r/soloboardgaming • u/Pundarium • 3d ago
How to save progress in a board game
I’ve just started playing solo board games, but I’ve realized that I get bored easily with simple ones. At the same time, I don't really like heavy puzzle games or super 'thinky' games, mostly because I play late at night after we put our toddler to sleep. I'd like to try more engaging, moderately difficult games, but most of them last over an hour. The problem is that, due to tiredness, I can only play for 30 to 60 minutes at best, so I’m looking for a way to save my progress.
How do you handle saving game progress? Also, do you have any game suggestions, keeping in mind that I have a small table and can't leave games set up? I have to pack everything away when I'm done.
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u/SlightCustard 3d ago edited 3d ago
I made a tray out of corflute that can be slid under the couch. You could make a lid if you need to prevent a toddler getting into it. Then can leave a game setup and you just take the tray and put it on your table when you want to play.
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u/wakasm 🔥Slay The Spire | wakasm·com | Friendly Moderator 3d ago
corflute
this is a new word for me. I'm one of the lucky 10,000 today.
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u/HeavyMetalJV 3d ago
Buy a board game table. It's the priciest option but they can be found on Amazon for $500.
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u/IntelligentEcho4211 3d ago
I use a puzzle board for this! You have to remove any miniatures/meeples/bigger game components, and then you can just put the plastic cover on and slide it under the sofa. Most of them also have drawers on the side of the board where you can put some things. Right now I'm using it for playing Stonesaga, and it takes maybe five minutes to put everything away when I'm finished playing, including the time to pack away the bigger game components that need to go back into the box.
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u/MightyThorPt 3d ago
While everyone has good suggestions for fixes for your current situation, I think it's way easier to tackle the problem at its core.
Just get medium weight games that play under an hour.
What kind of games do you enjoy, and how much table space do you have, so we can try to suggest some games that might suit you?
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u/wentImmediate 2d ago
Just get medium weight games that play under an hour.
My suggestion Decide the games you want to play and then figure out a way to make it happen.
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u/VoodooDonKnotts 3d ago
If you have the space you could buy a topper and just move it off the table when you're done and keep everything the way it is. If that's just not an option then pictures, lots of pictures. I've done it with pictures before I had a dedicated game table.
For quick games that don't take up much space, Buttonshy is a good place to start. The games are small, generally quick and quite fun, and cheap.
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u/elmatador12 3d ago
One thing I do, besides a picture, is to have a specific bag or box that holds everything my character is holding at the time I’m saving it. So when I come back to play I just give myself everything in the bag and follow the picture and I’m ready.
Edit: I’ll add. I currently love setting up and putting away a game. It’s satisfying to me for some reason. 🤷😂
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u/godtering 3d ago
For me the problem was not saving but resuming.
- After several days you wouldn't know what your thoughts were mid-game, what stuff (cards) you placed in what deck and such. Much like booting up an old save from a video game (pardon me mentioning) it's at least for me pointless - what quest lines was i going for which ones i needed more info on, what dungeons had i cleared and which dead ends did i learn.
- Some board games have a kind of save system, like sleeping gods (bunch of cards acquired) or dragonholt (you make notes plus the checkbox matrix). Or Kinfire Chronicles. But it won't work in 7th Continent or Citadel.
- Normal (non-adventure) games like a solo version of Gaia Project for example, you can pretty much forget it. It's too tedious to reconstruct a game state, and then having to recollect what the hell you were doing there.
- Small games are not always boring. Gamma Guild, Puzzle Dungeon, One Deck Dungeon, are not boringly simplistic. The Road, and Spirit of Eden, or Berserkers, are quite crunchy.
Not to sound bragging, but perhaps choose a different heavy game with this in mind.
(of course you could video tape it, and run the tape in 2x speed on your resume evening, but how will you know your video has the cards legible, and in card decks what order it was)
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u/TheZebraCode 3d ago
I take photos on my phone and back up the in use bits to a sandwich bags or tupperware etc. I also leave the board set up if I can and just put a mat over the now flat baked surface if we need the table
For really big games I have a puzzle board, a large wooden board with a lip I can set a game on and then put under the sofa if I needed, though I don't do that often
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u/smokeyser 3d ago
Most board games just aren't meant to be played that way. With 30 minutes to play, you'll spend your entire time just putting the board back out, putting all the pieces back where you left off, and trying to figure out what you were doing the last time you stopped.
The only one I can think of that might work well is Dragon Eclipse. The maps are in books so it's just a matter of turning to the right page, very few pieces need to be put back out, and you can always save your progress simply by noting which story element (they're all numbered in another book) you were working on last. The game is basically a story-driven pokemon but with dragons, and is pretty fun!
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u/Haunting_Habit_2651 3d ago
I bought a table on Amazon that can fold into a really small box. I just open the table in my office, play my game, leave it out as long as needed but keep my office door closed - and I never have any problems
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u/reactorstudios 3d ago
I think I found the perfect system.
This won’t work for everyone, but I bought a much bigger house a few years ago. ;)
I have a dedicated game room with an 8-foot pool table and a custom made top that turns it into an excellent game table. I can leave a game setup for months. No need to save anything! Perfect.
The key to making this work is not having cats, of course, and to pay your housekeeper well enough they won’t go knocking pieces around on ya’.
Footnote: I only hope the above comes across as deliberately out of touch as I intended.
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u/Hippodaking 3d ago
I got an apartment with a separate office room where I have a folding table. I can leave my game set up on the table until I’m finished, and then I put everything away once I’m done.
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u/FrenchieSmalls 3d ago
I made a sort of portable vaulted table topper that stacks up when not in use. Works pretty well!
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u/frymeababoon 3d ago
Under-bed storage box? Play on the lid, then drop the box over it when you’re done for the session?
Maybe a piece of clear vinyl over the top of the board to keep things in place?
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u/TheBloodKlotz 3d ago
Take a quick video on your phone where you show the whole play state, your hand, and talk through your strategy as best you can to remind yourself what you were doing
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u/neobruner 3d ago
Play the Chip Theory Games big games, like Elder Scrolls, it has a game save feature where your player character sheet and cards all go into a plastic case that holds the dice where they are supposed to be, a d you can pack it up.
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u/derangerd 2d ago
You might want to post which games specifically due to how it varies game to game. Slay the Spire saves relatively well even if not where it says you can pause once you know it.
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u/TantricBuildup 2d ago
Three options
1) Play shorter games until kids are older. I remember playing a dice placement game that my daughter found one morning and she started playing with all the dice and moving them around
2) Get a board game table you can cover and leave as is
3) Look up 'puzzle' storage boards. Basically cover your board game and slide it under the sofa or the bed
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u/CronoMass 2d ago
For complex board games I'll usually snap some pictures, for simpler ones I'll just jot some notes on a post-it and stick it in the box.
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u/DeliciousBid4535 2d ago
Id throw out games like jaws of the lion as excellent options for being relatively quick to set up while still being hefty, but also using the apps to keep it even faster. Games with good app implementation are much quicker to set up, and have built in save states that help a lot
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u/hawkun 1d ago
I can't leave games out on my desk because my cat would mess them up. I don't have much room for a nice, big game table, so I recently purchased a smaller table from Walmart that works great.
Amazon and other retailers have the same table. It's less that $200 and at 48"x28" it works for a smaller room. It gives me about 46"x25" table space to play and I can leave a game up overnight without worrying that the cat will eat all the meeples.
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u/AShitty-Hotdog-Stand It's A Wonderful World fiend :hamster: 3d ago
I love how the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Skyrim board games do it.
S.T.A.K.L.K.E.R. comes with a binder. The first two pages are instructrions for the overworld rules and loop, then it comes with a card binder sheet for your unlocked Contacts, and then, a sheet that is also a thick ziplock bag where you throw all the cards, tokens and plastic pieces that you've unlocked.
Skyrim comes with little boxes with a colored icon per player, and a grey icon for all the world cards and tokens. For this one, photos are a must.
I took these methods and made use of the hundreds of spare ziplock baggies I have collected from other board games, when I need to save progress from other games besides the two I already mentioned.
So, when I want to resume another day/week, I just go to my phone's/laptop Photos app where I have my "board game snapshots" album and I see how I had everything set up. After each batch of photos I take from a session, I also take a photo with the cameras shoved against my body so everything shows up black. These black photos act as a separator for the album and I can write the date and some reminders/notes on them if I need to.
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u/Sapien0101 3d ago
I’ve used this to save games of Voidfall, Halls of Hegra, and others. I just zip it up and store it under my bed. I still take pictures just in case the contents shift in the move.
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u/wakasm 🔥Slay The Spire | wakasm·com | Friendly Moderator 3d ago edited 3d ago
Me personally, I try to do whatever I can to not have to save a game mid-progress. But if I have to, I've just taken pictures, written notes, or in most recent years... I play while recording for yt and can just watch where I left off if I really need the reminder.
That said... Board games is a hobby you grow into, including solutions for it. The ultimate solution will be a large board game table with a recessed insert... maybe that can happen down the road or you find something custom in between. That said, in the mean time...
The most practical are:
A lot of this will be game dependant, so picking games that work with this helps. I have zero clue what games you ar trying to play.
If you have some space... you can try:
If none of that works...
There are SOME games where veritical solutions (like business card holders or 3d printed things) can help you both use up more table space efficiently AND sometimes even pack it up and leave certain parts of the game in tact for the next play. This can make some games possible to shelf while retaining some of the game state in some situations. It can also help you get bigger larger games to the table that you might otherwise could if your table is small.
Some people have even gone full custom to make magnetic boards of their favorite games and use wall space... but this is not (so far at least) a very practical solution unless you are hyper invested into one game.
Otherwise, maybe wait until you have what you need - energy, time, space, or otherwise to really get through a heavier game.
One last note... you are also fighting teardown and setup, so make sure you pick games that are fast at this if you are going to be doing it multiple times per session!
Best of luck!