SoA Forums

As suggested elsewhere bit of a thread on solo play.

Personally I do sometimes have a run through of rules or test out a new system by myself.

I dont really value solo play, this may be because I have access to several chums in local area current situation not withstanding. I am also a massively poor sport and a terrible winner so not good to play with myself.

Why do others play and enjoy solo?

QuoteWhy do others play and enjoy solo?

They have no friends?  Joking aside, there is a question of access to other gamers for some people, so solo is enforced.  Its slightly more complicated for me - there is a club only a few miles from me but I fail to get up the enthusiasm to attend. 

There are various reasons for this, I suppose, but, to focus on strengths of solo gaming, in a home game, I can use my own rules and play them how I like.  I can play at a pace I like, too.  I have the advantage of a space which allows me to leave stuff out if I want to (at least sometimes - it doubles for other purposes occasssionally) and have sufficient toys, scenics etc.  I'm not desperately driven to play other periods but ancient and medieval, so I don't need the stimulus of club projects to develop other areas. 

it allows lots of tweaking or changing of rules as you go along without argument....mostly

My FTF gaming is (or was) entirely Euros, I play very few wargames against anyone other than me.

Part of the reason is like the others have said, I can tinker with rules, drop in and out, experiment, in a way that couldn't really be done with an opponent.

Another part is more amorphously I'm not very happy with any existing wargames as games, they are either over-complex or underspecified or both, so I don't find them satisfying for competitive play, and for me FTF play is always competitive, even though it's also perfectly friendly - I don't mean competitions, but some element of trying to win, mastering the game system and doing so better than my fellow players, rather than just messing about or 'playing' in a more restricted sense, which is better done solo.

you can get quite creative when playing solo games as well

Quote from: Holly on November 14, 2020, 12:04:58 AM
you can get quite creative when playing solo games as well

I think they demand a campaign

well if you have the space and a C in C who is willing to let things stay out a while.....

Quote from: Holly on November 14, 2020, 09:44:09 AM
well if you have the space and a C in C who is willing to let things stay out a while.....

I dont have the vast wargaming dungeon or palatial wargaming den built in the grounds but did feel very lucky to be given one of the small bedrooms to turn into my painting room.

Space for books, paints, wargaming detritus and can fit in a DBA table when needed.

"It is your room, you can do what you want with it"

Turns out that was code for. It will be decorated in an agreed manner, you need to keep an area free for taking pictures of fabric that she buys/ sells and uses to make pet beds to sell. The curtains will be made for you in a style and design specified as they can be seen from outside, I did rather fancy some action man curtains from my youth. Now of course as I am lucky enough to be able to work from home my desk also went in. Still at least I dont have to paint on the dining table anymore.

When that lottery win comes in she has been warned there will be a small residential area built in the grounds of the wargaming den.

sounds very familiar!

QuoteNow of course as I am lucky enough to be able to work from home my desk also went in.

The key is to point the webcam towards the tidy bit

I have the good fortune to have a painting space in a small bedroom but also space for the table (and finished armies) in the attic bedroom.

Returning to solo gaming, I think one of the challenges is lack of external stimulus - there isn't a push to finish figures for a game or project provided by others.  At the same time, there is almost the opposite in that when you are low on creativity, you can't just coast along, going down the club and joining in games.  But I think most solo players find their way through.  It differs.  I don't game for long periods when I lack the stimulus, then will plunge in when an idea appears.  Other solo gamers whose blogs I follow are playing games and campaigns weekly over years, as well as creating new units and terrain, tweaking rules and finding time to blog about it.

   

Quote from: Erpingham on November 14, 2020, 10:35:27 AM

QuoteNow of course as I am lucky enough to be able to work from home my desk also went in.

The key is to point the webcam towards the tidy bit

I have the good fortune to have a painting space in a small bedroom but also space for the table (and finished armies) in the attic bedroom.

Returning to solo gaming, I think one of the challenges is lack of external stimulus - there isn't a push to finish figures for a game or project provided by others.  At the same time, there is almost the opposite in that when you are low on creativity, you can't just coast along, going down the club and joining in games.  But I think most solo players find their way through.  It differs.  I don't game for long periods when I lack the stimulus, then will plunge in when an idea appears.  Other solo gamers whose blogs I follow are playing games and campaigns weekly over years, as well as creating new units and terrain, tweaking rules and finding time to blog about it.

if you use MS Teams, the option to have a fake background is very useful! 

as a solo gamer, I am very much driven by my own 'oompf' and as you say am not subject to stimuli from others etc. It means I am bungeeing in my uptake of wargaming activity.

Quote from: Erpingham on November 14, 2020, 10:35:27 AM

QuoteNow of course as I am lucky enough to be able to work from home my desk also went in.

The key is to point the webcam towards the tidy bit

I discovered that the real key is to play to your strengths. Only having a desk top machine which doesn't have an inbuilt camera, and poor broadband, I do all my zoom meetings with me represented as a blank area bearing the word Jim
I can see and hear them but they cannot see me.
In boring meetings on one case I fell asleep, in other meetings I've tidied the office 

Quoteif you use MS Teams, the option to have a fake background is very useful! 

Strange what people pick.  I was in a meeting this week and was about to remark on someone's kitchen when she admitted it was a background.  It wasn't a fancy designer job either.

One of our managers had as his fake background a picture of his own office...

Solo wargaming. What I miss is the banter and interaction. I also lack the motivation to do the bits I hate like flocking bases.

Quote from: Tim on November 14, 2020, 11:56:00 AM
One of our managers had as his fake background a picture of his own office...

Solo wargaming. What I miss is the banter and interaction. I also lack the motivation to do the bits I hate like flocking bases.

I am quite good at banter....ie chuntering to myself....