Looking for solo & 2-player tabletop recommendations

2p - Look at Qwirkle. It's superficially similar to scrabble but based on sequences of shapes and colors, so vocabulary is eliminated as a factor. I had a similar experience of winning scrabble almost every game, but Qwirkle is much more competitive.

Solo
Gloomhaven - Run Three characters yourself.
Terraforming Mars - There is a solo variant.

Two
Gloomhaven (2 PCs is fun - very different than 3 player solo)
Lost Cities (fast and easy)
7 Wonders Duel (I just wish the cards were bigger - great game)
Kingdomino (simple, great filler game)
Patchwork (great game - odd choice of flavor for it)

For number 1, I read or play a video game. I just can't get into solo board games. The closed I've come is with the D&D board games. I bought Temple of Elemental Evil. You can play that solo but it is very fiddly and much more fun with other players. Endangered Orphans of Clondyle Cove has a fun solo variant and is also one that your wife might enjoy as a two-player game.

For number 2, I have better suggestions as I'm in the same boat as you. I buy far too many games. My wife is not much of a gamer. She'll play games with the kids but the two of us rarely play a game with just the too of us. I find that card games generally are a better bet. That said, here are some good two-player games you can play with a "non-gamer" (i.e., someone that doesn't want the rules to come in the form of a small book). These are all games that I play with my wife and play with non-gamer family members:

1. Illimat. Kickstarted by the Decemberists and now sold from their Web site. My current favorite card game. Can be played with 2-4. Doesn't have a "geeky" feel and feels like a classic game but has some very interesting mechanics. Anyone who enjoys card games will like it and those who typically prefer board games will probably like it as well, be cause you play the cards on "board" of sorts.

2. Sushi Go. Easy to pick up but interesting choices and very replayable.

3. Ticket to Ride is a Euro Boardgame that many non-gamers like, but if it is too long or too complicated for your wife, check out the new small, cheap, and quick play version, Ticket to Ride: New York.

4. Kind of Tokyo. Great dice-battle game. Great for kids, but fun for adults as well. Maybe too cartoony and turn off some people.

6. Zombie Dice. Fun, fast, easy mechanics. *** Can also be played as a Solo game ***

7. Exploding Kittens, another fun card game that is great with two players

8. Bears vs. Babies. Fun, weird, but easy to learn and plays fast.

9. Endangered Orphans of Clondyle Cove, mentioned above, but worth mentioning again. Can be played solo, or with 2-4 players.

10. the Timeline Game (by Asmodee) series of cheap games that come in tin boxes are fun for people who like trivia games, but want a game that plays fast and is fun with as few as two players. They have many options. Everything from American pop culture, to general history, to inventions, animals, discoveries, etc. It isn't that replayable. After a few games you'll all know the order of things, but that also means you are memorizing history! And the games are cheap. Play a few times and give to someone else.

There are others but these come to mind without having to look up anything and these are all games that I've enjoyed with my "non-gamer" wife, parents, and sisters.

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The Shiverspouse recently committed to give me three game nights. Now while that's a license to bring ot some gamer games, I really would prefer to pick something up that she'll be more likely to be into.

I'm thinking cooperative, discrete (individual turns, not a shared turn -- avoid "Alpha gamer" syndrome), themed (but there has to be a tight connection between theme and mechanics ... no more Knezia LotR co-op fiascos), and light enough to avoid analysis paralysis.

Am currently comparing between D&D Adventure: Temple of Elemental Evil, Mice & Mystics, and Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle. Any thoughts about the three of them, or similar games?

(I could just break out Imperial Assault and run it co-op with the app, but I know it's too crunchy mechanically.)

Temple of Elemental Evil can take quite a bit of time to set up and put away. Not a great game if you plan to play several games on a game night. Best if you decide to play several scenarios from it to progress through the campaign. Not sure if Shiverspouse is up for making a longer-term commitment to a game.

Also, ToEE can be quite difficult, especially for those who do not commonly play tactical games. If you want a lighter game, you'll want to go on easy mode (e.g. make all healing surges available). Even then this is a game of attrition. If you take too much time or are too cautious, your party will be ground down. This can be very frustrating for some players.

I've opted for Forbidden Island initially. I'll give that a try and go from there.

I've played both Mice and Mystics and Hogwarts.  I think that although both of them are on the "easier to learn" end of the spectrum for new gamers, Hogwarts can be a lot meaner.  It really does a good job of letting you fall into really neat combos, and lets you feel really smart for wandering into them, but I've seen way too many unwinnable games due to the random bad guys you get at the start of the game.

Detective: A Modern Crime Game. It came out this year, and all you will need is access to the internet to go along with the game. Fine for 1 or 2 people.

KenNYC said:

It came out this year, and all you will need is access to the internet to go along with the game.

Click to expand...

That's an odd requirement for a boardgame.