Dice, domino, and card games for one you've probably never heard of
Dominoes and card games for solo players and small teams abound, both online and with physical decks of dominoes and playing cards. Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Klondike, and other games that have since populated app stores and PC game folders are relatively well known. Here are some others you've probably never heard of.
Single-player domino games
Concentration
Sometimes called the "Memory Game," you might remember from when you were a kid, Concentration tests your mind's ability to maintain object permanence.Put a set of dominoes or double six set face down on the table, shuffle the tiles, then try to match each tile to either their suits, colors, next numerical domino tile, or some other consistent variable.
As domino games go, this could easily be played with a deck of cards, too.
Turn each tile face up, but only two tiles can be face-up at once. Turn over tiles to reveal another, and remember where they are in space until you draw each matching tile.
A popular variation of Concentration domino games is to turn over tiles that add up to a specific number, like 12, or match colors if your pips are painted. And if they don't, you turn them back over and try again (or play passes to another person). You can also combine options like "Must match at least one end and add up to more than 6."
Stack
Among domino games, and as the name suggests, your goal is to match one end of a domino to another matching the open ends.- To start, shuffle the dominoes face down and draw four tiles face up.
- The remaining are in the boneyard, where you'll draw one at a time to match on some open end of the four starting tiles.
- If you cannot match a tile, place it face down and try to remember where it is in the stack.
Mexican Train Dominoes
While not a solo game in practice, we're partial to Mexican Train Dominoes because you can play online by yourself. You can also play against AI players in this fun, free dominoes game through your favorite App Store or in a browser.Games are played in rounds of 12, with scoring determined by how many pips (dots) you have left over at each round. The goal is the lowest score. Play online now and check out the rules to learn more.
Grab playing cards for one with these solitaire variations
Wish Solitaire
If you're in the mood for a quicker game than usual, Wish is a simpler version using only 32 cards. Remove the 2-6 cards, deal eight piles of four face down, and as you reveal the top cards, you match based on rank regardless of suit. The result is quick, breezy gameplay.Emperor
Try Emperor if you're in the mood for a challenging, lengthy game of solitaire. It uses two decks of 52 cards, for a total of 104 cards to sort and organize in ten piles of four.Invite some friends over for these dice games
OctoDice
This dice game requires a physical set but can be played with one to four players with gameplay variations.The official rules call for rolling dice to build development, actions, and bonus actions that add up to points that fight octopods. You’ll play each game against these octopods, not team members, hence why you can play by yourself. For details, BoardgameGeek has more.
Bunco
Bunco is a dice game traditionally played with twelve people across four teams. But so long as you have a number divisible by four, it's easy and fun to play, and could be played by one person.Each game starts with players taking turns to roll three dice — all tables, if you're playing with multiple teams, plays simultaneously.
There are six rounds in two to four sets in Bunco. During each round, players at all tables try to roll the same number on the dice as the number of round they're playing. Meaning in round four you try to land on four, in round five they try for fives, and so on.
You score a point for each die that lands on that round's number. Players keep rolling until they don't score, then play passes to the left. The round is over when the table has collectively earned 21 points.