From the BGG description of Walking in Burano, “Burano is a beautiful island of Venice in Italy, known for its colorful houses. Walking through the island, you will see these vibrant houses on both sides of the canal, as well as the personal décor placed by the inhabitants of these houses and shops. Tourists always linger on the street to appreciate and enjoy the view.”

The original Walking in Burano (WiB) was a card drafting game in which players took turns selecting a card, or set of cards, from a changing lineup of cards, and then using those cards to build the ever-present houses, attract the tourists, and please the locals for points.

Walking in Burano: Roll & Write (WiB:RW) reimagines the game in a new format. The drafting is still there, but the cards have been replaced with differently colored dice. Each die corresponds to a specific building and can be used to perform various actions. The strength of the selected action is based on the die’s value, and this value can be adjusted by spending coins, which can be acquired in a number of ways.

At the end of each drafting round, the players will have the opportunity to spend coins to invite one of the characters to come see what they’ve done. Each of these…

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It has been an interesting year of roll-and-write (RNW) and flip-and-write (FNW) games. Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘N Write is probably my favorite game in this category, although Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition is the people’s choice here at home. Twilight Inscription? Disaster.

I enjoyed my plays of Welcome To… years ago, and I love (and still own) my copy of Cartographers. Both of these FNW games compare well as light/family weight experiences, so when I had the chance to get Next Station: London (2022, Blue Orange Games) to the table, I didn’t hesitate to get it into the review game rotation quickly as a filler between some of the other heavier games on my list.

Next Station: London has a simple concept and comes from a publisher that I have generally enjoyed (Paco’s Party, Kingdomino: Origins). Like the art design of Zoom in Barcelona—another Blue Orange production—I love the look and clean lines of the cover art on the Next Station: London box.

But the game was a mixed experience.

Four Pencils

Next Station: London borrows some of the same concepts from a game called Let’s Make a Bus Route (released in the US as Get on Board, a…

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Appetizers

When I was a teenager working under the golden arches, I was shocked how many folks visited the drive thru and ordered trademarked items from other fast food joints. I never understood the disconnect, because I can’t imagine a disappointment greater than pulling into McDonald’s only to be served a BK Whopper. Though if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t complain if they slipped me a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A.

When I sit down to play a game, the box communicates. The components communicate. The rulebook communicates. One of the keys to disappointment, for me, comes when the game communicates something other than what it turns out to be on the table. On the contrary, I love when a game understands itself. Regardless of what is inside the box, there is comfort in knowing that a game delivers on its implicit promises. 

Wok and Roll is just such a game from Daryl Chow (Plantopia, Rainforest City) and the folks at Origame. A roll and write game set in an Asian restaurant, Wok and Roll asks players to create dishes with efficiency and speed based on the results of the dice. And it does so with complete consistency. 

Lunch Special

Wok and Roll hangs on the activity of six dice, two red and four white, each bearing the…

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In our recent Top 6 collaboration article regarding some of the Meeple Mountain team’s favorite short games, I highlighted that one of my 3 picks is the fantastic roll and write game Railroad Ink from Horrible Guild Game Studio.

Prior to COVID, I kept my copy of Railroad Ink in my game bag for weeks, then months, then permanently. I always like to have a game on hand that is easy to teach, plays well with smaller and larger sets of gamers, and takes up very little table space. Across more than 30 plays over the years, I continue to love the accessibility Railroad Ink offers in such a tidy package.

I Really Have Been Working on the Railroad

Roll dice, draw shapes. In Railroad Ink, you’ll spend seven rounds and (at least) four dice per round, drawing shapes on a grid full of space for your future railroad network.

Railroads, and highways, I should say. You see, in every round of Railroad Ink, someone rolls four white dice. Amongst the 9 different die faces are: L-shaped railroads, L-shaped highways, T-shapes of both rails and highways, straightways of both, and overpasses. The remaining two shapes feature an Exchange,…

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In Riverside, the players are taking on the roles of tour guides competing to attract tourists to their guide boats for various arctic excursions. During each round players roll a handful of dice  and will use their values to fill in their game sheets to trigger bonuses and earn victory points. And, as you have no doubt guessed, the player with the most victory points when the game comes to an end will win the game.

Chart

To set up a game of Riverside, first construct the course. Shuffle the ten River tiles and place them, back to back, in two rows of five with the rounded edges facing outwards. Then place the two end tiles at opposing sides of the river so the river is connected. Place the boat standee on the very first spot of the river. Then, tear off a sheet from the…

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Publisher Pandasaurus Games continue their hot streak of visually striking family titles with Bruno Cathala and Corentin Lebrat’s Trek 12: Himalaya, a roll & write themed around mountaineering. I have grown inordinately fond of Pandasaurus in a relatively short period of time. I’m not the only one, as evidenced by Meeple Mountain’s reviews of Wild Space, That Time You Killed Me, and The Loop. The care they put into every title is evident, and they have a knack for publishing designs that are satisfying, engaging, and approachable.

Trek 12 follows the roll & write formula to a T. Players take turns rolling two dice. The result of each roll is used simultaneously by everyone to add a number to the mountain on their individual player sheets. The first number goes anywhere you want, which is thematically suspect, but let’s assume you’re a wealthy mountaineer with access to a helicopter. All subsequent numbers have to be adjacent to previously filled in circles, with the goal of creating Fixed Lines (adjacent sequential numbers) and Mapped Zones (contiguous areas of the same number). You’ll want to be careful about where you place your numbers, because there’s a penalty for…

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The game we’re talking about today, Alles Auf 1 Karte (Everything on 1 Card) lands squarely in the lighter end of the spectrum. So far this game has only been released in Germany, but I imagine it would do well in the US. I picked it up in an order from Amazon.de along with a few other titles. Spoiler alert: Everything on 1 Card has been the standout hit of the bunch.

Let’s jump into the review and find out why.

I’ll be using the English name for the remainder of the review.

You write on the cards (Du schreibst auf die Karten)

In Everything on 1 Card players are trying to…

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The agricultural practice of “three sisters” has been around for thousands of years. It refers to the technique of companion planting, in which three different crops are planted amongst each other; forming a symbiotic relationship. The most common combination is pumpkin, corn, and some form of runner or pole beans. The corn provides a lattice for the beans, the beans give nitrogen to the soil, and the pumpkin leaves shade the ground and help deter pests. Originating in Northern Mexico and Central America, this practice was eventually adopted all over North America and became the foundation of the agricultural society for many Native American tribes.

Three Sisters also refers to a brand new roll and write game by Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle, designers of Fleet, Floating Market, Piepmatz, and my personal gold standard for roll and write games Fleet: The Dice Game. Can Three Sisters supplant Fleet: The Dice Game as my new favorite or will it wither on the vine? Let’s find out!

[caption id="attachment_216416" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] This is just a humble prototype, but the cover art is the same. Another gorgeous illustration from Beth Sobel[/caption]

Three Sisters Overview

Three Sisters is a thematic roll and write game in which players grow pumpkins, corn, beans, and perennials…

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Back Scribbletown on Kickstarter

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Buy Deadly Doodles on Amazon

Buy Deadly Doodles 2 on Amazon

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Qwinto, an official Spiel des Jahres recommended game and the spiritual successor to Qwixx, is a quick-playing, abstract roll and write game. If you’ve played Qwixx before, some of the mechanisms in Qwinto will feel familiar, but there is certainly more depth to Qwinto than its predecessor.

In the game, the active player rolls between 1 and 3 coloured dice. Then they will have the chance to write the result somewhere on their scoresheet. The other players may also write the value rolled on their sheet. All of this is done with the goal of writing the most numbers in all 3 rows. While the gameplay sounds simple in theory, the way rows and columns are scored, along with the decisions you must make as the active player, make Qwinto qwite the tricky game. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Let’s take a few minutes to dive deeper into how a game of Qwinto is played.

[caption id="attachment_25678" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Each player gets their own scoresheet and a pencil. (For some reason, the rules explicitly give players permission to share a pencil if necessary.)[/caption]

How to Play Qwinto

Qwinto is one of those roll and write games where every player is always engaged.…

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Demeter is a card-based roll and write game (or a “flip and fill” like Welcome To… or Ripple Rush) from publisher Sorry We Are French that follows the theme of their 2018 release, Ganymede. If you’re familiar with Ganymede, you’ll notice the artwork and graphic design are similar, but you don’t have to play one to jump in and understand the other.

In Demeter, the goal is to score the most points, but the route and strategy taken to achieve this will vary from player-to-player and from game-to-game depending on the cards drawn and the objectives in play.

Assembling your Expedition Team - Setup

Normally I don’t go into setup details in my reviews, but for Demeter there are a few things I’d like to point out.

[caption id="attachment_24531" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] A game of Demeter set up for one player. Each player gets a Scoresheet that they’ll…

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In the world of hobby board gaming, no style of game has caught on quite so rapidly as the “roll and write”; a modern take on the venerable Yahtzee. The premise is simple: roll some dice, write something on your personal score sheet, rinse and repeat. Yet even within the roll and write genre there are different ways to play: some games allow for engine and combo building while others are based around set collection. Titles like Ganz schön clever (also known as That’s Pretty Clever), Fleet: The Dice Game, and Cartographers are all great examples of the roll and write genre.

But Ripple Rush, the game we’re talking about today, is a variant on the roll and write commonly called “flip and fill”. It’s the same exact play style, except that instead of rolling dice, you’re simply flipping over a card from the deck. There’s less random input since the deck is fixed... the only unknown aspect is the order in which the cards are revealed. Great examples of flip and fills are Silver & Gold, and the smash hit Welcome To…

So what does Ripple Rush bring to the party? Let’s dive in and find out.

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