Solo gamers: How do you stay motivated?

[sonicReducer]

Hello chaps.

This is a question for my fellow solo artists. How do you stay motivated, without a gaming buddy or group, to keep up with the hobby?

I found myself in a bit of a quandary at the moment. Limited budget and storage space, very little free time to actually get games in - only 2 free evenings a week and I'm usually busy with something or other. I've got some 15mm sci-fi for FiveCore skirmish, along with 6mm WW2 for Chain of Command / TW&T and some unfinished 10mm AWI for Sharp Practice. I love minis and games, I'd much rather be doing 28mm but real life is a real limiter unfortunately. I'm wondering if I should just pack it all in for a few years, until my kids are less likely to destroy anything I leave out overnight.

Thanks 

[Chris Abbey]

I've found three games that work really well in Solo mode. They all have in-built mechanics & scenarios for Solo play.
These are Mantic's The Walking Dead & Dungeon Saga and Pulp Alley. Pulp Alley has a special solo deck that works very well and reduces the predictability of your solo 'opponent'.
I posted a games report of solo game I'd played last week @ http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/epages/950003459.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950003459/Categories/Hobby_Pages/Hobby_Blog/Buffy_Alley_Episode_1_-_First_Patrol

I think you'd be able to have a good Pulp Alley game using your 15mm Sci-Fi

[DS615]

I understand the question.  I too have very limited time and money, and am a solo gamer.
I find that I'm spending much more time thinking/reading about gaming than I am doing it.  But that's ok, that's part of the hobby too.  I just do what strikes me, but I don't push it.  Meaning, if I feel like making terrain, I do that, if I feel like painting, I do that, if I feel like not doing anything then I do that...and it's ok.

A major benefit of being a solo gamer is that you don't have a buddy or group to "keep up with" , so you're really free to do as you will without affecting anyone else.  If you want to paint sci-fi guys, paint them, and it doesn't hurt the "big game" you're planning for WW2.  Where it might if you had others counting on you.

The other thing I noticed when going solo was that I have an appalling lack of certain terrain types, which I intend to rectify. But I admit that that lack has kept me from playing some things I otherwise would have, so instead of playing a game I had to make terrain or paint figures, and sometime I just decide it's not what I want to do so I did nothing.

I guess the answer is just to do what you can, and what you want.  I have found that after changing to solo gaming, my focus does wander quite a bit more (not that I was exactly laser like before  ), but it seems to be more acceptable to me now.

[Hobgoblin]

How old are your kids? It doesn't take long for simple skirmish games to become a winning proposition. My son and I played BrickWars with his Lego when he was five, which led to me getting back into gaming through painting up some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes for his sixth birthday. We haven't looked back, and my daughter plays quite a bit too now, as do their friends.

[Norm]

Most Fridays I have a face-to-face meet for boardgames, though this is less regular these days than it used to be.

Yet, I still think of myself as a solo gamer ...... mainly because I am hugely into wargaming, it is my sole interest to the exclusion of all others, so my hours of self indulgence, whether that be gaming, painting, modelling, researching, browsing, blogging etc. significantly outweigh my face-to-face opportunities.

I like my solo gaming and do not feel poorer for it, even though I have a fairly regular opponent  that you might think would leave me feeling that solo is 'less than', but it isn't.

I think most things can be solo' d. I play each side to their best ability without favour (could never understand why gamers can't play impartially) and I avoid systems that are not solitaire friendly. Interestingly I avoid solitaire only systems altogether, I would rather play against myself than some AI.

Anyway, think again before abandoning your hobby, just limit it to what you can do. it might be worth you getting a couple of small boardgames, ones that can be played solitaire and would only take say an hour to play, that way you could get some mid-week gaming done .... and keep the love :-) You could put a small boardgame on a pinboard and put it on top of the wardrobe part played if that would help or at meal times, move the board from the table to say and ironing board and then once everyone has eaten, move it back etc.

I am just looking at some bigger scale stuff for a small table. The small table means smaller collections and fewer terrain items, so if you need the joy of the bigger scales to keep your interest high, perhaps it can be done for you.

I think for me, my motivation comes from an inbuilt enexplainable passion, it is the only thing I want to do - if I were not a wargamer .... what would I do :-)

[sonicReducer]

Thanks all for the replies. I think I just need to focus and set some time aside and say "this is wargaming time" every now and then.

I have the rules I like and minis for them - it's really having to stop start all the time that has put me off, mostly because I don't have any dedicated space. My other main hobby is PC gaming and is much the same, 20 minutes here and there.

So my kids are a bit small for gaming at the moment (4 year old twins and a 19 month old). Maybe when they are a bit bigger - the missus doesn't really appreciate my hobbies much unfortunately.

[nic-e]

I'm thinking the exact same thing ,I tried switching to 15mm during my degree but I like 28mm too much for painting.
Now I;m going to be doing a masters course and will most likely not have the time or space for gaming. I don;t game much as it is but i do love painting and building little warbands. I guess I keep motivated mostly because it's a hobby, and i do it to relax.

How do you find solo gaming? I always think I'd end up getting bored and cheating myself.

[sonicReducer]

I'm thinking the exact same thing ,I tried switching to 15mm during my degree but I like 28mm too much for painting.
Now I;m going to be doing a masters course and will most likely not have the time or space for gaming. I don;t game much as it is but i do love painting and building little warbands. I guess I keep motivated mostly because it's a hobby, and i do it to relax.

How do you find solo gaming? I always think I'd end up getting bored and cheating myself.

I actually went from 28mm down to 15mm and then down again to 10mm and 6mm. What I like about the smaller scales is that all my terrain fits in a couple of small storage boxes. I'm considering doing some 28mm but honestly have no idea where I would keep any terrain.

So solo gaming is a bit of a different beast for me than playing with an opponent. Some people I've spoken to are happy to "play both sides" but I found it a bit frustrating. I moved on to rules that either have random activation or if IGOUGO have a roll at the beginning of each turn dictating what I can do. Toofatlardies rules are a good fit.


As an aside I do own Pulp Alley - might be a better fit for my 15mm than FiveCore. I like FiveCore but it ends up being a 30 minute shootout, even with objectives ...

[Davout]

I recently had to leave my gaming group do to a family relocation, it was a big loss as my hobby motivation had gone through the roof with planning/playing and painting for regular games. Now I paint because I know it relaxes me and I try and get around to the local shops and get a game in here and there.

What's weird is I've stopped trying to stay focused and just let the muse take me where she will. One upside to not having a group is not having a particular system to adhere too, I paint what I feel like at my own pace without having to worry about getting a particular unit done for the game next week, its very freeing in some ways.

 

[sonicReducer]

Thanks all. I think for now, having thought about it a bit, I'll probably stick to 15mm or smaller - just due to cost and storage. I've seen a lot of 28mm that I like but I can't afford both minis and nice terrain and then have nowhere to store my terrain >.<

At least with 15mm for a tenner I can pick up a nice range of minis and the terrain is better suited to the small space I have