In Roll Player, you’ll create the best fantasy adventurer, preparing your character to embark on an epic quest. Your Race, Class, hero alignment, along with acquired skills, traits, and equipment, will determine how you’ll roll and draft dice to build up your character’s optimal attributes!

This post is the first of a series of Roll Player “Universe” games – starting with the base game of Roll Player and ending with the epic Roll Player Adventures! Next up will be Cartographers ending with Cartographers Heroes. Then you’ll learn about Lockup: A Roll Player Tale and end with their newest expansion – which I don’t have yet, but should have it by the end of this series.

Initial Thoughts

I have to admit that I initially didn’t hop on the Roll Player bandwagon, thinking I should have at least played Dungeons and Dragons or something. But as a video gamer, of course, I know about roleplaying! My favorite video game characters all have these attributes – STRength, DEXterity, INTelligence, CHArisma, and so on. But even if you don’t know what this all means, you’ll still have fun creating the perfect character!

So I know Roll Player Adventures recently came out, and so many people are raving about it. So last week, I decided to start with the base game, then work my way through Monsters & Minions and Fiends & Familiars, and I’ll end with a solo campaign (is that what I’d call it?) of Roll Player Adventures! I have the original game and the expansions but only played the base game before.

Yes, this is a dice game, but there are so many ways to manipulate that dice; you always feel in control. You can use the attribute row actions, purchase helpful equipment, skills, and traits, or use your class abilities.

Roll Player Setup

Place the 73 dice in the dice bag. All players roll a die, and the player with the highest roll is the Start Player. Each player takes five gold. Player count over 2 takes one additional gold, so 3rd player takes three gold, and 4th player takes four gold and so on.

Choose one of the 6 Character Sheets included with the base game. This sheet is where most of your action takes place! If you buy more character sheets or have expansions, you’ll have more to choose from. The base game includes Elf, Dwarf, Dragonkin, Halfling, Human, and Orc. Each sheet is double-sided, so you can choose a female or male character (other than the profile graphic, everything else is the same for that Race). Each Race (except for Human) has one stat they have a boost and one stat they are weak in.

Choosing your Class

Next, you can choose your Class or randomly pull a die from the bag to determine Class. The color of that dice will determine your Class; take the class card of that color and choose one of the classes. Each Class has a unique ability, don’t forget like I usually do! I suggest making sure your Race has strengths in the higher Class attributes for the Class you select.

Backstory and Alignment

Each player gets a random Backstory and Alignment Card and two class color tracking cubes. Place one cube in the center of the Alignment card and the other on the Class card to help score at the end game. The Backstory card has a bit of flavor text, but you’re looking at the chart with the colors and positions in the attribute row. The more you match your dice to this, the more points you’ll get. Each Backstory card contains all six colors – with color down the first column, two colors down the middle column, and three colors down the last column, so they are all equal in the end.

How to Play Roll Player

The Player Aid cards come in handy here. Play over a series of rounds until player sheets are full. Rounds have 4 phases:

1. Roll Phase – The Start player draws dice from dice bag equal to the number of initiative cards in play and rolls them, placing them in ascending order on the Initiative cards.
2. Dice Phase – Beginning with the Start Player, players take turns selecting an Initiative card with its die and any Gold on it, placing the die on their character sheet, collecting Gold, and taking an Attribute Action based on the row the die was placed.
3. Market Phase – In order of Initiative cards where the player with the lowest number goes first, players can buy cards from the market with gold. They may choose not to buy a card. They select a card from the Market, discard it, and gain 2 gold.
4. Cleanup Phase – Players discard any unused Charisma tokens. Refresh one Skill card by turning it upright. Return the remaining die to the bag and discard remaining Market cards. Draw new Market cards, placing 1 gold on the cards that are neither the first nor last in the row. Pass dice bag to the player on the left.

Attribute Actions

After placing the die on the character sheet, you can take the Attribute Action associated with that row:

• Strength – Flip any dice to the face value on the opposite side of the die. (Turn a 1 into a 6.)
• Dexterity – Exchange any two dice without changing their face values.
• Constitution – Increase or decrease a die by 1.
• Intelligence – Reroll a dice, choosing to keep the new or original value.
• Wisdom – Move the tracking token on the Alignment card one space.
• Charisma – Gain a Charisma token for the round, which grants a 1 coin discount when buying a market card.

Ways to Gain Gold

You’ll want gold to purchase weapons, armor, skills, and traits. Players gain gold in the following ways:

• 2 Gold when placing a gold die on a Character Sheet
• 2 Gold when discarding a Marketplace card instead of buying one
• 1 Gold when filling the third die in an Attribute Row
• 1 Gold when selecting an Initiative card with Gold on it

End Game and Final Scoring

Once players have filled all Attribute Rows with dice on their sheets, that round is complete, and then it’s time to add the scores.

Take the tracking token from the class card and flip the Player Aid card to tally Reputation Stars. Every player sheet also has a Scoring chart in the bottom right corner to make it easy to remember.

1. Attribute Goals
2. Class Color Dice
3. Alignment Card
4. Backstory Card
5. Armor Cards
6. Trait Cards

The player with the most Reputation Stars wins the game!

Bling for Roll Player Game

I knew I’d be playing a lot of this game, so I added quite a bit of official Roll Player bling as well as an insert. I ended up choosing Folded Space insert, as they’re inexpensive, and the insert I originally wanted was out of stock.

• Roll Player Custom Metal Coin Set
• Roll Player Playmat
• Additional Roll Player races – Frogkin and Minotaur Promo Punchboards
• Folded Space Roll Player Insert – Compatible with Roll Player base game, Monsters & Minions, and Fiends & Familiars – must use the base box plus one expansion box or the Roll Player Big Box
• Dice tower that fit the theme
• Card sleeves – I used Dragon Shield sleeves for this game

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