Having reclaimed my dining table from the MtG cards (an act that should worry WotC but doesn’t) I’m ready to start playing once again The 7th Continent.

It’s been nearly three years since I last played this game. Which is a shame. It really deserves having the love that playing it gives it.

Since I last played it there has been a new expansion What Goes Up, Must Come Down. Which adds two new curses plus a hot air balloon, a raft, three new explorers and a goat. It was joined by two smaller expansions as well (The Flying Roots and Creature Comforts).

Having been an original backer when I backed the new expansion I was also given an upgrade kit that replaced a handful of cards to make my original version the same as the reprint (ie 2.0).

Yesterday I spent the afternoon replacing cards, adding new ones, and undoing my previous saved game state.

I wanted to start afresh with all the new stuff mixed in.

Naturally I’m going to be boring you with my tales of exploration and adventure on here. I’ve got nothing better to do, have you?

So before I set off on my travels across The 7th Continent I thought I would document the setup for this curse.

In to the action deck are the four cards that come with the new Flying Roots expansion. Plus the new Comfort Creatures (not sure what that adds but it will be interesting to find out). Which with the Face the Elements and Fear the Devourers from the original Kickstarter make up the extra stuff I’m likely to bump into.

Because this is my first play in such a long time I’m using the original games easy mode (card 777) plus the new Prodigy Mode (5 learning from mistakes cards added to the action deck) PLUS the new Immortal Mode (card 888). This later mode is aimed at those more interested in exploring than surviving.

I’m also using the Pocket Watch from the base game.

With the What Goes Up, Must Come Down expansion we also got this rather cool fake leather binder to use instead of the Satchel and Journal card. So all the cards that would normally go under the said card will go in this instead.

Oh and the dice I will be using to track the usage of items will be the cool bone looking dice from the original Kickstarter.

I’ve decided to go with one of the new explorers from What Goes Up, Must Come Down, Anjika Patel.

The curse chosen is the one advised in the rulebook for first plays “The Voracious Goddess”. I didn’t get very far into it anyway three years ago, and can’t remember what I did. So it’s a good starting point.

Right that’s the setup time to go off into the unknown…

A couple of weekends ago I started playing The 7th Continent solo. I’m attempting the recommended first curse “The Voracious Goddess”. Which will be my third attempt! The first two plays were with a second player (different each time). And we never got past a certain point. Which reminds me I am going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible. But I don’t think  it will be possible to do that completely.

For the record I am playing this with all the expansions added to the game, including the bgg promos from GenCon. That means I can possibly come across rockworms (or devourers), plus there can be weather effects as well to consider.

For this first curse I chose the character Victor Frankenstein. Being able to hold an extra idea card is a handy ability to have. Plus I knew coming up one of his skill cards would prove really useful to have.

Because of the previous two plays, I knew exactly what I needed to do to progress past the stumbling block we had hit in them. While doing this streamlined route through the first section of the curse I was able to get three bits of food, build some snow shoes, and built some weapons.

By the time I had completed the first section I was looking in very good shape for my health. I think after eating the food and using one of Victor’s cards, I had only three or four cards at most in the discard pile.

I headed North East from the starting area when presented with three options for direction to travel in. My earlier decision to take the time to make some snow shoes proved very fortuitous. I wasn’t expecting them to be so useful so soon after making them.

It was here at my landing point that I managed to tame a platypus. I would love a pet platypus in real life, so when presented with the option of killing one for food (the easier of the two options) or attempting to tame one, I chose naturally to try and tame it. Now I have a platypus following me around that improves my chances of catching fish! luckily it hasn’t been scared off by the monster I have following me around either. Yeah I know a little cliched, Frankenstein creating a monster, but hey I’m all about the cliche.

All this took me a couple of hours play. I had promised myself that I would map out my route as I played. But I forgot all about it as I explored away. I enjoyed playing The 7th Continent with others. But I absolutely loved it more as a solo game. It also means playing solo I can make more progress because I can get it back to the table easier.

Look out for the next update on Victor’s adventures in the strange land of The 7th Continent.