Top Roll and Write Board Games of 2025

The roll and write genre has seen a significant surge in popularity in recent years, evolving from the simple mechanics of the classic board game Yahtzee. In these games, players roll dice or flip cards and use the outcomes to fill in or mark up a personal sheet, creating a unique blend of chance and strategy. This genre's simplicity and immediate gratification make it highly accessible, yet it also offers room for sophisticated gameplay and creative personalization of game sheets. With its low barrier to entry, roll and write games appeal to a broad audience, and the following list showcases some of the best in the category.

TL;DR: The Best Roll and Write Games

• Rolling Realms
• Marabunta
• The Fox Experiment
• Twilight Inscription
• Super Skill Pinball: Ramp It Up
• Welcome To... Your Perfect Home
• My City: Roll & Build
• Railroad Ink
• Next Station: London
• Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write
• Cartographers
• Long Shot: The Dice Game
• Three Sisters
• Fleet: The Dice Game
• Sagrada Artisans
• Motor City

Rolling Realms

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Rolling Realms stands out by integrating mini-games inspired by other board games into each realm. Players use the results of die rolls to navigate these realms, with the game spanning nine rolls across three realms at a time, then switching to new realms twice more. The charm lies in the realms' clever mini-puzzles, which are family-friendly yet challenging. For those seeking more complexity, Rolling Realms Redux offers additional realms that can be played solo or mixed with the original set.

Marabunta

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Marabunta, designed by the renowned Reiner Knizia, is a two-player game that pits ant tribes against each other for territorial control. Utilizing dice, players spread their influence across color-coded hexes or earn bonuses, blending spatial strategy with mathematical depth—a hallmark of Knizia's designs.

The Fox Experiment

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Inspired by a real-life fox domestication experiment, The Fox Experiment by Elizabeth Hargrave uses dice to simulate genetic heredity. Players breed foxes, selecting traits to meet end-game goals, offering a deeper strategic layer compared to other roll and writes.

Twilight Inscription

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Twilight Inscription adapts the expansive universe of Twilight Imperium into a roll and write format, compressing the 4X genre's exploration, exploitation, expansion, and extermination into a 90-minute game. Players focus on different aspects of their space empire on separate sheets, offering a strategic depth akin to a full-fledged board game.

Super Skill Pinball: Ramp It Up

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Super Skill Pinball: Ramp It Up transforms a pinball experience into a roll and write game, where players navigate pinball tables using dice and a pen. Each table presents unique challenges and scoring opportunities, making for a thrilling puzzle. The Ramp It Up edition even includes a cooperative table, adding to its appeal.

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Welcome To... Your Perfect Home

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Welcome To... is a flip and write game where players plan suburban streets using house numbers and building effect cards. It requires balancing house numbering with various scoring bonuses, offering a satisfying strategic challenge. For those seeking more complexity, the sci-fi themed Welcome To The Moon is an excellent choice.

My City: Roll & Build

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Based on Reiner Knizia's My City, this roll and write version uses a campaign format where each 30-minute episode introduces new rules. This gradual increase in complexity is engaging and allows for flexible play, either as a campaign or standalone sessions.

Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition

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Railroad Ink challenges players to create a transport network based on dice rolls, balancing the connection of exits with minimizing dead ends. The Deep Blue edition adds rivers and lakes, enhancing the game's strategic depth and variety.

Next Station: London

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Next Station: London uses colored pencils to draw train networks based on flipped cards, with each color tied to a starting station. Players aim to cross districts and connect lines, offering a simple yet nuanced puzzle. The game's mechanics encourage strategic planning and result in visually appealing maps.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'N Write

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Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'N Write elevates the roll and write genre with deeper gameplay, where players build a dinosaur theme park using dice-allocated resources. Planning the park and conducting tours add strategic and thematic elements, making it a challenging and engaging experience.

Cartographers

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Cartographers introduces player interaction to the genre with a flip and write system where players map a fantasy kingdom. Occasionally, players must pass their maps to neighbors to place monster icons, adding a personal and thematic twist to the game. The sequel, Cartographers: Heroes, further enriches this experience.

Long Shot: The Dice Game

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Long Shot: The Dice Game transforms the horse racing theme into an interactive roll and write experience. Players bet on horses and can buy them for special powers, creating a dynamic web of player dependencies as the race unfolds.

Three Sisters

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Three Sisters focuses on action chaining, where players manage a garden using dice rolls. Completing actions often triggers bonus actions, requiring strategic planning to maximize these chains, offering a tactical depth uncommon in the genre.

Fleet: The Dice Game

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Fleet: The Dice Game simulates managing a fishing fleet, where players decide whether to buy licenses or launch boats to catch seafood. The game rewards strategic choices across interconnected options, using dice as random seeds to navigate the game's decision trees.

Sagrada Artisans

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Sagrada Artisans enhances the original Sagrada's stained-glass window-building theme with a roll and write approach. Players color their windows and engage in a campaign over ten sessions, introducing new tools and challenges while maintaining a relaxed and engaging experience.

Motor City

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Motor City, from the designers of Three Sisters and Fleet, mirrors car production lines in a roll and write format. Players use dice drafting to manage various aspects of car design, testing, and sales, offering a strategic challenge focused on coordinated actions rather than explosive combos.

For more ideas, be sure to check out our list of the best board games of all time and the best puzzle tables featuring a great multi-purpose table (by Bits and Pieces) for playing cards and board games on, too.