Hacks and Variants
Solitaire Board Game Challenges for Masochists
PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of another.
— from The Devil’s Dictionary
There are video gamers who get so skilled that they have to make their games harder, often outside of what the game actually allows. With the rise of solo-playable tabletop games, adding extra restrictions to cardboard and dice is becoming a thing.
Samurai Spirit — Pacifist Run
What if the samurai couldn’t kill any of the bandits? This might seem unnecessarily hard since Samurai Spirit already has a Heroic Mode, but some people just hate themselves.
Already, Kyuzo, Kanbei, Gorobei, and Kikuchio are less-than-desirable. Either their Talents or their Kiai effects discard bandits to the graveyard. Also, even the basic Kiai that every samurai has discards raiders, so it’s next to impossible to not kill anyone. Finally, some of the Bosses can force you to discard raiders from your defense slots. The best you can do is try to discard as few raiders as possible.
Or you can turn it into a drinking game.
Burgle Bros. — Stealth Run
In a Stealth Run, you have to go completely undiscovered, which means you don’t start with any Stealth tokens. You can trip alarms, and you can gain Stealth tokens from Gear cards and Location tiles later on, but that’s it.
It’s really hard. You can go WAY out of your way to avoid the guards, but eventually you’ll get cocky or impatient. Inevitably, you’ll hide down a hall thinking there’s no way the guard will go there. Then the guard will go there, giving you no time or room to get out of the way.
Space Hulk: Death Angel — No Casualties Run
No one can die for the Emperor today! Only kill! This is disgustingly hard. It’s a rarity to make it to the end of the mission without taking some losses. However, Death Angel doesn’t have difficulty settings, so you might as well start with this one. It’s pretty straightforward. Don’t let any of your dudes die.
(That last statement isn’t exactly true. You can hack the game by adding more Location cards then called for. As always, do what thou wilt.)