Evaluating Roll and Write games

While I have had an interest in PnP Roll and Write games for years, the Spiel Press kicked my interest in them up a couple notches. Then GenCan't basically dropped a library of them in my lap :D 

So as someone who is currently interested in casual games and whose interest in PnP has just been increasing, I have a feeling that I will be exploring this particular medium for the next few months.

So I have asked myself what am I looking for in a PnP Roll and Write Game, other than fun? I decided that the three most important elements are interesting choices, interesting mechanics (innovative is too loaded a term) and interaction.

Interesting choices is the most important thing that I am looking for. Because, quite frankly, I have played some games like this that actually haven't had any choices. Just roll the dice and see what happens. I want to have some agency in the game and some control over what happens.

I realize that this is a really basic requirement. However, since I have seen it not met, it is definitely one that I think needs to be addressed.

Mechanics, that comes down to this. A lot of the Roll and Write games I've seen harken back to Yahtzee and Take It Easy. And that's not a knock. Yahtzee is a very strong engine and I adore Take It Easy. However, seeing the game that breaks out of those frameworks is really cool.

Interaction is related to that. Both Yahtzee and Take It Easy are literally multi-player solitaire, unless you're playing by yourself. In that case, they're literally solitaire. Again, that's not a knock. We are talking about games that I have really enjoyed and had an easy time getting other folks to enjoy. For instance, I've had a lot of success with Wurfel Bingo.

However, interaction and direct conflict would definitely add some spice. I already have a nice selection of Roll and Write Games that are multi-player solitaire. Having something that I can print out and then go head-to-head would add additional options and audiences to the PnP library.

I have started to go through the GenCan't library and I'll probably blog my thoughts about them. It will be interesting to see how far I go through the library and what I discover.

Confession: I don't get rondels

EOne of my failings as a gamer is that I've never really "gotten" rondels as a concept. I don't mean I've never played a game with. rondel because I've played a number of them. And I understand how each individual rondel works in the games I've played. I just have never grokked the rondel as a unified concept.

A rondel is a circular track where each space represents a different option. Players choices are restricted by having to move around the rondel, which means players are restricted from making the same choice over and over again. A key element to a rondel, as I understand it, is that it is a cycle. The choices are in a specific order. So a game like Puerto Rico or Alfred's Wyke where you simply can't take the action that the last player did doesn't count.

With some games that are considered rondel games, the rondel seems to be about gaining resources like Finca while others are choosing actions like Santiago de Cuba. One game that I'm not sure counts as a rondel game, Vikings, the circle is just price control for the market.

My problem might come the fact that there seem to be two definitions for rondel. One is for games that use cycles of actions or resources. The other definition is for games that are part of a specific series by the designer Mac Gerdts. (I don't know if he coined the term or if he set out to make a series of games using rondels or if the series was declared after he made a bunch of game using them)

Which might be part of my problem in a couple different ways. I haven't played any of those games. In fact, the only Gerdts game I played was one play of Princes of Macho Picchu. Although Antike Duellum is on Yucatá so this might give me the push to learn it.

So, on the one hand, I haven't played the games that helped define the concept of rondels. And on the other hand, the term have been overused too broadly.

Not grokking rondels hasn't hurt my experiences as a gamer but it does sometimes make me feel like I've missed something crucial. At the same time, Boardgame Geek doesn't list it as an official mechanic so I might not be alone.