Vasel Family Reviews: Roll Player Adventures

[@dillondelvo]

"What happened to Adventure Tactics? What happened to Stuffed Fables?" I LOLed because Tom's kids sounded exactly like my kids (so adorable). #dadstruggleisreal

[@jaslygod]

Haha, that was brutal!

[@landsealion]

Sounds like a great problem, I hope my kids enjoy board games just as much when they're able to play those games.

[@ObsidianKnight90]

Man, if I'd seen this video before backing Adventure Tactics that would have changed my opinion on backing the Kickstarter from last year. Adventure Tactics just... falls apart after the first two scenarios. 3-5 are brutally difficult to the point of frustration while 6-10 are way too easy. Enemies kick your teeth in while you're still trying to get your advanced class going and once it's online you just steamroll the monsters.

[@Joe_Biden915]

"Playing solo is just sad." + Tom's face when he realizes it marginalizes 1/3 of his audience = hysterical laughter from me.

[@lucky6666]

hah, doesn't make it less sad. I was also sad there wasn't a single person on the lake having fun on Labor day in 80 degree weather. Sometimes seems less people just want to hang out and have fun. But really that's just most adults trying to survive this day and age.

[@colejolley6031]

I've played this game many times already since getting it. I just have the last mission for solo play and it has been so fun to play. I set up a character by playing Roll Player beforehand and it was so fun to create someone who made sense thematically. Importing that person into the game made the whole experience awesome. I really like how the game scales between 1-4 players and everyone I've showed this to has really enjoyed playing.

[@ntmetroid]

Is it heavily campaign focused or can you do one shot adventures? I dont get to meet up with my heavy dungeon crawl game group super frequently and think theyd love this

[@davidchilds2935]

@@ntmetroid branching scenarios in a campaign

[@Tarryk]

Laughed WAY too hard when Tom promised to "finish this" and the kids totally called him out for not finishing other long-form games with them.

[@elqord.1118]

That was savage

[@ScovaNotia]

I enjoyed this review absolutley! Vilolet and Ruby make great points, comments and observations about the game. The banter between Tom and the girls is really fun.

[@PeterSchott]

I appreciate seeing Violet and Ruby joining in with the reviews as they're able to, even if they have to play video games solo sometimes. ;) My youngest is around that age so their perspective is helpful for our girl (including her love for Comic Quests and GNA books). This looks like a game we'd enjoy, but no idea where we'd store it. Maybe someday if the price drops and we clear our some other games.... I know Roll Player and Cartographers have gone over well in our house and the fantasy theme really resonates w/ the young one.

[@liesbethbos3049]

These kids are great. Thank you Ruby and Violet. Have fun on all the other adventures with your dad. Thank you for a great and entertaining review.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Violet/Ruby calling you out on finishing games and actually quoting examples - perfect - they know you too well! :P

[@risendove]

Good review, thanks for the info. Do love the family perspective on these reviews. Also love the calling out of dad by the girls for the past promises.

[@tammyschilling5362]

Love this with your girls! They are so cute and it actually does help to hear what they think if you're a family making a game decision.

[@oslohund]

Really enjoying this game! It's a great experience with an entertaining story - and pretty quick to set up and tear down.

[@martywilliams996]

Great video. Just got this today!! Can't wait to get it to the table.

[@ZPr13st]

Currently soloing. No group. Family around the holidays don’t like to play games either, waiting for my son to grow a little older then it’s game over for everyone else.

[@WilliamRAguilar]

So Awesome! Loved everyone's comments definitely buying the game!

[@rcwinter]

That was cute. I am coming to this late, but very helpful! and Ladies, I hope dad has kept his promise! you have it recorded for all of us to witness! ;-) Thanks for the perspective from all points of view. Happy Gaming!

[@kennethpaschall4801]

I am loving this game. I am through the first 4 adventures as well and want to play adventure 5 and the side quest next. It has been a blast and I agree with Tom that the story is excellent.

[@Bodyknock]

The side quest is amazing, definitely don’t forget to try that out!

[@kennethpaschall4801]

@@Bodyknock Yes it is. Played it for the first time last weekend.

[@AngoraWinch]

Violet deadpanning ‘if we went back we would’ve been killed 😐’ cracked me up. Violet is my game spirit twin 😂 Also it’s very Pratchett of the kids to see some humans fighting monsters and ask ‘but do the monsters deserve it?’ instead of immediately joining in the killing, and I love that. Never change!

[@ziomalZparafii]

23:56 so... did you finish it? ;-)

[@tamponslayerify]

New Miami Dice Violet and Ruby, Tom make this happen lol. “Its sad you play video games alone” made me spit out my coffee.

[@kennyv.2189]

haha that was really funny - Thanks Tom and Fam!

[@usrenmae]

I'm guessing that when the camera cut there was a talk about not alienating the audience haha

[@dannykdri]

Teachable moment. Thats part of raising kids

[@davidriemaker]

I think Tom handled that amazingly well.

[@mydemon]

These two girls can speak more eloquently of board games than anyone in my game group :)

[@kumanight]

Sweet Uravity hoodie Ruby! Also in some countries it is paper-rock-scissors instead of rock-paper-scissors

[@jameswoodard4304]

Yes, but those countries are wrong.

[@garettsuperloser804]

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Spock, Lizard (Big Bang Theory)

[@dav1dgear]

Kids, you should ask your father to play Aftermath, maybe he'll promised to finish that too :D. BTW loving the family dynamic here :D

[@TheCharlesFr]

It honestly seems like more work to set up these "adventure" type games than just to make up some fun stuff for D&D, Dungeon Crawl Classics, or other Tabletop RPGs. It seems like the adventure book has a lot of "IF--THEN" guidance which would be a lot easier to just improvise in the moment.

[@Trae_Lenox]

I can’t help but see the parallels to Sleeping Gods… would you say that are more similar than different? Which did you like better?

[@thedicetower]

Well as to which I like better, the top 10 of the year approaches! But they feel very different. This feels more linear and it's also easier, I think.

[@VanessaG1229]

I can't wait to play this!

[@asiansolution1208]

"Playing solo is kinda sad..." haha, that was cute. :)

[@xCriticalStrikex]

24:50 ruby said what everyone secretly thinks about solo play hahaha

[@lucky6666]

Need a new episode where Tom's family just roasts him the whole time 😈.

[@sharxboy]

Right off the bat, adorable!

[@Stolovky]

Talk about having a hard time getting on board with solo gaming Tom - runs in the family :)

[@gothbricks2000]

As a father of two girls, I just can't stop watching these reviews even if the particular game doesn't resonate. They give me hope of many years of family nerding out to come. :)

[@Sean-or1bv]

Did you ever finish?

[@papaspapbar2736]

Ruby has just become my favorite member of the Vasel family. Solo gaming sucks! :D

[@xonerate371]

You haven’t played Mage Knight.

[@papaspapbar2736]

@@xonerate371 Fair point ;)

[@PatrioticGestalt]

Use Post It

[@fishfleas]

Loving this game.

[@Skarpo89]

Very cool my Hero Academia sweater 😁

[@Skarpo89]

I don't actually know many words for clothes in English

[@jameswoodard4304]

Thank you for defending us chronic solo-players Tom. I was feeling quite bullied by Ruby there. [Aside to his very real friends:] ... ...

[@harrygthang7389]

I am not a fan of legacy games, is this game have replayability value?

[@ernestjs7838]

Violet and Ruby are so cute

[@DukensteinA1]

Played it with my family and we were extremely frustrated. Need a red and black die? Well, you pull out a green and purple and your skill check is immediately hosed unless you have a card that changes it. Yeah, that’s the “game” to manipulate the dice but it always seems you’re short handed. I want to like it though.

[@RocketMagnetUK]

The game gets easier as you progress and your hand sizes expand. Also you have more stamina to spend on specific dice colours etc Playing with imported characters from roll player can make it a bit easier to begin with Vs the pre-con characters in the box.

[@orangesalt8519]

@@RocketMagnetUK sounds a bit backwards to me. I wonder if the gameplay should get more difficult as it goes on. soon as I saw Tom's initial roll with not a single good thing in it, warning bells starting going off.

[@RocketMagnetUK]

​@@orangesalt8519 There is a luck spike at the start.. lots of RPGs get "easier" as you get more options. This does ramp up but it's a different kind of difficulty in that the solutions get more complex so overall i'd say it was pretty good in that even though you have more cards you still have to work it out.. just early on lady luck is more prevalent. Ultimately RPA is overall fail forward and sometimes "failing" gives the better reward.. you can even be actively punished for doing really well which is a nice mechanism to balance the game as you go :)

[@Wolcik3000]

One Deck Dungeon with Campaing book made from RollPlayer...

[@wishmeheaven]

Tom, be my father.

[@Kojimalosophy]

I am not trying to be arrogant or a nay-sayer, so someone please correct if I am wrong, but isn't this game an attempt to replace an RPG video game on a PC? like if you own a PC, wouldn't you have a better experience playing divinity original sin 2 or path of exiles?

[@coreymayo8321]

Well, aren't RPG video games an attempt to replace an actual RPG? ;) I personally have little interest in playing video games, so, no, not everyone is going to have a better experience with the games you mentioned. I think of this more as an RPG-themed dice manipulation game than an RPG video game mimic. Just as Gloomhaven is an RPG-themed diceless Euro or Waterdeep is an RPG-themed worker placement game.

[@Bodyknock]

This game is great, especially if you’re already a fan of Roll Player. 🙂 A couple of things Tom didn’t talk about: - Tom mentioned importing characters but didn’t go into any detail. You can take any character you generate from a full game of Roll Players, with or without any of the expansions, and import them as an Adventures character. Literally every card in the entire Roll Player game including expansions has a corresponding unique card in Adventures, so the variety of possible combinations is massive. And if you have the Adventures expansion you also even get a unique set of side missions for your character based on your character’s Backstory from Roll Player too. It’s a very impressive one-to-one import set up and if you really enjoy playing Roll Player and have wanted to take the character your just made and use them in an RPG style game this is a great way to do it. 🙂 - The game does scale pretty well to any player count from 1-4 players. But if you play solo with just one character be warned that you probably will have a harder time in the first few adventures simply because you’ll have only one hand of cards to choose from when manipulating the dice. It’s significantly easier starting out when you have four hands of cards and each hand can contribute one card versus having one hand of cards and playing four cards out of that hand. Fortunately playing solo does have some other advantages, such as it’s cheaper to build up your Health and any cards you collect just go into your hand so there’s no need to worry about who should get what. And as the adventures continue you will get more and more Health and stats and cards over time which will improve your flexibility to deal with dice manipulations, and ultimately that initial hump with a solo character will be lessened as it goes on. - There is a side quest in the game that Tom briefly mentioned, and it’s pretty awesome, it’s basically a replayable large set of random encounters that are scaled based on how far along the main campaign you are. You really can do it at any point you want prior to the end of the campaign, and even do it more than once in the same campaign if you wanted to!

[@moltenbullet]

2 years on, i guess they never finished it 😂

[@ryanhuff8752]

Tom being board game famous means nothing to his children. Just another dorky dad!

[@robertbouley7697]

Anyone able to compare this to Dice Throne Adventures?

[@thedicetower]

They are NOTHING alike. One is a dungeon crawler of sorts, the other is an adventure story game.

[@Leiderg]

If you could combine both they would make the perfect adventure game, DTA combat is far superior and fun, since you're basically playing regular DT, RPA is just modifiable skill checks over and over, but on the other hand the campaign elements in RPA are pretty good, the writing is great and you have story choices, surprises, lasting consequences, etc. While on DTA there isn't any real story at all, you just do the same structure of 1 quest then 1 boss 4 times and that's it. DTA however can be replayable easier since campaign is not that long, but to replay RPA may be more interesting.

[@robertbouley7697]

Thanks folks!