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Card game for soloists: Aleph Zero
Photo:
Maren Hoffmann / DER SPIEGEL
Demonic Solo Pleasures: Aleph Zero
A card game for just one person - can that be exciting?
And whether!
The dramatic course of the gloomy »Aleph Null« has little in common with the gentle suspense of solitaire.
We're trying to summon the demon Baphomet.
This can only succeed if we get rid of all the cards in time - and can play the three keys that bring Baphomet into play before the end of the last round.
That's tricky: You have to "summon" cards from your hand in order to be able to use their abilities - but you shouldn't neglect the sacrifice stack in order not to fail in the end.
In addition, nasty impairment cards disrupt the ritual.
Without good tactics, the spell will inevitably go awry.
The attention to atmospheric detail is captivating: there is a fine wooden stand for the nine cards in the magic book, the »Grimoire«, and you can even download specially composed background music via a QR code.
The game is already available from the publisher.
Author:
Tony Boydell, one person from twelve years, playing time about 20 minutes
Hand on:
goth girls and boys, puzzle friends, self-sufficient
Hands off:
sociable cheerful people, anti-antichrists, people with low frustration tolerance
One is the traitor:
»Inside Job«
"An almost cooperative trick-taking game" is the subtitle of the little agent thriller with secret roles, in which one is always a traitor with his own agenda.
Together, the team tries to complete mission cards - for example, playing only odd numbers or putting certain colors in the right places.
The traitor wants to sabotage this - by causing the missions to fail or by taking the trick himself, i.e. playing the highest number of the suit played or the respective trump suit.
If you manage to take the trick, you get a secret suitcase marker – if the saboteur has collected enough of them, he wins.
Fast rounds and a bit of bluff make the round exciting and make you want to play the next one.
If you don't like the traitor mechanism, check out Thomas Sing's fully cooperative trick-taking game The Crew (and its sequel Mission Deep Sea).
Author:
Tanner Simmons, three to five people aged ten and up, playing time around 20 minutes
Hand on it:
trick players, secretists and saboteurs
Hands off:
Skat haters, team players and weak in deduction
Sinless but malicious:
»The Deadlies«
Envy, gluttony, greed, anger, sloth, pride and lust - these are the seven deadly sins aka »The Deadlies«.
Of course we would like to free ourselves from this and shine in exemplary virtue.
The best way to do this is to foist our own sins on others - gloating isn't, is it?
You have to get rid of all your cards three times to win.
But again and again the other players try to cheer cards on you - and you often gamble yourself trying to do exactly that with the others.
The thematic integration of the sin cards is very pretty: with sloth you don't do anything at first, with envy you can trade with another player, anger can lead to ever further escalation and arrogance to a fall.
Anyone who manages to get hold of the halo gets rid of all the cards at once.
»The Deadlies« is a very entertaining game of anger, but you can't really take offense at it - after all, you can usually take revenge immediately.
Author:
Paul Saxberg, three to five people aged eight and up, playing time around 30 minutes (often less)
Hand on it:
frequent players, occasional players, new players – in other words, almost everyone
Hands off:
moral apostles and profound theologians
Fast Sparkle:
»Gap«
Pretty cards, short rules, low entry hurdle: »Gap« (»Gap«) is a game snack with a brief explanation phase.
We collect metallic glittering cards.
They are available in five colors, each with the values 0 to 9. Whoever is in turn plays a card and then has to take the cards with the same number value from the display or, if there are none, those with adjacent numbers .
If there is no result either, your own card comes in the middle – which can be an advantage: we get points by having the greatest possible distance between our most common and our rarest suit.
The latter value is subtracted from the former.
How long you play is a matter of negotiation.
You either agree on a number of points at which the game ends, or on a game duration that is used for evaluation.
It couldn't be more relaxed.
Authors:
Frank Noack and Rico Bettener, two to six people aged seven and up, playing time around ten minutes
Hand on it:
impatient and intermediate players
Hands off:
long-term strategists and story lovers
Abstract highlight: »Ten«
»Ten« is harmlessly colourful: 129 playing cards in four colors with the values 1 to 9 (lower numbers are more common), many black and a few white playing pieces.
The rules are clear, but the decisions are not trivial.
»Ten« is a push-your-luck game: The more you risk, the more you can win – but you can also lose.
The aim is to have as long streets as possible in your own display, i.e. continuous sequences of numbers.
Joker cards, which are auctioned off, help with this.
A card market in the middle of the table provides additional tactical possibilities.
The game is relaxed, but you soon realize that clever tactics are possible and lead to victory.
The trio of authors was already responsible for the equally elegant »point salad«.
"Ten" is a recommendation for lovers of abstract card games who are a bit more demanding.
Authors:
Molly Johnson, Shawn Stankewich, Robert Melvin, one to five people aged ten and up, playing time from 30 minutes
Hand on it:
Decision-makers and risk-taking calculators
Hands off:
gut instinct players, unfocused ones
Screechingly colorful and automatically rewarding:
»Gasha«
Gashapon are an integral part of everyday Japanese culture: the vending machines with the colorful capsules full of collectible figures and other objects of material desire are ubiquitous and generate sales in the three-digit million euro range.
The principle: You know what the machine has to offer in general - but not what exactly you get from its range.
Jason Levine has implemented this gambling element well in his lively little card game: We collect gasha cards, of which we only see the back at first - the machine with two or three symbols.
On the front we see what is really in our capsule: robot, princess, fox, radish or sushi.
With our collections we complete quests that bring us points and rewards.
When all the reward tiles are gone or the cards have been used up, the game ends.
Whoever has the most points wins.
The game learns in less than two minutes and is pleasantly rewarding.
It is also easy to play with younger children under the age of seven – the rules booklet offers an adaptation for this.
Author:
Jason Levine, two to six people aged seven and up, playing time around 20 minutes
Hand on:
families with younger children, Japan fans, relaxed collectors
Hands off:
Hard gamblers and strategists
Snapped: »
Allie Gator«
The small box opens and closes with a magnet.
If the lid is opened, the playing surface is already set up and you can start right away.
There are 70 cards with corresponding numerical values.
We should have to pick up as few of them as possible, because every card, regardless of its value, is a minus point at the end of the round.
The snappy reptile is just an accessory, basically "Allie Gator" is an abstract number game: Two random cards are laid out, we can each place one underneath - but only if their numerical value is lower than that of the top card.
The next player must play a card whose value is between the two numbers of one of the number pairs.
If she cannot, she must take all the cards on the side that has the Allie Gator marker on it.
A few special cards such as change of direction or card theft add variety to the game.
In terms of complexity, Allie Gator is comparable to the card game Uno (if you don't know it, console yourself: Chancellor Olaf Scholz didn't know it either).
Pretty nightcap.
Author:
Jason Levine, two to six people aged seven and up, playing time around 20 minutes
Hand on it:
malicious people, number jugglers, come-one-let's-play-guests
Hands off:
deep miners, card hand gourmets, planners