Get ready to roll and write in Rolling Realms Redux, a grab-and-go battle criss-crossing the biggest board game realms from Stonemaier games. Dry wipe markers at the ready!
Rolling Realms Redux was designed by Jamey Stegmaier and Karel Titeca at the height of the pandemic as a game that could be played in isolation or easily with others via video call as there is no direct interaction. The original game featured only realms from Stonemaier games but rapidly grew to include many others. Redux contains twelve all new realms and plenty of storage for your existing collection of realms.
In Rolling Realms players are racing to gain the most stars over three rounds as they compete in challenges in different board game realms. You might be slaying monsters in the world of Tidal Blades, taking a walk in the Dog Park, visiting shops in Flamecraft or testing your luck in one of the nine other included realms.
Rolling Realms is a roll and write game so players will mark their realm cards using the dry wipe markers (included) each round. The game supports one to six players out of the box or even more when combining multiple copies. Set up is easy. Each player grabs a marker and the set of cards in their chosen colour, each set is identical-twelve realms, a scoring card and a resource card. The game is played in three identical rounds of nine simultaneous turns.
To begin the game one player shuffles their realm cards before revealing three that will be used for this round. All players find their three matching realm cards and lay them out ready for the round. Then the two dice are rolled and all players record the results on their score card. All players act at the same time using a die to activate one of their realm cards. You might use the five to mark a battle space in Wonderland’s War and the four to cross off that mushroom symbol in the Meadow realm to gain a precious star. Each die can only be used once and each realm activated only once per turn. Some realms allow you to “create” an additional “die” just for you allowing you further activations. Resources gathered might also be spent to create an additional virtual die or adjust the values rolled for the player. At the end of three rounds the player who collected the most stars is named lord of the realms.
At its core Rolling Realms is a series of delightful little puzzles some more complex than others. To win players need to make the best use of the shared dice roll and their resources to tilt things in their favour. All the games we played were enjoyably close as everyone is working with the same numbers, but seeking to make better choices than rivals.
The roll and write aspect is great fun and gives real ownership over proceedings and a sense of progress as those cute little boxes fill up with one’s scribblings. I inevitably got more enjoyment from visiting the realms of games I have played as they offer a dash of flavour from that game world and the familiarity gives context to the challenge. Some realms are more complex than others but a handy compendium with complete rules for the core games and the dozens of available promo cards is included, the first few times you play you may need a quick flick through this excellent resource.
There is also a solo campaign mode the RRR Ball tournament played over several seasons in leagues of increasing difficulty, this mode features its own components for recording all your clashes with the automa. There are also some nice dividers included for fitting your entire Rolling Realms collection in the Redux.
Rolling Realms is super quick to teach and play as well as being very travel friendly (a mini travel box is included). I can see it being a great warm up game for many game nights to come or a winner with the family at Christmas. The novelty of writing on the components still feels a bit naughty and exciting and the quality is great, I love how big and chunky the coloured dice are. With all the realm cards available it is infinitely scalable and offers thousands of different combinations every game to keep it coming back to the table again and again. Enthusiasts will enjoy collecting all their favourite realms giving them a little hit of their favourite table top experiences in a quick and easy package.
Rolling Realms Redux is available now from Amazon and various other retailers.
