ROLL IN ONE

Designer: Randy O’Connor | Publisher: Self Published

My dad was a keen golfer. Often I’d join him, albeit briefly as I tailed several holes behind, but it was fun nonetheless. But now, Roll in One is letting me address my prior ineptitude from the more level playing field of the tabletop.

Roll in One is a dice game played out upon hex tiles which sees each player designing and collectively playing a number of courses. There’s six different dice in the game with the number of sides corresponding to particular clubs. A twenty sided wood for example excels at punting the ball far and straight whilst the 4-Iron increases the chances of curving.

Essentially players will be racing to the green and scoring negative points for straying from the course, landing in water, and falling behind other players. Once all courses have been played out, the player with the lowest score wins.

On top feeling impressively like golf, Roll in One demonstrates tension, tactility, and outright hilarity. Watching your friends fail is joyous without ever feeling mean, whilst witnessing a miraculous turn of events as a lagging player ping pongs their ball straight to the green is similarly satisfying.

Criticisms towards this filler game are largely reserved for the solo modes. Here, the reliance on luck combined with uninterrupted torrents of die rolls feels repetitive and hollow. A solitary round of real golf – and indeed other solo tabletop games – invites players to revel in a leisurely pace, and pleasantly bask in the numerous benefits of solitude. Conversely, the brevity and lack of tension in Roll in One’s solo modes usher in some kind of ludic loneliness – solitude’s evil twin.

Overall though, as a fast and funny multiplayer experience, Roll in One’s compact size, terrific theming, and ease of play could see it sitting justifiably on par with other similarly weighted competitive games.

CHAD WILKINSON

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