Introduction #
Today, we’re diving into something a little different, a first impressions peek at an unreleased game expansion that’s got my solo board gaming brain buzzing. Of course, we’re talking about Roll Player Adventures: Silver Threads of Fate, a single-chapter expansion to the Roll Player Adventures base game. If you haven’t read my review of Roll Player Adventures, I’d recommend starting there so you have an idea of how I feel about the base game in general.
Now, I must preface this with an initial disclosure, I didn’t actually play this chapter. Now, before you reach for the pitchforks, let me explain why I didn’t actually roll any dice this time around. I made the tough call to sell off the main game, Roll Player Adventures, to save some precious shelf space. You know how it is–the struggle is real to avoid turning into a board game hoarder! I was still very excited to read more from the world of Ulos so I read through the story in a choose-your-own-adventure style without rolling or manipulating a single die so that I could share with you all my SPOILER-FREE, first impressions of the story. Now for the full disclosures:
I received a free digital copy of the new chapter storybook from Thunderworks Games for to share my honest first impressions of the story. These are my impressions of only the story as I did not experiment with any of the gameplay elements.
This is not a review as this expansion is still unreleased at the time of writing. I only review final release copies of games. I would hope my readers would still find these honest, unbiased first impressions useful in making informed purchasing or backing decisions.
First Impressions #
Narratively speaking, I really enjoyed the story in Roll Player Adventures: Silver Threads of Fate. It once again nails the scale of Roll Player Adventures (RPA) making you really feel like a part of something bigger. I particularly liked how it continues to flesh out the world and familiar characters of Ulos. It’s such a clever reuse of existing components and story elements to set this new chapter right in the same time and place as the original RPA story. It’s like revisiting an old friend in a brand-new scenario, which is always a treat.
Now, you might remember from my original review of RPA that while I was totally captivated by the story and driven to finish the campaign, I did find the gameplay a bit…long. A bit of a slog, if I’m being totally honest, even with how compelling the narrative was. So, this new format of a one-shot chapter really appeals to me. It’s like a perfectly portioned serving of adventure!
And speaking of format, I actually didn’t feel super motivated to replay the original RPA campaign to explore other narrative decisions or try a new character. Why? Not because there wasn’t enough branching or consequences in the decisions. It was because the thought of jumping into a full-blown campaign again just felt daunting. This expansion is different. Silver Threads of Fate’s single chapter format threads the needle perfectly. It delivers a compelling, standalone narrative that also feels incredibly repeatable. The one-shot, self-contained story makes it much more inviting for a second, or even third, playthrough to try a different character or other choices.
Conversely, not everything from the campaign game was translated to Silver Threads of Fate. If you enjoyed decisions with consequences that could show up in other chapters or seemingly small choices that ripple to have larger effects in later chapters, you’ll be missing that in this single chapter expansion. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t enough choices or consequences. It’s just that everything needs to be wrapped up before the end of the chapter.
Note that this story is meant to be played with new player characters separate from the ones you may have created and played with the base game. This could go without saying, but it means that the choices and preferences of the new Silver Threads of Fate player characters are separate and even ignorant of RPA choices. This works for fine Silver Threads of Fate, but I would love to be able to take my player characters with me on new adventures with some choices carried over. I could imagine a sort of mechanism like Mass Effect where your save file from Mass Effect could give you a different experience in Mass Effect 2.
Ultimately, I absolutely love the idea of Roll Player Adventures being infinitely expandable with these lost chapters, especially with minimal to no new components. Imagine a world where you could just pick up a new adventure for a few bucks, slot it right into your existing game, and get a fresh, engaging narrative experience. That’s a dream for us solo gamers looking for new content without breaking the bank or sacrificing precious shelf space. I really hope Roll Player Adventures: Silver Threads of Fate finds a solid audience base so we can potentially see many more offerings like this in the future. Because I for one can always use more rich narrative experiences in the world of Ulos.
