How to Play Disney Villainous Solo
The Disney Experience | February 27, 2020
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Last Updated March 6, 2022
- Added a special villain rule for Yzma.
- Added a special villain rule for Madam Mim.
- Added a special villain rule for Syndrome.
- Clarified wording for Condition cards.
- Clarified making decisions during Fate actions.
- Changed “Random Devastation” to “Random Decisions.”
- Changed “Other Player” to “Phantom Player.”
Playing Disney Villainous solo allows you to take your time to strategize, plot, and scheme . . . like any good villain. Familiarize yourself with each villain and discover how best to play (or defeat) each.
These rules are also available as a PDF for printing a reference sheet to keep in your game’s box.
Needed Components
To play solo, you will need a turn counter to keep track of your turns. A 20-sided die (D20) works well, but you can also just use Power tokens.
You will also need a 10-sided die (D10), or use Google‘s free dice roller on your PC, tablet, or mobile phone.
Setup
Set up your board as normal, or as indicated by your Villain Guide. Since you are the “first” player, you start with no Power tokens.
Goal/Winning
To win, you must complete your villain’s objective within 20 turns. Can you do it?
Condition Cards
Condition cards are played at the time when the conditions are met by either you or the Phantom player.
When following the instructions on any card (not just Condition cards), you make decisions on behalf of the Phantom player. When cards require the Phantom player to make a decision, make the one most devastating to you at that time†.
†Only take into consideration any face-up cards in the play area, including discard piles, as these are public knowledge. DO NOT consider the cards in your hand, any cards that you have privately seen, or your your future plans as the Phantom player would not know these in a normal multi-player game. When in doubt, try the “Random Decisions” gameplay option.
Fate Actions
You may purposely perform Fate actions on yourself. It sounds counterintuitive, but some villains can use this action to their advantage. These Fate actions are performed by the Phantom player, so they will still do harm.
Begin by drawing two cards from the top of your Fate deck. Play the card that is the most devastating to you at that time†. If both cards are equally devastating, pick one at random (flip a coin, roll a die, etc.).
If the card needs to be played to a Location or attached to a Hero, choose the option that is the most devastating to you at that time†.
If neither card can be played, you have escaped Fate.
†Only take into consideration any face-up cards in the play area, including discard piles, as these are public knowledge. DO NOT consider the cards in your hand, any cards that you have privately seen, or your your future plans as the Phantom player would not know these in a normal multi-player game. When in doubt, try the “Random Decisions” gameplay option.
Ending Your Turn
End your turn as usual, drawing cards from your deck and placing them into your hand (up to your hand limit), and adjust the turn counter by 1. If you have played 20 turns, the game is over.
The Phantom Player’s Turn
The Phantom player’s turn begins after you end your turn. Roll the D10 to check if the Phantom player performs Fate on you. If you roll a 1-4 (40% chance), perform Fate on yourself as previously described, making decisions on behalf of the Phantom player.
When the Phantom player is finished, you may begin your next turn.
Optional Gameplay Options
Adjust the Difficulty Level
If you want to play an easier/harder game, you can adjust any of the following:
- Increase/decrease the number of turns for an easier/harder game. It is not recommended to adjust beyond ±5.
- Increase/decrease the die values that trigger fate for a harder/easier game. It is not recommended to adjust beyond ±2.
- Begin the game with 5 power for an easier start. Increase/decrease the number of starting power as desired.
Random Decisions
For a more honest game, try doing this: don’t make decisions on behalf of the Phantom player.
When it is required for the Phantom player to make a decision, assign values (i.e. numbers, even/odd, heads/tails) to each playable decision and then either roll a die or flip a coin for a completely random choice.
Do the same when choosing between which playable Fate card to play. For choosing where to play a Fate card, assign values to each playable location and roll a die.
Questions/Concerns/Clarifications
If you have any questions, concerns, or need any rule clarifications, please leave a comment, below, in this post. We’ll try to clear up any confusion and amend/update the rules as needed.
Special Villain Rules
Maleficent
“Raven” The Ally card, “Raven,” is a powerful card even in a normal multi-player game. If you feel that it makes the game too easy, play this card without the ability to perform one action at a new location. This way, he can still “fly” to a new location to help other Allies that need just one more strength to defeat a Hero.
Lady Tremaine
“Locked Up” The Condition cards, “Locked Up,” are a bit problematic since they are only triggered when a Vanquish action is performed. Since Lady Tremaine has no Vanquish actions in her realm, play “Locked Up” whenever a Hero is removed from the board. Discarding “Cinderella” to play “Ball Gown Cinderella” does not count.
Gaston
“Maurice’s Invention” If you have an early copy of the game, “Maurice’s Invention” has a misprint that has confused many players because it is an Item card that has its own Strength. Ravensburger has confirmed that this is an error. Treat the card as a normal Item with no Strength.
We covered the Strength with a piece of sticker paper cut with a hole punch.
If you would like a replacement card, Ravensburger will be happy to send you one. You may contact them at customercare@ravensburger.com. Be sure to include your mailing address and the name of the card that you need replaced.
Yzma
Fate Actions When the Phantom player performs a Fate action, assign numerical values to each available Fate deck. Then, roll a die to randomly choose a Fate deck. From the chosen Fate deck, randomly choose a single Fate card to play, and play it. If the card cannot be played, choose another random card from the Fate deck. Continue until one Fate card is played, and shuffle the unused Fate cards back into the Fate deck. Yzma may gain some insight into that Fate deck.
If none of the Fate cards can be played, shuffle them together and return them to the Fate deck. Yzma has escaped Fate, and she has sneakily gleamed the contents of that Fate deck.
Madam Mim
“Germ Merlin” Since the Phantom player cannot perform Vanquish actions, treat the Discard action on “Germ Merlin” as a Vanquish action.
Syndrome
“Infiltrate” Since there are no other actual players, the Effect card, “Infiltrate,” essentially does no harm. Either remove “Infiltrate” from the Fate deck, or leave it in as a dud Fate card.
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Give this ruleset a try if you want better gameplay experience with conditions and also how fating gains you time : https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/245880/solo-mode.
Enjoy !
Cool. Thanks for the link.
Hi, I’ve seen on some rules for solo that you dont go back to your original hand or only up to 3 at the end of your turn if you have used a condition? Is this recommended or is drawing up to 4 better?
In our rules, you always draw back up to four cards at the end of your turn . . . unless there are other cards in play that reduce/increase your hand.
How might we do fate for pete and yzma considering the element of secrecy is important. for yzma, she shouldn’t know where kuzco is, and for pete, the person playing fate shouldn’t know what game tiles are in play and where.
Good questions! I’ll try to get some answers put into the next update to the rules. I have to finish my playthroughs of the new “Bigger and Badder” expansion.
One card that this format makes problematic is Lady Tremaine’s “Locked Up”, which would normally trigger during an opponent’s Vanquish action, but Lady Tremaine has no Vanquish actions in her Realm. How do you think one ought to go about it?
Personally, I tried interpreting this as “every time Tremaine defeats a Hero” i.e. uses “Midnight” or “You Little Thief!” to take out Cinderella, but this ended up being too few and far between to be useful. Otherwise, this was a really fun format, thank you for providing this!
Well, it looks like I haven’t been paying much attention. I didn’t know that a new expansion had been released. To the stores!
Forgive me if this is a duplicate, I didn’t see my comment show up and I think it might be because I didn’t put in my information. Maleficent is overpowered with these rules. If you have the raven, you can easily put green fire on the two sides and never have a reason to go there again. Basically two free, unremovable curses. I won in 8 turns because of that. Other than that, I really appreciate you making this. I played as Prince John and I won on the very last turn, it was a lot of fun.
Sorry, Michael, your comment needed to be approved. I just didn’t get around to approving it quickly enough.
The Raven is a powerful card even in a regular game. I’ll have to play again with Raven in my hand at the start of the game. I also wonder if the Raven can move to any location, or just to an adjacent location. I think it’s just an adjacent location, but the raven would still be pretty powerful.
Also, try playing without the raven. See if that increases the fun factor.
Michael, it would be a shame for Maleficent to lose an ally. Try playing the raven without his ability to perform a new action when he moves. This way, he can still “fly” to support other allies that need just that one extra strength to defeat a hero.
Thank you for these solo rules. All very clear but why not fate as per base game rule: draw two and choose the more devastating one?
You can certainly do that if you like. It was to help keep players honest and break any “ties” between equally devastating cards. These are not official rules, so modify them as you please.
Sorry for the late response.
After careful consideration, you are correct. Players should draw two cards as in a regular multi-player game. We’re changing that rule in the next update.
What about conditions?
You don’t clarify when we can use them.
For example, there are conditions cards that say “when another player defeats a hero with a strength of x or more…”, or “when another player draws x cards…”, when can we use those conditions?
That was addressed in the rules under the Condition Cards section. For condition cards, YOU are the “other player” or “another player.” When you meet the condition, you can immediately play the condition card. You can really use these to your advantage by purposely triggering them. Villains take every advantage that they can. ;)
If the “other player” needs to make any decisions, YOU make them for yourself.
Sorry for the late response.