Top 10 Roll & Write Games with Wendy Yi

0:00 Hello, welcome out to the Dice Tower. I'm Wendy Yee and today I'm going to be sharing with you my top 10 favorite roll and write games. Now, I know all of these aren't necessarily readily available for purchase, but many of them are and mostly this is just a list of my favorites, not necessarily a shopping list. So, let's go ahead and get started.

0:32 Starting with number 10 is Castles of Burgundy Dice. Now, this is probably the most nostalgic of all the roll and write games for me. This is one that we carried around in its little small box many places, many trips, many travels to just bring with you because it's such a small box you can roll in the lid and it's just perfect. It's one of those like play on the airplane kind of games. And so, this one's number 10 on my list, played it a ton. It does have that DNA of Castles of Burgundy very tied into it. And what I really love is the dice mitigation that goes on. So, as you're collecting the different spaces, you get to basically unlock these different dice mitigations where you can add or subtract numbers, you can change the colors. And that just really ties in a lot to the dice mitigation that happens with the little like worker guys you collect in regular Castles of Burgundy.

1:25 And so, I just I love the way that that ties in and this is just such a good solid roll and write game. All right, so moving on to number nine. Number nine on my list is Ganz schön clever or That's Pretty Clever I guess is the English version. And this to me is the quintessential roll and write game. Like when I think roll and write game, this is instantly the one that pops in my head. And so, in this you are you basically have a whole bunch of like combo-licious grids and as you fill in lines and spaces and whatever each section requires based on the color, you can get all these bonuses. And I just think that this is such a clever game. I think that the the name is apt to fit. And yeah, I just I've loved this one for years. I've played it on the app. I've played it in person.

2:10 Various and sundry different ways. So, Ganz Schön Clever is number nine. All right, on to number eight. Eight is Next Station London. This one is so clever to me and I think there's like what, Tokyo and Paris then there's various and sundry versions of this, but they all do this similar thing the same and that is where you're building some sort of public transportation and you're building the routes on this piece of paper, so you're drawing them and you start with a specific color pencil. And as you draw those routes and you flip over cards and you do the things the card say, that's all wonderful and great and then you pass that pencil along and you get a new one. And that new color has to start at the new colored station, you know, maybe you've moved from blue to purple and now you're going to build up the purple station, right? That's exciting. But you also have to deal with whatever you drew before and I think that's so clever and it's very thematic, right? You obviously can't build train tracks right across train tracks without a proper intersection. And so I just I think that is a such a clever system and I really love that passing of pencils.

3:11 And so you have so many decisions, but also you don't really have so many decisions. It narrows it down to like a beautiful little like here's a couple choices. I can build off the two ends. This is the you know, the shape that I've been revealed. So, I I love what's done there and I love the spatial puzzle element to it as well. All right, let's see. We are on to number seven, which is Walk and Roll. So, this is a This is a roll and write game about Korean food, right? So, you have this little menu in front of you and you're trying to complete these different dishes and as you're rolling the dice, you know, you're that's what you're trying to do is complete these. And so there's There's a die color that other people can't use. So, there's a a same simultaneous action kind of thing going on, but you get all the dice and the other people have to pick one only specifically from the ingredient dice.

4:01 And for me, this is also very nostalgic. I think this list has a lot of nostalgia to it. Um but so my husband's family is Korean and so Korean food has been a huge part of my life since he's been a part of my life and I miss my mother-in-law's cooking so much. Like oh my goodness, it's so good. And so I've had to learn how to make everything myself, right? So, I love tteokbokki and japchae and I make my own kimchi and just like those kind of things. And so this game has just a lot of love for me because it has these delicious dishes in this delicious menu and yeah, I'm I miss home a little bit. Mostly just for the cooking. Okay. So, on to also it's a really good game, right? I just want to put that out there. It's not just for the food. It's a it's a good game as well.

4:51 Uh number six is Welcome to the Moon. And I do enjoy the basic Welcome to you know, the Welcome to dot dot dot or Welcome to your your new home. I don't actually know how people pronounce this. So, I just say Welcome to. Uh but I really like Welcome to the Moon because it is like six games in one box. And I love that they take the same symbols that you flip over on the cards and stuff and they make it into multiple different maps. And that's something that's the kind of variety that I love in games is to be able to use the same system, but get a totally different feel and have totally different things to explore because I love exploration in games and uh especially with roll and write games to be able to explore so many different maps and so many different options. That's why Welcome to the Moon is so good for me.

5:40 All right, number five. Speaking of exploration, uh this is a big game and this is Tend. So, one of the biggest roll and writes out there. Oh my goodness. And I love it. I love every minute of it. It's fabulous. Um and so, in Tend, you are tending your crops in your fields and your cows and your fishing and your mining and your forestry. I think I covered them all. Yes. Anyways, um it's a super beautiful, cute-looking game. I love the vibe of it, but I also just love how wonderfully combolicious things can be. You know, as you're working up and you're like, "Okay, I've upgraded my mining so far. Now I can take this card and I can do the basic action, plus because my mining's, you know, at level three, now I can do another action." Um I think it's very clever. I love the little bits of interaction, how I can just give you little gifts and that benefits me and it benefits you, and then you give me gift backs gifts back and I get that benefit as well. So, I really enjoyed Tend and I enjoy just that heavy nature to it. Uh there's lots of choices, lots to lots of going on, and I don't have to just pick one path, right? I don't have to say like, "Okay, looks like all I'm doing today is fishing." No, you get to do many things and I love it.

6:56 All right. Number four. Oh, this is not a roll and write. It is not a flip and write. It is not a I don't know what the other types of writes there are. But anyways, this is what I like to call a Crokinole and write or a flick and write. Uh and this is Sonora. So, this one has been very special to me for a long time, and I think it's because it is pretty much the only dexterity game that I can win. So, this you basically have like a Crokinole board in front of you and you're flicking number discs off and what what of the four regions they land in, that's where you use that number on the roll and write. So, basically, if I get a four in the owl area or whatever, the fox area, um then I can use that many points, I can use four action points in that area, right? And then there's little multipliers where you get like times two, but pretty much if you landed on a times two, someone else is going to try to get you off of that times two. So, I think that it's very clever and this is one that I wish was modular. You know, like I mentioned uh in the Welcome to the Moon how that one like they use the same symbols, but they gave you so many maps.

8:01 This is one I was really hoping that it would be expanded and instead it had like these little overlays that you could put down so you could flick discs on different type of Crokinole boards or different you know, I mean like different kind of arrangements that would lead to different roll and write maps. I was hoping it would become a thing and apparently I'm one of the very few people who actually like this game, but I I adore it. I think it is so clever and I love the roll and write elements to each one of the areas. I think they're they work differently. They're so cool, but yet they do interact with each other as you get bonuses. Um yeah, anyways, Sonora absolutely great Crokinole and write. Okay, number three. This is probably the top 10 game What am I saying? The roll and write game that I've played the most and anyways, this is Rolled West. So, I've played this on Board Game Arena. I played it in person a ton. This is one that I just like it's so easy to pull out and be like, "Hey, let me teach you a quick easy game.

8:59 Here's a quick roll and write." It's so contained nicely in its box. It's dry erase boards. It's just I don't know. It's glorious. All right, so what do I like about Rolled West? What I think is really clever about it and what sets from other roll and write games is that you get to collect resource. You're rolling dice, you're collecting resources and those resources you have to use on your turn and one of them is always set aside to be like your landscape type. And so that's only usable if you have a wood. And then the rest of the dice you can use on kind of whatever you want to, but you can save one of them for future rounds. And so you can kind of write it at the top. And then during everyone else's turn, during that whole time, you can save one other die that they've rolled. And so, there's kind of a push-your-luck element to waiting. Like, if you're really waiting for a specific type of die, and one person doesn't roll it, and then the next person doesn't roll it, you're like, "Okay.

9:52 Okay. Well, maybe my secondary die will come up." And so, there's a little bit of that push-your-luck element, but I really just love that ability that you have to collect those resources and then use them later. So, to be able to use that landscape die, you need to have wood. You're like, "Ooh, am I going to collect wood between the rounds? Ooh, one popped up. I'm going to take it." Or, am I trying to get specific contracts completed? Or, I'm really trying to just go all into copper or all into gold. And so, just there's so many different fun ways that you can collect those, but also it I just really feel like it mitigates the dice. You don't just feel like, "Oh, what I rolled on my turn is what I rolled, and you rolled better than me." I just think that it has a lot of cleverness to it. All right. Number two on my list. This is the newest one, even though it's an older game, and that is the Three Sisters: The Harvest Edition.

10:41 So, this is kind of a big box that came out of Three Sisters, and this was my first experience with it was that whole big box, right? I never played the original. But, the original is like the first map in this, and I've played many of the maps. So, this one I loved and adored because it had the variety of, you know, add this module in, add this, you know, remove this module, and there's so many choices. And so, it gave me that kind of variety that I love with Welcome to the Moon. But, it also gave me so much combo-licious deliciousness that I kept losing track of how many how many bonuses I got, in a positive way, right? And I figured out ways to kind of tally and make sure that I I've done it all. But, what a clever game. Also, I'm really into gardening. So, I just picked What did I pick like six pumpkins yesterday, which was super exciting. Uh so anyways, I I love gardening. I love the theme. I think it's so clever and just that combo nature is amazing. The fact that I do a thing that gives me a bonus action. I hold on to that bonus action cuz I'm finishing the thing I'm doing and then that bonus action leads to like two other bonus actions. And so I'm like, "I got to tech you know, check off those." Like it is absolutely amazing. I just wish it was a little easier to like keep track of everything that you get. Uh but I love the big box. Highly recommend it. And uh yeah, so number two on my list for that.

12:07 All right, last one. Favorite roll and write game of them all. This is what I've loved for years and for a long time it was hard to get back into. It's like I would play it once and then I'd be like, "Oh, I got to read all those rules over again a year later." kind of thing. But now I just I know it. I love it. I played it so many times and that is Hadrian's Wall. Uh so this this one so good. So combo-licious. Like the way that I talk about the three sisters and how that just gives you bonus action after bonus action over bonus action, but it's it's like difficult to keep track of. Hadrian's Wall has it so tied in in the core of its build to keep track of all that stuff. I think it is just such a beautifully made game. And so not only is it like so much fun because I love it and I adore it and you're I don't know, you're building up this this wall to protect yourself from random forces that are coming in, but you're also playing all of these little mini games on the side as well.

13:07 But yeah, I just think that the the core mechanism of every action that you get is a little worker. And so you're constantly collecting and trading out those little workers. You know, I spend a blue worker to move up on the blue worker track. I don't know, building something. And that unlocks a bonus over here and that bonus over here unlocks a black worker. So now I have another black worker. I set it in my pool and I don't have to sit and think about that and keep it in my brain, but instead I'm like, it's there. I I can forget about that and I can keep working on my blue workers and I move up another one on the blue worker track. You know, I spend another blue worker and I'm like, okay, that gives me another bonus over here. That gives me, you know, a I don't know, white worker. I put that down. And so I I think that that is just the most clever mechanism. And of course, you're always reducing down eventually. It's built beautifully so that you start with a ton, right? At the beginning of the round you just get a ton of these workers, a ton of possibility, and then as you go through, you're spending them, but you're gaining them. You're spending them, but gaining them. And it whittles down to the end of the round. Um so it's not like you're getting an endless amount, but it's just it's just so great how that expands. It's just uh it's wonderful. I want to play it again right now. All right. Well, there you go.

14:23 That's my 10 favorite roll and write games. There's so many fabulous roll and write out there. Uh these ones are both a mix of nostalgia as well as just amazing design and uniqueness. So just love this mix. Anyways, let me know what you think of these games and uh if there's anything important that I missed.

14:42 All right. Well, I'll talk to you all later. I'm Wendy Yee and this is The Dice Tower and uh roll and write some games.

14:53 Hey folks, thanks for watching another one of our videos. If you like our videos, if you like our channel, you would love to game with us at one of our conventions. Check out Dice Tower Cruise, Dice Tower East, and Dice Tower West. Fantastic conventions where we play games with wonderful people, a humongous library, and lots of other events and stuff. Also, don't forget to check out our channel, like and subscribe. I'm Tom Vasel.