Mastering the Easy Difficulty Level in Roar and Write!
Match special dice requirements from different animal council members throughout the ages in Roar and Write!
All of my attention was focused on how I might be able to pull off an amazing score with just the right assortnment of dice in Roar and Write! With very little setup, this was a breeze to bring back to my table. I wasn’t sure if this would have the legs to turn into a long-term solo game for me, yet I was having a wonderful time with the animals!
Game Overview
Game Name: Roar and Write!
Publication Year: 2022
Designer: Carla Kopp
Artists: A. Bereza, D. Devine, K. Grierson, and J. Merchant
Publisher: Galactic Raptor Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Each animal wants a specific set of dice. An age allows for up to 6 dice to be used to meet these requirements, while kingdoms can be filled for other victory points. It all plays rather quickly with interesting decisions and the outcome: Will there be enough victory points to rule the animals?!
First Play
December 17, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
June 9, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
10
Play Time
10 Minutes
High Score
102
Game Area
16" x 12"
Low Score
77
A Little Too Ornate
Such lovely dice! These look beautiful with some swirls and sparkles, but the designs around the numbers made these really hard to see from far away.
I initially thought the whirls were unique to each number, and maybe they are? But I had to line these up after every roll to clearly see all of the numbers. A little distracting.
The 1 value featured all different animals, which was rather neat! Yet again, it made it hard to read the dice.
I’m still happy with these dice for a solo game, but I would imagine that a multiplayer game could be very difficult.
Every Bit of Luck
Oh! This turned out to be a pretty amazing play that put me into the highest scoring tier. Success! How did I do it?
It was luck. Honestly, that was what a lot of this came down to. All of those 4s in the second age? That was due to the dice rolls, and no actual decisions on my part.
Despite this strong reliance on luck, I still enjoyed the thrill of rolling the dice and hoping that everything worked out. It most assuredly didn’t always pan out!
And don’t get discouraged by all the writing: It was quick to calculcate and fill in all of the boxes as I played.
Robbed of a High Score
Things might have been even more impressive had I rolled a single 1 during the last couple of rolls! Notice how the Big to Small section wasn’t exactly complete. Bad luck!
Instead, I had to sort of waste a die. It was anti-climactic, even with my exciting win. Just not in the dice this time!
What was missing? Some way to alter the dice. I still think that a simple +/- reward immediately after filling in a kingdom could have gone a long way with little impact.
The biggest issue for me was the desire to keep on playing if I was simply relying on the dice values rolled each age.
Spreading Out Scores
All the same, I reset and played again… Only to have some horrendous luck hit me. That last age saw me score 1 die for practically nothing! Quite the disappointing result.
I filled in all of the kingdoms, although that still wasn’t enough to give me a great final score.
There were glimmers of excitement here, but raising the difficulty level merely means different dice combinations that are likely even harder to achieve, like even pairs.
Will I continue to play? I had fun, yet it doesn’t feel like it has the longevity of other solo games with more choices.
What Keeps Me Coming Back to Play Again?
An interesting consideration as I kept playing was the idea about why games are played more than once. Very rarely do I even try legacy games, since I’ve always thought that a game could be played indefinitely. Yet that’s not always the case! So… Why do I keep playing the same solo games? I knew there was something missing here, to a certain extent.
Getting 6 plays out of a game isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although I was hoping for a little more here. Different outcomes were lacking, though. I might try to improve my high score and use different scoring conditions, yet very little would change overall. It wasn’t like I could try entirely unique strategies or play as an asymmetric faction.
The games I play over and over again typically offer unique experiences within the same rule set. There might be different characters to play as, strategic ways to focus my efforts across various actions, or purely fun entertainment that never gets old! When I look at a game box, I want to remember those moments and all the fun that can be had.
At the same time, I’m now seeing that legacy games aren’t necessarily right out of the question. Having a finite lifespan on a solo game provides an end point, but doesn’t mean that the fun is reduced. I just shudder at the thought of destroying components… Just can’t do it! Ha ha! Yet it’s nice to think about how limited plays can still be awesome.
Session Overview
Play Number: 5 and 6
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: 102 and 85 (1 Win and 1 Loss)
It all came to a close pretty quickly. To be fair, I went ahead and tried to see if I might want to play through the missions. These were interesting ways to change the strategy, but it all still depended on the dice rolls. Alas, I felt like I was happy with my time and didn’t see the need to keep playing in such a short time frame. Who knows, though? Maybe I’ll be back for more roaring and writing!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
4
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
6
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are exciting moments when the dice align and work out to create the best set for a council member.
- Deciding how to start each age often sets the stage and can be rather risky, yet this is a lot of fun to consider.
- The sequence of play is quick and requires minimal writing, even at the end of an age for final bookkeeping.
- Dice may be used to offer to the council or fill up the kingdoms, and some sort of balance is needed to do well.
- Various scoring conditions add a little variety into the mix, especially with some of the more advanced animals.
- It takes some experience and planning to reach the highest scoring tier, which isn’t entirely about getting lucky.
– Cons (Negatives)
- None of the dice can be manipulated, so a lot of the gameplay comes down to simply making do with the rolls.
- After reaching the highest scoring tier, there isn’t a great incentive to keep playing since it’s rather repetitive.
- Personal goals either align with the council members or don’t, which can have a major impact on scoring.
- The dice look nice at first glance, but are rather impractical with designs that are difficult to distinguish.
Victory Conditions
Score 95+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 90 points.
Score at least 95 points.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the medium difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What are some of the things you enjoy about Roar and Write!? How many times do you find yourself playing a roll-and-write game? I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll return to play again in the future, yet there were definitely memorable moments with this one. Fun enough… And that’s all I could really ask for with an unknown title!
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