Designer: Keith Matejka (Herbaceous, Roll Player, Skulk Hollow)

Artists: JJ Ariosa (Evolution, Mice & Mystics, Roll Player, Summoner Wars, Summoner Wars: Guild Dwarves vs Cave Goblins, Summoner Wars: Master Set, Summoner Wars: Phoenix Elves vs Tundra Wolves), Luis Francisco (The Bloody Inn, Coup, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, FUSE, Haggis, The Resistance, The Resistance: Avalon, Roll Player), Lucas Ribeiro (Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale, Roll Player Adventures, Space Cantina)

Publisher: Thunderworks Games (Bullfrogs, Roll Player, Skulk Hollow)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, dice rolling, set collection, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Roll Player – Fiends & Familiars Expansion is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 12x the initial funding goal, with 1 day left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  The second expansion for Roll Player, a dice-rolling, character-creation game. Fiends add obstacles for players, whereas Familiars are creatures that add more options to character creation. The expansion also includes 6 more end-game Monsters, 12 Classes, 20 Minions, 15 new Dice, and an expanded Market along with the 10 Familiar Boards and 20 Fiends.

How It Works: Gameplay in Roll Player takes place over a series of rounds until all players have filled every Attribute row on their character. Players then calculate Reputation Stars to determine the winner. Each round consists of a Roll Phase, a Dice Phase, a Market Phase, and a Cleanup Phase.

In the Roll Phase, the start player rolls 3-5 dice depending on player count, then places the dice on Initiative Cards. In the Dice Phase, players collect one Initiative Card each, including the die and any Gold on it, in player order. The die is slotted in the left-most slot of any of their character’s 6 attributes. The Market Phase offers players the ability to purchase cards from the Market. Several different things happen in the Cleanup phase, including discarding unused Charisma tokens, replacing/refilling the Market, and placing Gold tokens on any remaining Initiative cards.

The Monsters & Minions Expansion adds several new mechanics, including the Minions that players can hunt during the character creation process, and the boss-like Monster players battle at the end of the game.

Comparisons:  Dice Hospital (also in the middle of an expansion campaign on Kickstarter right now), Dice Settlers, and Pioneer Days are all similar types of dice drafting games. On the heavier end is Too Many Bones, which, like Roll Player features some fantastic production quality and chunky custom dice, but involves more complex mechanics and more mechanics in general. There are also bag-builders like Orleans and The Quacks of Quedlinburg which have players slowly upgrading and evolving their player boards based on a drafting mechanic. And finally, on the very light end of the spectrum, is Sagrada and its similar but non-dice-drafting counterpart, Azul.

What Should I Pledge?:
$44 Fiends & Familiars Expansion: the new expansion with all stretch goals.
$59 Fiends & Familiars Expansion Big Box: the same content as the previous pledge level, but with a bigger F&F box that can hold the content from the base game and Monsters & Minions in addition to the Fiends & Familiars content.
$103 Monsters Expansion + Fiends Big Box: the same content from the Fiends & Familiars Expansion Big Box pledge level, plus the previous Monsters & Minions Expansion.
$115 Base Game + Fiends Big Box: the same content from the Fiends & Familiars Expansion Big Box pledge level, plus the Roll Player base game.
$159 Roll Player Complete Collection: the same content from the Fiends & Familiars Expansion Big Box pledge level, plus the Roll Player base game and the previous Monsters & Minions expansion.

Add-Ons:
$15 24 Lenticular Monster Cards
And the following will be available through the Pledge Manager, but do not have prices listed:
-Promo character sheet punchboards (Minotaur, Frogkin)
-Play Mat
-Metal Coins
-Dice Tower
-Custom Box Insert from Meeple Realty
-Lockup Roll Player Promo Pack (6 cards)
-Copies of Roll Player & Roll Player: Monsters & Minions for immediate delivery.

KS Exclusives:
Just the Fiends & Familiars Big Box option, which comes with enough space to store the base game, Monsters & Minions, and Fiends & Familiars. The F&F Big Box will not be available at retail in the future, only directly through Thunderworks’ Games.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. (which includes free shipping) you’re looking at $159 for the Roll Player Complete Collection. If you want those Lenticular Monster Cards, it’s $174.

Roll Player – Fiends & Familiars Expansion completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, July 16th and tentatively ships in April 2020.