Players: Games with Solitaire Rules

Santa Maria

Santa Maria is a streamlined, medium complexity Eurogame in which each player establishes and develops a colony. The game features elements of dice drafting and strategic engine building. The game is low on luck and has no direct destructive player conflict; all components are language independent.

In the game, you expand your colony by placing polyominoes with buildings on your colony board. Dice (representing migrant workers) are used to activate buildings; each die activates a complete row or column of buildings in your colony. The buildings are activated in order (left to right / top to bottom), then the die is placed on the last activated building to block this space. It is therefore crucial where you put new buildings in your colony, and in which order you use the dice.

As the game progresses, you produce resources, form shipping routes, send out conquistadors, and improve your religious power to recruit monks. When you recruit a monk, you must decide if it becomes a scholar (providing a permanent special ability), a missionary (for an immediate bonus) or a bishop (for possible end game points). The player who has accumulated the most happiness after three rounds wins. The available specialists, end game bonuses and buildings vary from game to game, which makes for near endless replayability.

Endangered

The march of humankind’s progress threatens the survival of many species. It's up to you and your team to save them!

Work with your fellow conservationists to save tigers and sea otters from extinction. Influence the UN to save the animals and stop environmental destruction. If four UN ambassadors vote yes on the resolution then the players win. But until the vote takes place, players need to keep the destruction at bay, and keep the animals alive!

Each turn players will roll the dice they can allocate to action cards. After actions are taken, mating pairs will have a chance to procreate, and destruction tiles will enter the board, possibly killing already scarce animals.

Play as the Zoologist, Philanthropist, TV Wildlife Host, Lobbyist, or Environmental Lawyer, each with a special ability.

Time is short. Can the animals be saved while also influencing the Ambassadors' votes? Or will threatened animals be lost forever?

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale

Queen Gimnax has ordered the reclamation of the northern lands. As a cartographer in her service, you are sent to map this territory, claiming it for the Kingdom of Nalos. Through official edicts, the queen announces which lands she prizes most, and you will increase your reputation by meeting her demands. But you are not alone in this wilderness. The Dragul contest your claims with their outposts, so you must draw your lines carefully to reduce their influence. Reclaim the greatest share of the queen’s desired lands and you will be declared the greatest cartographer in the kingdom.

In Cartographers, players compete to earn the most reputation stars by the time four seasons have passed. Each season, players draw on their map sheets and earn reputation by carrying out the queen's edicts before the season is over. The player with the most reputation stars at the end of winter wins!

—description from the publisher

Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game

From Wizards of the Coast website:

A cooperative game of adventure for 1-5 players set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

A heavy shadow falls across the land, cast by a dark spire that belches smoke and oozes fiery lava. A cave mouth leads to a maze of tunnels and chambers, and deep within this monster-infested labyrinth lurks the most terrifying creature of all: a red dragon!

Designed for 1-5 players, this boardgame features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative game play.

Each player selects a hero; a rogue, thief, warrior, cleric, or wizard. On their turn, each player can explore further into the dungeon (turn over new tiles), move through the already explored parts of the dungeon, and fight monsters. When a new dungeon tile is revealed, there is typically an encounter of some sort, and new monsters to fight are added. Slain monsters reward the players with treasure, and experience points, allowing them to level up and increase their skills during play. Players must cooperate to stay alive, slay the monsters, and achieve the goal of their quest. Each scenario has a different goal - from retrieving a relic, to slaying a vampire lord.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game

A cooperative game of adventure for 1-5 players set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

It is named after the book series by the same name recounting the adventures of the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and his friends.

Designed for 1-5 players, this boardgame features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative game play. Players explore the game world, which is built during the game by laying out tiles, using ready-made player characters and encountering enemies with corresponding miniatures. Encounters are generated by drawing cards and resolved using a D20 die. All players win together, depending on the scenario, by escaping, saving others or overcoming a threat.