Base price: $30.
2 – 5 players.
Play time: 30 – 45 minutes.
BGG Link
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Logged plays: 2 

Full disclosure: A review copy of Moonrollers was provided by IV Studio.

It seems like if I come back from Gen Con and I don’t write about at least one game I played at Gen Con or the week after Gen Con then folks will be like “do you plan your review in advance” and I, taking a long drag of a fake cigarette, will say “I used to; I was a different man, then”. Oh well. Anyways, one of the games I brought home was Moonrollers, from our friends at IV Studio. You may remember them from Moonrakers and the subsequent expansions; much fun was had. This is that, but with dice. No points if you get that joke.

In Moonrollers, ship captains compete to fulfill the requirements of various crew from various factions. Getting them what they need is a surefire way to impress them; failing to do so will always make you look a bit foolish. Sometimes you have to at least make the offer and hope you get what you need in time, but that’s the risk of it all! So grab your dice, roll big, and see if you can impress enough crew to put together a functional spaceship.

Contents

• Player Count Differences
• Strategy
• Pros, Mehs, Cons
• Overall

Player Count Differences

It comes down to cooperation, similar to Moonrakers proper. I think that’s probably praiseworthy that the two games have similar feelings, given how different their presentations are, but let me elaborate. With both games, at lower player counts, there’s almost no incentive to “help” other players. Here, that manifests mostly as filling out Crew Cards that they’ve already placed on. Unless you really want the ability, you’re better off focusing on yours and trying to place as many dice as possible in one turn, rather than teaming up. With more players, that calculus changes a bit (not a lot, but at least some). Early in the game when you have the fewest abilities, you might find that spending a turn or three placing on different Crew Cards so that you can accrue some points is good, or going in to try and claim Hazard tokens if you’re the only player without many may be a quick way to catch up. Once you’re rolling seven or eight dice per turn, well, you might find that you can complete cards on your own again (like Moonrakers!). That said, the thrill of a push-your-luck dice game is always thrilling to me, and this one’s got some good strategy. I’d play at low or high player counts.

Strategy

• Rushing the end of the game is generally inadvisable. It could work, but you’re really assuming that you’re going to have more points than anyone else, which could go either way. In my opinion, the “game ends with three of the same Faction” rule is more to prevent the game going on forever than anything else.
• Try to get a sense of the Hazard situation, but you can roughly assume that, on average, each Hazard Token has 1 Hazard on it (1/3 have 0, 1/3 have 1, 1/3 have 2, so, 1 on average). Math! Specifically, some form of expected value math! Note that this becomes a less reliable measurement as the game proceeds, because that 1/3 split isn’t as necessarily true as the game goes on.
• Get some useful abilities. Various abilities can save you from busting, reward you for busting, or give you new ways to use or reroll your dice. They’re all helpful in their own way, so make sure you get a few and use them.
• Ingratiate yourself to other players or frustrate them by placing on their cards. That way, even if they take the card, you still get some points! It helps them more easily recruit that Crew, yes, but you can make it unappetizing by taking the high-value point spots or you can just earn a bundle if it gets claimed. All valid options.
• You should snipe some cards sometimes; especially early in the game, having some abilities might be the difference between a big roll and a bust. Taking a card even though it gives a bunch of points to an opponent is fine if the ability you get ends up letting you more easily take cards later. Just make sure you’re not passing up on a big turn that you could have otherwise had to only fulfill one or two requirements.
• Discretion is the better part of valor. You really don’t want to bust, especially if you’re close to finishing a card. Sometimes a strategic withdrawal is better in the long-term. Other times it lets an unscrupulous player steal a card you were about to recruit.
• Taking multiple cards of the same Faction is useful for trading up on Abilities, but it also lets you discard Hazard tokens if you’re worried you’re flying too close to the sun. You really don’t want to have the most Hazard at the end of the game; it’s worth too many points to mess that up.

Pros, Mehs, and Cons

Pros

• I really like when games come with mini-expansions for other, related games. Product and brand synergy! It’s fun, and that’s about my entire thought on that.
• Okay, I am pleased to report that if you remove the insert, the playmat and components fit in the box just fine, which is extremely satisfying. This is the best possible outcome for someone who hates trying to store playmats and such in random places.
• The art remains really cool. It’s very space-punk, and I like that.
• I like how the game maps Moonrakers’s negotiation system to the dice. Here, you’re not negotiating per se; you’re competing to recruit crew members. How the “negotiation” element returns is that each Crew needs ~four requirements met to join whoever fulfills their final requirement. Then, points are paid out to all players with tokens on that card. So even if I don’t want the card or if I don’t quite manage to take it, you claiming the card means I still get points, and me fulfilling requirements on the card makes it easier for other players to claim. An interesting synergy.
• I have been goofing around with the premium pieces (metal tokens and dice and playmat) and they’re very nice. If you ask me if they’re “worth it”, it’s What’s Eric Playing? policy to not assign monetary or moral value to something that I got for free / review. Just the way things work. I do think that the dice are quite nice, though if you do get them, get the dice tray as well; they are heavy enough to mess up a table. IV Studio does not mess around with premium quality pieces, I can tell.
• A surprisingly new-player-friendly game, which I appreciated. Taught this to a new player and they did quite well with minimal assistance. They did accidentally say they took too many Hazard symbols, which made the end of the game … interesting, but, things happen.
• I think everyone likes rolling dice and pushing their luck, even when it blows up in their faces. There’s a thrill to it but also, I don’t know, watching one of your friends just whiff it on a huge turn is a real boost. Not for them, obviously, but, you know.
• The Crew Abilities really can make for interesting loadouts and effects. You can have a really different experience from game to game! It’s pretty cool, even if there are a few characters I tend to go after whenever they show up.

Mehs

• With players of similar skill, the game can feel like it comes down to a bit of luck: either players busting or not or whoever loses out on the Hazard / Prestige outcome. If this concerns you greatly, well, that is kind of the base expectation with a push-your-luck dice game. You’ve got a lot of luck and a lot of dice. It can be somewhat unsatisfying to lose because you got too many Hazards, but also, you could have not done that. I’m only somewhat sympathetic.

Cons

• There’s not a whole lot that can be done to change it from a consistency or utility standpoint, but the orange and yellow used in the game are extremely similar, to the point that I’ve seen several players mix them up (even with different symbols). Part of it is that it’s the same symbols and colors as Moonrakers (for consistency), but maybe it’s the aluminum dice or something, but those are some samey colors. I don’t generally let it affect gameplay (if a player gets them confused, especially if they’re new, it’s just a gimme if it needs to be corrected), but even I mix them up sometimes.

Overall: 8.5 / 10

Overall, I think Moonrollers is a lot of fun! There’s a lot of good thinking, planning, and execution throughout the game, but honestly, it’s a push-your-luck dice game so you can blow up all of those things without a second thought. That’s the thrill of it all, in my opinion: busting at the height of your powers makes you feel like Icarus. Or, rather, what I assume Icarus felt before he plunged into the ocean, but it still sounds like it would be pretty cool. This is why push-your-luck is one of my favorite genres. Moonrollers also adds in the nice Moonrakers flavor and the IV Studio advantage: you’ve got some super nice components, even in the standard game, and I really like the art style and the way that this game exists in the Moonrakers universe. Your “negotiation” is now just who tries to claim spots on a card you want when you claim it. You don’t get a say in what they take; it’s just stuff that you don’t get. The abilities are powerful, but they take a bit to earn. Hazards can really take things out of you if you’re not careful. It’s all good, and it’s all strategic, but it isn’t that much to manage while you’re playing. A condensed Moonrakers-like experience in under an hour? That sounds pretty good to me. If you enjoy dice games or press your luck, if you want to challenge your friends to build factions in space, or you just want to burn bright before you bust big, Moonrollers might be right up your alley! I’ve had a lot of fun with it.

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