Dive into a big box and game of Roll Player Adventures and explore the world of Ulos in this epic game from Thunderworks Games. Or hit the table with a new adventure of Gulpax’s Secret.

Roll Player Adventures: Gulpax’s Secret

I can talk a bit more about this game because this is a game that I’ve played. Roll Player Adventures is a big choose your own adventure, exploration, and fighting game. In the base game you try and explore to figure out what is happening with a conflict between three parties, the King, the Dragul, and the Starlight Door. Much of what you do is in a choose your own adventure style where you reach decision points and decide what to do as a group. But it is very open in that you can come back and probably do some of the options again.

But then there is the combat or skill tests as well in the game. Those are where the mechanical part of the game really starts to take hold. Roll Player Adventures is a dice management and hand management game. You expend points in stats to use them to get the color dice you need, and you expend cards to manipulate those dice to the right sides.

What Doesn’t Work?

So, I have one main knock on the game. I think that Roll Player Adventures doesn’t do one of the things that I expect campaign games to do well. That is, I don’t think that Roll Player Adventures scales super well. From what I know, two players can be very challenging, but four players, what I am playing at, is very easy. Well, not very easy, but almost always able to be solved.

We get into combat and we can generally win in two rounds. We’ve gotten enough cards and enough XP to push us to be able to win. Same with skill challenges which are I think easier. You only have one round, so they need to be. But, we can basically always solve them.

Now, some of this is how we built out our characters and what has come up. And it is not a fast process at times where we figure it out as a group off the bad. It often takes a lot of thinking and planning. So the game is still challenging to come up with a solution, but a solution can basically always be found. I’d like to feel a bit more crunch and pressure to get things right.

What Works?

On the flip side, the story in the game is fun. And I think that Roll Player Adventures has a lighter story with it as well. So game play where you are doing well, I think that makes sense. It is a campaign game that I can have fun with, who have played heavy campaign games, and I know of families who are playing it together. If Roll Player Adventures were harder, and it could be, I think that it’d push it further into the hobby side of the game.

And, I also very much enjoy the characters in the game. Nefras’s Judgement is to me a needed expansion to the game. Now, the downside is that it adds to the cost of the game and all it’s doing is adding in some backstory. But that backstory really helps you flesh out a character. And it does set your alignment. Which I think is important because often players feel like they don’t know what to pick for an action. But when you have a backstory that says you’re “chaotic good” or “lawful evil” that can help direct that decision making process.

Finally, I think the core mechanics of the game are fun. I called them easy because we win our encounters. We haven’t lost one or we haven’t had a player go exhausted during the game. But I like the puzzle of the dice manipulation. And I think it’s one that people can get into because it’s not too complex.

Who Is It For?

Now, who is Roll Player Adventures for, I think it’s an accessible campaign game. Now, not in the way that Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is, a game in a small package. But more a game that has a massive box, but once you get into the box and you see the story books and maps, it isn’t nearly as component heavy as a lot of campaign games. So if you can get past the box size, it is an easier one to pick-up and play with any group.

What Is New?

So, why back it now? Firstly, it’s a big box, it won’t hit retail much because it doesn’t work well on a retail shelf. But also there is now Gulpax’s Secret. This is another story that you can play through, and it’s cheaper because it doesn’t need to give you all the dice and everything if you already have the base game.

On the flip side, if you haven’t played the game, I don’t think there is anything in the new stuff that you need to get. The base game offers a lot of options and I fully expect Gulpax’s Secret to be available again on a future crowdfunding campaign. Probably with another story that they come out with eventually.

Back or Brick: Roll Player Adventures + Gulpax’s Secret

I really like this game. I backed, or late pledged, the original. And I got to play it at Gen Con 2019 as a prototype. So I have a good connection to the game. I am also having a ton of fun playing through the adventure with friends. So for that reason it is a Back for me. Even if it shows up well after we are done, I can see coming back to it. If I were just looking at it now and with the reviews out there, I think that the base game is worth backing as well. But I’m just in for Gulpax’s Secret.

Is this game a Back or Brick for you?

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