Preview: Bako Dig n' Write
Updated: Oct 18, 2022
You are on the island of Bako and there has been an unknown civilization discovered. You are going to excavate the island to see what the island has hidden. As a prestigious archeologist you will set up fencing to mark off the discoveries. The bigger your discovery the more points you will score. Watch out for the other players who will put holes into your big area to stop you. Bako Dig 'N Write is a print and play roll and write from RAWR! Games.
Bako Dig 'N Write was on Kickstarter late summer of this year and was successfully funded. RAWR! Games also funded Kaikoro in April of this year on Kickstarter. Much like a lot of roll and write games you can play this solo or with a multitude of people. I personally think it would be fun to see a bingo hall filled with folks playing games like Bako.
The game starts with one player will be rolling 2 six sided dice and then all players will be adding fences (lines) onto their player sheet. The Player sheet is one large grid of dashed lines with a lightly shaded center section and some eggs scattered about. Each number has fence configuration that is three segments long associated with it. The segment associated with a roll of 1 is only 1 segment long unlike the rest, you will however receive a gem also when you draw this fence.
As you continue on you will have 15 rounds of drawing 2 fences. After every third round there is an interaction with the other players and each player will draw a hole on the player to the lefts sheet. This hole prevents you from drawing a discovery there, essentially a dead spot on your grid. This is a fun addition to the roll and write as most don't have a lot of player interaction. Another fun part of Bako is the drawing. I really enjoyed drawing the skeletons in the completed discovery boxes a lot of roll and write games just have you marking off boxes or drawing lines, this was a welcome change.
Make sure you fence those eggs
Last part of Bako is the scoring. There are 5 cards dealt out at the beginning of the game and each is a shape that you are trying to create a fence around. When you have the fence completed in the right shape then fill it in with the image from the card. Each of the cards have either a condition you have to meet to fill in the shape or bonus points you can score if you meet those conditions. When you have a fence around an egg or you draw a segment associated with a 1 roll then you get a gem. Gems will help you score those points because they allow you to draw a single segment per gem or you can cash in 3 gems in to draw a special 4 segment fence (there are 8 to choose from). Make sure you fence those eggs so that you don't loose points at the end for not having them all fenced.
RAWR! Games has put together a really fun and thoughtful game. Bako Dig 'N Write is very polished from the art to the rules. I easily understood the rules and there was no looking back at them until the end to see how well my score matched up. I was also able to play this on my commute (train) with not too much issue (the clipboard really helps). I hope you are able to have a look at Bako Dig 'N Write and the other games being put out by RWAR! Games as they are doing a great job.
Players: 1-100
Year Published: 2022
Recommended Ages: 10+
Time to Play: 20-40 minutes
A review copy of Bako Roll 'n Write was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes by RAWR! Games.
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