The Ultimate Adventure: Why Solo Board Gaming Reigns Supreme

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In June, I acquired a board game from a Buy Nothing group at the Slate office, storing it on my shelf until I had sufficient company to enjoy it. Actually, “sufficient” company isn’t entirely accurate—I required the appropriate group, one willing to spend a couple of hours with me playing detective. The game—Body on the Boardwalk from Hunt a Killer—presents an array of suspect profiles, witness testimonies, and convincingly realistic evidence (napkins covered in coded messages, printouts of a business’s financial statements, newspaper clippings, etc.), challenging players to construct a timeline of events leading to the victim’s murder to determine which of the presented suspects had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.

It appeared to be the perfect game for a group; certainly, there would be passionate discussions and knowing “oooooohs” when significant pieces of evidence were revealed. However, about a month ago, I found myself home alone with a bottle of wine, a vision, and a few extra hours before heading to bed. I simply couldn’t face more television, I was too weary to delve into a book, and I felt compelled to do something with my hands. I had been holding onto this game for nearly six months! It was time: I wanted to uncover a murder mystery. Alone, without having to painstakingly deliberate with relatives or clarify the notion of alibis to a teenager.

Thus, I spread the evidence across my floor, retrieved my laptop, constructed a timeline, and solved the mystery. Someone notify the media: I played my first board game entirely on my own—and I enjoyed it! It was a combination of enjoyable, soothing, and demanding—and, in one word, peculiar. After all, I had always been taught that board games are meant for camaraderie, for connecting with friends and family, for enjoying time with, you know, other individuals. Was my solo pleasure in this collaborative activity some immoral act of indulgence?

In search of redemption, I turned to the platform where all the oddballs of the world connect with others of similar interests: Reddit. As it turns out, there is indeed a term for engaging in board games without the presence of others, albeit rather unoriginal: solo board gaming. I discovered a dedicated subreddit for this practice, r/soloboardgaming, filled with individualists who regard player-count guidelines as mere recommendations. There, I learned that one can borrow board games from their local library; that solo gamers enjoy titles like Spirit Island, Wingspan, and Mage Knight; that there are games ingeniously designed to be played directly on the rulebook or the box cover; and that the audience asking for solitary game suggestions varies widely, from dedicated fathers to grandparents seeking recommendations for their only-child grandchildren. Most importantly, I discovered that the community advocates the belief that if one is determined, almost any game can be enjoyed solo.

In an older discussion asking the subreddit about the feelings of loneliness while playing solo, the top response captured the essential anxiety associated with solo board gaming: “When I first began playing alone, I didn’t feel lonely. But I did feel embarrassed.” How many Reddit users shared tales of colleagues perceiving them as strange for playing solo? I, too, questioned whether my solitary accomplishments were not somewhat pitiful. When I raised this issue with the moderator of the subreddit, gamer and content creator Wakasm, he recalled his initial solo board gaming livestreams: “Ninety percent of the comments were frequently, ‘Why are you playing alone?’ or ‘I don’t comprehend it.’” To this day, he mentioned, “There are still threads questioning, ‘Why engage in a board game solo when a video game could be played instead?’ or suggesting that without an interactive element, there is little worth in playing alone.”

There are numerous socially acceptable justifications for why someone might choose to become “a soloist,” as Wakasm termed it. For example, he began solo board gaming out of necessity as the individual responsible for clarifying a new game’s regulations during game nights and later as a quiet activity while his infant son napped, and more often when his mother, who lived in a rural area with unreliable internet service, became ill and he sought something to do quietly alongside her while she watched television. Such situations are not uncommon. Scanning the subreddit, you’ll find many new parents expressing similar feelings; and naturally, there are only children, those living alone in various conditions of seclusion, or even those with numerous friends but none interested in playing board games.

Nevertheless, almost every gamer became a soloist to some degree in 2020 when the COVID lockdown confined everyone to their homes. Andy Matthews, the founder of the long-established board game media outlet Meeple Mountain, identified this period as a pivotal moment that transformed the perception of board gaming: “As puzzle and board game consumption increased, so did the solo gaming movement.” Presently, the market for solo gaming is seemingly flourishing. Evan Derrick, the creative director at Van Ryder Games and co-designer ofFinal Girl, an acclaimed board game designed for individual play, attributes some of that transition to his own game. Derrick noted that the inception of solo gaming was primarily focused on puzzle-centric games or surpassing personal scores; however, there is now a plethora of diverse solo board games emerging. Derrick and Matthews both highlighted the rising interest in multiplayer games that also incorporate a solo variant. Certain game creators are even explicitly engaged to “infuse a solo element into a game currently under development,” according to Matthews. Nonetheless, there exist solo players who opt to experiment with strict multiplayer games, such as Monopoly, which mandate at least two participants, due to the gameplay necessitating interaction, whether to exchange resources or to establish alliances. This contrasts with cooperative games, where, albeit seldom exercised, the game guidelines concede that it could be played by a single individual in its standard state. Solo players accomplish this through “multi-handing,” which means, as Derrick elucidated, individuals “essentially set up six distinguishable players or however many the player count is,” and they go on as if “Now I’m player one, now I’m player two, now I’m player three.”

Nonetheless, one may ponder, why would anyone wish to engage in a board game solo? Why do I cherish the notion of isolating myself from the outside world with an activity intended to invite the world in? Wakasm enumerated some typical motives for solo gaming he’s come across on the r/soloboardgaming subreddit: antisocial behaviors, relishing the ritual experience of arranging games and dismantling them, along with aspiring game designers performing market analyses, to name a few. Both Wakasm and Derrick also referred to a mounting societal yearning to escape the overwhelming influence of digital media. Derrick likened it to the distinction between having an infinite digital music collection at your disposal versus listening to vinyl: “Solo board games present individuals the choice of unwinding or participating in a game, in something enjoyable, but with the added advantage of it being tactile.”

During the holiday season, a time filled with numerous game-night invites, I came to the realization that playing a game without additional players alleviated a slight level of anxiety for me. In my younger days, I relished game nights. However, now that I’m older and more self-conscious, I often worry about seeming foolish by answering a simple question incorrectly—or, even worse, disappointing my team with a poor performance. Intellectually, I comprehend that it shouldn’t be a major issue, yet I discovered solving that murder by myself to be significantly more calming than, for instance, attempting to get my friends to identify a word in Taboo.

Indeed, I recognize that I am overanalyzing this. After all, individuals have been engaging in games solo for ages, as Wakasm reminded me: “Our grandparents enjoyed solitaire. If you’ve participated in Wordle or Sudoku, then you’ve tapped into what a board game played alone could offer.” Regardless, I continued searching for a deeper significance regarding what it implies about a person, if anything, when opting to play a multiplayer game alone. Thirteen years back, a Reddit user inquired: “I once played Monopoly by myself; what’s the most forever alone action you have undertaken?” While others responded with the anticipated funny remarks—“I had sex with myself once,” someone replied—others shared that they played entire games of Risk or Magic the Gathering. Is there genuinely something so pitiful—”forever alone” manner—about indulging in such multiplayer games solo, devoid of the interactions (or disagreements) that such games typically necessitate? To the solo board gamer, the response is no—one might assert that participating in this manner could render the game even more demanding and, therefore, enjoyable. In fact, it could even be seen as the preferable method of playing. As a designer, Derrick highlights that the primary distinction between engaging in a game solo and competing with others is that “in a multiplayer game, other human players generate much of the tension among participants, which can obscure design flaws or any issues. It’s a variable that you cannot entirely prepare for.” This differs from a solo game, in which “there’s little to conceal behind.”

You got that right: Enjoying one’s own company through multi-handing does not signify teetering on the edge of chronic loneliness. Instead, it might even be the most authentic form of gaming. Is that not, from Derrick’s expressions to God’s own ears, evidence that all of us supposedly forever alone individuals are on the right path?

Look, people can be kind and entertaining and wonderful! I adore them most of the time! They can also be immensely draining, frustrating, and overwhelming. Some board games unite individuals, while other instances of Monopoly have created such divisions in families that the game becomes a boundary some cousins won’t cross together. There’s space for both playing styles, but I’ve seen the light: I’m a solo board gaming advocate. Want to truly challenge yourself? The next time someone invites you to a game night, tell them you’re already occupied with something else. Then go home, retrieve your favorite board game, and host your own gathering, no additional players required.

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