Let’s be upfront, I’ve loved, no cherished, no savoured, okay maybe all of the above my time with Rolling Realms as it’s evolved from a print and play back in 2020, which we would print out each week and play remotely during the COVID19 pandemic, and Rolling Realms is one I’ve come back to occasionally ever since. It’s not, however, a product I’ve physically owned knowing that several others have pretty much everything. But that changes with Rolling Realms Redux, which I was fortunate enough to be sent a copy of for review. So you could say this is my new origin story with Rolling Realms. After a 4 year hiatus, I’m rediscovered and born again? Or is that too much for a board game review.
Rolling Realms redux is well. I’m not sure how to describe it almost overwhelming from that game I originally played back in 2020. Like I’ve jumped in to a video game part way through and I’ve forgotten the tutorial or there’s been a gradual tutorial as you played through, but I’ve skipped that and gone straight to the DLC. That would be my assessment. And I probably don’t need to go into it more, right?
Okay, if you insist. Rolling Realms is a roll and write game in which, over the course of 3 rounds, you’ll be aiming to score the most points. At the start of each round, one player shuffles their deck of realms and chooses 3 at random. Every other player then picks out the realms from their deck. A round consists of 9 turns, in which each turn one player will roll the two dice. All players then write those two numbers of their score card.
Then we get to using the realms for this round, you may use each dice once, each in a different realm. You may create extra dice and gain resources, but ideally, you want to gain stars. As at the end of 9 turns, you’ll add up your stars earned, write them on your scorecard, and then start a new round with 3 new realms.
Rolling realms Redux comes with 12 realms, Flammecraft, poker, Planet Unknown, The Guild of merchant express, dog park, wonderlands war, legacy of yu, rock-paper scissors, atiwa, Meadow, spaceshipped and Tidal blades.
Each realm acts and resolves, completing differently, like mini games, and throughout a game of Rolling Realm, you’ll visit 9 of them.
Atiwa, for example, requires you to outline terrain cards or circle bats on outlined terrain cards. Before then, marking off bats to gain resources. You then gain points for outlined terrain cards, circled and marked bats.
While Planet Unknown, which might be my personal favourite. It is essentially playing a polymino game. With you aiming to complete rows for stars.
On the other hand, dog park has you walking dogs, although you’ll want to stop to ensure you gain resources and stars. And you definitely can’t walk more than one dog at a time!
There’s a sense here for me that these realms feel more complicated than what I remember, and for me that as someone who is almost playing Rolling Realms as a new player there’s a lack of intuitiveness here than is overbearing. Take, for example, Poker. There are 3 ways to use the dice, fair enough. But those clarifications aren’t on the card because there’s too many rules for the poker card. And that fundamentally is just the iceberg of what Rolling Realms Redux feels like, not an entry point for Rolling Realms but rather a celebration of its past and future. However, in isolation, Rolling Realms feels weird, see I don’t own any other realms. So I’ve got this compendium of rules, which I don’t need probably about 80% of (there are 65 realms in the compendium, I only have 12) which means I’ve also got a box with a whole lot of space.
Rolling realms Redux doesn’t feel like an entry point but rather a point of completion for those who are already heavily invested in everything Rolling Realms. Now the marketer inside me also sees Rolling Realms Redux as a marketing point for what Rolling Realms has to offer, the experience within the Redux box is enough to have me looking at promos and considering other realms that I want to try out. And I guess that’s what you could argue Rolling Realms Redux does, it offers a starting point from which you’ll be able to have everything in one place. But the experience of what’s in the redux box alone is a little underwhelming, a little over complicated and like a cake that’s missing the icing. Or like a video game that you’ve jumped into the DLC of.
As you know, I rate games on a scale of:
Buy or play
Wait for sale or play if you like game XYZ
Avoid
Rolling Realms Redux, is a it really depends. If you’re already a fan of Rolling Realms and want more Realms, then this an obvious buy! There’s no other recommendation for existing Rolling Realms fans, it offers a storage solution that fits everything in one, it has all the rules in one and allegedly teases the future. As someone who hasn’t actually looked at what promos are and aren’t available, I couldn’t tell you which Realms are to come in future product/promo releases.
But if you’ve never played, heard of or even loosely considering Rolling Realms? I think Rolling Realms Redux gets a favourable “play if you like roll and write games”. I don’t think Rolling Realms redux or indeed Rolling Realms will do enough for anyone who hates roll and write games with such a burning desire they want there to be no more roll and writes ever (I’ve met some of these people!).
But if you enjoy games like Ganz Schon Clever, Three Sisters, and Railroad ink. Then I feel like I can comfortably recommend that you check out Rolling Realms. HOWEVER, that doesn’t have to be the product point of Rolling Realms Redux. I think just playing any version of Rolling Realms would be worth checking out! Whether that’s the original “Rolling realms” or a cobbled together game of promos. My caveat with Rolling Realms Redux is that it feels like you’re jumping in at the DLC rather the original experience which I think eases you in better. Although for any seasoned gamer this level of rules is unlikely to phase you, but in terms of explaining, ease of teach and new player accessibility (e.g. new to roll and writes) Rolling Realms Redux has a barrier that can’t be overlooked.
