When you own a magic item shoppe, you want to keep the best crafted items in stock for all the adventurers who pass through. You will have to craft as many items as you can, and research as many spells and enchantments as you can in order to earn a reputation as the best shoppe around. Think you can handle the pressure?

What Is It?

Roll and Write – 4 dice are rolled each round of 10 rounds which players use simultaneously. They can use 2 per round, but have 6 opportunities in the game to use additional dice, some for free, and some for a potion cost. They will use the dice to fill out various sections of their player sheets, only certain dice may be used in certain columns, and some sections require certain numbers or higher, while some are certain numbers or lower.
Potions will be earned throughout the game which allow for using more dice, and for dice manipulation as well.

Contract Fulfillment – Players are trying to fill out their sheets to complete order cards in front of them, provide their sponsored adventurer with their requested supplies, and achieve mastery bonuses before their competitors, all of which will earn them points at the end of the game.

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 8 Players – Rounds have simultaneous play, so it works well at all player counts. I also like the solo mode; plays very much the same so it’s easy to switch between
  • Ages 10 and up – Pretty small rule set and good game flow, so I feel it is very approachable
  • Fans of roll and write games, especially ones where you want to pay attention to where you are using dice so you an stay competitive for the mastery bonuses, and maybe try to prepare for potential upcoming orders
  • Fans of simultaneous play rather than turns

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Nice art on the cards, really nice colors on everything
  • Components – Nice big sheets, potions are good wooden pieces, cards and dice are good quality as well
  • Rules – Well-written, easy to teach
  • Replay Value – I love the number of options I have each turn for which dice to use and where to place them. So while the gameplay is very similar every game, it feels like a fresh experience
  • Plays smoothly
  • Simultaneous play, so there’s no huge downtimes at large player counts
  • I like that the number of times you can use extra dice during the game is limited and gets more and more expensive, because it forces you to really try and plan ahead if you think you’ll need those extra dice
  • I like that the orders rotate so you can use some strategy in gauging what you think might be coming to you soon, so you can prepare for it

CONS

  • There’s too few potions for most games. The rules say you can assign the different colors different values, but I wish they had just been labeled to begin with
  • Theme – Other than the sponsored adventurers being the same, there’s no connection to the Set a Watch “theme” really, it could have just been a completely separate title and still be good
  • Only includes 4 pencils, I wish it had enough for the maximum player count
  • Small thing, but I hate how two sides of the box are wasted and do not include the title, because it limits how you can store the game and still see what it is

Final Thoughts

I really like roll and write games, but I have a lot of them, so for me to keep one in my collection at this point, it has to be really good… and this one is! I really like the overall flow of the game, and how you really have to strategize on your dice usage, because it is more limited than it might appear at first glance.

There are a lot of areas to get points from (orders, mastery bonuses, charms, adventurers) and it really benefits you to use them in combination rather than, for example, ignoring your adventurer just to get a few more unrelated orders completed. You want to spread out on your sheet, without accidentally spreading yourself too thin. If you like roll and writes with a good level of decision making, this is one to check out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 8/10

Designer – Clarence Simpson
Artists – T.L. Simons, Boris Stanisic
Publisher – Rock Manor Games
MSRP – $30.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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