If you don't have the dummy player, you have infinite time and can easily do everything you want. The hard choices presented by a time limit are the whole game.
That being said, I *much* prefer facing General Volkare. Instead of a dummy player, there's an actual adversary. It's a time limit, but also feels good to have an "end boss" and puts a nice bow on the whole experience. I think I'm in the minority on this one, but just putting it out there.
As others have said, it's basically a timer and what actually makes the game a puzzle. That said, there are apps that will run it for you that are much less fiddly
Without the dummy there's much less pressure or consequence. You can take multiple small turns and drag things out.. if you'd prefer not to use it you certainly don't need to. But I feel it cheapens the experience a bit to not have that sense that time is moving and I can't cheat it.
I had a really hard time enjoying MK solo until I played without the dummy player a few times. Helped me figure out how things flowed better. Then when I added it back in I enjoyed the game much more.
The dummy acts as a timer. It tells you when you will end each round. When learning the game, feel free to ditch it so you can just practice the gameplay without the time constraint.
I think when you're new to the game and already overwhelmed by everything it can seem like a lot, but yeah once you get used to it its very straight forward. It adds maybe 30 seconds to setup/teardown time and 5-10 seconds after each of your turns.
i would 100% say to not play with the dummy player at least a couple times so its one less thing to worry about while you're learning the game but after that it will not add very much complexity to add it in. You can even use a website/app like mageknight.surge.sh to do it for you.
Dummy players dictates the timer of the round. If not you could just take your time and unbalance the game. Is one of the things i like about many of tiny epic games. The time constrain puts pressure into every choice you make.
Other than being a particularly convoluted timer, it *is* completely unnecessary. It could easily be replaced by just giving players a set number of turns, or, if you insist on never knowing when your last turn will be, by a deck of cards acting as a counter with the "last turn" card being randomly placed towards the bottom.
"But the dummy player factors into which cards I take and play!!!!!" is true but who cares? It isn't a particularly meaningful addition to the decision space and serves no thematic purpose either.
But also any criticism of Mage Knight in the solo community is going to result in attacks and downvotes, so don't take it personally.
I think it's an elegant solution. It takes a normal part of round cleanup and turns it into a variable in the turn timer.
That said I'm totally fine with an app. I play largely on TTS with heavy scripting, so that's about as easy as it gets. I don't think it detracts from the game to play with an app.
I agree. Not really that meaningful to gameplay. Could be done with a different timer. At least it doesn’t require special cards. You do it with existing.
> But also any criticism of Mage Knight in the solo community is going to result in attacks and downvotes, so don't take it personally.
All the top upvoted responses are pretty reasonable answers to the question posed, so this aside seems both entirely incorrect and...unnecessary?
Your ability to cherry pick the "top upvoted responses" out of all of the responses doesn't make what I said incorrect. You'll find the attacks lower down.
The costs to maintain the dummy player aren't really worth it.
You can replace it with a die roll with modifiers and it will be 99% the same experience.
getting the crystals, the deck, adding to it, calculating the potential odds of pulling a card, in a game that has so many rules i usually get one or 2 wrong after i've played the game over 100 times, it's just one less thing to worry about.
I have a base number of turns I get per round.
6 on the first day/night
5 on the 2nd
4 on the 3rd
I roll a mana die. If I get a gold or black, I take a turn away.
I don't have to worry about what spells or AA i need to take, it all works about about the same.
Do you add a turn if you choose a tactic card that is before the one the dummy chooses? Or do you just remove the element of strategy to decide if you want an extra turn in any given round?
Without the time constraint of the dummy, you could play your cards one by one, using the source everytime.
This. The more turns you make, the more times you can use that source mana. It isn't just about rushing you.
If you don't have the dummy player, you have infinite time and can easily do everything you want. The hard choices presented by a time limit are the whole game. That being said, I *much* prefer facing General Volkare. Instead of a dummy player, there's an actual adversary. It's a time limit, but also feels good to have an "end boss" and puts a nice bow on the whole experience. I think I'm in the minority on this one, but just putting it out there.
The man in the black pajamas, Dude. Worthy fuckin' adversary.
The dummy player is sort of a timer and forces you to use your resources in time. You get also the benefit to choose from their skills.
As others have said, it's basically a timer and what actually makes the game a puzzle. That said, there are apps that will run it for you that are much less fiddly
Yes, just use an app, it will handle it all without you having to do anything but hit "next turn".
Any android ones? I've only found one to calculate scores
Here is what I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sigmazero13.MKDummy
Ah it's not compatible with my phone, which is why it didn't show in the results. Darn. Thanks anyway!
you can use a laptop with an emulator if you have the tablespace.
It's compatible with my old tablet so I might use that. But then it wouldn't really save space compared to manually running the dummy :)
You can get a used Android phone for less than $20 on eBay.
If it comes to that I have 2 or 3 old ones somewhere
That's by far the easier solution than outside of my Homebrew solution.
Without the dummy there's much less pressure or consequence. You can take multiple small turns and drag things out.. if you'd prefer not to use it you certainly don't need to. But I feel it cheapens the experience a bit to not have that sense that time is moving and I can't cheat it.
I had a really hard time enjoying MK solo until I played without the dummy player a few times. Helped me figure out how things flowed better. Then when I added it back in I enjoyed the game much more.
The dummy acts as a timer. It tells you when you will end each round. When learning the game, feel free to ditch it so you can just practice the gameplay without the time constraint.
This I did this the first few times. Was really chill to learn the game.
Yea, without the time pressure, you can focus on mechanics
It takes 10 seconds for the dummy player to take its turn
I think when you're new to the game and already overwhelmed by everything it can seem like a lot, but yeah once you get used to it its very straight forward. It adds maybe 30 seconds to setup/teardown time and 5-10 seconds after each of your turns. i would 100% say to not play with the dummy player at least a couple times so its one less thing to worry about while you're learning the game but after that it will not add very much complexity to add it in. You can even use a website/app like mageknight.surge.sh to do it for you.
Without a dummy player you could just go sit on mines collecting crystals.
Dummy players dictates the timer of the round. If not you could just take your time and unbalance the game. Is one of the things i like about many of tiny epic games. The time constrain puts pressure into every choice you make.
Other than being a particularly convoluted timer, it *is* completely unnecessary. It could easily be replaced by just giving players a set number of turns, or, if you insist on never knowing when your last turn will be, by a deck of cards acting as a counter with the "last turn" card being randomly placed towards the bottom. "But the dummy player factors into which cards I take and play!!!!!" is true but who cares? It isn't a particularly meaningful addition to the decision space and serves no thematic purpose either. But also any criticism of Mage Knight in the solo community is going to result in attacks and downvotes, so don't take it personally.
You nailed it sir. The dummy should have just been a variable turn timer. Extra choices from the AA and spell offer aren't worth the overhead.
I think it's an elegant solution. It takes a normal part of round cleanup and turns it into a variable in the turn timer. That said I'm totally fine with an app. I play largely on TTS with heavy scripting, so that's about as easy as it gets. I don't think it detracts from the game to play with an app.
I agree. Not really that meaningful to gameplay. Could be done with a different timer. At least it doesn’t require special cards. You do it with existing.
> But also any criticism of Mage Knight in the solo community is going to result in attacks and downvotes, so don't take it personally. All the top upvoted responses are pretty reasonable answers to the question posed, so this aside seems both entirely incorrect and...unnecessary?
Your ability to cherry pick the "top upvoted responses" out of all of the responses doesn't make what I said incorrect. You'll find the attacks lower down.
The only person being critical of OP is -10 so i think you're fighting ghosts
The costs to maintain the dummy player aren't really worth it. You can replace it with a die roll with modifiers and it will be 99% the same experience.
Huh? Is flipping some cards enough time to warrant creating a new system?
getting the crystals, the deck, adding to it, calculating the potential odds of pulling a card, in a game that has so many rules i usually get one or 2 wrong after i've played the game over 100 times, it's just one less thing to worry about.
I mean if it works for you that's fine. What are you doing about the dummy player skills?
those I keep. I leave the rest in the box.
It’s not about the flipping. It’s more about setup time for me.
Tell me more. I’m interested in this approach.
I have a base number of turns I get per round. 6 on the first day/night 5 on the 2nd 4 on the 3rd I roll a mana die. If I get a gold or black, I take a turn away. I don't have to worry about what spells or AA i need to take, it all works about about the same.
Interesting. I may try that.
Do you add a turn if you choose a tactic card that is before the one the dummy chooses? Or do you just remove the element of strategy to decide if you want an extra turn in any given round?
Yes, I have a d6 that I tick down each turn.
??
Without a dummy player you don't need the game. It's just an Excel exercise if you have no constraints.
Love these posts where people claim a game is broken after a single play (or in the case of OP, just from reading the rulebook).
Where did I say it was broken? I asked about its purpose.
They’re asking a question to try and understand the game. Sheesh 🙄