I thought I would play more solo board games than I have been. What with the pandemic and all the time on my hands. But no, I can't recall the last time I pulled out one of my many, many games to play solo. Mostly that's a factor directly attributable to Ahsoka- I don't really sleep through the night anymore and I go to bed abominably early because of that.

Not every game is readily solo-able, but more and more these days it's something a new game needs to feature in order to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Beautiful art, quality components, innovative gameplay and, increasingly, an engaging solo mode. Beyond just playing a dummy player, although I don't mind doing that in some worker placement games where both "players" can sort of do their own thing, follow emergent strategies, just so I can see what will happen. It wasn't uncommon for me to play Euphoria or Rajas of the Ganges that way, even after a 12-hour shift at work:

Some games are strictly solo- including one I have called Nemo's War. I keep meaning to bust it out, but I find there's a sort of equation that comes into play:

Friction of setup > desire to play= no thanks, maybe tomorrow

This applies to multi-player games too, of course. But the friction is that much higher when it's just me. Things that help to decrease friction- fun factor is the biggest, but ease of setup is also high. Some gamers invest in Gametrayz which are custom trays made to facilitate setup. I see the appeal, even if I can't quite justify the cost. Pallas and I are both wild about Euphoria but our copy doesn't even have any kind of insert at all, everything is in little baggies, and sometimes that just makes me say "Not today, sorry." Not always though. 

I do like the free Print N Plays you can find, the top photo in this post is one of the better ones I've found so far- Utopia Engine. All you need is the printout, a pencil and some regular six-sided dice.