Hacks and Variants

Solitaire Board Game Challenges for Masochists

PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of another.

— from The Devil’s Dictionary

There are video gamers who get so skilled that they have to make their games harder, often outside of what the game actually allows. With the rise of solo-playable tabletop games, adding extra restrictions to cardboard and dice is becoming a thing.

Samurai Spirit — Pacifist Run

What if the samurai couldn’t kill any of the bandits? This might seem unnecessarily hard since Samurai Spirit already has a Heroic Mode, but some people just hate themselves.

Already, Kyuzo, Kanbei, Gorobei, and Kikuchio are less-than-desirable. Either their Talents or their Kiai effects discard bandits to the graveyard. Also, even the basic Kiai that every samurai has discards raiders, so it’s next to impossible to not kill anyone. Finally, some of the Bosses can force you to discard raiders from your defense slots. The best you can do is try to discard as few raiders as…