Dante reimagined as a R&W

 I recently tried out Nine Circles, which is apparently the first in a trilogy of little Roll and Writes since the second game has also come out. As the title implies, you are going through Dante’s journey through the first part of the Divine Comedy.

Nine Circles is a solitaire from the fifth Roll and Write contest. (I honestly have trouble keeping track of all the Roll and Write contests) It’s one those where you just print off the player sheet, add dice and away you go.

While the game is themes around the nine circles of Dante’s Inferno (which, to be fair, has informed every version of Hell since) and uses some nice woodcut style art (trying to imitate Gustave Dore would be a bit much and make the board too busy), it’s really nine dice challenges ranging between from having a one or three sixes or no fives.

You have nine dice and a checklist of rolls. You get six changes to roll one die and five chances to roll two, three or four dice. And that’s all the rolls you get in the game. You can freeze dice and you can use rolls to reroll dice or add more dice. You also get nine ‘Virgils’ which you can use to flip a die or add/subtract one.

But here’s the bit that makes the game interesting: every die you roll that’s not used to complete a challenge goes away.

So you have to manage your dice and your rolls. Run out of either and you lose.

I have a weak spot for light R&Ws like Nine Circles. They are the opposite end of the spectrum from what got me really into Roll and Write as a medium but they work as a guilty pleasure (Fitting for a game about Hell) Even when you’re exhausted and can’t think straight, they are still easy to learn and play.

In all honesty, I’d call Nine Circles a B game. It is mechanically solid and has good decisions. However, it doesn’t have that elusive sparkle that makes me immediately play it again. I also wonder if each challenge will become formulaic but, so far, the game keeps thwarting my designs to solve it.

And I have played _lots_ of worse R&W games. Nine Circles passes the dreaded Yahtzee test. I’d play it over Yahtzee. Losing dice you don’t use is a good mechanic. You don’t get enough slack to make the game easy.

It’s sequel, Seven Steps, is now on my try next list.