Rolling Realms Review – A 30-Minute Tasting Plate of Board Game History

Against my protestations, one way or another, roll-and-write games keep ending up in my shopping cart. First was The Guild of Merchant Explorers, which while technically it isn’t a roll-and-write, it’s living next door in the same apartment complex. Then there was Long Shot: The Dice Game, which took the genre in a whole different direction. This time it’s Rolling Realms, a more traditional roll-and-write game.

So let’s see how it stacks up.

How to play

Now the first thing you need to know about Rolling Realms is that it’s an homage to all of the games published by Stonemaier Games. Who made it big initially with Viticulture and Scythe, and have continued to produce hit board games since.

Throughout the three rounds of Rolling Realms, you’ll interact with different games in the form of realms, all from the Stonemaier Games catalogue. Each round everyone gets the same three realms, which provide you with different ways to score points that round.

Then, as the genre commands, each turn starts with one player rolling two dice and ends with everyone writing about it.

Dear Diary,

Today I rolled two of the biggest dice…

No! Not like that. Instead, you can use the values of each die once, and they must be used in different realms. For example, if you rolled a six and a two, you could use the six in your Pendulum realm, and your two in your Charterstone realm. You couldn’t use both dice in the Pendulum realm.

Each realm offers you a different way of using the die values to score points. Usually reflecting the games they’re based on. Some examples include:

• Wingspan – There are three boxes for values under three birds, your goal is to put die values in so that their sum equals the wingspan of the bird.
• Between Two Cities – This realm scores the same amount of points as the lowest-scored realm out of your other two realms.
• The Society – Modeled after the game Red Rising, this realm gives you points for building pyramids of numbers, with the higher numbers on top.

Beyond scoring points, you’ll also collect coins, hearts, and pumpkins. You can spend these to gain extra dice or manipulate the values on rolled dice. Ultimately, you’re trying to determine the best way to spend the die values to get the most points.

After nine dice rolls, the round ends. Then after three rounds, you count up all your points to determine a winner.

Who’s Making the Rules Here?

The design of Rolling Realms has the manic energy of a 6-year-old making up rules on the spot. The realms are so different from one another that none of them feel connected. As though there hasn’t been any thought put into making this a cohesive board game.

An awful statement to make about any board game.

Yet it works here.

Much like Mario Party, Rolling Realms condenses different mechanics into these board game vignettes. Making the whole game feel like a tasting plate, with each realm delivering a new flavour. As such, this mish-mash of ideas coalesced to create something extremely fun. Catching me by surprise.

There’s this wonderful efficiency challenge of making the most out of the dice rolled. This starts with figuring out where you’re going to place your dice. As with two dice and three realms, one of them is going to miss out.

Next, you need to consider the outcomes of differing values. Using a six in the Tapestry provides massive value for example. Whereas using the same die in the My Little Scythe realm, not so much. Comparing your options, and finding your perfect move, is a satisfying problem to solve.

One consideration in this is what the future holds. Now, unless you unwittingly made a bargain with a swamp hag to see the future (I’ve recently played a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3), you have no idea what’s coming next. You can only speculate, giving Rolling Realms a sharp push-your-luck edge.

Thankfully, if push comes to shove, the coins, pumpkins and hearts will help you out if that same swamp hag cursed your dice. However, the opportunity cost of doing this can be pretty high.

On the topic of these resources, things can get pretty wild. Rolling Realms lets you use multiple actions at once, so you can create a die out of thin air, modify the value, and then duplicate that dice. This is as cool as it is expensive. But raises the problem of keeping track of your invisible die. Without some physical representation of any die you create, it gets hard to keep it straight in your head.

Using these resources is also what separates the contenders from the pretenders. Knowing when to use them to maximise your gains, is how you improve at Rolling Realms. Unfortunately, this means, there will come a point when you can no longer improve. However, after more than a handful of plays, I’m glad to say I was nowhere close.

Travel the board gaming world

Now being a certified board game nerd, having all of these realms tie back to the mechanics of the originating game felt incredibly cool. It was like walking through a hall of fame for board games, the nostalgia of it all was overwhelming. Thinking back to all the times I’ve played Scythe or Wingspan.

Initially, this hall of fame was restricted to Stonemaier-published games. It has since grown to include another 21 realms through the Stonemaier Games web store, including favourites such as Ark Nova, Millenium Blades, and A Feast for Odin. There’s also a new expansion in the works so you can grow your collection even further.

Someone on Board Game Geek called this a Collectible Roll-and-Write (like Collectable Card Games) and I can’t disagree.

Still, before you run out to collect everything. Know that even though I enjoyed Rolling Realms, it didn’t solve my issues with the genre. For instance, the only time I interacted with the other players at the table, was when they were being too slow (or I was). That doesn’t make for a great shared experience.

Thankfully, the ever-changing puzzle of realms and how to use the dice evened this out. As I was engaged from start to finish. Given this, I’m more inclined to recommend it for solo gamers and those who just want to share the company of other players without confrontation.

Even after all of this, I still don’t like roll-and-writes. However, Rolling Realms has taught me they’re not all bad.