Finding More to Enjoy with a Return to Less Roll Player
Build a character with dice to represent attributes and cards for unique skills, traits, weapons, and armor in Roll Player.
I seem to have copied my old plan to play Roll Player again… Last time, I had to go back to the base game and then never played enough to check out all of the content. Goodness! So I returned to this fun character building game to get familiar with the system again. It’s not complicated, yet I always enjoy reminding myself of the core mechanics after so long!
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 a combination of dice and cards, a character slowly takes shape over the course of play. Goals to work towards include alignment, backstory, and class bonuses for various placements or values. Lots to consider, especially with the ways dice can be manipulated with skills or row actions!
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
Fun Market Choices
With just the base game, the focus is entirely on choosing dice and buying an assortment of cards from the market.
Yet these decisions aren’t arbitrary. Every card has some value, either in an ability, additional victory points, or set collection bonus. And will it even remain available to buy?
The initiative cards offer interesting choices as dice are rolled each round and arranged from lowest to highest.
This simple sort of system works wonderfully, setting up situations where it takes some consideration to find the best option. Building a character takes a fair amount of effort!
A Celestial Cleric Orc
Possibly my favorite part of gameplay is the unique sorts of characters who emerge at the end, often made up of much more than just rows of dice. Look at this orc, for example!
My skills were a little rusty, but I wasn’t too embarrassed by this first effort. Well, maybe just a bit… I may not have taken the attribute row totals for the class bonuses. Whoops!
But that didn’t matter all that much. I enjoyed getting back into the process of thinking through my decisions.
There were also some humorous moments when I picked up traits that seemed problematic, yet added some personality!
Nimble and Clumsy
A natural evolution took place with my character, starting off with his desire to be courageous… Only to discover that his constitution was so low that he was rather weak.
A-ha! But that low score led him to move much more quickly, easily becoming known for his nibleness.
Of course, it all went downhill from there when he found out his parkour skills were atrocious. Imagine an orc leaping about nimbly, but constantly falling over. Clumsy fool. Ha!
I earned all the victory points from these traits, although the little stories were the most interesting part of gameplay!
A Full Wardrobe
Armor provides a fun element of set collection from the market, and some types are better suited to specific classes.
Plenty of wearable items went up for sale over the course of play, and I just imagined this orc’s final daily outfit. That would have been quite the sight… With parkour. Ha ha!
A bit of randomness exists in waiting for the right armor cards, which still don’t always come out during a play.
Yet the random nature of the market makes for interesting decisions, and I was pretty excited about the different kinds of choices I constantly had to make. Very fun experience!
Why Remove Expansions to Play the Base Game?
Rarely do I go back to a base game when I’ve already incorporated some expansions. But it was rather embarrassing to see that I last played around 4 or 5 years ago. My goodness! Not only did I want to make sure I had a grasp on the main rules, but I wanted to be able to understand what the expansions added. Talk about waiting way too long in between plays!
However, since I made it a point to pay attention this time, I expect that adding in the expansions will mean I’ll never separate out the content again. This might also be assisted by me actually playing a little more consistently. Ha! Yet it’s all good: Solo board games are always waiting, and I’ll get around to playing what I want to when I do. Fun times, indeed!
An Obnoxious Bard
Still far from my victory threshold, I wanted to try out a few more plays to wrap my head around some of the optimal strategies. I needed that before adding in the expansions!
And so I fared quite well with a renegade bard. I liked the unique sheki character portrait, although I think the highlight was my first market card purchase: Obnoxious.
Being lost in time, I could picture her coming back to life centuries later with some really out-of-tune instrument.
Ha ha! It was a lot of fun, even if the market card variety felt a little limited with just the base game. One more play…
More Characters
The character boards are double-sided and feature different portraits, yet the attribute bonuses are always locked in. So I thought about how I might have a little more fun. A-ha!
I own Roll Player Adventures, which includes cards that match the character boards. Additionally, it has 34 unique character portraits with optional backstories on the back.
Such an easy solution! I randomly drew one of the new cards and a random character board for a unique combination.
This took away the obvious ancestry designation, like elf or human, but I felt a lot more connected to my character.
All the Gold Dice
As the dice can be very unpredictable, this play resulted in a ton of gold dice. That seemed rather thematic for an unhinged rogue, though… Needed all the shiny stuff!
I know the final layout often looks pretty similar with dice in every space, but getting here is a really neat time.
Using 6 dice during setup helps in some ways, but also means that some attribute rows will be used less than others. It’s important to know what’s going to be needed.
The charisma row was pretty useless with so much gold, so I was happy that it was almost all filled in during setup!
Trait Progression
Placing cards never has a particular order: It’s more about making sure to classify them correctly to know how to use them easily. Yet there can be stories that develop!
In this case, I felt like I had a very focused sort of character: She was a templar and a mentor, who also aligned herself as a defender. Definitely a strong theme in her storyline.
Yet as I picked up the market cards, it felt like new chapters developed. She started off dedicated to her cause…
Only for that to turn into obsession, and later on, she grew unexpectedly envious of the more successful templars.
Dragonkin Ways
I had a really nice time randomizing the character portraits with the boards, as these helped make each play distinct.
With a dragonkin warrior, I though I had him change his ways a bit as he started off with the honest trait… Only to grow prideful and, ultimately, greedy. Not the gold again!
The mix of dice and cards felt pretty balanced, and I could find ways to earn gold without discarding too many cards from the market. But never did I feel like I had a bad turn.
It was still challenging to reach the highest scoring tiers, though! And I was still having a great time. Once more!
The Foolish Swindler
This was a pretty impressive play! Actually, the setup was most interesting as I was presented with a character who was a wizard and an investigator… Who tended to swindle.
I pictured him bamboozling everyone with horrible magic tricks, convincing anyone who would listen about how he was really a wizard. Hence, foolish and obnoxious. Ha!
Actually, his steadfast and obsessed traits leaned into the story even more, and I had far too many laughs this time.
Still, even with some of those questionable traits, this minotaur ended up with an impressive score. Pure magic!
Session Overview
Play Number: 11-16
Expansions: Many (4)
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 26, 31, 32, 35, 29, 34 (6 Losses)
The backstory cards include the most flavor text, which can sometimes be ignored, yet I really love how they create storylines for characters. So many awesome possibilities! My return to the base game made me question my decision not to play more often… That shall be remedied! Indeed, all of the expansion content is ready for me to dive into, and I’ll be back soon to share more character stories!
%
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)
- All of the decisions feel meaningful, even if it involves collecting gold to use on future turns to afford better cards.
- The artwork is excellent and feels like it brings the world to life with the illustrations and character portraits.
- Setup is a lot of fun with the random alignment, backstory, and class, along with the starting dice to place.
- Attribute row actions are quite interesting and play into deciding when to place dice, as they can affect final scoring.
- Learning the rules can take a little bit of time with limited illustrated examples, but becomes intuitive very quickly.
- Gameplay moves quickly and smoothly with plenty of neat decision points about how to optimize victory points.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There aren’t a ton of market cards, so these can start to feel a bit repetitive after a relatively short number of plays.
- Adding dice and cards to a character creates stories, yet at the end of the game, a character doesn’t go any further.
- Luck plays an important role, which is mainly part of the fun, but can be frustrating at times with the dice.
- Counting up attribute row values requires constant addition at times and can take away from the immersion.
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 aspect of Roll Player? Do you prefer to play with any expansions? I know it was odd for me to return to just the base game… But since it was years since my last play, this was a great way to get back into the game! My characters were memorable in their own ways, and I’m excited to explore everything else that’s been patiently waiting on my shelf!
Thank you for the post. I always enjoy them.
You’re very welcome, and thank you very much for stopping by!