I am so excited!!!!
Recently, Res Arcana became available on BoardGameArena.com . This game has been on my wishlist since it came out, and honestly I kind of forgot about it. As soon as I saw it on BGA, I was very excited to learn and give it a try. I was 100% NOT disappointed!!!!

Within the first game, I knew I liked it...
By the time I was into my second game I knew I had to get it...
Just after starting my third game, Res Arcana flew to the top of my wishlist...
By the end of game four (my first and only victory), I set up a notification on a couple of my board game store websites to let me know when it's back in stock.
Fast forward just a few days later, and my purchase was confirmed this morning after I got a notification from boardgamebliss.com
I can't wait to get the physical copy to the table soon!! :)
Well done! The gameplay seems a bit too abstract to me, but I'll wait for your session report. 😊
I think it really holds to the theme well. I considered it engine building as well (which I love) but they don't list that on BGG which is interesting.
BGG says 2-4 Players. Does it have a viable Solo Variant?
Yep, there's at least one fan made solo variant on the forum. :)
I'm a huge fan of Tom Lehmann's games. And I think this one is very interesting. Scott Czysz (of Pocket Landship game) liked Res Arcana so much he created a simple solo variant. It's in the files on BGG. Could you please try it for me Derek? I just need a tiny little bit convincing. 😄
Oh fantastic! I'll try that one first and let you know JW. Sounds like my copy should arrive mid-week if all goes well. :)
I'm beginning to enjoy Tom Lehmann's games more for sure. I'm not completely sold on Race for the Galaxy (still - for whatever reason) yet I keep going back to it. It's a good game, it just doesn't grab me immediately like Res Arcana did. I play RFTG on BGA and I purchased the digital version on Steam for now.
He definitely has peaked my interest to try more of his games. :)
@Derek Arsenault I'm always interested in a digital session of RftG 😁 You know it supports asynchronous play, right? At least it does on Android, so I suppose it does on Steam as well. As you're supposed to be able to play against each other cross-platform.
JW, you mentioned Tom Lehmann, so I went to see all he games he had designed. Quite a few! A couple of older ones (1992), too, as seen below.
Time Agent:
and Fast Food Franchise:
But the interesting one (to me) was Dice Realms. BGG has very little on it (not even a year), and the listed publisher, Rio Grande Games, doesn't even mention it on their Website. Some of the BGG Commenters, said they had played prototypes back in Sep 2019. One person said they had played a near-finished version back then. Nothing about it on Kickstarter, either.
My question is, "Where the Hell is it?"
@JW I got my copy of Res Arcana today and unboxed it this afternoon. I tried the "Invisible Mage" solo variant by Scott Czysz you mentioned. Two words about sums it up: "Holy crap!"
It's definitely simple to understand - not so simple to win. LOL I really feel I got a handle on the game very quickly, but this will keep me busy for a bit I think. LOL I enjoyed it though.
Ehm, thanks, I guess. (starts counting money)