Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write

Traditionally, I did not pay much attention to roll & writes, but lately I have been looking at them differently: the youngster enjoys them and brings them to the table with genuine pleasure. Rawr ’n Write had been on my radar for a while, mainly because it promised a nice marriage of mechanisms and the flavour of classic Dinosaur Island. Thankfully, the first encounter did not disappoint me.

At its core, the game combines dice drafting and placement. You choose and use dice in a way that gives structure to your decisions and preserves the feeling that you are building something more than a simple sheet full of boxes.

Then come the familiar roll & write tricks: you draw things on your sheet and try to fit them in like a small Tetris puzzle. This blend ties cleverly into the theme and, at least in my first game, managed to carry over quite a bit of the character of the classic board game in a more compact form.

My only reservation is that the special characters and buildings felt very powerful to me. They gave me the impression that they make the game rather easy—perhaps that was simply a first-play issue, but I noted it. Even so, the overall picture is good: a clever, enjoyable roll & write that I am happy to keep on my radar.