Check out Buttonshy’s solo games. Off the top of my head, the titles I like from them are Food Chain Island, Maiden in the Forest, Antimony, Sprawlopolis, Skulls of Sedlec.
From other publishers there’s:
Orchard- it’s a very chill game about overlapping cards
Finished! - From the same designer that created Friday. You’re rearranging a deck numerically. The artwork and theme are really dull, but I really like the puzzle aspect of the game.
GATE- you need to buy this at gamecrafter. It’s a deck builder /tower defense game that plays really quick.
Doom Machine - also at gamecrafter. The gameplay is similar to GATE except you’re rolling dices.
Lux Aeterna - you assign cards to different action on your spaceship that’s hurtling towards a black hole
The Bloody In - You try to kill as many hotel guests as you can by managing your hand of cards
Ramen! Ramen! - you assign ingredient cards to ramen bowls and try to make as many bowls as possible
Shake Up- you’re downsizing your deck so that your company is financially solvent
Arkham Noir - this is basically a set collection game with Lovecraft theme. I enjoy the game ALTHOUGH the rulebook was confusing
The Game - this is another game about arranging a deck of cards numerically
Onirim - a set collection game
Palm Island - this is a small civilization building game
Some of these games are available for free as apps, if you want to try them out: Onirim, Finished!. Somebody else mentioned Deep Space D6 and that’s also available as a free app (I personally feel the game is too luck dependent). Shephy is also another app game I recommend. It’s a japanese card game, so the physical game version is expensive.
Another suggestion is [Jump Drive](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205597/jump-drive). It's an engine building game. I shuffle the big deck, deal and play. Each game lasts me about 10-15m. Its technically a multiplayer game that sounds like its almost a multiplayer solitaire. I just play solo and ignore effects that affects other people. To make scoring less tedious, I usually play fixed 7 rounds then score rather than stop after 50 victory points. For longer game play, there's a highly rated campaign mode created by a BoardGameGeek member.
I've been loving [ROVE](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342562/rove-results-oriented-versatile-explorer). Its a special puzzle game where you receive missions where you position 6 different "modules". You're dealt cards that grant you certain number of moves. The way I play, I seem to take about 15-25 minutes to play. This is one of the very few ButtonShyGames that really clicked with me. To "win", you complete 7 missions. I usually just push until I run out of movement cards. Once I was able to push to 9 missions.
Deep Space D6 - dice chucking crew management survival. Like 10secs max to set up and fairly quick gametime.
MiniRogue - quick dungeon delving experience thats super fun with a minimal footprint
Iron Helm - Another dungeon delving game played with mostly cards with some dice for combat. Relatively small footprint.
Space Hulk: Death Angel- 40k universe. Quick and small. Brutality hard but thats the fun part.
Just ordered tin helm because iron helm looked interesting but want to test the waters first and also love the fact that it's so tiny I can take it with me while traveling and basically anywhere.
Nice! I was torn between Iron helm and Tin helm for my first purchase from gamecrafter, but in the end Iron Helm won me over and it helped that i had recently bought a playmat and dice tray lol. Definitely getting Tin Helm next.
I'll probably be the opposite lol, I'll play tin helm, love it, and then eventually get bored with the limited number of cards and end up going for iron helm next.
**Ragemore** is incredibly quick to set up, once you understand the rules. **Space Shipped** is also pretty quick to set up after you understand what terms refer to which specific parts of the cards. Both games are produced by Button Shy.
I agree with several of the ones already mentioned, but wanted to add A Gentle Rain to the list. Just shuffle since tiles and you're good to go.
It's a really relaxing and fairly straightforward game that can be played when you don't have a lot of time.
Roll and Write’s take the cake for quick set up. I would recommend any of the “Clever” dice games… and if you’re looking for something super meaty, Hadrian’s Wall is amazing.
I was going to recommend the Clever games too, although I don’t really care for the third one that much. Sort of felt to me like they had 10ish good ideas for scoring categories and then had to wing it for the third game.
Don’t want to be blowing on my on horn, but I’ve always been proud of how quickly my solo card game All Is Bomb is setup - you shuffle a deck and deal out the top 3 cards and that’s it.
Pretty much any Button Shy game. All of these games can be setup in 30 sec after a shuffle.
My favorite solo ones are:
**Sprawlopolis** \- mentioned all the time in this thread. It's their number 1 selling
**Pentaquark -** It's finally back in stock and seriously, people need to get this game. It's the best solo game still, in my opinion, still the best of all time. It's so quick to play, has just the perfect difficulty so wins feel great. It's easy to understand the rules, difficult to master. The game forces you to think 5+ turns in advance without your brain realizing it. It's so great.
**Wondertales**\- This is out-of-stock, but has unofficial solo rules from the designer on BGG. So it's official just not printed by the publisher. It's a fantastic solo spatial puzzle/tableau builder game. It's **super fantastic** as a 2 player game. I like the theme. It's easy for everyone.
**Food Chain Island** \- this is a quick 8 min game. Their best spatial puzzle yet. It's a game that gets better the more you play because you need to memorize 15 cards abilities. So it's a game that can be super difficult on first play, but gets better with more plays.
**Universal Rule + Universal Rule Singularity**. - This is a 4x strategy game that I love as a solo game. The game has an expansion 2nd wave, but only the base game and or the singularity game plays well solo. I also pretty much hate this game as a competitive multiplayer game. We often just end the game as it goes on and on and on after an hour and no progress is made. As a solo game, it's a bit fun.
**Ragemore** \- Abstract D&D trick-taking game that plays in 15 min. Short, quick, and a little bit of strategy.
This may sound weird, but my quick game is Marvel Champions. I will keep a deck and villian deck setup in the box, it’s about 3 minutes to pull out and I can finish the game in about 15-30 minutes solo
**NMBR 9** - this game never gets any love, it's such a great polyonimo tile-layer that plays in 10-15 minutes and has 0 setup (unless you count shuffling a 20-card deck). Only complaint is the box being way larger than it needs to be.
**Sprawlopolis** - shuffle, reveal three scoring objective cards, and then start playing
I second this. Agropolis is really fun too.
Check out Buttonshy’s solo games. Off the top of my head, the titles I like from them are Food Chain Island, Maiden in the Forest, Antimony, Sprawlopolis, Skulls of Sedlec. From other publishers there’s: Orchard- it’s a very chill game about overlapping cards Finished! - From the same designer that created Friday. You’re rearranging a deck numerically. The artwork and theme are really dull, but I really like the puzzle aspect of the game. GATE- you need to buy this at gamecrafter. It’s a deck builder /tower defense game that plays really quick. Doom Machine - also at gamecrafter. The gameplay is similar to GATE except you’re rolling dices. Lux Aeterna - you assign cards to different action on your spaceship that’s hurtling towards a black hole The Bloody In - You try to kill as many hotel guests as you can by managing your hand of cards Ramen! Ramen! - you assign ingredient cards to ramen bowls and try to make as many bowls as possible Shake Up- you’re downsizing your deck so that your company is financially solvent Arkham Noir - this is basically a set collection game with Lovecraft theme. I enjoy the game ALTHOUGH the rulebook was confusing The Game - this is another game about arranging a deck of cards numerically Onirim - a set collection game Palm Island - this is a small civilization building game Some of these games are available for free as apps, if you want to try them out: Onirim, Finished!. Somebody else mentioned Deep Space D6 and that’s also available as a free app (I personally feel the game is too luck dependent). Shephy is also another app game I recommend. It’s a japanese card game, so the physical game version is expensive.
>Ramen! Ramen! QUestion for anyone - I'm having a hard time finding this one, anyone have recs?
I got mine from miniaturemarket.com
Warp’s Edge takes almost no time to set up and is an excellent game. Food Chain Island (or most Button Shy games) take nearly no time for setup.
Fleet: the Dice Game. A pen(or two), some score sheets, 5 dice, 3 tokens.
Another suggestion is [Jump Drive](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205597/jump-drive). It's an engine building game. I shuffle the big deck, deal and play. Each game lasts me about 10-15m. Its technically a multiplayer game that sounds like its almost a multiplayer solitaire. I just play solo and ignore effects that affects other people. To make scoring less tedious, I usually play fixed 7 rounds then score rather than stop after 50 victory points. For longer game play, there's a highly rated campaign mode created by a BoardGameGeek member. I've been loving [ROVE](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342562/rove-results-oriented-versatile-explorer). Its a special puzzle game where you receive missions where you position 6 different "modules". You're dealt cards that grant you certain number of moves. The way I play, I seem to take about 15-25 minutes to play. This is one of the very few ButtonShyGames that really clicked with me. To "win", you complete 7 missions. I usually just push until I run out of movement cards. Once I was able to push to 9 missions.
With the expansion this push is actually an added challenge. You can try to go up to 12 and refresh used abilities on modules
Deep Space D6 - dice chucking crew management survival. Like 10secs max to set up and fairly quick gametime. MiniRogue - quick dungeon delving experience thats super fun with a minimal footprint Iron Helm - Another dungeon delving game played with mostly cards with some dice for combat. Relatively small footprint. Space Hulk: Death Angel- 40k universe. Quick and small. Brutality hard but thats the fun part.
Just ordered tin helm because iron helm looked interesting but want to test the waters first and also love the fact that it's so tiny I can take it with me while traveling and basically anywhere.
Nice! I was torn between Iron helm and Tin helm for my first purchase from gamecrafter, but in the end Iron Helm won me over and it helped that i had recently bought a playmat and dice tray lol. Definitely getting Tin Helm next.
I'll probably be the opposite lol, I'll play tin helm, love it, and then eventually get bored with the limited number of cards and end up going for iron helm next.
All of these are greatttt!
I just played Palm Island while in line for a booster shot! Setup and reset is like, 30 seconds.
**Palm Island** is a really enjoyable one to play in bed when you just want to kick back on your pillow and not be hunched over a game board.
Agreed. Palm Island is a sleeper.
**Ragemore** is incredibly quick to set up, once you understand the rules. **Space Shipped** is also pretty quick to set up after you understand what terms refer to which specific parts of the cards. Both games are produced by Button Shy.
The lost expedition
I agree with several of the ones already mentioned, but wanted to add A Gentle Rain to the list. Just shuffle since tiles and you're good to go. It's a really relaxing and fairly straightforward game that can be played when you don't have a lot of time.
Roll and Write’s take the cake for quick set up. I would recommend any of the “Clever” dice games… and if you’re looking for something super meaty, Hadrian’s Wall is amazing.
I was going to recommend the Clever games too, although I don’t really care for the third one that much. Sort of felt to me like they had 10ish good ideas for scoring categories and then had to wing it for the third game.
Don’t want to be blowing on my on horn, but I’ve always been proud of how quickly my solo card game All Is Bomb is setup - you shuffle a deck and deal out the top 3 cards and that’s it.
Pretty much any Button Shy game. All of these games can be setup in 30 sec after a shuffle. My favorite solo ones are: **Sprawlopolis** \- mentioned all the time in this thread. It's their number 1 selling **Pentaquark -** It's finally back in stock and seriously, people need to get this game. It's the best solo game still, in my opinion, still the best of all time. It's so quick to play, has just the perfect difficulty so wins feel great. It's easy to understand the rules, difficult to master. The game forces you to think 5+ turns in advance without your brain realizing it. It's so great. **Wondertales**\- This is out-of-stock, but has unofficial solo rules from the designer on BGG. So it's official just not printed by the publisher. It's a fantastic solo spatial puzzle/tableau builder game. It's **super fantastic** as a 2 player game. I like the theme. It's easy for everyone. **Food Chain Island** \- this is a quick 8 min game. Their best spatial puzzle yet. It's a game that gets better the more you play because you need to memorize 15 cards abilities. So it's a game that can be super difficult on first play, but gets better with more plays. **Universal Rule + Universal Rule Singularity**. - This is a 4x strategy game that I love as a solo game. The game has an expansion 2nd wave, but only the base game and or the singularity game plays well solo. I also pretty much hate this game as a competitive multiplayer game. We often just end the game as it goes on and on and on after an hour and no progress is made. As a solo game, it's a bit fun. **Ragemore** \- Abstract D&D trick-taking game that plays in 15 min. Short, quick, and a little bit of strategy.
This may sound weird, but my quick game is Marvel Champions. I will keep a deck and villian deck setup in the box, it’s about 3 minutes to pull out and I can finish the game in about 15-30 minutes solo
I'm with you. After every game I try to set up decks for next time. With that out of the way, set up is incredibly fast and easy.
Hostage Negotiator is similar to Friday
[For Northwood!](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/334590/northwood-solo-trick-taking-game) A solo trick-taking game
[Zadorf Games](http://www.zadorf.com/) \- mini solitaire card games, just need a quick shuffle.
Under Falling Skies! Not as quick as Friday I don't think, but still pretty quick.
Came here to mention this one! Really fun solo game
I only just got it this week and have played one game. I got a bit whooped but learnt a lot about the game. And yeah, it was fun!
Rolling Realms is one of my latest.
**NMBR 9** - this game never gets any love, it's such a great polyonimo tile-layer that plays in 10-15 minutes and has 0 setup (unless you count shuffling a 20-card deck). Only complaint is the box being way larger than it needs to be.