Roll for the Galaxy Review

Intro

Tom Lehmann's Roll for the Galaxy takes the beloved card-driven empire building of Race for the Galaxy and transforms it into a dice-rolling extravaganza. Instead of managing cards, you're rolling custom dice that represent citizens in your galactic civilization, directing them to explore new worlds, develop technologies, and ship goods across the stars.

This 2014 release accommodates 2-5 players in about 45 minutes, though it really shines with 3-4 around the table. With a solid 7.57/10 rating from players worldwide, it strikes that sweet spot of being accessible to newcomers while offering enough depth to keep seasoned gamers engaged. The complexity sits comfortably in the medium-light range—you'll grasp the basics quickly, but mastering the timing and combos takes practice.

How It Plays

Each round, everyone secretly selects which phase they want to activate from five options: Explore, Develop, Settle, Produce, or Ship. All chosen phases happen for everyone, but whoever picked a phase gets a nice bonus for calling it. This creates a delicious tension where you're trying to predict what others need while advancing your own plans.

Your dice start white and generic, but as you build your tableau of worlds and developments, you'll gain specialized dice in different colors. Blue dice excel at development, yellow at settling worlds, brown at production, and green at shipping. The symbols you roll determine what actions you can take during each phase, creating a satisfying puzzle of dice allocation.

Building your empire means acquiring tiles that not only score points but also modify your dice pool and grant powerful ongoing abilities. Some worlds produce goods that you can ship for points and money, while developments provide technological advantages. The game ends when someone reaches a certain number of tiles or the victory point chips run low, then you tally up points from your tiles, shipped goods, and money.

Highlights

The dice mechanics feel fresh and engaging without being overly random. Sure, you're rolling dice, but you're rolling lots of them, and the law of averages keeps things reasonable. Plus, you can often reassign dice or use special powers to mitigate bad rolls. It's randomness with guardrails.

The simultaneous action selection keeps everyone engaged throughout the game. There's no downtime sitting around waiting for someone else's turn to finish. Everyone's always rolling dice, making decisions, and building their empires at the same time. This makes the 45-minute play time feel snappy and dynamic.

The component quality deserves special mention. Those chunky custom dice feel great in your hands, and the little dice cups add a satisfying tactile element. Rolling a handful of colorful dice behind your screen, then revealing your empire's productivity all at once, never gets old.

Unlike its card-game predecessor, Roll for the Galaxy eliminates the need to learn a bunch of card powers upfront. The iconography is clearer, the decision space is more focused, and new players can jump in without feeling overwhelmed by dozens of different card abilities.

Criticisms

The biggest hurdle for many players is the iconography learning curve. While simpler than Race for the Galaxy's card text, you still need to decode what all those symbols mean on your dice and tiles. The first few games involve a lot of reference sheet checking, which can slow things down and make some players feel lost.

Experienced Race for the Galaxy fans sometimes find Roll a bit too streamlined for their tastes. The card game offers more varied strategies and complex interactions, while Roll can feel somewhat limited in comparison. The dice version trades some strategic depth for accessibility and smoother gameplay.

The simultaneous play, while generally a strength, can occasionally create chaos when everyone's rolling dice and grabbing tiles at once. Players who prefer more deliberate, turn-based strategy might find the experience a bit frantic, especially with newer players who need more time to process their options.

Conclusion

Roll for the Galaxy succeeds brilliantly as both a gateway to the Race for the Galaxy universe and a solid dice game in its own right. If you enjoy engine-building games but want something more accessible than the card original, or if you love the satisfying feel of rolling custom dice while building a space empire, this one's for you.

It's particularly great for groups that want strategic gameplay without the analysis paralysis. The simultaneous play keeps things moving, the dice add just enough randomness to stay exciting, and the empire-building theme comes through clearly. Just be prepared for a few games of symbol-learning before everything clicks into place.