Rolling Realms

15th January 2022

The Wogglecon day of gaming continued with Rolling Realms.

They see me rollin'
They hatin'
Patrollin' and tryna catch me ridin' dirty

OK, Rolling Realms isn't about rapping but it is about rolling and is a quirky little roll-and-write mini-game collection.

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What's in a game?

• Realm cards: These are mini-game cards, there are 6 sets of 11 identical cards in different player colours.
  Each mini-game references a game already released by the publisher such as the Wingspan mini-game which loosely emulates the 3 habitat tracks from Wingspan. 
  Each card has a different layout and is played and scored differently and will provide resources and VPs in their own way.
  Along the bottom of each realm card is a row of 6 stars which translate into VPS.
  
• ​Dice: Rolling Realms wouldn't be much of a roll & write game without something to roll. The game makes use of pair of normal six-siders which are slightly oversized and chunky with distinct hexagonal pips, the dice feel weighty and satisfying to roll.
• Resource tracker cards: There is 1 in each player colour and they are used to track the game's 3 sets of resources; peaches, hearts and coins.
• Score/dice tracker cards: Again there is 1 in each player colour. It contains 9 sets of 2 squares to track dice rolls and along the bottom are 3 squares to track scoring and a end square to track the final score

That's pretty much it for components other than pens and wipe-cloths.

All the cards in the game feel reasonably sturdy especially since they're laminated. 
The dice are definitely a nice touch and have been manufactured with rounded corners, they're about as good as non-wooden dice can get.

Rolling Realms features almost no art except some stylistically simplistic illustrations on a few cards, which is fine as otherwise it would probably interfere with whole roll & write thing.

The game's core iconography which appears across all cards is easily comprehensible, however, each individual mini-game is likely to contain its own unique icons which must all be learned.

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How's it play?
Setup

• Cards: Give each player the realm cards, score and resource tracking cards in their colour. All players should set out the scoring and resource cards in their personal playing areas.
• Prepare realms: Select a player to shuffle their realm cards into a face-down deck, draw 3 and put them out. Put the remaining realm cards aside as they will be used in later rounds
  All other players should find the same realm cards and place them out.
• Dice: Choose a player to roll the first set of dice.

On to play
Rolling Realms is played over 3 rounds and each round consists of 9 turns, which means 9 sets of dice are rolled each round, there is no turn order in the normal sense and players resolve their choices simultaneously.

• Roll the dice: The 2 dice are rolled and each should record the result as individual results on their score tracker, a result '3' & '5' should be written as '3' & '5' on the tracker.
• Resolve dice: Players then apply the dice to the mini-games as they see fit, with the following restriction.
  Each die can only be used once and each realm can only be activated once: Thus 2 realms will be activated once per turn. Although the expenditure of resources can change this. Once all players have finished their actions, play progresses to the next turn.
• Use resources: A player may spend the resources they've accumulated at any time.
  Peaches: These resources allow players to modify the result of a die up or down. They may also be spent to allow a die to be used on a realm that's already been activated, thus allowing 2 dice to be used in a single realm in a single turn.
  Hearts: Spending these resources allows a player to duplicate a die result that has been rolled, giving them an extra die to use in the realm they haven't activated.
  Coins: Coins can also be used to gain a 3rd die, its value is equal to the coins spent.
  
• Next roll: The dice are rolled again and players record the results again, then they choose how to use the dice again.
• End of round: Play progresses on until all 9 turns have been completed and scores are then calculated.
  Mini-games can score up to 6 points each, unspent resources score 0.1 VPs each. Points are then tallied in the allotted space.
• Next round: Players wipe all their resources off their resources card, regardless of whether they were spent or not. Then the tracked dice numbers should be wiped off the score tracker, obviously the round score should not be wiped off!
  ​New cards: Next, from the unused realm cards set aside earlier, randomly draw 3 more, all other players should put out the same realm cards.
  Now we're ready to begin the next round.

Endgame
Once 3 rounds have been completed, that is 9 realm cards have been used, then the game is over. Players should calculate their results from all 3 round.
Points are tallied, highest score wins.

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Overall
Rolling Realms is undeniably unique and inventive, a game about mini-games based on games that the publisher has already released. It's impressive how the mini-games generally manage to distil a game's mechanic and/or them down to a simple, related iteration and one that makes use of numbers 1 to 6!
The game comes with 11 realm cards and the publisher has released a bunch of expansions and promo cards go along with it.

Rolling Realms balances its priorities quite well and mostly makes player decisions meaningful. Players will naturally want to focus on using dice to gain VPs but neglecting resources will give them lass flexibility later on
Because the game uses a randomiser, it's hard to plan ahead, that 6 you really need to earn you those last couple of points on a card might never appear.... That means that players need a dollop of adaptability to manage unwanted numbers and that's when resources come in useful.
Particularly useful are the abilities to generate a 3rd die result, it can essentially increase your gains by 50%.

It's hard to summarise Rolling Realms because there is a lot of little things going on, but I did enjoy it, the variation provides an interesting challenge and every round brought a new set of challenges. A game that uses a lot of mini-games risks being a mixed bag and couple were a bit more obtuse than the others but there were no outright stinkers.

Having said that, it felt like a bit of a chore having to go explain 3 sets of rules to unfamiliar players each round, especially since it seems there will always be this one player who just doesn't get something.
I also felt the game sat in weird middle-ground of being a bit too long for a filler but a bit too short for a main game for the night. The box says 30 mins, but that's highly ambitious in my opens.
These are minor quibbles though.

The mini-games are reasonable light but provides enough depth and definitely variation to keep most players engaged. It's one I'd play again