Roll Camera! Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Roll Camera, a cooperative board game published by Keen Bean Studios. In Roll Camera, you and your fellow players are trying to navigate a tricky production schedule using dice rolls.

Lights! Camera! Sound! Production! Actors! Action!

We’ve all watched a film and thought to ourselves: “Even I could make this more cohesive than the professionals.” All it takes is some cinematic know-how, a friend who can spin a good yarn, and maybe some special effects sprinkled in to cover your bases.

Roll Camera is a cooperative dice placement filmmaking game from designer Malachi Ray Rempen and Keen Bean Studio. It plays from one to four players in about an hour. It’s all about utilizing available resources to keep your production afloat. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll create a visual feast for the ages. Well, if you keep the continual production problems at bay.

Players begin by selecting their player board and difficulty level. Difficulty level determines both the starting budget as well as the schedule timeline. The budget is used to pay for shooting scenes and each round the schedule advances one step. Players have a shared goal of filming five scenes before either one of these resources runs out. Otherwise, the production is halted, and it is game over.

Turns feature five steps. The first is to reveal a problem card. These production problems range in variety and usually provide an elevated challenge. There can be up to three in play at one time. After this, players roll and place the six crew dice. Each die has the chance to be a camera, lighting, sound, actors, art department, or the wildcard, visual effects.

Crew can be assigned to several areas. They can be utilized to solve production issues, to build or rearrange