Robo Rally
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Robo Rally® is a board game published by Wizards of the Coast. It was originally published in 1994 and was created by Richard Garfield, the creator of the card game Magic: The Gathering®. The game and its expansions received a total of four Origins Awards. A rerelease of Robo Rally has been scheduled for July, 2005 under the Avalon Hill label.
Gameplay
In Robo Rally, players assume control of one of many "Robot Control Computers" in a dangerous widget factory filled with moving, course-altering conveyor belts, metal-melting laser beams, bottomless pits, crushers, and a variety of other obstacles. The goal in a game of Robo Rally is, apart from survival, to be the first to reach a pre-designated number of checkpoints in a particular order. However, the real difficulty in Robo Rally is movement, which is accomplished with the randomly dealt program cards.
The program cards specify movement, such as move forward one, turn left or u-turn. The cards have to be arranged by the player in the specific manner they wish the robot to move. Each player receives up to nine cards each turn. They use five of the cards to specify their robot's movement for the given turn, playing each card face down into one of five available "registers". All robots move simultaneously, each player revealing each register in turn. Robots attempting to move into the same space at the same time are resolved by priority numbers printed on the cards. Players with damaged robots receive fewer cards: with one point of damage, the player receives eight cards, with two points, seven cards, and so on. When a player's robot takes five or more points of damage, its registers become "locked," keeping specific program cards in play until the robot is repaired.
Robots can also carry optional weapons and devices, which add to the carnage and mayhem. These devices can cause additional damage, allow robots to move differently, affect the movement of other robots, and disrupt opponents' plans in other ways.
The metal pieces in Robo Rally were designed by Phil Foglio, who also did the artwork for the game.
Game and expansions
- Robo Rally: The original game, includes basic boards, metal miniatures, basic selection of cards. You need this to play.
- Armed & Dangerous: The largest expansion. Contains additional boards, and a variety of additional weapon and option cards.
- Crash & Burn: Additional boards.
- Grand Prix: Additional boards.
- Radioactive: Additional boards.
- A large number of additional boards and elements are available via Internet communities, created by fans of the game.
In Europe (starting in Germany), a different series was released, which was aimed to be simpler. It incorporates a few rules changes to avoid complex situations. More importantly, in this version, the 'main' game contains only a subset of boards, four robots (made of plastic rather than pewter) and no 'options'. The European Armed and Dangerous set contains the other four robots, the other boards and options from the American main game, and the easier boards from the American Armed and Dangerous. The remaining boards from American Armed and Dangerous, and the advanced options, were never released in Europe.
External links
- General information site about Robo Rally (http://www.roborally.nl/)
- FAQ, and printable boards for Robo Rally (http://www.roborally.com/)
- Site where you can play games based on Robo Rally namely Robo Runner, Robo Recon and Robo Arena (http://www.eyeplaygames.com/)
- Board Game Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/18) reviews and pictures of the game