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Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale Reviews

4.9 Rating 13 Reviews
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CartographersRoll and Writes are 10 a penny so it takes something special to stand out. Some games do this be changing the ‘roll’ of dice to a ‘flip’ of a card. Cartographers is one of those flip and write games. Set in the Roll Player universe you will be mapping out a region of that world.Each player will take a sheet with a grid on it. Across the grid are ruins and mountains and possible a massive canyon, depending on the difficulty chosen. You will then set up the cards for the current season. The four seasons you play through get progressively smaller - in theory, so you will need to make forward thinking decisions from the off. 

To score points you must collect coins, and achieve goals. Four goal cards are laid out but only two are scored each season. A & B, then B & C, then C & D, before D & A. This means each card will score twice and that you know when they will score, allowing you to plan ahead. Of course most games you will get lost in a couple of the objectives, forgetting the ones you were meant to concentrate on this round! Each turn a card is drawn given you a shape or two to choose from and a terrain or two also. You will each sketch one of these terrain/shape combos on to your map, anywhere you like. Depending on the scoring cards you might want to cover ruins or place next to mountains or near the edge of the board.Monsters add a touch of interaction to proceedings. When one appears you hand you sheet to another player who draws the monster on to it. Cartographers may not sound like it, but it’s a engrossing and engaging game that you’ll come back to time and time again. Player count: 1-100Time: 30-45 minutesAge rating: 10+

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Enjoyed this solo can’t wait to try with others
Helpful Report
Posted 2 months ago
Cartographers has gone down well in my groups of mixed gaming experience. The combination of strategy and drawing enables different types of people to enjoy it, and the repetition of the point-scoring objectives helps ease people in without too much complexity. I also love any game like this where you produce what is essentially a piece of art!
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Posted 5 months ago
My wife is loving the colouring in. 'nuff said. Mechanics are easy to learn yet skill is needed to try to keep all four scoring cards in mind while placing your terrain. Swapping sheets when you have to place monsters is fun player interaction, more mischievous than mean 'take that'. The main fun is how much artistry you draw with your terrain and yes colours take it up a level. Who knew colouring in could be so much fun!
Helpful Report
Posted 1 year ago
Author didn't leave any comments.
1 Helpful Report
Posted 1 year ago
Simply the best flip and write game out there. So easy to play and very addictive! My most played game of 2021!
Helpful Report
Posted 2 years ago
One of the best roll and writes available. The point of the game is to flip cards as you explore the kingdom and document what you find on your map. You then score depending on what sort of terrain patters the queen is looking for. A very simple mechanism but with the goals and terrain always changing, each game becomes a unique little puzzle. What makes it a little different is the element of interaction where, if drawn, monsters are drawn on your map but by your opponent. These can happen at devastating times making you lose points until they are surrounded. The solo variant is also fantastic.
Helpful Report
Posted 2 years ago
A very enjoyable flip and write game. The aim is to fill a map with different type of terrain to score points. Each terrain is randomly generated by drawing cards and players often need to chose which terrain they want to draw basing on their strategy. Game plays quite quickly and can suit a big party. Highly recommended!!
Helpful Report
Posted 2 years ago
A flip and write that requires some forward planning to score big points in the latter half of the game, but also has a small amount of opponent manipulation in the form of monster cards. The number of scoring cards and their random placement of them means there's so much replayability for this game. Added that there are several expansions in the form of maps means that you'll get a lot of travel out of this map-making game.
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Posted 2 years ago