The first play of my 2020 RockyMountainNavy Solo Boardgame Challenge is Firefly: The Game (Gale Force 9, 2013). The play was satisfying, but really left me wanting both more and less.
Included in the base box of Firefly: The Game is a solo play Story Card, “Awful Lonely in the Big Black.” The special setup rules for solo play call for selecting up to four crew (no more than $1K) and placing using 20 Disgruntled tokens as a game timer. A turn consists of four Actions, and whenever you take a Fly Action the turn is over and a Disgruntled token removed. The game ends when you run out of timing tokens. There are three possible Goals to chose from; I went with “The Bad” – Crime Does Pay where you try to end the game with $15k or more.
The Story Card says play time is supposed to be about 1 hour. On the surface that does not look bad with 3 minutes for every turn and no more than 4 Actions a turn. In reality, I find that pace unachievable. Maybe for experienced players, but I found some turns where Analysis Paralysis set in, especially in the mid-game when I started feeling the time pressure. My game took more like 75 minutes; not bad for a solo game. With three Goals there is some replayability out of the box but I already found myself wanting MORE, as in more solo Story Cards. Gotta check out them other expansions…
At the same time playing Firefly: The Game solo-style made me want LESS. Face it, solo or full-play Firefly: The Game is a real table hog. It’s not that the map is too big (its 30″x20″ – very suitable for a game table with multiple players) but for a solo play with all the cards and ship tableaus you need nearly the same space. I often use my 48″x28″ desk for solo play and this game was VERY tight. All those components also need setup, adding a not-insignificant amount of time. There is nothing that can be done here about the size or the components, but it illustrates the challenges of taking a full size, multi-player game and using it for a single solo player. Sometimes it’s alot. Maybe too much?

Having recently played Star Wars: Outer Rim (Fantasy Flight Games, 2019) it is inevitable to make comparisons between these “space western” games. For solo play I guess I will find out later as Outer Rim is #7 on my solo challenge list. Check back….
Overall, I was happy with this solo play of Firefly: The Game. I won this game, passing my $15k goal with two timing tokens left. Thinking about the game more broadly, this box has languished on my shelf too long and playing solo is a good way to get it out and remind myself that we really do need to buy a couple of expansions. The game is good fun and deserves more table love than we have given it.
Feature image courtesy Gale Force 9.