A to Z Gaming: Roll to the Top

We raced to the top of famous landmarks in Roll to the Top, the next game in our A-Z game shelf play-through.

Roll to the Top
Players: 2-5
Time: 15-25 Minutes
Designers: Peter Joustra, Corné van Moorsel
Artists: Steven Tu
Publisher: Cwali

Roll to the Top is a roll and write game where players are racing to write ever-higher numbers in the squares of a well-known landmark to be the first to the top.

A dice tray sits between two player boards, each showing the Eiffel Tower with a grid of squares drawn over it. Each player also has a dry erase pen. Next to the dice tray is an assortment of dice.

Game play

The game is set up by laying out the dice on the table and giving a monument sheet (of the same monument) to each player. The starting dice in the pool are randomized by rolling them and removing all of the ones showing odd numbers. One player is chosen as the first to roll the dice, and then you’re ready to go.

Each turn (except the first) starts by changing the dice pool. One die rolled shows + and – signs, and the active player chooses one die to add or subtract from the dice pool based on the previous roll of that die. However, if the pool is already full, then one die is always taken out of the pool. And if there’s only one die in the pool, one is always added.

Then the active player rolls the dice. Everyone chooses independently how to use the rolled values. They start by filling values in at the bottom of their player sheet, in the spaces with dots in the lower left corner. They can put any value in those squares, however as they build upwards, the value placed in any grid space has to be equal to or higher than any space directly below (touching) it. And spaces can’t be filled in unless all spaces directly below it are already filled in. Players don’t have to use all of the dice, and they can add up the values from one or more dice. Then the next player around the table becomes the active player.

Play continues until someone completes their entire grid. That player is the winner. If more than one player fills their grid, they share the victory.

A player sheet stands next to a dice tray. the player sheet shows the Eiffel Tower with a grid of squares drawn over it. Some of the squares are filled in, starting from the bottom.

My Thoughts

I picked this up during the same Kickstarter that offered Habitats and Factory Funner. I was really into that Kickstarter for the other two titles, but this was also a fun-looking quick roll and write game, so I threw it into my pledge.

I like that you have decisions about which dice to bring in to the pool (or take out), and how that changes throughout the game. Early on, the 20-sided die isn’t that great, but later you want it in there for the possible higher numbers.

However, we haven’t gotten this one to the table very much. It’s just not one we think of when we want to pull out something quick. I’m not sure why that is … though it could have to do with having too many games on our shelves. [Nah, that couldn’t be the case!]

Player sheet that shows the Heydar Center, a building that resembles a stretched out letter M, with two humps. Next to the board are a selection of dice and a dry erase board.

Three Quick Questions

How is it as a 2-player game? Roll to the Top works great as a 2-player game. It means you get to influence the dice pool frequently, and that makes you feel like you have some control over how the game proceeds.

How about the art and component quality? The art on the player sheets looks good, and I like the variety of the sheets in the box (though I have some extra ones from the Kickstarter). As usual, I’ve laminated the player sheets, otherwise the paper is pretty flimsy, but it’s a roll and write, so you want to get as many sheets in the box as possible.

Will this stay in my collection? For now, yes. Though, if we don’t started getting it to the table more often, it will become a candidate to move along.