Moonrollers: A Press Your Luck Dice Game
Moonrakers, a break out deck building game published in 2020 by IV Studios created a world where pilots recruit crews and complete missions in space. Moonrakers had people making deals to complete missions. Now after a sucessful 2023 relaunch of Moonrakers including more expansions IV Studio has released Moonrollers a game based in the same ecosystem. Moonrollers will be a competitive press your luck game with the essence of working together (keep reading for clarity on that).
Setup
Moonrollers comes in a much smaller package than its predecessor Moonrakers. The game is small enough to throw into your bag and take to the brewery. In the box are some beautiful cards, they are holographic if you got a kickstarter version. There are custom dice and a score tracker with cubes and hazard tokens. I do have to mention here that the clear cube included in my Kickstarter edition they are hard to tell apart. The color choices and the transparency made it hard for a couple of color-blind guys playing in the low light of a brewery. I am seriously concidering swapping them out.
Moonrollers takes only a few minutes to set up and launch player into the game.
There are five factions in Moonrollers, each player gets a starting crew member from one of the factions. Then each player gets 9 cubes in their color and a player aid card. Depending on the amount of players there will be cards delt face up between 4 and 6 cards. The intital setup has a card from each faction or in the case of 6 cards at least one of each. There are also hazard tokens that are placed on the table face down. Then the score board is placed on the table with a cube for each player on the "0" space. Moonrollers takes only a few minutes to set up and launch player into the game.
Game Play
Moonrollers is a layered push your luck game. The press your luck mechanic is one in which players have a choice to keep playing after seeing a result of in this case a die roll and usually the odds of sucess deminish as you keep rolling. In Moonrollers on a players turn they will roll five dice. The dice hace faction symbols on each of the faces with a wild on the 6th side. The player will then choose one of the crew on the table to work on. Each of the crew cards have three or four requirements. Once a player has chosen the requirement they would like to work on then the player can assign dice to that requirement. For example if a player chooses to work on the sheild requirement of 3 on the crew card they may then assign any amount of sheild or wild dice to that requirement. the dice have 6 symbols on them that are associated with the 5 factions and a wild symbol. The requirements for the crew members have 4 different symbols and wild. The purple symbol on the die represents adding a die to your die pool in the next roll. For example if a player rolled 5 dice and 3 fit the requirement and 2 purple extra die, then the player can assign the 3 dice and take 2 dice from the reserve pool. On the players next turn they then roll 4 dice 2 from the reserve pool and the 2 that they previously rolled (2 purple).
If a player has commited enough dice to satisfy a requirement they then cover that requirement with on of their player cubes. Once a player commits to a requirement they may not switch requirements they are working on. For example on a players turn they commited to the 3 shields requirement they may not assign dice to any other requirement until they complete the 3 shields requirement. When a player covers up the requirement they have completed they check to see if there is a hazard symbol above it. If there is a hazard symbol the player then takes 2 of the face down hazard tokens looks at them and chooses one to keep.
If a player makes a roll and there are no symbols or wilds rolled that meet the current requirement that the player is working then they have busted. The player then removes all cubes they placed on the crew card this turn (completed and unfinished requirements). Deciding to keep rolling is the heart of the press your luck in Moonrollers. A player may choose to stop rolling before they bust. If they do then they keep the cubes they placed on finished requirements and removes the unfinished requirement cube. If a player busts or stops they do keep all their hazard tokens. The hazard tokens are a second layer of press your luck. Each of the hazard tokens have a 1, 2 or 5 on them. When a player completes a requirement with a hazard token they take two look at them and keep one. These are worth 1, 2, or 5 points at the end of the game. However the player who has the most hazard symbols on the coins at the end of the game does not get any points from hazard tokens.
If you are new to the Moonrakers universe Moonrollers will bring you in quickly.
If a player completes the last requirement on a crew card they then have hired that crew member. Players then score the value for each of the requirements for example if a player has covered the 4 thrusters they will score 4 prestige points. If there are multiple players tokens on the crew card they all score points respectuflly. The wild requirements are worth twice the points for that player, if a player has a wild 2 requirement they will score 4 prestige points. The player who finished the the crew then places the crew in their tableau. If a player has a crew of the faction just hired the newly hired crew is placed on top of the other. Players can only have one active crew member from each faction at a time. Each of the crew members give the player special ability. For example if a player hires Tantin, then that player may use one damage as a wild if only one damage is rolled.
The game ends when a player acumulates 3 crew of the same faction or one of each faction. When a player recruits the crew member that fufills the end game criteria the game ends immediately. In end game scoring players add up their hazard tokens points and symbols. The player with the most hazard tokens on their tokens does not score any points. The rest of the players add their points the the prestige points they have acumulated during the game by recruiting crew members.
Thoughts
Moonrollers is a easy to learn and play press your luck game. We have taken it with to game night at the brewery and its a prefect beer and chips game. The cubes however are not ideal in the low light brewery enviroment. I very much enjoyed the layered press your luck of the choice to keep rolling along with gaming out the hazard tokens. Moonrollers is a good game at 2 players, but the game shines in the 3-5 player range. The graphic imagery that has been brought over from Moonrakers is beautiful. The games iconography makes game play super easy. This will be a mainstay in our game collection.
If you are new to the Moonrakers universe Moonrollers will bring you in quickly. There are not a lot of huge strategies as the game is based on luck, that however does not take the fun out of playing it. The luck aspect actually ads to the tentsion and makes for some explosive moments when someone tries for a longshot and makes and the whole table reacts to it. The small format and ease of learning to play it makes it a prefect game to take out on the town or to your game night. The game works at 2 players but its better with more.
Players: 2-5
Year Published: 2024
Recommended Ages: 14+
Time to Play: 30-45 minutes
Bert's Tabletop games pledged to the Kickstarter for Moonrollers. The game depicted here is the Kickstarter version not the retail version. Upgraded hazard tokens are depicted in this review.
