Roam is the next small-box game by designer Ryan Laukat (think Eight Minute Empire size) which is set in the same universe as Near and Far/Above and Below. The game was launched on Kickstarter, with the option to upgrade to metal coins (regrets!) and included a small promo pack of cards to add to the game.
2 – 4 Players | 30 – 45 Minutes | Designed by Ryan Laukat
The box for this game is STURDY. Like it would definitely be one of the highest quality boxes in my collection which seems strange for such a small box game with not a huge amount of components. Not sure if this is a kickstarter thing, but surely not.
Box Design
The cover artwork is gorgeous! I love the lighter/brighter tone of this cover in comparison to other Red Raven games. I hope that other games in the Red Raven universe move towards these brighter covers as they seem fun and approachable.
It features spot UV coating on the title, which is done very minimally to not make it blinding or distracting which is really nice.
The back cover is nice, and I love it when the game is shown during play on back covers. My small complaints would be that the first word ‘Adventurers’ seems to be in a larger font which seems really strange and distracting. I also find it strange that the lower text is in dot-point form which looks weird to me – it could have just been a few sentences. The coins are also pretty huge in comparison to the game set up which may decieve some.
Each of the box lid and base features beautiful artwork which is a nice touch. Even the interiors of both have printed artwork.
Rulebook
Why is that ‘How To Play’ in black? It is SO distracting and does not suit the theme whatsoever. I am not a fan.
The setup page is good, and shows clearly what you need to do to get started. Seems weird to only have reference points for points 1-3 when there are 5 steps, but I guess it’s fine.
The rest of the rulebook is a bit random. I am usually the biggest fan of everything Ryan Laukat does, but this rulebook just seems rushed or not fully thought out for someone who is usually such a beautiful artist and designer. There are large gaps, and the text boxes leave text flow uneven, even though there would have been plenty of room to space out each line to assist the flow of words.
The abilities on the back cover are a good addition, but again the title is a bit distracting.
Components
The components in the game are pretty basic, but you don’t really need anything more fancy. Part of the Kickstarter was an option of metal coins which would have been nice and I regret it a lot! But the cardboard ones are still quite nice and thick with a linen finish.
All of the tiles in the game are really nice and thick and all contain unique artwork. They have a beautiful linen finish and are printed double sided with some flavour text on the backs.
I like how each player colour has a unique set of starting cards with different characters on each card and a pretty coloured flag to represent each colour. This is a great touch since each player technically starts with the same thing, but this way every player could make a story for their individual workers if they wanted!
There are so many gorgeous cards in this game! The board is literally made up of cards, which are all double sided and super pretty and vibrant.
One side is used as the ‘board’, then when you add the card to your personal collection, it becomes the character, which is used to allocate your tiles out onto the ‘board.’
The game also includes some player aids, including one for just the first player! I don’t see this in too many games so it’s a cool addition.
Game Board
There is no ‘board’ in this game, but an area made up of 6 cards. This means the board is constantly changing which is cool. One complaint I had during the game was that once you put your player pieces down, you can’t see which ones have coins on them, so you need to be arranging your bits like a puzzle based on which worker you are using, while keeping track of how many coins you have covered. It is just hard to track, and the player bits could have either been smaller, or the coin could have been in the corner of the square so you can still see it. Check out both the pictures below to show a comparison of covered/uncovered coins spots.
Insert
No insert! Just baggies which is very normal for Red Raven Games/smaller box games so it is fine.
Thoughts
This has been a super random mix of loves and dislikes. Ryan Laukat is my favourite and I am the biggest fangirl so I hate criticising anything he does, but there are just some random choices in this game IMO.
As with any Red Raven game, the artwork is stunning and I can’t fault it. It is what carries this game and really adds to what is quite a simple game design.
This game has been really well produced, and any of the issues mentioned are really quite minor. I wouldn’t feel any pressure about getting the Kickstarter version compared to a retail copy as there are not really too many exclusives, so don’t hesitate to grab a retail copy if you see it (note I have not seen it available as of yet, but it should be coming out soon I would imagine!)
The Boardgame Detective 