Old Chestnut Reviews: Roll Player Adventures
Now, if you build a character, you can import it to Roll Player Adventures, but there are plenty of stock Roll Player characters you can use that Adventures comes with. So, you don't need to buy Roll Player before getting Roll Player Adventures. While I have all the Roll Player base games and expansions, I have never felt the need to import a player. You can just jump right into
As I have already said, Roll Player Adventures is a stand alone campaign game that covers several different chapters (I think there's 10, plus a bonus side quest). In the original Roll Player expansions, you are introduced to Dragul invaders and other Fiends and Spirits in the Land of Nalos, which is where the universe takes place. I won't give any more spoilers than to say that basically, Nalos gets invaded and you go on a quest to defend Nalos.
You can play solo or with other players cooperatively as a quest team. Roll Player Adventures is reminiscent of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books from the late 1970s into the 1980s. Being an '80s kid, those books held a special place in my pre-teen heart. The whole game constantly presents you with choices that you make that affect the outcome from what faction you cozy up with to what actions you take (do I attack the monster or wait and observe).
Most decisions eventually lead to mini-boss battles with sometimes a larger boss battle at the end of each chapter. Although, that is not always the case, depending on what choices you make, and what chapter adventure is going. It is sort of an unfolding quest of sorts where you can choose to be a good guy or a bad guy or morally neutral character just trying to save your own skill.
While it may sound all Dungeons and Dragons-esque, the game is not really a dungeon crawler per se. For those of us who had it beaten into our heads as kids that Satan would appear if you played Dungeons and Dragons and drag your soul to hell (I'm not making this up), I still have a "I'm being naughty" guilt trip if I play any sort of fantasy board or video game. That's mostly all nonsense, of course, but if you didn't grow up in the religiosity of the 1980s Bible belt, you probably won't understand what I mean here. But, suffice is to say, this game is not Dungeons and Dragons.
Actually, it is an extremely family friendly game. I think it would be great for kids. There is real agency in the decisions you make in the story arc, but there are not totally grotesque witches or demons or anything like that. The characters are more of your stock Tolkien types of characters: halflings, elves, dwarves trolls, dragons, etc. None of the artwork has characters scantily clad or really dark or adult themes. So, it's a particularly clean game in that sense.
The kicker in the game, I think, is the story line. While it is certainly in the fantasy wheel house, it certainly has a bit of a science fiction twist to the story. Without giving spoilers, I will throw out the analogy of Species 8472 from Star Trek Voyager, if you get my drift. When you get to that part of the story, you'll know what I am talking about. So, I really enjoyed the unfolding story.
You also build your character(s) as you go along. You gain weapons and skills as you go along to make your character stronger for conflicts in the ongoing boss battles. So, in that way, it is similar to other character/deck building campaign. The process is very easy to calculate and keep track of. It's not something as mind blowing complicated as the upkeep of Gloomhaven. It's a good entry level character building campaign game.
Also, unlike Gloomhaven or games that have massive set up and upkeep, each chapter is pretty east to setup. There is a map and a few tokens to set on the map. The major upkeep is the skill tracks on your characters, but it's pretty easy to keep that sorted out with the paper skill track pad they give you. It's also easy to take down. You can even write down all your powers and skills, and completely put the game up for a while at the end of each round and pick up where you left off when you want to table it again later.
Now, a few knocks I have on the game after a few full campaign play throughs for you to consider. As with many campaign games, I have a love/hate relationship with most of them. I love following the unfolding story and seeing what comes next. But, as with most campaign games, once you have played through the major campaign and know the how the story will turn out, I don't find those games usually have a lot of replay value. Once the cat's out of the bag, you can't pretend it's still in the bag in subsequent playthroughs.
I love the Choose Your Own Adventure aspect. That's a fun part of campaign games. There is a certain amount of free will and consequences in the game. I did feel like I had some agency in the game. It was not what I call a "Calvinist game" where the ending is pretty much predestined, no matter what choices you make. What faction you choose to befriend and help does cascade into later rounds. My one gripe with Oathsworn was that I always felt I was being thrown to a particular ending. Provided you figure out how to beat the Big Boss in each round, the game ultimately plays out the same in Oathsworn. You feel like you had free will, but really, you don't.
My two major gripes with Roll Player Adventures was that you realize after a while that you really have to go out of your way to completely die with a death that ends the game. You can die, and there are 10 respawns throughout the game that you have at your disposal. The respawns are a mini-story arc in themselves. But, you have to be a complete moron or intentionally trying to kill off your characters to need that many respawns. I never got close to needing all 10 respawns. I am not even sure how that's even possible. So, once you realize you can't really die despite what decisions you make, I find that somewhat detracting from the experience overall.
My other gripe was I found the ending(s) to be somewhat anti-climatic. I was expecting a big bang or twist at the end, which never seemed to materialize. They aren't bad endings, just not massive thought provoking "didn't see that coming" or massive Battle of Helm's Deep kind of endings. I have only played all the way through twice, so maybe there is an option that has that, but I didn't find that reading through any of the endings in the last chapter. In a story arc that was otherwise a very original and interesting epic tale, I found the ending kind of went out with a whisper instead of a bang.
Overall, liked the game. I may eventually get rid of it, but I think it would be great if you had kids or grandkids to bring out. It's a ripping good little adventure story. So, if you are intimidated by some massive campaign game like Frosthaven or Oathsworn, you might give this one a whirl. It's fun with a good story. It's pretty easy to set up and take down. Once you understand the game play flipping through a few different adventure books, you can pretty much be up and running quickly. It's not a mind bending, 100+ hour epic campaign game, but neither is it designed or marketed to be.
The Old Chestnut gives is a 7 out of 10 tokens.
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