We are getting close to launching Lawyer Up: Season 2 and over the past month or so have really been focusing on expanding the solo content for the game. Thank you to everyone that has pushed us to delve into the solo experience more with your comments, questions and feedback.

TLDR

The short version is that we will be offering a Solo Expansion that expands on the solo mode in the base game. This expansion will include a new solo base deck, Automa personality cards, and case-specific card effects that work with every case released thus far. If you're a player looking to get into the nitty gritty of the rules, read on!

Solo Expansion

The asymmetry of Lawyer Up and the way each case is drastically different from one another made coming up with a solo mode and a competent AI that could adapt to all of these changing variables very difficult. That is why the base game solo mode is recommended for only Case 00. We actually expected more players to experiment and use the Automa in the other cases more, but when that didn't happen we took it upon ourselves to reevaluate and improve Lawyer Up's solo gaming experience.

Solo Base Deck

After a lot of experimenting, one of the first things we settled on was adapting the base decks from the core game (the decks full of each players' arguments and procedures) into a Solo Base Deck that is shuffled together with the drafted case cards for the Automa. This allowed us to define a lot of solo player effects onto all of these cards. Furthermore, it allowed us to rewrite the Automa's procedures to be more like traps that the player has to work around.

This deck instantly made solo gaming more fun since each of these cards had their own unique effects that mimic the base cards of the Prosecution and Defense decks. This still didn't fix the issues with all the asymmetry and special effects between cases though...

Building an AI Player

As we poured over the original game's rules, we focused on all the decisions a player makes during each phase of the game and thought about how we could capture this with an AI opponent.

Players will build an Automa player by selecting a Personality card, a Discovery card, and the Questioning card corresponding to the Automa’s role and the selected case. Some cases have Neutral Questioning cards that can be used for the Automa to play either role.

Personality card (left), Questioning card (center), and Discovery card (right)

While some of these cards can be mixed and matched, the role you want the AI to play (Prosecution) and the Case you choose will define which Questioning card you use. After you select/setup the Automa Player, you will take two dice - one bias die with a symbol on each face and a standard d6 die.

Discovery

We wanted the Automa to affect the player's drafting, so that is what the discovery card does. The Discovery card lays out drafting restrictions for the player to work around. Roll both dice, then draft with the condition matching the bias die for the next X rounds, where X is the result of the d6. Each round of drafting consists of the player drawing 3 cards at a time and choosing a card to add to the player’s deck, a card to add to the Automa’s deck and a card to bury in the Buried Evidence, but the Discovery card will affect this and typically automatically assign one of these cards based on its conditions. When Discovery is over, you can flip the Automa’s Discovery card over to the Pass Conditions side.

Calling a Witness and Swaying Jurors

The back of the Automa's Personality card defines its decisions and how it calls witnesses and sways jurors (similar to the original game's Automa's Decisions reference card). The other side defines the Automa's sidebar action ability.

Questioning a Witness

This is where the bulk of the game is played and we wanted to honor the core game and original solo mode. It was really important to us to expand the solo mode to the different mechanics of each case, so this is where the new Questioning/Victory effect card comes in that defines the Automa's role (prosecution or defense) and is case-specific so it can lean into the examine effects of that case's cards. We also have the Automa's Sidebar ability and potentially procedures that they can put into play, so we had to restructure the Automa's turn a bit:

At the start of the Automa’s turn, roll both dice. Then resolve the Automa’s action based on the result in the following order:

Check if the Pass condition based on the d6 result has been met. If it has, the Automa passes.
Check the Automa’s Procedures in play. If a Procedure can be activated, the Automa activates the procedure as its action. If multiple procedures can be activated, the player decides which one to trigger.
Check to see if the Automa’s Sidebar ability triggers. If it does, the Automa resolves this ability as its action. Exhaust the Automa’s sidebar.
If none of the above are resolved as the Automa’s action, the Automa takes an Examination action. Draw 1 card from the Automa’s deck. If this card is one of the cards from the base solo deck, the Automa plays this card to its examination and resolve the card’s Examine effect. If this card is a case specific card (marked with “case XX”), the Automa adds this card to its examination without resolving the card’s Examine effect. Instead, check if this card has a Bias symbol matching your rolled bias die result. If it does, trigger the effect on the Questioning Step card instead.

Resolving Witness

If the Automa wins a Witness and has a case-specific card with a Victory effect on top, you will need to roll the bias die and trigger the rolled result outlined on the Victory side of the Questioning card. Then, you will trigger the Victory effect of the Witness (as best you can). The Automa's Decision card will layout the way it spends influence on the Jury.

Hopefully that gives you an in-depth look at what's coming to the solo mode of Lawyer Up. If that was too nitty gritty, let me know in the comments below. I'd also love to know which cases you're most excited for: