OneManThrag

One Man: Thrag!

Players 1
Length 20-30 mins
Equipment Required single standard piecepack
Designer Jim Doherty
Version 1.0
Version Date 2002-02-15
Licence The author grants permission to distribute this document if it is not modified or sold for profit.

Description

Slay all of the wizards' beasts and get Thrag home in time for breakfast.

Rules

Reviews & Comments

One of the RecommendedGames. (./) (./) (./)


Nice game, but luck is too important for my taste.

--KarlBartel


One Man Thrag was unexpectedly fun. When I first read the rules I thought it would be clumsily tied to the fantasy theme. In fact the mechanics are solid and it was a genuine challenge. It's very different from card based solitaires, as it has a very thematic feel and uses all the different components of the piecepack. If you like solitaire and have a piecepack you must try it.

--IainCheyne, from Inconsequential ruminations


I was impressed by this games use of, I think, every aspect of the Piecepack. The design is good and is the most fun of the four I tried. I won 2 out of 3 plays but all were pretty close with either little resources left to use or only one monster left to slay. I was left with only one question/suggestion. In the rules it seems to be clear the you can only use the coins against monsters of the same color but in the example the player was allowed to use a red coin against a green beast. Which is correct? I used the more restrictive version in the rules. Perhaps a clarification would be in order.

I suggest a version a little different from either that meets half way. If you defeat all monsters of a given color you may then use those coins either to help attack monsters of other colors. One variation might be to allow you to use as many of these coins as you like on any monster in addition to the one you get from its natural color. Another variation that I thought of is that you could have the option to add them to your health pool as needed. Thus if you were taking damage you could pull one of that color of coin and put it directly into your black pool thus possibly extending Thrag's life.

--KisaGriffin, https://ludism.org/piecepack/message/1678

This is covered in the rules (now; I'm not certain whether it was when the comment was written): If you slay all monsters of a color, you may use that color's coins against monsters of other colors, as if they were the monster's color.

I enjoy the game, though I haven't won yet. Except for my first game, in which I got killed on the second turn, it's been really close each time. I have been playing a couple of modifications, though:

-- Eric


"One Man Thrag has an interesting concept: it's a solitaire dungeon crawling game. That's cool, and it works well, too. The game is rather luck-heavy, so it might not be for everyone's tastes; I'm not completely sure how much I like it. Still, the theme works and it was fun to play, so I might actually try it again one day." (./)

-- Mikko Saari at Gameblog

Image credits

Original image by JamesVipond / CC BY-NC 3.0

Links

BGG page: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/35037


CategoryGame ThemeFantasyCategory SolitaireThemedGamesCategory GamesForChildrenCategory RecommendedGamesCategory