperative word guessing game, but it has elements of math and it is quite thinky. I love this game because it’s so unique and interesting, but some people just bounced off it because of its weird blend of math and wordplay.

Players plays as two teams; a team of aliens trying to communicate with a team of humans! Teams communicate single words to each other to establish some ideas! What letters you use in your words matters, as well as what concepts/words you are trying to communicate! It’s great fun with lots of deduction … if you grok the game.

This is a great game that can play 2-8+ people, and you can pull it out casually … once everyone knows how to play. The biggest problem is that it takes some brainwork and time to figure out this game. This is probably the most thinky game on this list, and why some people might not classify this as a party game .. which is why this is only #7 on this list, despite how good a game it is. See our review of Message From The Stars here to see if you might enjoy this! (Remember, Codenames is classified as a party game, and it’s quite thinky too!)

6. Expressions

Player Count: 2-5
Ages: 14+
Time: 15 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

Many of the games on this list as cooperative word guessing games; this is a number guessing game! This has a lot of deduction as players can either guess a card a player might be holding (like cooperative go-fish) or give a clue (which feels a little like The Crew).

This is basically a cooperative go-fish game with elements of deduction/clue-giving (ala The Crew). It’s probably the second most thinky game on this list (after Message From The Stars). But this is easy to pull out, quick to explain, and quick to play at only 15 minutes! It does take a few times to get the hang of it, but people seem to want to play again!

5. Da Da Da

Player Count: 2+
Ages: 8+
Time: 15-30 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Classification/Guessing

This is an odd duck of a game. Players take a bunch of black and white pictures and collectively classify them using only a few words, like “DA” and “BLUMP”. Basically, the group is coming up with a language for describing shared traits using a few very simple words. These few words are the ONLY communication that players are allowed!

In the first part of the game, the players collectively classify all the pictures together using only those few words (like “DA” and “BLUMP”) as they point and move pictures. In the second part of the game, new pictures are introduced and the players have to try and figure out, using only the new language of those few words, the new thing. As long as you have a group that doesn’t annoyingly repeat the weird little words ad naseum, this is a fun game … it’s almost a linguistics experiment!

It sounds like it can’t work, but my group really enjoyed it! This is one you might want to try before you pick it up; some people will be annoyed by it, some people won’t get it, but some people will love it! Our groups loved it! Maybe yours will too!

4. Link City

Player Count: 2-6
Ages: 8+
Time: 30 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing/Classification

This is a game that I didn’t like as much as everyone else, but it was such a hit for everyone else, I had to put this on the list! One player (the Mayor) puts city Locations out, and the other players have to guess where he would place them based on the locality to other Locations in the game!

The Mayor rotates every turn, so a new player has to decide what Locations go where! It’s all about building the municipality, but with some real silly decisions!

My friend Kurt loves this game and we’ve played it a number of times when he has come to visit! If this sounds like fun, I suggest you give it a try! A bunch of people I know and like really like this game!

3. Spotlight

Player Count: 1-5
Ages: 6+
Time: 15 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Searching

This is such a neat game! It’s a very simply premise as players search a shaded picture for certain figures, counting them up! Each player needs to find them independently on their own sheet! If they find “enough” together, they can stay ahead and win!

The sheer fun of this game is the clever sheets that are have darkened plastic. When you place a white surface underneath, the picture comes apparent! See the “fully darkened” picture above … and the picture with a white spotlight below!

There is no batteries or magic technology here; it’s just a white surface underneath making the plastic easily viewable!

This game has worked really well in so many situations! I have played with little kids (like 5 years old) and older adults, and big kids, and even though this “looks like a kid’s game”, people really love the Spotlight mechanism! It’s just so cool!

2. Wilmot’s Warehouse

Player Count: 2-6+
Ages: 8+
Time: 30 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Memory/Cooperative Guessing

Wait, this is a cooperative memory match game? Yes, and it works surprisingly well! This is probably Sara’s favorite game of all the games on this list!

Players draw tiles from a bag and cooperatively “come up with a story” for the shape and place it in the warehouse.

After placing a bunch of tiles down, players must try to cooperatively remember what tile was what by trying to match other tiles to it! It’s wacky and the stories people come up are really funny! It’s surprisingly goofy, but it’s really easy to explain and jump into! See our review here to see see why Wilmot’s Warehouse is much better than you expect!

1. That Escalated Quickly

Player Count: 2-8
Ages: 10+
Time: 15 Minutes
Type: Cooperative Guessing

This was a bit of surprise as our #1 choice for the best cooperative party games of 2024, but it just kept coming to the table all this year! And we all loved it! Players get asked a silly question like: “What do you tell a vampire to get him to turn you?” (See back cover above for more questions) And then everyone gets 1 (or 2) cards from 1-10, and everyone has to answer that question so that 1 is least likely to get turned, and 10 is most likely! But without revealing their number! (Much like Adventure Party from earlier)

The guesser has to take all the answers and sort them from lowest to highest .. if they get them all in order, it counts as a point! (You can have upto one mistake)

Like all good party games, the points don’t matter, and you just keep playing, not really caring if you win or not! This is a mass market party game from The Exploding Kittens people; I picked it up at Target, so it’s really easy to find! Check it out! Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we did!

A Story Unfolds: Review of Tales of the Arthurian Knights (Solo and Cooperative Modes)

Tales of the Arthurian Knights is a cooperative and solo storybook game. What’s a cooperative storytelling/storybook game you might ask? Take a look at our Top 10 Cooperative Storytelling/Storybook Games for more discussion of this genre!

Tales of Arthurian Knights is a follow-up to the hugely popular storybook game Tales of the Arabian Nights, (another massive storybook game) … but the original is not cooperative!

What makes this “Tales of …” series of these games so impressive is the size of the book(s) that come with the game! Players basically make skill checks and have adventures from this book! See the book from Tales of the Arabian Nights above!

Now, the original game Tales of the Arabian Nights was a competitive game (although my friend Greg always argued that it was kinda a co-op), but Tales of Arthurian Knights has added a true solo mode and a true cooperative mode! Let’s take a look!

Unboxing

The size of this box feels pretty standard, except that it is a pretty tall box! It’s also quite heavy! See the Coke can and #2 pencil for perspective on the size.

There are a TON of cardboard sheets to punch out! A ton I tells ya! See above as I use the Coke can to demonstrate how tall the pile of cardboard is!

But what makes this game heavy and a storybook game … is the storybook.

This is a hardcover storybook! And it is very thick! See the Coke can again measuring its height!

Underneath the storybook are a bunch of cards.

That’s what’s in the box … let’s take a closer look at some of the components!

The Rulebook

The rulebook was pretty darn good.

The components page shows just about everything, but here’s a little warning: you should be careful about how you punch some stuff out (we’ll discuss this more below).

The set-up is across two pages and has a picture and correlating notations; it works great.

There’s even a Bibliography (!) and A Pronunciation guide! That’s right! You can tell the people who made this game really care about the Arthurian Mythos! This care shines through from the very beginning, and manifests in the writing!

In general, this was a good rulebook: the fonts are big, the pictures help understanding, and it seems well organized. And the game gets an A- on the Chair Test: I can keep the rulebook open on the chair next to me, and it stays open and flat so it is easy to consult!

And the rulebook even ends with a QuickStart guide on the back: see above.

This was a good rulebook. The only major fault with this rulebook was that it didn’t have an Index (which is weird for a game that has a Bibliography and Pronunciation Guide), but it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Storybook

The storybook is GORGEOUS! It’s a hardcover! The entire game centers on the stories that come out of this book!

Even the paper is nice (it’s not cheap paper by any means), and it has a built-in bookmark … what?? See above!

The binding on the book is very high quality! I still do that thing you do with new textbooks; slowly open the book and let pages fall left-and-right to ensure I don’t break the binding. (Am I the only one who does that?) See above.

The font is easy to read and it’s high quality: and no, the above isn’t a big spoiler: it’s the VERY FIRST ENTRY every game reads (but it shows what the font looks like).

Most entries in the book have you read some text to the current player (or yourself if you are playing solo), and presents you with a choice … something like … Do you want to use HONOR to solve this issue or PIETY? You make a skill check against that Skill and read the appropriate SUCCESS or FAILURE.

See above for an example for a reward (from the rulebook). Getting a SUCCESS usually gives you extra Skills, extra Ranks in Divinity/Villainy/Romance, or Statuses.

This storybook is just gorgeous (you said that Rich … I know, I know, it’s just so awesome).

Punchouts

There are a LOT of punchouts for this game (see above): BE WARNED!! I don’t think you need to punch them all out at first. Each player takes the role of a Knight of the Round Table (see above: there are 8 possible Knights).

You really only need to punchout the components for THAT KNIGHT! Most of the tokens I need to play Sir Palomides (see above) are just on HIS SHEET; so there’s no reason to punchout EVERYTHING.

I played Sir Lancelot in my first solo game.

I only punched out the components for Sir Lancelot … I didn’t have to punch out everything!

I hate to say it, but I wish this game came with baggies. I stole baggies from some other games I have, and used those. Basically, I give each character THEIR OWN BAG for tokens (and the other shared components go into other bags).

You will to punchout the Skill tokens: every Knight gets 12 (which only some become active as you play). I made separate bags for each set of 12 tokens.

In fact, there are 8 sets of Skill tokens (even though the game only plays 1-4 players): Why? Because you can be ACCOMPANIED and have a companion who has skills … like I said, I just punched out the Skill tokens and put each 12 into separate bags (for a total of 8 separate bags of Skill Tokens, and 8 different bags for the 8 characters).

This game really needs baggies I think.

So, be wary: if you punchout everything right when you open the game, you might want to have a bag per character to store their stuff. And 1 bag per 12 Skills. And a few more baggies for other components.

The SKILLS give you bonuses to certain SKILL checks: See above as Lancelot gets +2 on Peity, Shield and Sword, and Honor SKILL checks.

Status Cards

As you play the game, stuff happens to you. And this is represented by the STATUS cards! Each player gets a stack of STATUS cards which may become activated as you play.

The nice thing is that STATUS cards can expire! See above as I am IMPRISONED! As the start of every turn, if I can’t escape my prison, the STATUS token (red dot) moves down, and if it ever moves to the last space, the STATUS goes away naturally! I have to say, after some games of Tales of Arabian Nights, I got stuck in prison and couldn’t get out! At least with this “expiration” mechanism, I won’t get completely stuck!

Quests

What generally “directs” you in the game is the QUEST! Every player starts with a STARTING QUEST (see above) and that directs you to places on the map to “do stuff”! You don’t HAVE to do these quests, but usually the rewards for QUESTS are worth it!

There are many places where you can get more QUESTs as you explore, but if you never have one, you just draw from the QUEST pile!

Your QUESTS have a very pick-up and deliver feel; you usually have to visit 1 or 2 Locations on the map (see above), and do “something” (SKILL check, standard encounter) to finish the QUEST.

The QUEST locations are notated with your little markers (see above).

Destiny

To win the game, you (solo/cooperative group) need to get enough DESTINY POINTS: see above.

How much DESTINY you need depends on the number of players and the difficulty you choose. For example: The solo game at SQUIRE level requires 35 (see above), and a 4-Player cooperative game requires 126 DESTINY!

You mostly get DESTINY from two sources; completing a QUEST (see above) or succeeding on a SKILL check. There are also other ways that come up in the game, but those are the most likely sources.

The Map and Encounters

This is a big game where you explore the world, hunting down QUESTS as you move around the map! Just about everything you do has someone read “something” from the storybook!

The most common encounters (standard encounters) are in the game are made up from two decks: a FEATURE deck (which has an adjective and the last two digits of a 4 digit number) …

And the ENCOUNTER deck, which is frequently a traveller. The LOST KNIGHT will be entry 1215 in the storybook! See above! And that will be the encounter for that Location!

Every encounter in the storybook is a 4-digit number (see above).

And that’s the basics of the game; explore the world, go on QUESTS, read from the Storybook, make skill checks, and try to get enough DESTINY to win!

Solo Play

So, there is a solo mode in this game (thank you for following Saunders’ Law), and it is “generally” well-thought out; but there are some issues.

Let’s be clear; even though Tales of Arthurian Knights has a solo and cooperative mode, it is a competitive game first. Most STATUSES and QUEST cards have “another player” make a choice for you! See above as ENSORCELLED STATUS has another player, who is your competitor, make choices for you!

So, when another player is supposed to make a choice for you, you instead draw a card from the SOLO/CO-OP deck (see above) and that makes the choice for you!

For example, if another player were to choose a REGION, the card above instead specifies what to do. Same with City, Terrain, or the STATUSes LOST, ENSORCELLED, or MAD. Don’t know what to do? Draw a card!

The problem is that there are still ambiguities that come up. Which Forest space? Which sea space? There’s a whole page discussing how to place things from those cards, and it’s still not 100% clear sometimes; Honestly, it’s a little bit of a wart on this system. Rather than get bogged-down in some detail, I’d get “about” where I was supposed and just pick one. It’s better to move forward than get obsessed. (Because this game can very random, it feels very silly to obsess on some of these rules).

Besides that one issue, the solo game worked pretty well. See above as I had the board set-up!

This is a true solo player game: the solo player plays one character! See above as I played Sir Lancelot. Player proceeds pretty much as the main game; just get enough DESTINY to win!

What this means, of course, is that the solo player has to read all the text to themselves. You have to be a little careful not to read too far ahead, as you can see what the “difficulties” are when you really shouldn’t: “Choose PIETY or HONOR” (oops, I accidentally saw that HONOR needs a 4 check, but PIETY is a 6 … I’ll just go with HONOR”): you aren’t really supposed to know the difficulty of your checks. You are supposed to choose the check based SOLELY on the type of check, nothing else! So, it’s easy to “accidentally” cheat and see what the SKILL checks are.

But, if you can survive 12 rounds (you have to play a full 12 rounds) and get enough DESTINY (see above as I do!), you win!

The solo experience is fairly sedate; you read to yourself, you roll the dice, you make choices. It was fun, and I really enjoyed the text, but it’s a quiet experience with a lot of reading.

The solo mode is a great way to learn the game, but I didn’t love it because it was so sedate. It was a good way to learn most of the systems of the game, and I might play it again solo. The solo mode is a 6.5 or 7/10? It works, and it teaches the game, but I didn’t love it (especially with some of the ambiguity).

Cooperative Mode

Cooperative mode, on the other hand, was a rolicking good time!

It’s hard to believe, especially since the players are reading from this tome all the time, but the game was such a HOOT! What happened was that we read the book with silly voices! We quoted Monty Python and the Holy Grail all night long!

Some of the best things that happen in the game are when you FAIL and the story just gets crazy! Sara’s story was so wacky as she had three lovers, including Morgana! We laughed as Dame Enid’s Villany track escalated as she kept three lovers! In the meantime, Sir Galahad struggled to keep his Villainy down! Sure, you make choices as the game proceeds, but you may or may not make it … it’s all the crazy things that happen!

Let’s be clear, this is not a “silly” storybook game like Wandering Galaxy (see review here), Freelancers (see review here), or Forgotten Waters (see review here)! Those game are built as silly from the ground up! But Tales of Arthuran Knights is nominally a serious game (I mean, it’s got a Bibliography for goodness sake), but the moments that happen, the plot twists, the fails, the wins, are all kind are electrifying! The mood of the game is light as Monty Python quotes fall from the tongue (“Bad, naughty Zoot!”) and players giggle at your wins and losses! “Wait, Dame Edid has THREE lovers now??? Save some for everyone else, Sara!!”

My players loved this game! They gave it an 8/10, which is especially high for Sara!

The only thing that would have made this more fun is if it were more cooperative! We certainly enjoyed reading to each other, but at the end of the day, the game was pretty much multiplayer solitaire as we each had our own adventures! Had there been mechanisms for “questing together” or “moving together”, maybe that would have elevated the game to a 9/10 or 10/10? Don’t get me wrong, we LOVED this game, but we just wish there were a little more cooperation …to be clear, there’s plenty of interaction among the players, as they read to each other and choose entries, so there is definitely full engagement, but that’s sort of outside the game (in the running of it). The actual cooperation in-game is pretty much non-existent. Again, this game is great, but it’s not a cooperative touchstone by any means.

Overall, my friends loved this game. It was so fun!

House Rules

One possible set of house rule to encourage cooperation might be the following:
1) If two (or more players) are on the space or move through each other, they can “pick-up” and “drop-off” other characters during movement. This might allow some sharing of movement points and encourage players to move together and move quicker around the map. They have to talk and discuss strategy!
2) If another character is with you on an encounter, that other player can spend his DESTINY (we would assume players get their own DESTINY even if needs to be shared) to up SKILL roles: discard DESTINY on a one-for-one basis to increase the check!!! BUT you could only do that if someone ELSE did it, not the person in the encounter! (I think this means each player would still get their own encounter though … it’s just travelling together allows players to influence each other)
These two House rules might help engender a little more cooperation. They would obviously need more some balancing (I think it might make the game slightly easier), but it’s easy to just up the difficulty level by one and see how you do!

What I Liked

Failure is still good! We didn’t mention this when we discussed SKILLS, but even a failure is good! First of all, sometimes a failure is interesting or even funny from a story perspective, so that good! More importantly, a failure on a SKILL roll almost invariably leads to “gain experience” in that SKILL and up it by 1! For example, If I fail a DIPLOMACY SKILL check, I will learn from it! “Oooooohhh, that’s a good example of what NOT to do when negotiating! Lesson learned!” .. and my DIPLOMACY goes up +1!

The Game Is Electifying Cooperatively! If you have the right group who is just a little silly, will quote Monty Python, and read the text with silly accents, this game is just electrifying and a fun romp! I think to enjoy this game to the fullest, you have to “lighten up” a little and just enjoy the ride!

Cooperative mode: The original Tales of the Arabian Nights was fantastic, but it was a competitive game! By Tales of Arthurian Knights being cooperative, it seems to “lighten” the atmosphere a little. In general, this new version just seems more approachable.

What I Didn’t Like

Time is wrong: After many solo and cooperative plays, I think the playing time is off. I’d say it’s more like 1 hour per player (plus set-up and tear-down). It’s not a big difference, but it may keep you from playing the 4-Player game!! The 3-Player game at 3 hours is just about the right time.

Ambiguity/Extra Complexity: In the solo and cooperative mode, you depend on the solo/coop cards to resolve ambiguity when placing Locations and other things. Unfortunately, sometimes the rules are just ambiguous or at the very least contorted for placement! See above as we place on Sea spaces, which require looking up the rules for placing Quest Markers which span almost an entire page! In the end, you still just “Place the Marker on the location closest to the indicated City that matches the correct terrain type (including Sea space, if required)“. I think, if you study page 17, you can resolve most things, but it’s much more complex than it should be. This can really take a light-hearted game and bring it down: “Please give me a few minutes to look up this rule!“. In the end, we just kept the game moving and made the best choice on the card to keep the game moving.

Reboxing: I think you will struggle with the reboxing. Even with little baggies (which don’t come with the game: make sure you get some), you may struggle to fit everything in the box.

Randomness

Let’s be clear about one thing: this is a story you (hopefully) get swept up in! Although you do “level-up” as you play (your SKILLS get better and better, and your Renown goes up, etc), it’s still kind of a random game.

I get the LOST KNIGHT encounter randomly (see above) which might be great for my SKILLS, or it might be sucky! Stuff happens to you, and you roll dice. This is a game with a lot of randomness! The dice make the SKILL checks more random! The encounters you get are random! The QUESTS you get are random! I normally hate all that randomness, but it works here! Why?

Because this is a story that you get swept up into! Maybe, like Dame Enid, you’ll have 3 lovers! Maybe, like Sir Lancelot, you’ll have no love in your life, but get the plague and save others from the plague! It’s all about what happens to you as you play! It’s all about the well-written story, the shared experience, the aloud reading, and the silly fun with your friends! It’s random, but it’s fun.

To be clear, Tales of the Arabian Nights was even MORE random (and that could be a bit much); at least Tales of the Arthurian Nights has backed off on some of the randomness and improved upon the original (with expiring statuses, upgrading skills, and upping reknown). If you didn’t like Tales of the Arabian Nights, this may still appeal to you. If you like Tales of the Arabian Nights, you may find this even more enjoyable! It’s a slightly less random experience.

Conclusion

What a great time! I think that Tales of the Arthurian Knights might be my friends’ favorite game we have played in some time! They both give it an 8 or 8.5/10: it would actually be higher, but the game is mostly multiplayer solitaire! The game is very interactive, but just not particularly cooperative. We did suggest some House Rules to encourage a little more cooperation; see previous section.

The solo game works, but it’s just a little less fun because you are just reading to yourself as random things happen to you. What makes this game great are the crazy things that happen to you when you are with your friends! That shared experience of failing and being swept up in the story is so much more satisfying when you are with your friends! So, I didn’t love the solo game: The solo game is still respectable and will teach the game: 6.5 or 7/10.

In the end, this is best as a shared experience where players get swept up in the story and don’t care too much about “winning”; it’s all about the experience! It’s all about the story!

If you are willing to quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, be open to the story that unfolds around you, read lots of text, and enjoy this with a light heart, I think you might really enjoy Tales of the Arthurian Knights! Be aware that there is a lot of reading, so if that doesn’t sound like fun to you, you may want to stay away from this game.

Fellowship of the Crew! A Review of Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

This is a mouthful of a title: The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. See the full title above! BoardGameGeek lists it as The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. Whew! We’ll stay with the “shorter” title.

I ordered my copy directly from Asmodee, and it arrived mid January 2025. I tried VERY hard to get the game as soon as it came out! I was very excited for it!! I saw a TON of reviewers get it earlier in 2024, but as a plain-old boring paying customer, the earliest I could get my copy was straight from Asmodee’s web site in January 2025 (after pre-ordering it back in November (?) 2024).

So, what is this game? It’s a small-box game for 1-4 players, Ages 10+ with a “listed” playing time of 20 minutes. That time is reasonable accurate for describing a single game, but this is, at its heart, a campaign game! So, it’s a campaign of 18 chapters, and each chapter can have multiple games. So, a chapter is “not necessarily” one game, but many times is. (After you complete the campaign, there is a standalone mode so you can continue playing).

This game (you’ll notice I am staying away from saying the full name) is a cooperative trick-taking game! Players work together to take tricks, but under certain conditions! One of the biggest parts of the game is that it is a Limited Communication game: players are not allowed (in any way) to discuss the cards in their hands as they play. All they can do is deduce what other people have by what cards they played.

Those of you paying attention might say “Hey! That sounds like the Crew! That’s a cooperative trick-taking game too, right?” Yup! We liked The Crew quite a bit, as it made the #2 position on our Top 10 Cooperative Space Games! There’s a lot of similarities between the two: they both have ongoing campaigns that start easy and get harder, they both are smaller box games, and they both are Limited Communication games. The best description of Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking game is Lord of the Rings meets The Crew. But there are some interesting differences, which we will discuss!

Unboxing and Gameplay

This is almost exclusively a card game. There are 3 decks in the game: the intro deck (far left), Part I deck (first 12 chapters) and Part II deck (last 6 chapters).

So many cards. See above.

There are some tokens; the purple tokens are used to notate “required” characters: when you play, ever player must take a character, and certain characters are required for certain chapter. The big Ring card is used to denote when Rings have been played, and thus allow leading with them (see more discussion below).

This a trick-taking game, so there are suits. Rather than “boring” hearts, spades, diamonds, etc, the suits are thematic Shadows, Hills, Mountains, Rings, and Forest. See above.

Each player will assume the role of a Lord of the Rings character (you may assume multiple characters depending on the player count).

Each character has a win condition: in order to win a game, you (usually) hav to satisfy all characters’ winning conditions!!! Notice Frodo’s “win” condition: he must win 4 or more of the Rings cards in the tricks he wins.

Pippin’s win condition is to win the fewest tricks: see above. You’ll also note that at the start of the game, some characters are allowed to “exchange” cards with other characters. You can’t still talk about your cards in hand, but you can give away obvious cards. For example: you really don’t want Pippin to have too many high cards (since he has to lose most tricks), so you may give away an 8 of Hills.

An interesting rule of the game is that a player can’t lead with a Ring card unless a Ring has already been played into a previously won trick (by being sloughed off when a player couldn’t match the lead suit). The Ring token is on the black-and-white to show: “Nope: you can’t lead a trick with a Ring suit“.

Once at least one Ring has come out, then Ring cards may be lead! See the colorful side of the Ring above! It now means “Yep! You can lead tricks with Ring cards now!“.

There are lots of little special rules in the game. For example, after dealing out all the cards, one card is always “lost” (to make the math work, there is always one extra card). But Gandalf has a special rule that he can take the lost card into his hand!

Each character is dealt a hand of cards and uses those to play a trick-taking game! The holder of the 1 Ring always starts the game. Frodo is almost always in play, and he always starts with the 1 Ring: see above.

Players continue playing until all their win conditions are satisfied … and they win! If, at any point, the win conditions can’t be satisified, the game is lost. In the campaign, losing means you just play the same game again until you win (usually).

A winning game moves to the next … game. In the beginning of the campaign, that usually means the next Chapter: these are called “Short games” (see below).

Later in the campaign, you may have to play multiple games to advance to the next chapter. These are called “Long” games (see below).

If you can get through all 18 chapters of the campaign, you win!

Solo Play

There is a solo mode for the game! (Thank you for following Saunders’ Law!) Given that The Crew (the game that this will be compared to over and over) DID NOT have a solo mode, this is huge!

The solo mode has very different rules than the main cooperative game! During the main cooperative game, all cards are dealt out, and the players (cooperatively) make decisions about what to play based on what they see in their entire hand! See above as a cooperative player has a whole bunch of cards!

In the solo game, the solo player assumes the role of 4 of the characters, and only gets “part” of each hand (4 cards each to start)! See above as Chapter 1 has the solo player playing 4 characters with 4 cards each!

Each character gets 4 cards (see above) and will get a new cards after a trick is taken! So, the solo player has to decide how to play cards based on seeing ALL Characters cards, but not all cards per hand!

So, this is a solo mode which requires the solo player to operate 4 characters! Normally, I worry about the intellectual overload, the context-switching between characters, and general maintenance. But it’s really not an issue here! Each character is very simple to operate: they don’t have special powers, they simply have a special winning condition. It’s really easy to look at the board (see above) and get a sense what each character should play!!

The solo mode requires you to look at all the cards in all the hands of all the characters and make decisions to achieve their win goals. That sounds daunting, but it really isn’t. You know EXACTLY what each character will play; what you don’t know (for sure) is what card each character will get next. The randomness in the solo game is based on what card each player gets next round. I never found this randomness too debilitating. I had a few games where the cards went against me, but it was easy to replay that game … remember, this is a 20-minute game, so any randomness in the deals (even if it completely sucks), will be over soon and you can play another game.

Said another way, I didn’t think there was too much randomness in this game to make me dislike it.

To emphasize the point that this is an easy game to get into, let me tell you that I played through the entire 18-Chapter solo game when I was sick! I wasn’t at my best, but the LOTR trick-taking game is really easy to get into! Each game is “only” 20 minutes or so, so when I got tired when I was sick, I could go take a nap, and come back again!

Let’s be clear, even though the solo game is easy to pick-up, easy to play, and easy to keep coming back to, there’s still a lot of engaging decisions! Part of the reason I liked the solo game so much was that it was engaging and “distracted” me from being sick!

The amount of manintenance as you play the game is pretty minimal; it’s real easy to play solo. But there is a lot of maintenance between games: Honestly, the worst part of the game is the constant shuffling. You need to make sure you do a really good job shuffling the cards, because a bad shuffle may cause you to lose the game! So, I ended up doing a pile shuffle after every game just to make sure thing were shuffled!

As a solo game, this game is a huge win! It’s easy to learn, easy to play, and engaging enough to keep coming back to! Like I said, I played the entire 18-Chapter campaign solo when I was sick, and it was great! It’s easy enough to play when you are “distracted”, but fun enough to keep you engaged!

Major win for having a solo mode: What’s the score?
The Crew: 0, Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 1.

I liked the solo game, and even though I have defeated the entire game, I will keep it in my collection to play again solo.

Cooperative Mode

So, there are actually several cooperative modes based on the number of players. It “feels like” the best way to play the game is 4-Players (or 3-Player). (The 2-Player game is really very different; I can’t comment on that as I never got a chance to play it. I have to admit the 2-Player mode looks very daunting).

My 4-Player group sat down and played though 12 games (8 chapters) in one night over 3 hours! They won most games pretty handily, but it kept getting harder and harder! By game 8, they had to replay it 3 times! Game 8 features Tom Bombadil pretty prominently, and the joke was that game 8 was just as annoying as Tom Bombadil!

The major differences between the solo and 4-Player cooperative game:
1) The solo player sees all hands, but only a limited number of cards
2) The cooperative player sees all cards in their hand, but only can see their hand

The Limited Communication rules are VERY Clear from the rulebook: you pretty much can’t talk about anything except public information, such as player’s winning conditions and special rules. Anything in your hand can’t be discussed AT ALL!

After playing through 8 Chapters, my friends basically said they liked this better than The Crew and it was more thematic! They liked the art, the cards, the character win goals.

The Crew: 0; Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 2 (theme, art)

I like to point out that the Crew has the “very limited communication” with the communication tokens. I actually prefer that part of the Crew: I don’t love that there is NO communication really in this game (but see below). Recall, in the Crew, every player “can communicate” once at a critical juncture with “highest card” or “lowest card” or “only card. There is no such mechanism in Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: the rules for limited communication are pretty brutal.

The Crew: 1 (has some critical communication); Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 2

One Ring To House Rule Them All

Let me tell you what happened in the 4-Player cooperative game: when choosing characters to play, my friends ended up talking a little about which characters to choose. “Oh, I should probably be Pippin, my hand sucks.” “Ya, I can be Tom Bombadil I guess”. Here’s the thing: the rules are VERY CLEAR that they can’t do that!

I read the rulebook aloud to my friends: this explicitly say they can’t do this …
“During setup, players should not discuss character preferences, as this may reveal information”

My friends hated this rule! This is the one and only chance to really communicate on the game, and they felt like it made the game more fun! “Give us SOME choice! This is a house rule for us!”

I didn’t mention this, but I ended just watching and shepherding my friends through 8 chapters (I was the fifth wheel and didn’t play). And watching my friends “discuss” which characters to play seemed to engage them and made them talk! They REALLY had fun picking characters! I think it also gave them more “skin” in the game, as they weren’t just “saddled” with a character, they had a choice in the pick!

It’s very explicit in the rules that players can’t reveal any intent on characters, but I think that’s a mistake. I think the game is more engaging and more fun if players have some choice there! Honestly, this helps combat the problem I have with this game: there’s no “special communication” allowed (like The Crew!). Watching the game, it was VERY clear that allowing the players to help choose their characters was more fun, so we made it a house rule:
“Players can communicate preferences for choosing characters, but just can’t reveal what’s in their hands”.

With the house rule:
The Crew: 1; Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 3 (house rule)
Without the house rule:
The Crew: 1; Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 2 (no house rule)

The Campaign

The Campaign is … just the game getting harder and harder. The campaign follows the story in the book really well; one of my players is a big Lord of the Rings fan, and they noted how well the Chapters followed the book. But, at the end of the day, each game is pretty much independent of the previous game. There is no “levelling-up”, there are no major penalties for losing—each game just gets “harder”. Certain characters are “revealed” as you play, but generally the campaign is just harder and harder games. It’s a linear campaign.

If you were looking for a more operatic campaign with levelling-up, branching narrative, satisfying punishments, debilitating punishments, and state changing, this isn’t the game for you. But, if you want a bunch of games in a row that nominally follow the plot of the book The Fellowship of the Ring (without too much maintenance in between), this is a good game for you.

What Do You Do When The Campaign Is Over?

There are rules for playing the game after you finish the campaign: see rulebook above. Honestly, I would just rather play the campaign again; the campaign is easy to reset, and setting up games “post campaign” looks messy.

What I Liked

The art: This stained-glass art for the characters was very thematic and very appealing. The art on the Mountains, Rings, Shadows, etc. suits was also very thematic. The art and theme is much more appealing in this game than the Crew:
The Crew: 1; Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 4(with house rule and art)

The Characters: The character art and win conditions were all very interesting. One of my players pointed out they liked that the win Conditions changed every time, but they followed the characters! The Crew is a little different in that the win conditions just a condition. I think it’s a win for the Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game that there are characters. Having characters makes the game a little more engaging! For my group at least.

The Crew: 1; Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game: 5(with house rule and art and characters)

Solo mode: The solo mode is good. It’s easy to get into, and it’s easy to start/stop it at any time. We’ve already noted that the Crew does NOT have a solo mode, whereas this does.

What I Didn’t Like

Communications too limited: I think the Crew has the major advantage by giving players “chances” to do communication at critical times: There is no such mechanism in this game. I don’t want to undersell this point: this is one of the major reasons I adore the Crew! The whole idea of communicating a critical piece of information at JUST THE RIGHT TIME is such an engaging and interesting mechanism in the Crew. There is nothing like that here.

I will say that the House Rule we proposed (allow characters to more interactively choose characters) goes a long way towards alleviating this issue.

So much shuffling! Just be aware how much shuffling there is … you may want to sleeve your cards. Since each game is only 20 minutes, these cards get touched and shuffled a lot. I currently don’t have my cards sleeved, but maybe I should.

Conclusion

The Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game is a fantastic game that I think people will adore. I watched as my group just jumped in and played 3 hours, and they had a ball! I watched as I played solo over the entire campaign, and I had a ball!

The best description I have of this game is The Crew meets Lord of the Rings! It’s a very thematic co-op, at least moreso than The Crew. My friends all preferred this over the Crew … but only if they had the House Rule that they could talk more about character selection. Watching them play cooperatively, I would strongly recommend this House Rule: it really seemed to make the game more engaging for my friends!

The solo game was very engaging and I would play it again.

This is a very easy game to jump into, either cooperatively or solo, and it’s easy to play (with lots of fun decisions). I personally prefer The Crew over this (because of the critical communication rule), but my friends all preferred this game. If I want to play solo, I can’t play The Crew, but I can play this.

Great game. I will keep both The Crew and Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking game in my collection, but it appears my friends all prefer Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking game.

You might want to sleeve your game if you pick it up. My cards have started getting a little grody.

Top 10 Solo Board and Card Games of 2024

What makes a good solo game? I find them when I typically start playing solo games to learn that game cooperatively for my friends. If a game starts to enchant me and I can’t stop playing it solo … there’s something to it! All the games on this list were games I played solo to teach my friends … but then I kept playing! Some of these games will end up on either my Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2024, some but of them will end up on my Top Cooperative Expansions of 2024, but one things for sure … they are all great solo!

For more great solo games, see last year’s list: Top 10 Solo Board and Card Games of 2023!

Honorable Mention: Solo Project PEGASUS Campaign for Marvel United

After getting Marvel United Multiverse Season 3 with all of its content, I was very taken with the Campaign Decks (see below and see review here), but I was saddened to learn there was no campaign for the Project PEGASUS saga (see above)!

So I spent many many weeks developing my own campaign using all of the Marvel United content! This is a print-and-play campaign for Marvel United! I played this campaign solo over and over and over again (multi-handed with 2, 3, and 4 characters) as I playtested all the the different combinations of characters! There is no game I played more solo this year than the Marvel United: Project PEGASUS campaign!

It’s awkward to put this on our list since I developed it, but I had so much fun playtesting it solo over and over for weeks and weeks, I had to acknowledge how much time and how much fun I had with this! If you liked the Marvel United Campaign Decks and wanted more, check out the free Project PEGASUS Campaign here!

10. Skytear Horde: Monoliths

Now, Skytear Horde: Monoliths is a standalone expansion in the Skytear Horde universe! This is a great little solo and cooperative tower defense game! But you might ask: “Why isn’t this on the Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2024 instead of this solo list?” That’s a very good question! It’s because, although this is a really good expansion with great components and cards, the game really works best as a solo game.

We tried it cooperatively (see our review here), and it was just okay. It’s significantly better as a solo game! It feels like most of the balance and playtesting was done as a solo game, so it can’t really go on our Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2024 list … because it really is best as a solo game.

It’s got some great components and some really great art! Take a look at our review here to see if this is something you might like!

9. Batman: Gotham City Chronicles + Solo/Cooperative Expansion

So, you can’t play Batman: Gotham City Chronicles solo without both the base game (which came out years ago) and the Solo/Cooperative Expansion (which came out this year)! In order to get to the cooperative game, I had to wade through learning the original base one vs. many game, then learn the solo game, to finally learn the cooperative game! Whew!

Now the cover of the Solo/Cooperative Expansion looks great! See above!

But there were some major production issues with the expansions as: 1) The English translation still had some scenarios in French! And 2) The binding on the solo/cooperative rulebook is terrible! It’s impossible to hold open! See above as I came up with a kludgy workaround for that! Objectively, I feel like I had to give this game a 5.5/10 since the production had issues!

Yet, even after all those issues (and the sheer complexity of the game), I still enjoyed being Batman in this solo romp around Gotham City! Subjectively, I gave it a 7/10 because I felt like I was Batman! Because of the production issues, this has to fall close to the bottom of the solo list, but I still enjoyed this overall! See our review of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Solo/Cooperative Mode to see if this might be something you enjoy!

8. NYC: Emergency Room

This might strike you as an odd pick: A Medical Mystery game! I picked this up at Target and really enjoyed playing through the mysteries of the game! Instead of solving a boring old murder mystery (sarcasm here: I loved my murder mysteries), you are doing research, asking questions, running tests, and trying correctly to diagnose a patient!

There’s only a limited number of mysteries per box (see the envelopes above), but if you ever wanted to play a medical mystery and diagnose like Gregory House, this is the game for you!

I love my murder mysteries (remember: Suspects made the #1 spot on my Top 10 Solo Games of 2023), and this was a great spin on that genre! See our review here to see if it’s something you may like!

7. Everdell: Duo

I wasn’t expecting to like Everdell: Duo as much as a I did! My first playthroughs were a bit “clunky”, as the game has some fiddly bits and documentation issues you have to get through. But once you “get” how the game works, it’s quite fun! (I also never played the original Everdell)

To play solo, you have to man both the tortoise and the hare as they build their respective cities! See above! There’s a lot of thought about when you share, when you place workers, when you buy, and when you draw cards! You are looking for the combos to help both the tortoise and the hare! It might “seem” like both the hare and tortoise are playing multiplayer solitaire games, but as the game opens up to you, there’s more collaboration between the two than you might think!

That delicious (solo) collaboration plus the beautiful components and the cute vibe of the game put this on my solo list! I am just as surprised as you are that this made my solo list! My only concern (which is why it’s at #7) is that can be at the whim of the card draws, but most of the time there are so many ways to pivot around that! See our review here to see if this might be something you like!

6. Rise of the Unfolders: Tidal Blades 2

I didn’t know a lot about the original Tidal Blades when I backed this, but Tidal Blades 2 looked like a fun little cooperative dungeon crawler. Holy Cow! I was blown away about how good the gameplay were and how great the components were!

As silly as it sounds, they did such a great correlating the colors, giving bases for the monsters, and generally making the cards very readable!

But the coup de grace was the card system where you could choose a card, a row or a column, activating everything there! This was such a unique and different combat system, it really made this game stand out. The game is better with more people, but I had such fun playing through (most) of the campaign solo!

See our review of Rise of the Unfolders: Tidal Blades 2 to see if this game might be of interest to you!

5. Robinson Crusoe: Collector’s Edition (primer)

This is an odd duck of an entry; the Collector’s Edition of Robinson Crusoe arrived this years (3 years late, which made a lot of people angry) and had some amazing minis and components … for a worker placement game that probably doesn’t need them!

See above for one of the Sundrop worker placement tokens!! Did I really need this? Nah! But did I love it? Ya!

In the end, the reason this made the list (besides how stupidly nice it looks) was because of the Introductory Campaign Scenario Book! I love Robinson Crusoe, but I hadn’t played it in 5 years! The Introductory Campaign gave me an excuse to enjoy a nice 5-Game campaign in the world of Robinson Crusoe! Over about a month, I’d play a scenario on a weekend and just have a good old time in this world. Good times! It reminded why I like Robinson Crusoe so much!

Check out our review of the Collector’s Edition of Robinson Crusoe to see if this might be something you might like!

4. Marvel United: Campaign Deck. Dark Phoenix Saga

The Campaign Decks (see above) came with Season 3 of Marvel United: Multiverse. These decks takes all your Marvel United content (and I mean ALL of it) and gives you some “stories” or campaigns to run through.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is a campaign centered on the X-Men from issues #131-137 back in the Byrne/Austin/Claremont days. This campaign takes you through a story, lasting 5 battles (or more) as the X-Men fight the Hellfire club, others, and (spoiler!) deal with Jean Grey turning into Dark Phoenix.

This was a heart-breaking, soul-wrenching campaign as I played through one of my favorite Marvel X-Men stories! I can’t share too much, but it was a great solo experience over a number of days.

xmen132
See our review of the Campaign Decks to see if this might be something you might like! Some spoilers included, but they should be well marked!

3. Aeon’s End: The Descent

This one was a late comer and almost didn’t make our list! It came in late late November, just before Thanksgiving! I ended up playing cooperatively with my friends and had a grand old time, but the solo experience was truly phenomenal!

First of all, Aeon’s End: The Descent has true solo play (which makes it a lot easier to jump into)! And all the new Mages and ideas it adds to the system were … surprisingly fresh! Even after 8 years, this standalone expansion breathed new life into the Aeon’s End system!

But, at the end of the day, it was the new module called Friends and Foes that made this stand out so much! This new module adds new ways of winning and losing with some interesting ideas, but what it does best for me was mitigate the problems with Variable Turn Order!

Playing through the four Chapters of this narrative campaign was a thrill! The story was pretty good (once you got into it), and the new ideas generated throughout were fantastic. I played a different mage in every chapter and just had a ball figuring out how to play each new mage! Sure, you can play this campaign with many people, but I really enjoyed unravelling this story as a solo play. See our review here of Aeon’s End: The Descent to see if this might be something you enjoy!

2. Sammu-Ramat

Any other year, this probably would have been my #1 game of the year! I went back and forth a number of times, so this could easily be my #1! Sammu-Ramat is basically a cooperative euro-puzzle game; it immerses the players into Queen Sammu-ramat’s rule of Assyria in 9th century BC, as guided by her advisors.

It’s kind of a war game, as you fend off invaders, but it’s also a euro game gathering-resources games, but it’s also a logistics puzzle as you try to balance keeping the kingdom defended and fed!

You can play either a one-shot (which is a great way to jump in), but it really shines as a 5-game campaign where you leave the game state as set-up for the next game! This game was such a great surprise! I adored playing it solo, especially through a campaign (although it needs a little house-ruling). I really wish it could have made my #1 spot because it was so good. See out review of Sammu-Ramat here to see if this is something you might like!

1. Set A Watch: Doomed Run

This game has no right to be the #1 spot; this is a giant campaign game in the Set A Watch Universe. First of all, of the Full 7 Game Campaign games I played, I ended up playing two of them cooperatively! So, that means I only played 5 of the games solo!

And to play the campaign, you must have ALL The Set A Watch Content! And I mean all!! (Including the Outriders deck)! This means: Set A Watch, Set A Watch: Swords of the Coins, and Set A Watch: Forsaken Isles!!! See how it takes up one half of my table just to separate the different games above?

And Set A Watch also has the solo problem that “you must play 4 characters”, so that’s not ideal either: see above as I try to operate 4 characters!

Despite all that, this game spent 11 days taking over my table, and I had a ball playing through it mostly solo! Once you know Set A Watch, especially solo, it’s such a fun game! I know, this really has no right even being my favorite solo game of 2024, but I had so much fun playing it (mostly) solo, it has to be #1. See our review here to see if Set A Watch: Doomed Run might be something you enjoy!

A place to talk about cooperative board and card games!

Unboxing

Rulebook

Gameplay

Solo Play

Cooperative

Urgency

Kind of a Big Mess

Portals

Save Game

Too Many Rules?

Reactions

Conclusion

Solo Experience

Cooperative Experience

House Rule/Hack (Get it? Hack? In a game about Hacking?)

Conclusion

Appendix: Binding

10. Max

9. Endangered

8. Magical Kitties Save The Day!

7. Cat Crimes

6. Space Cats Fight Fascism

5. Cat Rescue

4. Run Run Run!

3. Nekojima

2. Hissy Fit!

1. Race To The Raft

Day 1: The Game Arrives and Santorini Gets Played!

Day 2: Unboxing and First Games of Riddle of the Sphinx

Day 2: Campaign and More Play

Cooperative Play

Curse and Blessing

Occupied/Unoccupied

Things to Watch Out For

Conclusion

Unboxing

Rulebook

Gameplay

Combat

Death

Choices Matter

Emotional

Binding

Conclusion

Day 1: Unboxings and First Plays

Day 1: The Figurines Unboxing

Day 1: Acrylics and Sleevening

Day 1: First Play

Day 1: Missions Unboxing

Day 1: The rulebook

Day 1: Set-up for Solo play

Day 1: Side One of the Mission

Day 2: More Missions

Day 3: Cooperative Play

Solo Play

Cooperative Mode

Reactions

Conclusion

Sam’s Perspective

10. Word Traveller

9. Landmarks

8. Adventure Party

7. Message From The Stars

6. Expressions

5. Da Da Da

4. Link City

3. Spotlight

2. Wilmot’s Warehouse

1. That Escalated Quickly

Unboxing

The Rulebook

Storybook

Punchouts

Status Cards

Quests

Destiny

The Map and Encounters

Solo Play

Cooperative Mode