Film is a wonderful medium. Through a combination of images, plot, sound and acting, stories come to life on the (big) screen. Film is, like board games, a fantastic way to escape from reality and immerse yourself in another world. For about 1.5 to 3 hours, you can escape from the daily grind. Films are, for most people, a way to relax, but for those who work in the film industry, it is not always a relaxing experience. Being employed says it all: it is work. Films are the delusion of the day for those people. And just like with many other jobs, making films is not always easy. The inexperienced director, for example, does not know how to keep order on the set and deadlines are not met, budgets are exceeded and the crew has to work late into the night. Maybe there is not enough money to pay the hard-working writers properly and they start a strike and before you know it, the inexperienced replacement writers are killing storylines that have been built up over five films. Maybe your lead actor won’t keep his hands to himself at a press conference, which urges you, from a marketing point of view, to take a good look at the exit clauses in the star’s contract. Enough drama in the film industry! In Roll Camera, by Keen Bean Studio, you and your film crew try to defy all the challenging drama, intrigue and ‘scenes’ of Hollywood in order to produce the best (or best of the worst) film ever. Roll Camera, scene 1, take 2, ACTION!
Game concept
Roll Camera is a solo and cooperative board game for fans of an enjoyable cooperative puzzle like Pandemic or Flashpoint. Each player – players all take the role of an indispensable member of the film crew – has a special characteristic and unique role within the production. Each turn, players are presented with new challenges as they try to get the right people to work on the set, build the set pieces, pitch ideas and, of course, shoot and edit some footage. Players win jointly if they manage to film and piece together enough scenes of such quality that the film does not receive a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes (a well-known film review site, try using that word in Scrabble). Players also win when their film may not be award-worthy, but is so bad that it is good: the absolute best of the worst. Players lose if their film fails to impress, is mediocre or just plain bad. Players also lose if their production is halted prematurely because the budget has run out or all deadlines have been missed and time has run out.
How the game plays
At the beginning of the game, the game board is laid out, each player is assigned a role and several stacks of cards (problems, ideas, scenes and script) and tiles (set pieces) are shuffled and placed. Each turn, a player turns over a problem card. These problems cause, among other things, that certain actions cost extra money or are even blocked-off for the players. After this all the dice are rolled (it is called Roll Camera! for a reason). The sides of the dice represent parts of the crew of film’s production that players can use for actions. These include make-up, lighting, camera and also actors. Each die also has a VFX side. Since nowadays everything in the film industry can be solved with special effects (the writer wrote sarcastically), this side can of course be used as a wild. Some actions need the right symbols from the dice in order to activate said action.
The dice can be used to solve problems or to pitch ideas. When pitching an idea, three players play an idea. Each idea card gives a special action or bonus. One of the ideas is executed immediately, one is placed on the brainstorming board for possible later execution and one idea is rejected. Some ideas are so bad that it is better to trash these immediately and not let those ideas linger…
Dice can also be used to buy or change (literal) set pieces. Each set piece is a 2 x 2 square tile that can be placed on the “set” on the game board. You need this scenery and decor and the set itself to be able to actually shoot film scenes. On the storyboard there are always only three scenes with patterns on them. These are the scenes that players can currently shoot. In order to shoot a film scene, you need to place dice of a certain type in the pattern depicted on your set. However, dice can only be placed on certain spots on the set. Space is limited and players only have a limited number of dice, so it is quite a puzzle to film the right scene. If you manage to film a scene, you may turn over the corresponding scene card and place it in the editing room. Once you have shot enough scenes, the game ends.
Each player also has special actions to activate with dice. For example, the director can exchange quality to save on budget or vice versa. At the end of the turn, the active player removes the used dice from the board (where dice from an unfinished action may remain to be completed during the next turn) and the time track advances one step. During the game, players can gain or lose time or budget due to special actions, problems or filmed scenes. Also, players can lose quality by scrimping, cutting corners or filming terrible scenes. Quality is the literal measure of your production. At the end of the game, players can earn bonus points for their script. If the film contains certain scenes, this has an influence on the quality of the film.
Verdict
Roll Camera is a very challenging and humorous cooperative puzzle that is also very entertaining to play as a solo puzzle. The game set-up and gameplay is simple. Similar to a simple worker placement game, players must place the dice to play actions, but dice also literally bring an element of luck into the game. Because of the luck factor, Roll Camera is not just a cooperative logic puzzle, but players have to deal with the (bad) luck that is thrown at them. This forces them to re-evaluate their tactics and strategy every turn. Building the set and the problem cards provide a fun challenge that requires tactical insight and a little risk evaluation. Due to the implementation of the theme and humour, this game is a nice way to escape to Hollywood! Do you like thematic cooperative games? Then give this game its moment in the spotlights!
