Roll for the Galaxy

My main issue with Roll for the Galaxy is that the Explore action is super slow. The game is quick until everyone starts pawing through a bag of tiles and after each one deciding whether they want the tile or bucks. With 2, it might not be as big of a deal. RftG is one of my favorites; I have no desire to own Roll. Typically the people who like Roll better didn't much care for Race in the first place.

Michael Barnes wrote: Remember that game To Court the King (another Tom Lehmann one) that everyone loved for a minute? You rolled dice and then spent the entirety of the game using special tiles to change the results.

Man, I hated that game.

When I go to a board game event I'm pretty lax about what I play. I will often try out something that isn't quite "me" just to get a taste. If I don't like it, it's no biggie, I'll just move on to the next thing.

To Court the King was one of the few instances that I was angry afterwards for my time being so awfully wasted.

I just sold RftG because it's one of those games where you do a bunch of shit on your tableau simultaneously and the opponents really can have no clue about your setup. There was some interaction in trying to predict what an opponent might select as the action, but it is 95 percent solitaire.

Ultimately it was a pain in the ass to teach for what it was.

Nagajur wrote: I just sold RftG because it's one of those games where you do a bunch of shit on your tableau simultaneously and the opponents really can have no clue about your setup. There was some interaction in trying to predict what an opponent might select as the action, but it is 95 percent solitaire.

RftG is so non-interactive that, in one game I observed, the players accidentally got off-kilter and different players were on different turns. That was very funny, and completely encapsulates what I dislike about this game.

I think they may have been mostly new players, but still...

Nagajur wrote: I just sold RftG because it's one of those games where you do a bunch of shit on your tableau simultaneously and the opponents really can have no clue about your setup. There was some interaction in trying to predict what an opponent might select as the action, but it is 95 percent solitaire.

Ultimately it was a pain in the ass to teach for what it was.

Weirdly, I wouldn't mind more games like this in my collection so this is kind of why I asked. There's a niche in my gaming life for this that gets a lot of plays but right now it's mostly filled with low interaction point salad euros.

Thanks for the responses, everybody.

Msample wrote: The expansion is worth getting IMO - not only do you get more world tiles to draw, more importantly it greatly increases the number and variety of starting worlds in your tableau.

I bought the expansion because Roll went over so well and this post from msample is right on.

The expansion does do a little bit of what Legomancer is so frustrated by, but in doing so it *also* mitigates those annoying turns where you roll 2 dice and there's nothing you can really do with them since it adds the initial black die in your opening cup (rather than the 3rd white). We played the first game with them and my wife was like "I could always do something even on bad turns! I really like this expansion!"

The main value is the new starting tiles, though. I think literally adds x3 your starting tiles which sounds minor but, as ubarose said elsewhere, the tiles you start with basically set the tone and direction for the entire game. It's sort of an astute thing to expand in Roll.

Haven't tried the objectives.

Michael Barnes wrote: I’m not trying to play Mephistopheles here, but it sounds like SW Destiny would be right up your ally. 2 players, about 20 minutes per game, lots of fun decisions, nothing but confrontation. You ought to at least try the 2 player game they have at Target.

If you fall for it, you might get an Asohka from the boosters...

You've probably been over this before, but how do you feel about Destiny vis-a-vis Dice Masters? Now that dicemasters is seemingly going away from blind purchases I've been thinking about picking up a to play with a buddy of mine who loves comics, but I'm wondering if, theme aside, the destiny starer might be a better option.

I just got the 2nd big expansion in. There is some wild shit in here. Unlike the first expansion, it is absolutely an "expert" expansion. Get it only if you've wrung out the base and expansion. I've played 50 times, so it's pretty fascinating---a build your own die module, a trading module... out there stuff. I'll report back on if it's fun stuff.

We played with the Orb expansion, which is a die with removable faces you construct and upgrade by commiting dice to a new phase, the research phase. It's pretty good! It makes the game longer and it inserts a lot more decisionmaking into the game, which sort of plays against the game's main strength: focus of 1-2 key decisions every turn, usually primarily the role choice. But again, as a radical change to the way the game goes I think it's a fun direction to go with it. It definitely shows that Roll is exactly the game the two designers wanted it to be, if they'd wanted it to be denser and thinkier they absolutely could have made it so.