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The differences in character classes should be enough to warrant assigning your highest dice to the rows worth the most points. But if that were all there was to it, we would not be reviewing Roll Player right now. There is more. One card per player describes the backstory of the characters, explaining that they are a hunter, a craftsman
or an aristocrat, for
examples. These traits
are represented simply
by the distribution of
six different die colors,
defining what should
end up at specific rows
and columns on your
character sheet. Five
correct placements
will be worth three
points, six score twice
that. Often, therefore,
the color of the die
you choose will be more important than getting a high number – especially since the pips can be taken care of later.
Now let’s get back to the six rows on the character sheet. They let you screw around with the numbers – at least some of them do. Whenever you place a die, you trigger the action of the correspond- ing attribute. If you choose the Strength row to place in, then you can turn any die you have to its opposite side, preferably a 1 to a 6, for example. With the help of the Dexterity skill, you move a die, or modify your stats, using Constitution. The combination of player order, target value, die position and die color, as well as your specific attributes, creates a veritable dilemma practically every time you have to choose a die. It quickly becomes clear that something as simple as choosing a die and buying cards ten times is a real head scratcher.
There is initially no shortage of spaces where color doesn’t really matter, and low numbers can safely be dumped there to be dealt with later. You buy a piece of leather armor in the hopes that the remaining parts will appear, and let you
complete the full leather set. The world seems Ok. But that impression is deceptive. Pretty soon, you begin to question whether any red dice exist in the damned bag at all, and how can it happen that
you are always last in the very moment that some interesting gear is offered in the market. Or why you have no money right at that moment, should it, against all expectations, be still available. As you place the dice, compromises jumble together, and then one attribute row after another looks like it will be irreparably
ness. And placing a die there to save the stronger options for the future is a solid strategic move.
Whether the various player elements (Race, Class, Backstory, as well as the not-yet-mentioned Alignment) are actu- ally balanced, I can’t judge. It turns out that some combos that at first appear
very strong are not that overpowered. In any case, the variable defining features in each game provide for easy-to-under- stand, but noticeably different, starting conditions. This, together with a man- ageable playing time, prevents the game from feeling repetitive, despite its simple mechanics, and keeps my interest in Roll Player quite high. For me, it will last at least until 2018 when the first expansion, Monsters & Minions, appears. It’s too bad that I missed the Kickstarter cam- paign. Matthias Hardel/sb
below your target. Is it possible that the others will reach, with uncanny certainty, for the exact dice that you need? Abso- lutely. And that’s exactly why Roll Player is addictive. A three-player game wraps up in half an hour, and no one wants to let the shame of a suboptimal play sit in their memory – even if the others ended up even worse. So, let’s play again right now!
I Attributes aren’t
equally useful
With his first game, Bullfrogs, the
designer attracted the attention of his colleague L.U. Dikus in 2015. He wrote: “The Wars of the Roses in 15th-century England were probably fought no more fiercely than the struggle for lily pads in Keith Matejka’s Bullfrogs.” With Roll Player, Keith Matejka has once again been able to turn a few, simple compo- nents into a thrilling whole, one where increasingly tricky decisions come up one after another.
As Stefan Ducksch notes below, not all of the attributes are equally useful. The one gold purchase discount that you get for placing a die in your Cha- risma column is undoubt- edly weak, but constitutes no problem in my opinion, especially since all char- acters share this weak-
Title: Publisher: Designer: Artist:
Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Roll Player Thunderworks Games Keith Matejka
Luis Francisco, John Ariosa
1–4 (for two: ➙) about 10+ years about 45–60 minutes about $60
Reviewer Playing appeal
Matthias Hardel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Stefan Ducksch*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Alan How. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
* The bonus actions for Intelligence and Charisma are too weak compared to the others. Otherwise a nice game.
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