I have a bad habit of feeling too tired to do anything, but too bored to keep watching mindless entertainment. #solotober2023 legitimately helped me to realize how energizing these solo games can be, and it got me to take another whack at Final Girl: Panic at Station 2891. This time, my partner (who was the one who purchased Final Girl in the first place but still hasn't played it) kept me company.

I did a lot better this time, both by luck and by strategy. I made an effort to find some weapons and test kits early, then started my testing. Only one of the three Exposed Victims ended up being a Mutated Organism, and I managed to kill it! Only for it to have the +3 final health token. The game ended when it got two attacks off on me in one round when I flubbed a Guard roll. It had a single health left. Sigh.

I know that this is a luck fest and it's a pain to set up, but I'm a sucker for good theme and this nails it so hard. I need to play this more often (and go back to the Alien one - I got really lucky the last time I played it and I want to see what it's like when that doesn't happen).

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And that's it! #solotober2023 is done! Considering I didn't even know it existed on Oct 1, I feel pretty good about completing it. The period around my birthday and #GameHoleCon are going to be a struggle every year, but I'm fine with making sure I have the numbers even if I don't play every day.

Next year, I'd like to focus more on playing my heavier games on more days. There's a lot of lighter fare on this last (some from travel, some from time or energy), and I'd rather sink time into meatier games when I have the time and energy than "cheap out" with a bunch of e.g. Button Shy games. Maybe I'll consolidate those smaller ones into aggregated play sessions so I still get them to the table, but still hold myself accountable to play more stuff in general.

Altogether, I'd say this whole thing was great. It got me playing more solo games, clearing out some of my unplayed list, and thinking about what I like about solo games on the whole. It also got me buying more games which probably isn't great, but I enjoyed them! 😂

For the next month, I think I'll be focusing on two-player games. I won't be committed to playing 30 in November necessarily, but I'll do my best for sure! Off the top of my head, I'm looking forward to General Orders: World War II, Sea Salt & Paper, Sky Team, Air, Land, and Sea, Radlands, Watergate, and 7 Wonders Duel. And that's just the two-player specific stuff I can think of! There's plenty more. I already can't wait 🤩

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To close out #solotober2023, I played Final Girl: Panic at Station 2891. A fitting outcome for Halloween, too: alone in the cold, dark research station, surrounded by alien monsters, unarmed, with no chance of rescue.

I definitely played this way too slow. Instead of getting survivors out, I should've been collecting items and testing the exposed victims. With the goal of killing all the Mutated Organisms, I didn't manage to deal a single point of damage to any of them. It also didn't help that I lost three victims to frostbite on turn 2.

This was a mess and I loved it. I still think that setup and teardown for this whole game system is cumbersome, and it's an enormous table hog, but for a thematic dice fest, it really can't be beat.

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What a day.

• An article about me published in the Seattle Times
• Last full day at my job
• ONT replacement for my fiber line
• Hours spent trying to get line speed in pfSense from some new hardware (unsuccessful)
• New dishwasher delivery taken back and rescheduled because the installers didn't realize the feet on the old one are adjustable
• Halloween treat distribution

Now I can finally play my last game for #solotober2023

Also I'm calling it now that my final play for #solotober2023 is going to be this, because it has to be.

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And for my quicker game to get me caught up for #solotober2023 , I finally broke out Skulls of Sedlec with the Monstrance expansion. I've had this for ages, and for whatever reason have put off trying it out until tonight. Well, okay, I'm playing it tonight because it's after midnight, finally making this Halloween 🎃 But there's no reason for me to have out it off for the many months leading up to October!

I really enjoyed this. The feature being a different shape than the stack, the additional choices that provides in terms of placement, the extra challenge from the scoring condition, all of it makes for a nice light puzzle. I'm kicking myself now for now picking up any of the other expansions - hopefully there will be a reprint sometime soon.

I managed 61 points, just enough to get me into the Humble Monk scoring category.

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I spent my evening playing an excellent solo game of John Company Second Edition for #solotober2023. I played using the 1710 scenario at Normal difficulty. I spent the first half of the game trying to get military control of India, only to have my first controlled region immediately lost (which is now the second time this has happened to me). The Events in India deck led to the northern half of the country being secured as an enormous empire, and by mid game, almost all of the contracts were closed. The AI, seeing the lack of control, decided to cut and run and start the company's downfall by cutting off cash flow. I made a last ditch effort to eke some personal funds through trade, but a botched roll meant that both I and the company were all but bankrupt.

On the second to last turn, the famine relief card came up. I had £2 to the Crown's £4 and I thought I could starve it out, but all that ended up happening was me losing all of my funds and my shipyards. The AI can pull from company funds (and trigger more emergency loans in doing so) to pay for taxes and upkeep. Ugh. The end result of this was me losing all of my prizes (and thus, all of my VP) as the company took slightly longer to fail than would've been helpful.

I won the power contest and got some points as a result, but not fast enough. I should have worked harder to actively tank the company sooner (really, as soon as the Crown had seven shares). Lesson for next time I suppose.

One of these days I need to try out the longer game. I haven't played with deregulation yet, and I'm curious to see how that changes the dynamic.

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