Rolling Realms Redux (Saturday Review)

The seemingly endless lands lay in front of us. Ahead of us, we could see a small village where cute little dragons were tending stores. To our left, people were playing cards, closely watched by a row of playing cards and a rather angry-looking queen. Above us floated different spaceships, some delivering their wares to the small village, while others were expanding the land with new sections. What we saw were the amazing Rolling Realms Redux by Jamey Stegmaier and Karel Titeca from Stonemaier Games.

The idea of being able to play 12 different games in the form of a roll-and-write is rather interesting. Distilling games, some of which are rather complex and last hours, into the limited options you get from rolling dice and marking the results on erasable cards is clearly a huge challenge. Yet, it is clearly possible.

Rolling Realms Redux is the second game in the series. While the original Rolling Realms covered games from Stonemaier Games‘ own catalogue, Redux includes well-known games from other publishers. Of course, when I say that Rolling Realms includes games, I don’t mean the whole game, but the distilled-down roll-and-write version. Both games, the original Rolling Realms and the new Rolling Realms Redux, can be played independently or mixed together. They are fully compatible with each other. There were even promo realms, that you can mix in, if you have them.

Rolling the Realms

I’m always a little bit hesitant when it comes to roll-and-write games. Many modern games are very thematic. For example, in Aquamarine, you really feel like you’re on a scuba dive. In Next Station: London and the other games in the same series, you feel like a real underground planner. Yet, there are still plenty of roll-and-write games where you’re just ticking boxes. They are more like spreadsheets than experiences.

Rolling Realms Redux falls into the former category. Once you’ve chosen the three realms you want to all play together or randomly picked them, rolling your dice and marking things on the dry-erase realm cards does really give you a sense of playing the three games depicted on the cards. It’s like you’re casting spells on your shops in the Flamecraft realm, for example. Choosing and placing your tiles in the Planet Unknown realm creates a similar puzzle as it does in the real game.

That really surprised me. Even though you’re working with the random roll of dice, you’re still making strategic decisions for the three realms in front of you. It’s not all pure dice luck either. In Rolling Realms Redux, you can collect resources, some of which give you more control over your dice. You can even create new, virtual dice that effectively allow you to take extra turns in your realms.

At the end of the day, it’s all about making the best choices with the dice results you’ve got to open up more opportunities in the future. It’s a wonderful little puzzle that will keep you busy. Knowing the games represented in the realms also helps. It can guide you in your decision-making, because you have a better idea of what to focus on to get the most points.

Too Many Realms

That leads me to my main point of criticism: learning the realms. While the basic rules of Rolling Realms Redux are the same for all realms, how you score in each realm differs and each realm has specific effects that trigger as you tick off certain boxes. You’re effectively learning three new mini-games every time you play. You have to spend a fair amount of time explaining how each realm works. Some realms feel more complicated than others and require regular rules checks in the detailed realm compendium.

In the games I’ve played, we usually ended up choosing three realms and sticking with them for a few games. Nobody wanted to learn three new realms, just to create a new challenge. Yet, everybody really enjoyed playing whatever three realms we had chosen and wanted to play them a second or even third time. So there clearly is replayability in Rolling Realms Redux, even if you may be tempted to choose new realms every game.

That really surprised me as well. I had given up hope of playing the game much when it became clear how much time it takes to learn each new realm. Yet, we ended up playing it a lot, but stuck to the same three realms each time we played. We also soon had our favourites, usually based on the games we had played previously.

If you know a lot of the games that come in the box, you may be able to vary your games a bit more. Either way, nostalgia will kick in as you play Rolling Realms Redux and experience a compressed version of games you have previously enjoyed in full.

High-Quality Realms

Rolling Realms Redux is an interesting beast. It does magically recreate the essence of big-box games with only two dice, some dry-erase markers and some wipeable realm and player cards. The gameplay experience is further enhanced by the high-quality components that Stonemaier Games is well known for. I mean, just look at those chunky, purple dice for example. It is enchanting to see how you feel like you’re playing your favourite game, when you’re simply rolling dice and marking things off.

The biggest hurdle to entry for me is the different rules every realm comes with. They’re not long, complex rules, but there are three of them. So learning three realms and sticking with them will work, but isn’t ideal. I think, if you choose between the original and the Redux edition, go with whatever box has the most games in that you already know. It’ll make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable and encourage you to learn more of the realms.

Of course, it’s wonderful to see how Stonemaier Games has managed to include so many different games from so many different publishers in Rolling Realms Redux. It really is what the board game hobby should be about: working together and creating fun experiences. I can’t fault Redux in that respect. I’m not sure that the game will get to the table a lot, but maybe that has more to do with my attitude towards the roll-and-write genre than the game itself.

Useful Links

• Rolling Realms Redux: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/rolling-realms/redux/
• Rulebook: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ulyfze69rb24tsgip7mn7/ANZFm5AL5gRHM9ux2htczr4/Rolling%20Realms/Rolling%20Realms%20Redux/RRRedux_Rulebook_r5.pdf?rlkey=0ejidzd7lktoa5hyrbkmy9xse&dl=0
• Stonemaier Games: https://stonemaiergames.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393892/rolling-realms-redux
• Aquamarine review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2022/07/16/aquamarine-saturday-review/
• Next Station: London review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2023/06/17/next-station-london-saturday-review/
• Flamecraft review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2024/02/24/flamecraft-saturday-review/

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

The Big Adventure by Sascha Ende
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/431-the-big-adventure
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: