Patience

There are many, many, many games designed to be played by one player using a standard deck of cards, or mahjong tiles, or a tarot deck, or some other kind of deck of cards that doesn't have rules printed on them (e.g. /a/ types may be familiar with Hanafuda, the elegant and beautiful Japanese cardset designed to prevent use by gamblers, which is most commonly used by gamblers nowdays; well, there are Hanafuda solitaires); these are commonly known as "Solitaire" (French for "One Person", as all of these games only require one player) or "Patience" (because you only play this kind of game when you're bored). Since Warhammer and D&D come first on this wiki, we'll go by the latter.

Description

The usual method of play is, you shuffle and then deal out a deck of cards/tiles in a particular way, and move cards according to the given set of rules, until either you've moved all the cards to the Foundations, or can make no further progress.

It's Very much a "normie" persuit, but also one that you can geek out to a surprising extent with, particularly once you get into "multiple deck" solitaires.

There are a few notable games:

• Klondike, the "default" Solitaire. Cards are played out in eight ascending columns, with only the top card exposed. The remainder of the cards are the Talon, which you can play on the board according to the "building" rules. You build down by sequence in alternating color (so a Queen of Hearts can be played on a King of Spades or Clubs), and move to the Foundations in a strictly ascending suit manner (so the 4 of Spades can only go on the 3 of Spades).
• FreeCell, the other contender for the throne of "most popular solitaire". The rules are similar to Klondike, only all cards are dealt to the board, face up, and you have four "Free Cells" that allow you to move cards when not directly building. Makes it harder to move cards around than Klondike, but because you have more freedom of movement and all the information, is also much, much more winnable.
  • If you feel the need to know more about these two variants, go consult Windows 98.
• Yukon, which is an attempt to improve Klondike; the entire deck is put on the columns, so there's no futzing about with a deck. You'll probably find it more fun than Klondike if you enjoy Sudoku; it's roughly the same kind of fun.
• Spider. Called by its fans "the best, smartest solitaire", and, other than maybe FreeCell, may have the best claim to the title.
• Shanghai, or Mahjong Solitaire: You have a pile of Mahjong tiles. You can pair and remove them if they are completely uncovered and have either the left or right edge free. Do not confuse with actual Mahjong, which is a gambling game, with all that implies.
• Various simple matching games; for example "Simple Pairs", a game of matching cards that pair up, or "Thirteens", a game of matching cards that add up to 13, or "Fourteens" (take a wild guess).
• Various games centered around triangular arrangements of cards, most notably "TriPeaks" and "Pyramid". Usually overlaps with the matching games, above.

Multi-deck versions of most of the above exist, as do Solitaire games for just about every other kind of deck of cards that doesn't have rules on them--and there are plenty of those.

If you want to play without bothering with all the cards, there are plenty of computer versions available. Particularly recommended is PySolFC.

In Other Settings

In trading card games, certain deck types are derided as "solitaire" since the opponent's field state has minimal, if any, impact on your win beyond how fast you have to pull it off and the reverse is true of your opponent. One common example of this is Exodia decks in Yu-Gi-Oh, where your opponent can't really interact with your game and it's just a contest to kill you before you draw all the needed cards. Outside of historical formats, even hand destruction isn't an option to provide interactivity since, even if it weren't a counter to a single deck type, the cheese of Delinquent Duo ensured future hand destruction options were comparatively limited and modern Exodia decks have recycling options anyways. If Exodia wasn't so iconic this would have gotten it banned ages ago.

Similarly, some deckbuilding games amount to "competitive solitaire"; in particular, the accusation has been fielded most heavily against Dominion.

Card Games
Collectible Card Games:	Call of Cthulhu - Cardfight!! Vanguard - Fire Emblem Cipher Force of Will - Jyhad - Magi-Nation Duel - Magic: The Gathering Netrunner - Pokémon - Star Wars: Destiny CCG (Dead) - Yu-Gi-Oh
Other Card Games:	1000 Blank White Cards - 7th Sea - Apples to Apples - Bang! Cards Against Humanity - Coup - Decktet - Dominion - Dvorak F.A.T.A.L. - Keyforge - Mafia - Mag Blast - Mao - Munchkin Race for the Galaxy - Sentinels of the Multiverse - Tanto Cuore
Traditional Card Games:	Bridge - Cribbage - Mahjong - Solitaire/Patience - Poker - Rummy - Tarot