Emily Parker

A player aid is a quick-reference card or sheet that summarizes key rules, turn structure, and iconography so players can answer their own questions without digging through the full rulebook. If you want to know how to make player aids that cut down on rules questions, the process comes down to six steps: read the … Read more

Teaching a legacy or campaign game’s first session means guiding new players through the rules, theme, and evolving mechanics of a game that changes permanently across multiple plays, all while keeping spoilers hidden and excitement high. I have run more than two dozen legacy and campaign first sessions over the past three years, including Pandemic … Read more

I spent years thinking board games meant rounding up four friends, coordinating schedules, and blocking out an entire evening. Then I tried playing one of my favorite games alone on a quiet Sunday afternoon, and something clicked. Solo board gaming was not a consolation prize for when nobody showed up. It was an entirely different … Read more

If you have ever sat down with a board game designed for four players, opened the solo mode, and felt like you were doing taxes instead of playing a game, you are not alone. Running an automa or bot opponent should add tension and excitement to your solo sessions, not turn you into a full-time … Read more

If you’ve been running solo board game sessions for any length of time, you’ve probably hit that strange wall: the wall where a game you once adored starts to feel like a chore. You know every card. You see the winning move three turns out. Your setup takes five minutes because your hands already know … Read more

Setting up a permanent solo gaming space means designating a surface, storage system, and seating arrangement where your games stay in place between sessions without teardown. The right combination of a dedicated table, nearby shelving, protective covers, and proper lighting lets you walk away mid-game and pick up exactly where you left off hours or … Read more

If you’ve ever lost a deckbuilder run and quietly reshuffled your hand to “try again,” you’re not alone. Across Reddit threads, BoardGameGeek forums, and Quora discussions, players keep asking the same thing: how to avoid cheating yourself in hidden-information solo games without losing the joy of playing. The honesty problem is real, and the fix … Read more

If you’ve ever played a cooperative board game and watched one player turn it into a solo puzzle, you’ve met the quarterback. Quarterbacking (also called alpha gaming) is when one player in a cooperative game takes over every decision, telling everyone else where to move, what to play, and how to win. The rest of … Read more

When we sit down to play a cooperative game, we want a shared story where everyone matters. Instead, we often watch one player mentally solve the puzzle and quietly tell the rest of the table what to do. By the time the round ends, nobody remembers who played what card, just whose voice carried the … Read more

If you’ve ever sat at a co-op game night feeling like a spectator rather than a player, you already know the frustration of an alpha gamer. One person takes over every decision, dictates everyone’s moves, and turns a cooperative experience into a solo puzzle with an audience. By the end of the night, half the … Read more