Rolling Realms Redux – The Durst of Times
Roll and Writes tend to be a somewhat maligned genre in the hobby boardgame sphere, seen as lacking interaction and often boiling down to little more than luck dependent efficiency puzzles. Fortunately for many game designers, I’m a bit of a sucker for dice and efficiency puzzles. One of the more expansive entries is publisher Stonemaier Games’ Rolling Realms Redux and its progenitor, Rolling Realms. A byproduct of COVID-19 isolation and lockdowns, the original title was designer Jamie Stegmaier’s answer to bringing large groups of people together to game in a virtual space with just a pen, two dice and a few cards to get underway. While Rolling Realms Redux isn’t going to remedy the issues of low interaction and wild swings, it does offer a variety filled and flexible title that can be taught to almost anyone in just a few minutes.
Rolling Realms’ gameplay is straightforward – players receive a set of Realm cards, each originally based on another property made by Stegmaier’s company, Stonemaier Games, and uses the result of pair of d6 dice to write numbers on these cards. The conceit is that each card is its own minigame in a way, channelling some of the spirit of its larger namesake in the case of A Feast for Odin, or even traditional titles like Rock, Paper Scissors and Poker. Redux brings 12 new Realm cards into the fold, upping the difficulty with more involved ways to use each die roll and can be integrated with the original Rolling Realms, as well as an incredible number of Promotional Realm cards available from Stonemaier, many of which feature famous and beloved modern hobby games. An included Compendium booklet details how each of these Promo Realms functions in game and gives an idea as to whether any of them are worth seeking out. As an owner of many of the titles these cards are based on, it’s fun to see how Stegmaier has worked to adapt larger ideas and mechanisms into a single card, such as the Lost Ruins of Arnak Realm card which mirrors the Temple track in that game that players pay resources to ascend – here, it’s specific dice rolls and combinations that allow movement up to unlock increasing rewards.
The production in Redux is the same high level of quality Stonemaier Games has become synonymous with, from the large weighty dice to the included tuckbox for portability and card dividers to organise the different card types. With three booklets to cover the base rules, solo rules and the Promo Realms rules, each is a lovely linen finish stock that feels both durable and pleasing to hold – one of the many strengths of Stegmaier and his larger design team is their understanding that boardgaming is an inherently tactile hobby and ensuring everything in a game is pleasing to interact with physically can make a fine-to-good play experience into a good-to-great one. As far as I’m concerned however, the biggest leap Redux makes over its predecessor is the new solo mode from Morten Monrad Pedersen, the progenitor of Automa style solo modes, alongside co-designers Karel Titeca and Lieve Teugels. With just 14 cards, this team turn Rolling Realms Redux into an exciting tournament nicknamed RRR Ball, with 5 Leagues of difficulty which require a series of 10 ‘Matches’ to be played across a ‘Season’ – essentially, at least 50 plays to complete the entire thing. Compared to the solo mode included in the original Rolling Realms, RRR Ball is far more involved and rewarding in the long term but requires a fair amount of up-front investment to get underway, especially for players who may not have a lot of experience running solo modes. It’s easy enough to save progress between ‘matches’, but RRR Ball is better saved for wanting a lengthier game session of an hour or more as opposed to something that can be done and dusted in 20 minutes.
Support for 1-6 players means Rolling Realms Redux is extremely flexible in terms of player count and is technically only limited by the number of copies of Realm cards in the box, meaning combining multiple copies could increase the player count without any hassle. The included tuck box in Redux also makes it a handy travel game to take on trips, though perhaps with a smaller pair of dice than the behemoths included in the box – they feel great to roll, with nice heft and easy to read pips but aren’t exactly fun sized. If anything, the tuckbox itself serves to highlight the fact that the Redux box is very oversized in a clear effort to function as an all-in-one storage solution for the wider range of Rolling Realms content for collectors.
When looking to expand Redux, the sheer variety of content on offer is staggering but will require investment from players that can add up quite quickly – each of the 47 Promo realms costing $7AUD – however, most players would be quite content with the base Rolling Realms and Redux presenting the best value for money, perhaps buying the odd Promo pack based upon their very favourite boardgames. Rolling Realms Redux doesn’t quite make it to the top three of my all-time favourite roll and writes (Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game, Ganz Schon Clever and La Granja: No Siesta! For reference) but it is a good entry point in the genre that also pulls double duty as a sort of miniature taster for a much wider range of classic and modern hobby games that can serve as a guide for next steps.
Rolling Realms Redux was kindly provided to Player2 by Stonemaier Games for review purposes. You can support Player2 by purchasing a copy using this Amazon AU link.
