Roll Player: Frogkin on Ice Bears and Narcissist Wizards
Place dice, buy cards, battle minions, and make interesting choices to craft a character from the very beginning in Roll Player.
Time to close out the series of old solo challenges I went through for Roll Player! Having the same game on my solo table for a long time can lead to some fatigue and repetition, although I kept finding new strategies to try out. And so many neat cards to uncover! I felt like I was about ready to close out these short stories, and the timing was just about perfect.
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
It doesn’t take too long to understand the rules, which mainly focus around adding dice to meet goals and buying cards like skills and weapons. Additional expansion content adds on minions to battle against, along with fiends to deal with. Every play results in a neat sort of final character!
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
The Worst Human
After moving on from a dwarf who took out my previous elf character, I was excited to move onto a human wizard… Yet he turned out to be the worst kind. Not a narcissist!
It was kind of funny when he defeated the nightmare, as I continued to make jokes to myself about how it was like a personal, internal journey. And his portrait stared at me.
Ha! This play resulted in the most matching class dice I think I ever achieved, leading to 8 victory points. Yeah!
The little stories from the solo challenges are a nice way to offer up a foundation to make a character feel more alive.
Honor and Pride
Sometimes, I tend to focus heavily on everything except for the trait cards. These are very valuable, but are often centered around victory points for long-term strategies.
In a rather fitting sort of character build, my narcissist gained a whole lot of honor… But was way too proud of the accomplishment! I could just imagine his conversations.
And with that long hair? You know he was flipping it around in a nonchalant way to add even more to his pride.
Basically, the epitome of narcissism. Ha ha! This was a fun character to build, even though I scoffed at him constantly!
Five-Headed Surprise
I’ll start off by recommending that you take a moment to look very carefully at this photo with the hydra. See it?
With the five-headed trait, I wasn’t prepared for a very literal interpretation of it! The ability forces the removal of dice with the same value, which makes rolling difficult.
I ended up with triple 5s after some re-rolls… But hold it right there! What kind of trick die was this?! Due to a minor manufacturing issue, I ended up with 5s on two sides.
Ha ha! I wasn’t upset: This actually helped me do better. I’ll keep this strange die, but its rolling days are definitely over!
Ribbits and Rebels
Up next was a solo challenge that focused on the frogkin, and I was excited to bring out this portrait! Even better? This was a rebel, so I had to pick out the best familiar.
That ended up being the ice bear, because you would think the frogkin would be the sidekick. Nope! Not at all.
Note that the original solo challenges weren’t designed to be played with the expansions, but I still enjoyed using the prologue storylines to give me a little direction for play.
I only wondered what it might be like for a frogkin around an ice bear… Hope no one accidentally froze along the way!
Reaching the End of the Old Solo Challenges
There are plenty of other solo challenges to go back to for the game, but I enjoyed going way back in time to 2017 and 2018 for this little series! That was around the time I got into solo games for the first time. Nice to be reminded of a fun time from the older days. If you’re interested in finding these final solo challenges from the cycle, here are the links:
- Solo Challenge 5: Stop a rift from opening and secure a cursed ring as a dwarf ranger from December 2017.
- Solo Challenge 6: Work out a mystery using magic and a pinch of narcissism as a human wizard from January 2018.
- Solo Challenge 7: Emerge from a mysterious magical experiment as a frogkin druid back in February 2018.
- Solo Challenge 8: Celebrate March Madness in a different way in a free-form challenge from March 2018.
That does it for now, although there are years of additional solo challenges to return to. Maybe I’ll start participating in the active ones this year… Or is that wishful thinking? Ha! All I know is that having this baseline narrative structure helped bring the game to life for me some more, and I had even more fun. Such a wonderful sort of game to play in many ways!
Full Mystic Armor
I never achieved a full set of armor in the past, and since the expansions add more to the market deck with new strategies, set collection often isn’t a main focus. But wait…
This little frogkin managed to collect all of the mystic armor and had a pretty impressive appearance! Very fancy and I ended up with 7 victory points, owing to the druid class.
Granted, the final battle was mediocre at best, and I didn’t come close to earning the most from the monster.
No worries, though! That probably means it was a poor choice for an amphibian to ride into battle on an ice bear.
Maximum Scoring
Talk about an exciting ending for the frogkin! I managed to get all of the right dice where they needed to be. Lots of victory points from the character board, which was great!
The final appearance of these boards may look very similar, but the choices during play are very engaging. It’s not just about tossing dice in spaces. So many other considerations!
Boost dice and split dice from the expansions continue to bring in fun decisions that have layered considerations.
Simply fantastic! As I packed up to try a new game, I was even happier: Managed to get everything down to 2 boxes!
Session Overview
Play Number: 25-28
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 5-8
Outcome: 35, 43, 43, 36 (2 Wins & 2 Losses)
The final play offered some choices, so I went back to play as a halfling. A neurotic cartographer… Just imagine what those maps would look like. Ha ha! This is a wonderful game with an engaging puzzle and fun decisions. So glad I finally got it back to my table after so many years!
%
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)
- Every decision is interesting and has enough considerations to feel meaningful without being overwhelming.
- The solo mode has very little upkeep, yet still provides a challenge with choosing dice and randomly removing cards.
- All sorts of strategies can be pursued, although the fun often comes from creating a thematic character.
- Each piece of artwork adds to the immersion and the large decks of unique cards ensure each play feels different.
- Uncovering the monster cards throughout gameplay is exciting and interesting to prepare for the final battle.
- Play time moves along quickly and the final few turns are often the most tense to fill in the last dice spaces.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Keeping track of the attribute scores requires doing multiple sums throughout play, which take a little time to process.
- A few cascading effects can occur during turns, which are sometimes difficult to track with many different sources.
- Familiars are interesting additions, yet their abilities can feel a little underwhelming in the grand scheme of play.
- Out of all the abilities, remembering to use a class ability is often the easiest to overlook or forget during some rounds.
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 do you like the most about Roll Player? Do any of your characters still stick with you? I enjoyed going back to these old solo challenges for the little stories. I don’t think I’ll forget my orc bard hired to entertain the king’s mother-in-law, or the well-dressed frogkin riding around on an ice bear. Ha! Moving onto some other games now, yet I shall play again!
Thank you again for a great series.
You’re very welcome! Glad to hear you enjoyed following along!