I'm wondering how many different types of mechanics there are out there to enable you to take a game that is mainly designed for 2 or more players and play it as a solitaire version.
One example is Elder Sign (Fantasy Flight games). It's cooperative - players have to complete adventures to earn a certain number of Elder Sign tokens before a "Doom Track" is filled. Players add tokens to the track as directed in the game. If it fills, there's a final battle showdown.
The game can be played solo - you just take a turn for each "character" so you're basically playing against the clock-like mechanic of the token moving along a track. Kind of like the barbarians in Settlers of Catan Cities and Knights.
I'm thinking I can do a similar track for my current project, but what other cool mechanics are out there for solo play? I don't want to rely on just one idea without at least considering other options, but I don't know what else is out there.
I assume that AI would be too difficult to simulate in a board game, thus the race against time mechanic above. Anything else out there?
Thanks Gabe, I was actually reading the Scythe solo rules on Tabletopia last night, which is what got me thinking about a solo rule set for my game.
I haven't finished the Scythe solo rules yet, but basically aren't you drawing cards that give you limited choices to use for the "opponent's" turns? It seems pretty involved, like you're basically playing two separate games at the same time.
I'm assuming it works well enough, as it seems well thought out, but isn't it kind of on the tedious side?
What about rules that basically sum up an average amount of progress for your invisible opponent, without you having to play through those "ghost" turns yourself?
Edit - looks like the link you posted isn't working