Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
Please thumb this review if you appreciate my work. It does put a smile on my face to know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type – Dice Game (Expansion for base game)
Play Time: 50-120 minutes
Number of Players: 1-5
Mechanics – Dice Rolling, Dice Allocation\Manipulation, Drafting, Set Collection, Variable Player Powers
Difficulty – Moderate (Requires a few plays to see how the various elements fit together in order to do well)
Components – Excellent++
Artist – <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON>
Release – 2018
Designer – <PERSON> -( Bullfrogs, Floriferous, Herbaceous, Maul Peak,All things Roll Player, Roll Player: Adventures, Skulk Hollow, Sunset Over Water, The Whatnot Cabinet)
Overview and Theme
Welcome back to the lands of Roll Player, fellow adventurer. Once it was enough to simply 'be', decked out in your finery, weapons gleaming, skills at the ready and traits to define you. Your attributes were key to your success as a hero of the realm, but things have changed.
Now, it is time for action! An evil Monster is menacing the lands of the king and they have sent foul Minions to do their bidding. It is time...time to put that gleaming sword and wicked sling to use! The king has ordered you to make plans, it is time to prepare yourself once again and this time you will need to discover the secrets of your quarry if you are to stand any chance of slaying it.
That is the backdrop to the first expansion for Roll Player. It adds to the scope of the game by adding the additional action of 'Going on a Hunt', which allows a player to forgo the regular Marketplace Actions to instead fight a Minion and in doing so, learn about their master, the Monster who is the centre point of the game's climax.
I will not be covering all of the rules to Roll Player here, instead I would direct you to my review of the base game(Roll Player - A Detailed Review).
Here I will be covering new actions and most importantly, how the game is changed and the new considerations brought about by the content of this expansion. I will also discuss the solo game and any differences there as well.
Grab me that longsword <PERSON>...and yes you better sharpen it this time. The bloody king actually wants me to fight a Monster. 470
But... (whimper) I've just had my hair done!!!
The Components
and its primary adventurer in <PERSON> a great job of producing a high quality game. All of the cards feature a matte\linen finish and it all feels like care was taken. Sure the game costs more than some games via Kickstarter (which is how I got my copy), but I am prepared to reward a company that goes the extra mile. I have no connections to the company in any way.
New Character Sheets – In all the expansion offers up 5 new Character Types in the form of the Bastja (cat-people), Construct (mechanical being...think <PERSON>'s sister [Nebula] in Guardians of the Galaxy), <PERSON>, Gnome and Wrathborn (devil kin).
The boards are nice and thick as per the original game and have lovely cutaways to place dice. Space is also afforded to allow elements such as Class, Backstory and Alignment Cards to be placed and managed.
The boards are great, being just big enough to be supportive of the playing experience without taking up more table space than necessary.
Image Courtesy of Alice87
Monster & Adventure Cards – In all 6 Monsters at the more gargantuan end of the scale are provided to enhance the fantasy theme. They include the Giant Troll, Vampire, Demon, Dragon, Kraken and Chimera. Each of these Monsters are linked to one of the class types based on colour (a diamond icon features in the top-right corner to signify this). In the top left-hand corner can be found a heart with a value. Normally this would signify a creature's hit points, the number of wounds needed to kill it. Instead it simply represents the Monster's Strength and the lowest possible combat total that must be rolled in order to score any Reputation Stars.
Lovely large-scale artwork fills two-thirds of the tarot-sized cards and beneath that the name of the Monster and their specific power is listed.
Below that are the iconic Reputation Stars and for each star a value-range is listed, which signifies what combat total must be rolled to achieve the associated reward. 872