✨ Solo Mode ✨
Here’s what so many of you've been waiting for: the solo mode reveal!
As you may have seen, the game is listed for 1–4 players. The solo mode is designed to replicate the feel of a 2-player game. You get to play against a bot who takes low-maintenance turns in between each of your turns. In fact, the bot is so easy to manage you can even add it to a 2-player game to make it feel like there’s a third player, dynamically affecting the game state (instead of using the standard 2-player setup). Here are some key features:
💡 Not a “beat your own score” system
💡 Feels like a real opponent (for solo or 2-player games)
💡 Thematic—you play against another Professor
💡 Simple rules, low maintenance
💡 Adjustable difficulty settings (from novice to expert)
💡 Semi-predictable actions—not totally random or deterministic
💡 No “player decisions against themselves”
💡 Compatible with all expansions and modules
Basic turn overview
First, you draw one Column card for the bot. This will determine the column in which the bot will try to place its Ideas. Then, with this “telegraphing” of its possible move in mind, you take a turn for yourself, as usual.
After completing your turn, draw a Row card for the bot. This one, in conjunction with the Column card, will determine which space it will place an Idea on the board (where the lines intersect). If the intersection is already occupied by an Idea, the bot will follow the directions of the arrows until it finds a vacant space (wrapping around, if necessary). Note: These directional preferences also serve to help the bot choose from other things whenever it drafts, such as cards and tiles.
After playing an Idea, the bot simply skips to the Inkpot movement phase (advancing it based on the row it just placed its Idea in, like a real player).
The bot’s player board comes loaded with nine special solo mode tiles. At setup, only the first column is revealed. Here’s an example:
When the bot’s Inkpot lands on a row, it triggers the actions on the tiles from left to right. Then, if there’s still a face-down tile, it stops and flips the tile face up. This means that the next time the bot’s Inkpot lands on this row, it will have one more action in its chain—making it more and more powerful over the course of the game…
Here’s an example of the bot taking a turn:
Its Inkpot lands on the bottom row. First, the bot removes two Technique tiles from the display on the Meeting Table (out of the game). Next, it draws and uses the effects of a Latent Dream to apply the Treatment points to one of its Clients. Finally, it will flip over the tile at the end of this row, making this row more powerful in the future.
As you plan your turns, you’ll want to play defensively, knowing that if the bot gets the chance to move its Inkpot to a fully-loaded row, it will get a big advantage. Plus, each row is preset to affect a different system of the game (e.g., the top row in these examples deals mainly with Research cards and Treatise tiles; the middle row moves Freud and the bot’s professor on the City rondel; and the bottom row drafts/removes Technique tiles, Dreams, and Clients). The bot may directly interfere with your plans or try to outperform you in another strategy—and sometimes both!
Here’s a look at all of the bot’s tiles, face up:
The bot also comes with a simple flowchart card to funnel the things it gains in the game into simple benefits—mostly coffee. This means the solo mode doesn’t require you to fiddle with the bot’s Insight Dial; in fact, it stays in the box, no Dial needed! Yup, forget Insights: the bot is a coffee fiend. Every time it gets six cups of coffee, it drains them and generates Treatment points, Curing Clients with extra zeal! ☕
Please keep in mind this is all still a prototype and in development. We’ve invited solo-gaming expert David Digby to help stress-test and refine it further. Once the solo mode is in a state we feel fully satisfied with, we will upload a rules document and TTS mod, and invite people to playtest it (via the Fantasia Games Discord community). We will make further announcements along the way.
💡 We hope you like what you see so far! Thank you again for all of your support.