The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Riot!

A clever little Game-in-a-Can for 2-6 players

I'd read a rather unenthusiastic review of Riot! on RPG.net before, so when they said that they were sending me a complimentary copy of the game, I was rather non-plussed. But having played it, it's actually quite entertaining.

First, let me go over the basic rules. Riot! comes in a little metal can (sort of like the kind you'd normally get mints in). The set consists of a bunch of little plastic chits to represent rioters, a deck of 60 cards, and one of those microscopic little d6s that companies include when they feel that they have to include a die but want as cheap of one as possible. So the production levels aren't really impressive, but they're adequate. It's pretty much a beer and pretzels game... entertaining, but there's not too much thought and strategy involved.

Each player is in charge of a riot on a local university. The object is to attract at least 20 rioters to your riot, while preventing any other players from doing the same. Each turn you draw a card and then decide whether or not you want to play one card out of your hand. If you don't play a card, you can draw an extra rioter, instead.

Red cards are special actions like hitting a player's riot with Tear Gas or Vandalizing a car to acquire more rioters. They're all one-use cards.

Yellow cards are "reactions"- you generally play them in response to something someone else did. They generally prevent an attack or special card from hurting your riot. They're also all one-use cards.

A few cards are red and yellow, and can be played two ways.

Blue cards represent law enforcement groups like the SWAT team or the local University cops. Once you put them into play, each turn they can be used to try and arrest people in another player's riot. The more powerful the police card is, the larger a target riot has to be before it can be attacked. To attack a riot, each cop card rolls its Force rating in d6... every 5 or 6 rolled sends one rioter back home. If you roll more 1s than successful arrests made, you have a 1-in-6 chance of losing the cop card. For instance, the mighty SWAT team rolls 4d6 when it attacks a riot (and has a chance of sending up to 4 rioters home at once), but it can only be used on a riot with at least 15 members, so it's only really useful once someone starts getting pretty close to 20 rioters. The lowly University cop rolls only 1d6, but can be used against a riot with 5 or more rioters.

Once you put a blue card in play, you can use it each turn. If no one wins right away, you're liable to end up with some fairly impressive armies of blue cards on the table, constantly arresting folks. There's no way to lose a blue card once it's in play except for the "rolling more 1s than arrests" rule, and that doesn't happen very often.

Green cards are leaders, folks who attract more people to your riot. The best green card is probably the Student Council President, who nets you 1d3+1 new rioters each turn. The University President, amusingly, can be used on your own riot or someone else's, but has a chance of either adding or subtracting rioters from it.

Green cards are a bit easier to get rid of- there are several Red cards which can remove them from play by having them arrested or expelled.

White cards are pretty much the same as green cards, except that they're not leaders as such, and can't be targetted with cards that remove green cards from play. Some of these have special effects. For example, the "Topless Rioter" card attracts 1 additional rioter per turn, and can only be removed from play with the Heavy Rain card (the rains tend to be pretty icy in Michigan) or by targetting her specifically with a cop card. This brings up a special function of the cop cards. Lots of cards can be stopped by using a single cop card against them. You roll the cop's Force rating in d6, plus an additional 2d6, and try to meet or exceed some special value.

Now this is important- you roll the cop's Force in six-sided dice. You don't apply it as a flat value. That's critical, because the instructions on the cards imply that it's the other way around. They'll say something like "Police may discard this card on roll of Force + 2d6 >= 11." That does not mean that a Force 3 card rolls 2d6+3... it means that you roll 5d6. The rules, unfortunately, are poorly written, and it's easy to make that mistake, because, honestly, the writing on the cards implies the wrong thing. All of the cop cards should really write their Force ratings as 3d6 instead of 3, because you never use the Force as a flat value.

The previous Riot! review indicated that they were applying the Force as a flat value and the game played like crap because none of the resistable cards could actually be stopped (there's a big difference between rolling 2d6+3 and rolling 5d6). Don't make that mistake. The rules don't make this point really clear, and if you try it the wrong way, it won't work worth a darn.

So, how does it play? Pretty well, actually. We tried several games with 4 players, a few more with 3, and a couple with just 2 and all of them were interesting and amusing. Even when one player seemed to be drawing all of the leader cards (arguably the most important in the game, since they attract more rioters than anything else), everyone else was able to team up on them and bring them back down. The game simulates the riots that once plagued Michigan State University (though you won't find that mentioned in the rules) and has some cute tidbits like using the A.C.L.U. card to prevent someone from expelling your Fraternity Council Member, or throwing a Couch on your Fire to attract extra rioters. Even the most valuable cards are generally not 100% reliable (a lot of them require you to roll 1-4 on a d6 in order for them to go off properly) and many of the really potent ones can be stopped by proper use of your blue police cards.

What was really ironic for my gaming group was that as soon as I got through the first line of the introduction in the rules, one of our players gasped.

"I've played this game!"

"What? When?"

"Back in college, about 2 years ago... did Rafe write this?"

And lo and behold, the credits said "Game Design: Raphael Adley". Raphael, if you actually read this review, Sarah Fitzgerald (formerly Garbrecht) says "Hi!" And she kept insisting on rolling her dice "Rafe Style" because she felt it was appropriate.

So there we had a small advantage over most people who bought this game- one of our players was familiar with the rules already, and could explain some of the unclear parts.

Anyway, all in all Riot! is an amusing and entertaining little card game. In fact, it's even two games in one, really. I give it a 4 for style (still amusing after several replays on two separate occasions) and a 3 for substance (there's really not that much strategy involved- you'll pick up most of the subtleties in a single game). At $12, it's worth getting so long as you aren't looking for a really "deep" strategy game.

A few final notes:

The label on the box has a typo; it's for 2-6 players, not 1-6. There are no solitaire rules.

Force ratings should really be written Xd6 rather than just X, since you never use them as a flat value.

The "Fire" card (which attracts more and more rioters each turn) hardly ever lasts more than a single round, because there are so many cards that don't do much except stop fires.

The Peace Team is kind of poorly described. We ended up assuming that they could only be used against a single attack during each player's turn, otherwise they'd be too powerful.

You really need at least 2 additional dice, and a total of 6 is ideal. You might have to roll as much as 6d6 in a single action.

Why did I call it "two games in one?" Well, honestly, the set can double as a tiddly-winks game, too, for when your players are feeling particularly silly.

"Rafe Style" means simulating a d3 roll by rolling 1d6 and treating results of 1 through 3 normally and subtracting 3 from rolls of 4 through 6.

You can find their website at www.greendragon.com.

Riot!
Riot! Playtest Review by Frank Sronce on 14/07/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average) much more entertaining than I had expected Product: Riot! Author: Raphael Adley Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Green Dragon Creations Line: Cost: $11.99 Page count: n/a Year published: ISBN: 71544-41575 SKU: GDC1000 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Frank Sronce on 14/07/02 Genre tags: Modern day Comedy	Riot! A clever little Game-in-a-Can for 2-6 players I'd read a rather unenthusiastic review of Riot! on RPG.net before, so when they said that they were sending me a complimentary copy of the game, I was rather non-plussed. But having played it, it's actually quite entertaining. First, let me go over the basic rules. Riot! comes in a little metal can (sort of like the kind you'd normally get mints in). The set consists of a bunch of little plastic chits to represent rioters, a deck of 60 cards, and one of those microscopic little d6s that companies include when they feel that they have to include a die but want as cheap of one as possible. So the production levels aren't really impressive, but they're adequate. It's pretty much a beer and pretzels game... entertaining, but there's not too much thought and strategy involved. Each player is in charge of a riot on a local university. The object is to attract at least 20 rioters to your riot, while preventing any other players from doing the same. Each turn you draw a card and then decide whether or not you want to play one card out of your hand. If you don't play a card, you can draw an extra rioter, instead. Red cards are special actions like hitting a player's riot with Tear Gas or Vandalizing a car to acquire more rioters. They're all one-use cards. Yellow cards are "reactions"- you generally play them in response to something someone else did. They generally prevent an attack or special card from hurting your riot. They're also all one-use cards. A few cards are red and yellow, and can be played two ways. Blue cards represent law enforcement groups like the SWAT team or the local University cops. Once you put them into play, each turn they can be used to try and arrest people in another player's riot. The more powerful the police card is, the larger a target riot has to be before it can be attacked. To attack a riot, each cop card rolls its Force rating in d6... every 5 or 6 rolled sends one rioter back home. If you roll more 1s than successful arrests made, you have a 1-in-6 chance of losing the cop card. For instance, the mighty SWAT team rolls 4d6 when it attacks a riot (and has a chance of sending up to 4 rioters home at once), but it can only be used on a riot with at least 15 members, so it's only really useful once someone starts getting pretty close to 20 rioters. The lowly University cop rolls only 1d6, but can be used against a riot with 5 or more rioters. Once you put a blue card in play, you can use it each turn. If no one wins right away, you're liable to end up with some fairly impressive armies of blue cards on the table, constantly arresting folks. There's no way to lose a blue card once it's in play except for the "rolling more 1s than arrests" rule, and that doesn't happen very often. Green cards are leaders, folks who attract more people to your riot. The best green card is probably the Student Council President, who nets you 1d3+1 new rioters each turn. The University President, amusingly, can be used on your own riot or someone else's, but has a chance of either adding or subtracting rioters from it. Green cards are a bit easier to get rid of- there are several Red cards which can remove them from play by having them arrested or expelled. White cards are pretty much the same as green cards, except that they're not leaders as such, and can't be targetted with cards that remove green cards from play. Some of these have special effects. For example, the "Topless Rioter" card attracts 1 additional rioter per turn, and can only be removed from play with the Heavy Rain card (the rains tend to be pretty icy in Michigan) or by targetting her specifically with a cop card. This brings up a special function of the cop cards. Lots of cards can be stopped by using a single cop card against them. You roll the cop's Force rating in d6, plus an additional 2d6, and try to meet or exceed some special value. Now this is important- you roll the cop's Force in six-sided dice. You don't apply it as a flat value. That's critical, because the instructions on the cards imply that it's the other way around. They'll say something like "Police may discard this card on roll of Force + 2d6 >= 11." That does not mean that a Force 3 card rolls 2d6+3... it means that you roll 5d6. The rules, unfortunately, are poorly written, and it's easy to make that mistake, because, honestly, the writing on the cards implies the wrong thing. All of the cop cards should really write their Force ratings as 3d6 instead of 3, because you never use the Force as a flat value. The previous Riot! review indicated that they were applying the Force as a flat value and the game played like crap because none of the resistable cards could actually be stopped (there's a big difference between rolling 2d6+3 and rolling 5d6). Don't make that mistake. The rules don't make this point really clear, and if you try it the wrong way, it won't work worth a darn. So, how does it play? Pretty well, actually. We tried several games with 4 players, a few more with 3, and a couple with just 2 and all of them were interesting and amusing. Even when one player seemed to be drawing all of the leader cards (arguably the most important in the game, since they attract more rioters than anything else), everyone else was able to team up on them and bring them back down. The game simulates the riots that once plagued Michigan State University (though you won't find that mentioned in the rules) and has some cute tidbits like using the A.C.L.U. card to prevent someone from expelling your Fraternity Council Member, or throwing a Couch on your Fire to attract extra rioters. Even the most valuable cards are generally not 100% reliable (a lot of them require you to roll 1-4 on a d6 in order for them to go off properly) and many of the really potent ones can be stopped by proper use of your blue police cards. What was really ironic for my gaming group was that as soon as I got through the first line of the introduction in the rules, one of our players gasped. "I've played this game!" "What? When?" "Back in college, about 2 years ago... did Rafe write this?" And lo and behold, the credits said "Game Design: Raphael Adley". Raphael, if you actually read this review, Sarah Fitzgerald (formerly Garbrecht) says "Hi!" And she kept insisting on rolling her dice "Rafe Style" because she felt it was appropriate. So there we had a small advantage over most people who bought this game- one of our players was familiar with the rules already, and could explain some of the unclear parts. Anyway, all in all Riot! is an amusing and entertaining little card game. In fact, it's even two games in one, really. I give it a 4 for style (still amusing after several replays on two separate occasions) and a 3 for substance (there's really not that much strategy involved- you'll pick up most of the subtleties in a single game). At $12, it's worth getting so long as you aren't looking for a really "deep" strategy game. A few final notes: The label on the box has a typo; it's for 2-6 players, not 1-6. There are no solitaire rules. Force ratings should really be written Xd6 rather than just X, since you never use them as a flat value. The "Fire" card (which attracts more and more rioters each turn) hardly ever lasts more than a single round, because there are so many cards that don't do much except stop fires. The Peace Team is kind of poorly described. We ended up assuming that they could only be used against a single attack during each player's turn, otherwise they'd be too powerful. You really need at least 2 additional dice, and a total of 6 is ideal. You might have to roll as much as 6d6 in a single action. Why did I call it "two games in one?" Well, honestly, the set can double as a tiddly-winks game, too, for when your players are feeling particularly silly. "Rafe Style" means simulating a d3 roll by rolling 1d6 and treating results of 1 through 3 normally and subtracting 3 from rolls of 4 through 6. You can find their website at www.greendragon.com.