Rome & Roll

Rome & Roll offers a particular sort of temptation to anyone who enjoys fitting awkward shapes into a satisfying plan: a building puzzle with a little Tetris thinking, presented as a roll-and-write. It feels like a good idea that arrived at the table with the wrong pen.

At its heart is a smart dice-drafting race. Choosing dice is not mere ceremony; it sets your pace in the race and helps determine what you can put into your growing construction.

Then comes the pleasant squeeze of the board puzzle, as you arrange things to collect adjacency bonuses. The race keeps everyone moving along the same track, while each player is trying to make their own layout just a touch more efficient than the next person's.

The trouble is the writing itself. The pens in the box are simply too broad for the small spaces, and the late-game hunt for adjacency bonuses becomes more trying than it ought to be. It does not ruin the game, but a design asking for careful placement should not make its own board difficult to read. Even so, Rome & Roll moves along nicely, offers tactical choices and enough variety without becoming tiring; for fans of the genre, it is quietly excellent, provided they bring finer pens.