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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What Is A Party Game?

A Party Game is a game that works well with large groups, it can create laughs and generally encourages the conversation and interaction while playing the game. Another way to put it is, if someone isn’t paying attention until it’s their turn, might not matter. Side conversations can happen and it’s not a big deal.

Yet another way to put it is to think about the holidays. Maybe you have a gamer family and friends, but for a lot of families, these get pulled out. They are the ones that cousin Timmy can play and Grandma Bev and everyone can play at the same time.

What Do I Look For In A Party Game?

1. Variety
2. Creativity
3. Conversation
4. End Point

Variety

This one I think is something people often overlook when it comes to party games. A lot of party games are just a deck of cards, like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples. If there aren’t enough cards, or variety in cards, the game can quickly become repetitive. So I want the game to feel different often, whether that’s because there are a ton of cards in it or because the cards are only part of the game.

Creativity

And when I talk about them being part of the game, I want a chance to be creative and clever. Stipulations, a game I talk about often, doesn’t have that many cards. But it does have a lot of creativity in it. I write down that stipulation for your super power of flight or your dream job of being a dentist. That means that every time I play the game it’s going to feel different because I’m going to write something new and so is everyone else.

Conversation

This one is a bit odd, I don’t mind conversations that happen in board games. They are fine, as long as you are paying enough attention to your turn. With a party game I want to have moments where people are surprised and talk about what is happening, laugh at what is written, try and guess who wrote it. Plus, between rounds as people are picking or writing something new. I don’t love party games where players are trying to figure something out. Those shut down conversations.

End Point

The game ends at some point in time. I mean, technically all of them do, but a massive game of Apples to Apples can go on for way to long. If a game doesn’t have a great end point, I will create one. Because it’s very important with a party game to end while people are still having fun. For Just One that can be 13 rounds, but for Cards Against Humanity in a big group, once around the circle no matter what the rules actually say.

Are All Criteria As Important?

End Point is the only one that I question. Mainly because that will depend on your group and depend on what you decide. For a lot of party games I pick an arbitrary point. In my Cards Against Humanity example, in the rules there is literally no end point, and no winning. Set your own end point or if a game has too long and end point, shorten it up. It’s not that an end point isn’t as important but it’s flexible to what you can do.

Let’s Do An Example

I’m going to pick one that I haven’t talked about yet in this post and that’s the game Medium. I’ve played this a few times and it’s been a good time, but let’s not do a review, let’s talk about how this works.

Variety

In this game you and your fellow player are putting down two cards and trying to come up with a word between them. Whatever that might mean. For example “Pink” and “Cat” could be the words and the word I’d get in my head would be the word “Panther”. But next game I could get “Pink” and “Toilet” as a combo and “Cat” and “Waffle” as another combo So even though it is a finite number of cards the combinations are extremely high.

Creativity

There is a good amount of creativity in this game. You need to be able to think fairly quickly to come up with a word in between. Though, that definition is going to be different for everyone. So you need creativity and some ability to read what you think your teammate that round might say.

Conversation

Yes, the two people working on words won’t be talking too much, but I’ve found that this is a game that people just talk through. Even the players who aren’t up right now will be coming up with words in their head and then telling everyone that they got one. It’s just a good time that leads to a lot of laughing and fun.

End Point

This one I love less. They have some crystal ball cards that can be shuffled into the deck and when a certain number of them come up then you are done with the game. Well, kind of, you are done once everyone has had an even number of goes. I’ve played this with six or so people, and everyone matched up with everyone once, I believe, and that was a great length, then I did the same with five. I think with larger groups you’d maybe want to say that everyone goes 4 times or something like that.

Overall, this game does meet a lot of my criteria. And you can see how I kind of just determine how/when these games should end a lot of the time. Especially something like this where everyone isn’t always engaged all the time.

Will This Work For You?

Well, I would say that it should work for you. I think that for some groups it won’t work as well though and it’ll be the creativity piece that trips them up. It seems like pressure to have to come up with something instead of letting the game kind of play itself. However, in my opinion, basically everyone is capable of playing a game like Medium or Stipulations. And once people start laughing, it’ll have worked really well. Just make sure you end the games before people are tired of them.

What is your favorite party game?

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