This is probably the most “opinion piece” type article that I will write on my site, as I usually pick games that I am not super into, but others are, just so I can have a more clear head when analysing the design of them. 

If you are unaware, Brendan Mills from Escape Plan Board Games is behind (currently) two published games, “Stop the Train!” and “Hit the Silk!”. Both games rely on player interaction, bluffing, deception, but most of all, they rely on themes. Both games are heavily thematic, and are essentially designed as if they were the climax of super intense action movies, as you may be able to gauge from the titles of both games respectively.

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This blog post will be much less about analysing game design or board game business than usual. Like my last "first-time" post about Scythe, this most fits the description of a time capsule more than anything. Still, with today's topic being my first time playing a solo game/mode, I think it could be interesting from a design perspective, and has also gotten me thinking about the pros and cons of solo modes in board games and how it can positively and negatively affect the market. Regardless, let's talk about the Red Rising solo mode. The only reason I cracked open the solo mode for Red Rising is the juxtaposed reason as to why I hadn't done it with any other game before, which because my partner Meg didn't want to play Red Rising with me. ​Meg is very much a theme first gamer, but even after playing Red Rising, she decided

I've only just played Catan!
It's the year 2021, and I just played Catan for the first time last Saturday. I know, shock, horror, I should bow out of the community right now. I am japing, of course, but what I will say is that my first session of Catan has been a long time coming. The only reason why I had a copy to play is that it was my birthday last Tuesday, and my brother (who is also a member of my weekly board game group) bought it for me for the occasion. My lack of want regarding making the purchase myself was due to Catan being a 3-4 player game. I play almost all of my games with my partner Meg, so to have a game with a minimum player count of 3 is usually a no-go, but as a member of the group bought it, I could count on us playing it at least once every few weeks, so I decided Catan is the game I wanted. 

Foreword
To preface this post with a bit of justification and clarity. I wanted to discuss the pros of ordering professionally made prototypes over making prototypes of your games for yourselves, with the rationale being that there is something to discuss: which means that we have to talk about the pros and cons of this course of action. Getting your prototypes professionally made costs money and can sometimes be very expensive, depending on the game. That's the main barrier to entry for most up and coming designers. Secondly, to shed some light on my experience, I will be talking about three of my games I have prototyped myself, or in fact, had prototyped by a manufacturer. Finally, to be doubly clear, these pros are regarding final prototypes, not your first, second, or tenth prototype. This prototype is the one you will take pictures of, show at conventions, and send to reviewers.

Why did it take me so long to play Scythe for the first time?
I've wanted to play Scythe for a long time now, so this blog post has been a long time coming. There are multiple reasons why I held out until now, namely:

1. The price.
2. The number of components.
3. The complexity.
4. The group of gaming friends I have (this is tied into points 2 and 3).​