That advice from a stranger at Gen Con about solo games? Totally wrong.

I ran into this guy at the BGG booth last year during Gen Con. He told me that Mage Knight was the only solo game worth buying, that everything else was just filler. So I dropped $80 on Mage Knight, spent 4 hours learning the rules, and honestly hated every minute of it. Way too complex for what I wanted. Then I picked up a used copy of Spirit Island for $40 on a whim and it is now my go-to solo game. Has anyone else been steered wrong by a random person at a convention?

3 comments

3 Comments

lunawilson1mo ago

Oh man, "Mage Knight was the only solo game worth buying" - that made me laugh. My buddy Dan heard the same thing from some guy at PAX Unplugged. Spent all his cash on Mage Knight, lugged it home, and he said setting it up felt like doing taxes. He was so mad he almost quit solo gaming entirely. Then another random person at a local game store suggested he try One Deck Dungeon for cheap. Dan now owns three expansions and plays it more than any other game he owns.

anthonykim1mo ago

I picked up Tiny Epic Galaxies for $20 and it still hits my table weekly.

elliotw371mo ago

I still side-eye that advice about Spirit Island being a gateway solo game too. It's great once you get it, but the first few plays feel like trying to solve a rubik's cube blindfolded. That guy at Gen Con probably meant Mage Knight was the only heavy Euro that works solo, but saying it's the only solo game worth buying is just bad advice. I had a similar experience where someone told me to avoid anything published by a certain company because their components are always bad, then I grabbed a used copy of a game they made for $15 and it's one of my favorites. Conventions are full of loud opinions that sound confident but miss the whole point.