Bean People: The Cinematic Masters Behind Roll Camera
Complete a film through all the stages of production from storyboarding to shooting scenes with Roll Camera.
Long ago, my experience with films involved playing American Girls Premiere with my brother as we came up with the oddest plots in a system not at all designed for filmmaking! So many good times, and hours spent for about 30 seconds of content. When I saw Roll Camera! The Filmmaking Board Game, it was something I simply had to have. Let’s roll!
Game Overview
Game Name: Roll Camera! The Filmmaking Board Game
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Malachi Ray Rempen
Artist: Malachi Ray Rempen
Publisher: Keen Bean Studio
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Managing problems, pitching ideas, designing the set, and shooting scenes make up the majority of gameplay. All with some adorably hilarious bean people! The goal is to shoot a 5-scene film that’s either amazingly high quality, or so bad it’s great. How does it play? Roll the… Table? Ha!
First Play
August 4, 2021
Complexity
2
Latest Play
October 29, 2022
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
35 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
28" x 24"
Low Score
N/A
Setting the Scene
The play area is quite adorable and pleasant to look at! Each available action is clearly labeled and easy to find, while the rest of the scene showcases the bean people.
Perhaps the most important area is the central set, where pieces can be built or rearranged to match up with the requirements for the storyboard options on the left.
Dice provide random symbols, thereby offering up some unique options depending on each roll. Simple, but tricky.
I spent some time going through the rulebook, yet was very comfortable to begin. Not complicated… Just fun!
The Cinematographer
Unique and asymmetric player types represent the sorts of roles you would expect to see on set: A director, producer, cinematographer, and more to showcase all the jobs.
I love being able to get a behind-the-scenes glance at the filmmaking process! It takes a lot of people, and I’m often amazed when I see the entire credits roll on by.
The cinematographer was where I decided to start, partly for the ability to resolve problems a little more quickly.
Aside from a couple of small rules, I had everything I needed right in front of me with the player aids.
Immediate Drama
Each round begins with a new problem. During this play, I made it through maybe half the deck or even less. Plenty of variety when playing solo since they’re all different!
There is an incentive to resolve a problem quickly since the requirements steadily get more difficult. Every set of 5 resolved problems also offers up an excellent bonus.
Since I didn’t even have the set created yet, I didn’t have to rush to resolve this one. But problems would stack…
Another nice detail on the back of each problem card is an icon corresponding to its general area. Great for planning!
Pitching a New Idea
Production meetings were where all sorts of wild ideas could be pitched and happen. In the solo game, this gave me a chance to play 1 card and draw 2 to choose from.
My first decision was to do what any normal filmmaker does… Find a way to erase memories for a longer day!
The poor bean people. Judging by where I ended up with the budget and schedule, I figured they rested for a week!
Idea cards definitely change up the game in unexpected ways. They’re almost like unique ways to introduce a temporary way to break the rules. Lots of possibilities.
Storyboard Disasters
As I tried out new actions and played more cards, there was a pretty funny and thematic scenario.
First, I ended a turn by playing an idea to replace the available scenes. The flavor text told of staying up all night to redraw all the storyboards. Aww, poor bean person!
Yet the next problem card revealed something ironically hilarious… Someone left the storyboard in the back of a taxi cab. Oh, dear! I do hope it was someone else…
Little elements like these dotted the play experience and I was laughing out loud quite a lot. Funny and strategic!
A Complete Set
To work through shooting scenes on set was a challenge. I didn’t have exact control over which set pieces I could choose from, so I had to make do with what was available.
Also, this was the complete set: No removing them! For other scenes, these pieces could be rotated and moved to create the right openings to place the dice.
To be clear, dice could only be placed in the blue spaces. Some of these had specific requirements, too. Not so easy!
It took me a little bit, yet it was interesting to see the actual sets in use, like an office and living room.
Bloody Bloody Morons
The script was one of my favorite elements. To look at it mechanically, the pair of cards showed final bonuses or penalties to quality once the final scene was added.
Nice, but I was here for the theme! My movie immediately had the greatest title: Bloody Bloody Morons. Sit back and enjoy a little embellishment and movie overview!
As we all know, this is the sequel to 2011’s hit comedy, Bloody Morons. Not an actual movie. But I digress…
Now, a decade later, the classic morons are a little older and not at all wiser. What will they be up to now?!
Opening Action
The gang is back together! Percy, Alan, and Loretta reminisce over the past 10 years. It’s all callbacks to the original, like that time they tried to outrun an ostrich.
Loretta appears to have changed, though, abandoning the moronic ways of the past and settling down. Now, she owns a florist shop and volunteers around town.
Percy and Alan are still very much up to their old tricks! In fact… They dumped the salt shaker into Loretta’s drink.
This did not go over well, suddenly setting Loretta into a rage. Action scene… And Percy is thrown from the roof!
Terrible Solutions
Yet these are the morons, so Percy landed in some sort of industrial waste that gave off the most peculiar smell. There was no way to get rid of it, no matter what Alan did.
Cue the montage of solutions. The deodorant bath. 27 layers of T-shirts until they all spontaneously combusted. A blast from a firehose. All to simply amplify the odor.
Loretta even burned her entire stock of flowers around Percy, losing her business in the process. Bean morons!
Then, Alan devised a smoke bomb that would explode the smell off of Percy. Only he got the directions mixed up…
Goodbye… Or is It?
Oh, Percy! Alan and Loretta had to travel about 3 miles to find him, so grand was the explosion. The smell was most certainly gone. But, sadly, so was Percy. PERCY, NO!
Cue a touching flashback in slow motion of Percy’s reactions after all of the previous shenanigans. The real Burt Gummer of the trio, if you will. But not this time.
As Alan and Loretta continue to lament over his death, the final sweeping music comes in as we pan in on Percy.
“I’m not dead yet!” An exclamation and wink lead into the credits. Will we see Bloody Bloody Bloody Morons soon?!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: Win
This seemed like the worst movie of all time, but if you see where my quality marker ended up… You’ll know that this was a cinematic masterpiece! I understand what the masses want. Ha ha! I had a great time with it thematically and also felt like there was a nice little challenge. Nothing too complex, yet I barely came in under budget and on schedule. Quite an interesting game that I really enjoyed!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
5
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
10
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- Every element ties together the theme and mechanics, often with humor seen in the amazing bean people.
- Creating a film from the final scenes is a lot of fun and can also drive some decisions before the end arrives.
- The budget and schedule dials imitate film reels and also feature a backside that makes setup very simple.
- Ideas and problems add unique aspects that can change gameplay drastically for a few turns, adding to the fun.
- Asymmetric roles introduce special abilities that create more variety and change what can happen.
- The sequence of play is easy to follow and the rulebook is straightforward, even including real industry terms.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Although acceptable, the card quality seems a little on the lower side for the somewhat high price of the game.
- Despite all of the variety, it won’t take too many plays to see all of the different scenes, problems, and ideas.
- There are a lot of decisions to make, yet there is a fairly straightforward path to shooting all of the scenes.
- Gameplay is fun and relatively quick, but it’s fairly lightweight and doesn’t always offer a challenging puzzle.
Victory Conditions
Complete 5 Scenes at the Best or Worst Quality
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game as the cinematographer.
Win at least 1 game as the director.
Win at least 1 game as the editor.
Win at least 1 game as the producer.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the hard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Roll Camera! The Filmmaking Board Game? The theme is implemented very well with the mechanics and I know there are so many final film options! Do you enjoy any other games with really unique themes? I expect to have lots more fun with this one over time, especially with some added challenges. Keep rolling the camera!
That’s a really interesting theme – I don’t think I’ve seen many games about filmmaking, and often it’s quite a loose thematic tie. Mind you, if ever a game called for a random event deck…
(“Your star has just been caught with 20% of Bolivia’s exports up their nose. +1 fame, +2 cost, +3 artistic temperament.”)
The theme truly comes through so much! And the problems are like random events. I had the star of the show decide to buy a diamond-encrusted limo with a hot tub or something like that. Ha ha!