Rolling Village

Rolling Village game played for a round

Who wouldn’t want to be the Mayor? Wouldn’t you?

But as they say, with great power comes greater responsibilities!

Do you have what it takes to design and build the best possible village to be elected as the Mayor?

Rolling Village is a quick roll-and-write game developed by Diego Di Maggio and published by Little Rocket Games in 2022. What’s quick about it? It needs little to no assembly, takes less than 10 minutes to learn, and less than 15 minutes to play. Diego also developed one of my favorite PnP games, Lantern. So naturally I was super thrilled to try Rolling Village!

Is it a party game? Or is it for one of those quiet evenings? Is it better as a solo game, or in groups? Read the blog in 5 minutes to get to know it all.

What you need to play Rolling Village

Turn on your printer (or go to a local store) and print out the game. The game fits in half of an A4 paper, so one print will actually have 2 sets of the game- which is even better. As it is a roll-and-write game, having extra copies of the game will always come in handy. My advice is to print multiple copies of the file. You’ll know why soon enough!

With the prints at hand, get a hold of 2 D6 dice, and either a marker/pen OR 4 unique color marker/pens. And that’s it!

What’s with the 1 vs 4 marker/pens?

The game involves drawing (read, building) different types of structures- houses, lakes, forests, and town squares. You can choose to use 4 different colors to represent the structures, which is highly encouraged for those who want the sheet to look captivating while you’re playing- even preserve it once the game is over. If you do not have a knack for coloring or just want to try out the game for a start, then don’t bother with multiple colors. Just pick a pen and get started!

So, the game sheet, 2 D6 Dice, and a pen/multiple color pens are at your disposal. 

Time to find a great playthrough video! I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay video of Veselko Kelava; how he colors each structure perfectly illustrates the point I am making about using multiple coloring pens. Find the video at the end of this blog.

A competitive game? Or for quiet evenings?

After playing the game alone, as well as with my team in a group format, we all agreed on one point-  
Rolling Village feels more analytical and less of an adrenaline rush. 

It is a game I mostly played when I was alone, and used it as a tool to relax. Is that a problem? Definitely not! Of all the print-and-play games I tried, most of them are either too competitive or too action-packed. Rolling Village, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air as it effortlessly makes its way to my rare collection of games to play when I want to unwind alone. Definitely the one for quiet evenings. 

Explore your inner artist!

You are guaranteed to draw at least two structures per round- might as well draw them out like an artist. You won’t find many games where the playing surface is your canvas, so make the most of it. Grab 4 coloring pens, and go wild. You might be more proud of your drawings than the points you score at the end of the game. Don’t get discouraged by my output though, I am a noob at drawing!

To laminate or not?

Ah, the age-old question. I literally wrote a blog about when to, or not to, laminate games; but Rolling Village kind of breaks the pattern. Usually for roll-and-write games, my nod goes to laminating them- but not when a lot of drawing is involved. With Rolling Village, drawing structures all over the laminated print on every round did not feel right. So for the game, we encourage you to avoid laminating the printed sheets. Explore the game as it’s meant to be: unleash your inner Van Gogh! Print multiple copies of the print since you can’t reuse the pages once played.

Customization?

The game is not in its entirety a solo-player game, yet I listed it as one. Because the experience of playing it alone definitely trumped playing it in a competitive mode, with 3 or more players. Unless, of course, you bring in a few changes!

If you have read my game reviews, you know my knack for customizing game mechanisms and components! As for Rolling Village, the scope of modification lies in transforming the solo analytical game into a highly competitive group game.

How to do so?
Imagine a format for 4 people. The game sheet for each player will be made unique in two aspects- the dice number on top of each column, and the numbers on each of the rows. The dice and row sequence will be unique for each player. On each of the ten rounds, the two dice will be rolled once and the players will then draw (build) structures on their unique game sheets. That way, each round yields unique results for all the players. 

Want to make the game more interactive? Alter the rule for landing matching dice!

Whenever a player lands two matching dice, instead of building a square in the village, they can also choose to erase one of the structures of any other players to hinder their progress. The game becomes much more interactive, and competitive that way.

How do you create the 4 unique sheets for 4 players?
You can start easily by hand-drawing the sheets. But if you are good at Photoshop or Illustrator then you can design the sheets and print them out. Just make sure to alter the dice and numbers at the rows and columns to make 4 unique sheets. 

Where to get it from?

Dear Mayor, the game is available for free at Board Game Geek! So don’t worry about printing or purchasing it- give it your all at getting re-elected. Try 4 unique colors to get the best experience out of the game, and try customizing it to turn it into a potential contender for game nights! A big shoutout to Diego for yet another kickass roll-and-write game.

Overview | Rolling Village

Publisher: Little Rocket Games
Number of players:
1
Difficulty level: Easy
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 round
Game duration: 10 to 15 minutes
Price: Free 
Download from: Boardgamegeek.com
Theme: Roll-and-Write | Build structures to score maximum points
Number of pages and color: 1 (color print)
Assembling difficulty level: Easy
Lamination: Not recommended
Additional elements required: 2 dice and 4 unique color pens
Time to learn: Within 10 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 9/10
Rating from PnP Time: 8/10

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