Two Rex Plays #22 - Woodcraft: Roll & Write
In this edition of Two Rex Plays we’re discussing the roll & write version of Woodcraft, a dice drafting, contract fulfilment game designed by Ross Arnold and Vladimír Suchý and published by Delicious Games. Complete carpentry orders by matching the spots on your drafted dice to the orders in your workshop, using a variety of tools and workers to help you achieve your goals.
Here are the design features we enjoyed:
Thematically strong – The game asks you to step into the shoes of a manager of a medieval workshop manager overseeing carpentry projects. Everything that follows is thematically appropriate: the tools and resources you collect, the worker powers you can unlock, and the fantastic, era-appropriate artwork on the board and cards.
Gluing and sawing – The most fun mechanic in the game is the ability to glue two dice together (add the spots to form a single new die) or saw a single die into two (splitting the spots in any way you see fit). These options make the player feel powerful by giving them a variety of options to complete their orders.
Dual reward drafting – Dice are selected using a dual reward system that requires the player to balance instant resource collection against the face value of the dice which directly allows you to complete projects in your workshop. The dice are arranged at the start of each turn to ensure that higher valued dice generate fewer instant rewards, helping to ensure the game is well balanced.
Worker powers – The player also has the option to hire to hire workers that offer a diverse range of one-off rewards and ongoing abilities. These bonuses helps to accelerate your chosen play style and help to create a series of legitimate routes of victory.
Lantern connect three – A side activity sees you collecting lanterns to fill out a 3x3 grid which grants additional rewards. This is very much a side activity, but is a fun addition to the main game which works well in the roll & write format, and is a further way to hone your strategy.
Woodcraft: Roll & Write has been made available for free on the publisher’s website which is a generous gift given the time that must have gone into designing and balancing the experience. Hopefully it was a fun exercise for the designers to think about how they can repurpose the theme and mechanics of the orginal boardgame into a more streamlined roll and write experience. Whilst roll & writes can be complex, they tend to be toward the lighter end of board game complexity, and that is reflected in the difference between the two versions. The original board game has a 3.8 complexity weighting on Board Game Geek (tending towards heavy) compared to the 2.3 rating for the roll & write (which is medium light).
Interested in Woodcraft: Roll & Write? Find out more here:
Board Game Geek Page
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/375408/woodcraft-roll-and-write
Publisher Delicious Games
Woodcraft (Original boardgame)
https://deliciousgames.org/woodcraft_en