Breaking Out of Lockup with Roll Player Legends
Go deeper into Kulbak Prison with the underground catacombs and new legendary characters from Lockup: A Roll Player Tale.
Reasonably comfortable with the base game of Lockup: A Roll Player Tale, it was time to explore the main expansion! With the promise of tunnels to dig into and characters to impress, I was feeling pretty confident… So confident that I increased the difficulty level against the automaton guards. A wise decision? No, but my crew was fearless. What could go wrong?!
Game Overview
Game Name: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Stan Kordonskiy
Artists: JJ Ariosa & Lucas Ribeiro
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Deduction, careful planning, and a shifting puzzle make up the core mechanics, which are quite unique. A crew must find a way to move ahead of the guards in the locations around Kulbak Prison. Avoiding suspicion and making a subtle path towards victory make for a very fun challenge!
First Play
September 7, 2020
Complexity
3
Latest Play
August 29, 2025
Expansions
2
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
10
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
110
Game Area
30" x 24"
Low Score
61
Into the Catacombs
One of the main elements of the expansion is the addition of a new map that depicts the tunnels and catacombs beneath the cells. So much to appreciate in this artwork, as always!
Advancing along this path requires sending part of the crew underground at the right locations… Provided the guards aren’t ahead in the strength department! Tricky, tricky.
Some shortcuts cost extra resources, and treasure is waiting to be uncovered in some of the chambers. What’s at the end?
Risking it all and trying to break out results in freedom, but sometimes, stopping in the tomb might be better!
Imprisoned Legends
A series of legendary characters also round out the other main aspect of the expansion. Only 6 are seen each play from a large deck, and they each have a different ability.
The final, unused crew token is now assigned here, in the hopes of impressing and befriending these legends.
I enjoyed how different they all are, and that I recognized some of them from this universe of games. Very cool!
Rounds took a little more time to think through with the new options, yet even my first play didn’t feel like it was too much. I loved the new content and even more variety!
Treasures Galore
Not only were the legends themselves focused on special rewards, but it was a lot of fun advancing through the tunnels. Lots of different sorts of treasure tokens!
The stack was enormous during setup, but the solo mode only uses a small number of them. There are all sorts of bonuses that can be discovered through play. So cool!
Moving up to the next difficulty level meant I struggled a little bit, but not to an embarrassing extent, thankfully.
Even Gimlix didn’t laugh when my crew was labeled as the weakest one a few times. He probably just robbed them. Ha!
Lions and… Leopards?
Oh, so close to a hilarious joke here! Lion? Check. Tiger? Eh, a leopard is close enough. Bear? A bugbear counts. Ha ha!
It was a lot of fun to time my focus on the legends. Some of them weren’t all that helpful, and didn’t put the guards in a better overall position. But Kur the Red and Mowla helped!
I wasn’t too far off from a victory, and it came down to a couple of raids. Had I been able to move suspicion, it would have turned out better. The guards always had lookouts!
We’ll see if I remember this for next time, yet I plan to always play with the expansion going forward. So fun!
Expansions That Add More Personality
It’s sometimes hard to get into every expansion. I take long enough to play some base games! But what I appreciate are the vastly different ways that new content is added. Many simply add more of the same for additional variety. Nothing wrong with those, as they help stay as close as possible to the core mechanics! Others, like this one, add on new features.
Perhaps my favorite type of expansion content doesn’t fit into a neat definition, though. It really comes down to what I can only describe as more personality: Something that makes the game come to life even more. More variety can certainly do that, expanding on the available cards to build up the theme or setting even more. But then I found these legends…
So cool! It seemed interesting to think of my crew being locked up with these characters and looking at their backstories within the world. For this is a board game setting that spans many games, and it’s neat to incorporate all of the references. I could see them simply being unique goon cards for more variety… But this implementation is much more excellent!
Session Overview
Play Number: 9 & 10
Main Expansion: Lockup: Breakout
Accessory: Lockup: Acrylic Tiles
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Challenging Difficulty Level
Outcome: 99-123, 101-111 (2 Losses)
Escaped! This was a success at one point, although I still didn’t end up with the ultimate victory. Still, for adding in the expansion content and increasing the difficulty level, I was very happy with my final scores. Just need to befriend the right legends next time… Those guards are a nightmare!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Working out the puzzle of optimal choices and risks during each round is very enjoyable, but still challenging.
- The expansion content adds interesting elements that don’t feel overwhelming and offer new ways to advance.
- Many different choices exist so that there isn’t a single way to approach a victory the same way over and over.
- All of the artwork is bright, colorful, and detailed, often with rewarding little elements when examined up close.
- Play time moves quickly and the solo mode doesn’t take much time to manage with a clear sequence of events.
- Upgraded acrylic tiles aren’t required, yet all of the components are high-quality and make the game stand out.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Figuring out where to take risks with crew tokens take some practice, and can easily result in wasted actions.
- A fair amount of luck can directly affect how the automaton guards advance and craft potentially valuable items.
- Although the play area isn’t enormous, there is a lot of busy artwork and components to keep track of each round.
- The rules aren’t laid out in the most intuitive way, and even re-learning the base game rules can be a little tricky.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the moderate difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the challenging difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played with the expansion for Lockup: A Roll Player Tale? What do you like most about the mechanics? It’s a game that mixes a few elements that seem like they might not work together, but there is a lot to enjoy! Luck is tempered with some deductive reasoning, and the colorful artwork gives it a colorful table presence. Glad I picked up the expansion!
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