Are you itching to play a game but lacking in opponents? A solitaire dice game can help scratch that itch. Or maybe you do have an opponent or three, but you're short on time. Again, dice games to the rescue! Most can be played in 30 minutes or less.
Here's a list of some of the best published multiplayer dice games that can also be played solo.
Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
This fast-moving game really gives you the feel of building up a civilization, but unlike most civ games it can be played in 30 minutes or less. Roll dice to gain resources and workers, then build monuments or civic works to earn points. This game really shines in single-player mode, but can also be played with up to four.
A simple, very light, family-friendly dice game that can be played solo or with up to eight players. For those times when you don't want a brainburner of a game and you just want to roll some dice, this game fits the bill nicely.
This lively dexterity game will have you tossing dice in crazy ways, like over your shoulder, under your leg, or off the end of your nose. A great, and challenging, single player experience that gets even more fun with more players.
Many modern games use Yahtzee-like dice mechanics, but sometimes it's good to get back to the original game and enjoy its simplicity and familiarity.
Speaking of Yahtzee-style games, Elder Sign provides a similar press-your-luck element wrapped up with a good amount of strategic depth and layered with a fantastic theme and top-notch components. This is another game that really shines in single-player mode.
More of a mental and social exercise than a game, Rory's Story Cubes provides you with nine large dice. Each face on each dice shows a different image, so there are a total of 54 different images. The goal is to roll the dice and use the images to construct a story (either individually or cooperatively), but this game can also be used to boost creativity and help you think outside the box.
D-Day Dice can be played as a multiplayer, cooperative game, but it also includes solitaire rules. The theme and mechanics combine to create an immersive experience as you work to manage your resources, minimize your losses, and successfully complete your mission.
Escape: The Curse of the Temple
This game takes ten minutes to play. Literally. It comes with a CD soundtrack that's precisely ten minutes long. Pop it in the CD player, press play, and get busy rolling dice. Your goal is to escape from an ancient temple before it collapses, and in order to escape you have to find the exit. The only way to move from room to room is to roll certain combinations of symbols, and so you try and do that as fast as possible. It's a fun and frantic experience.
This game is about building settlements, roads, cities and hiring knights, much like other games in the Catan series. But instead of placing tokens on a board, each player has their own scorecard on which they draw roads and settlements. Building roads and settlements requires resources, and those resources are obtained by rolling combinations of symbols on the dice. Fun and fast as a single player game or with up to four players.
So there you have it. Some of the best dice games available that can also be played by a single player. But in addition to these professionally published games, there are plenty of free print-and-play dice games to check out. We'll tell you about them in our next post.
