Returning to the Old 2017 Solo Challenges for Roll Player
Discover ways to explore a bit of storytelling and additional narratives in the fun character building process in Roll Player.
As I continued to explore all of the content for Roll Player, I could see how the fully randomized setups might not always lead to memorable characters. It felt like tying things together with little stories might be a good idea… And I knew what to do! With solo challenges dating back to the previous decade, I set out to bring a little more life to my completed characters!
Game Overview
Game Name: Roll Player
Publication Year: 2016
Designer: Keith Matejka
Artists: JJ Ariosa & Luis Francisco
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
With all of the expansions, a character grows through dice and cards in order to defeat minions and a final monster. The path to the ending is quite varied with plenty of unique cards and goals. A fully-fledged hero is the ultimate goal, and often, the end result has a few very special features!
First Play
July 26, 2020
Complexity
3
Latest Play
June 18, 2025
Expansions
2
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
28
Play Time
35 Minutes
High Score
44
Game Area
26" x 20"
Low Score
0
Back to the Past
I went way, way, WAY back in time to track down some of the very first solo challenges! Indeed, these were from a time when the expansions hadn’t even been released.
So I made a few small changes to use everything, as my final scores weren’t the focus. I just wanted to jump into the little introductory stories that set the stage for play.
My first character was a halfling who was raised by wolves… Which made a wolf familiar quite obvious. Ha ha!
Having just a slight storyline really made this interesting, even if my goal was simply to create a successful halfling.
Maximum Dice?
With a few clever choices early on, I managed to pick up lots of combat dice for this battle against a fierce monster. I was worried about rolling 1s that would be locked in…
But there was nothing to worry about with this initial roll! Maybe this halfling collected too many dice. Ha ha!
As always, I loved flipping over the cards after minion combat. It wasn’t always easy to collect a lot of combat dice, but this combination worked out really well.
Maybe I should have tried to pick up cards that felt more thematic for a halfling, but no matter: This was a lot of fun!
The Screeching Bard
Up next was a scenario that seemed to be hilarious: I had to track down an orc bard to entertain the most dangerous sort of monster out there… The king’s mother-in-law. Ha ha!
Again, this wasn’t designed for the expansion content, but I knew exactly which familiar would be perfect. Just imagine the world’s worst bard paired with a screech owl. Yikes!
I had a great time with the dice selections. Both boost dice and split dice showed up, offering plenty of decisions.
Quite a challenge! Technically, I should have tried for a low score for thematic purposes… But this orc was going places.
Changing Forms
See?! The king’s mother-in-law turned out to be a leviathan in disguise, and the bard had no choice but to battle her.
On the way, though, I made him as annoying as I possibly could muster. He was plagued by minions, as I focused more on defeating them than I had in my previous plays.
Even more annoying? A bard swarming with fiends. That’s right: I picked up a horde of them! I had a few extra challenges and restrictions, yet they were quite fun.
I kept picturing what this musical performance looked like. Or, more importantly, what it sounded like. Ha ha!
Hunting Down the Oldest Solo Challenges
I’ve been aware of the ongoing solo challenges, but that means that they’ve often been in the back of my mind for years. I went on a major search to go all the way back to the very beginning, to a time when it looks like the challenges weren’t neatly linked for future reference. Maybe I missed a helpful list, but here’s what I found to play during this cycle:
- Solo Challenge 1: Calling all Halflings! A basic solo challenge to create the best halfling barbarian from August 2017.
- Solo Challenge 2: Make sure the king’s mother-in-law is entertained by an orc bard dating back to September 2017.
- Solo Challenge 3: Figure out how to identify and steal a cursed ring as a dragonkin thief from October 2017.
- Solo Challenge 4: Track the same cursed ring that might lead to the truth for an elf rogue, thanks to November 2017.
Maybe this isn’t of interest to anyone except me, yet it’s nice to go back nearly 10 years to find some more ways to play! The stories may not be anything extremely in-depth, but they added a lot as they provided some additional storytelling. Very fun, particularly with some of the more humorous or dramatic prologues. My orc bard shall always be remembered. Ha ha!
Dragonkin vs. Dragon
The next solo challenge set the stage for a dragonkin thief to steal a cursed ring, only after identifying it. In a neat coincidence, I drew the dragon as the monster. Thematic!
So I focused on collecting a little extra gold, which made some more sense. In order to identify a cursed ring among many others, the only solution was a cursed raven familiar.
Even after playing a few more times, I still came across some new cards in the decks. So much variety to enjoy!
Perhaps the greatest weapon of all helped out the most: The ancient tome boosted split dice values. Definitely useful!
A Dangerous Battle
As the final battle loomed, I was rather nervous about the small number of combat dice. Experience cubes and some gold was spent on adding on a few more. Then? The roll…
Well, that turned out amazingly well! Actually, this play tied my personal highest score of all time. Didn’t expect that!
I still loved all of the decision points, including the way the fiends kept me thinking through a lot more than just choosing the highest value dice. Very strategic.
And apparently the only armor you need to battle a dragon is a pair of leather boots. Who would have known?! Ha!
Session Overview
Play Number: 21-24
Main Expansion 1: Roll Player: Fiends & Familiars
Main Expansion 2: Roll Player: Monsters & Minions
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Original Solo Challenges 1-4
Outcome: 37, 36, 44, 42 (2 Wins & 2 Losses)
I kept things going with an elf rogue, who utilized a ton of skills to get ahead and ended up with an impressive score! Although these original solo challenges weren’t made for the expansions, I had a lovely time adding some stories. Not many more to go to close out these older ones!
%
20 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
9
+ Pros (Positives)
- Plenty of variety exists with the large number of cards and ways the random dice options can be chosen during play.
- Each turn is always interesting and very rarely is there an obvious dice choice, even when adding in fiends.
- Different strategies allow gameplay to feel interesting during each play, making it fun to play many times in a row.
- Play time is relatively quick and moves along at a good pace in order to allow the focus to remain on the main choices.
- Boost dice and split dice add more decisions, but are also very fun to figure out how to use optimally on a board.
- Completing a character often feels meaningful, particularly after battling the final monster as a sort of big ending.
– Cons (Negatives)
- A fair amount of luck is involved in finding specific cards in the large market deck, but there are still many options.
- The number of combat dice during a monster battle can vary wildly from the cards, which can feel a bit unfair.
- Playing with a random setup can still be nice, yet there isn’t always a strong connection to a final character.
- Some minions are much less desirable than others, and cycling to the next card doesn’t always offer a good option.
Victory Conditions
Score 40+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 67%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 35 points.
Score at least 40 points.
Score at least 45 points.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite way to play Roll Player? Do you prefer random setups, or do you participate in solo challenges? I may have to skip ahead if I want any hope of joining in the active challenges, yet I’m having a great time having a little more structure to my plays. Definitely appreciate the older content that’s out there. Always something new to discover and enjoy!
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