Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5622932/dinosaur-island-rawr-n-write

Designers: Brian Lewis, David McGregor, Marissa Misura
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
Artists: Kwanchai Moriya, Andrew Thompson

Honestly, I’m a little partial to dinosaurs (and therefore dinosaur themed games), and I’ve also really been digging roll and writes recently, so acquiring Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write seemed like a no brainer. With this came a lot of excitement to finally get to build a dinosaur theme park, and thankfully, the game did not let me down! In my second game, when I saw I could build a T- Rex Jet Ski Park, I was sold. 😂 Evidently, there’s also a Velociraptor Culinary Experience I have yet to come across. Needless to say, when I see that, it WILL be constructed.

In the solo mode, not much differs from the multiplayer, but there are a few tweaks. The main differences: objective cards with which you can score additional points, a few buildings and specialists can’t be used, and there’s an AI to simulate other players taking some dice. And, since it’s a beat-your-own-score game, there’s a table of score ranges for comparison.

At the beginning of the solo game, you shuffle the AI solo deck and draw five, choose three to keep for your objectives, and return the other two and reshuffle the AI deck. Besides the usual set up for the game, that’s all that you need to do before starting to play!

During the game, there are three rounds, each with three phases: two action phases and one run park phase. In the action phases (in the solo game), the player draws six dice out of the bag, rolls them, and lines them up. Then an AI card gets flipped. These cards identify two dice that have to be removed from the lineup and placed on certain action spots. Basically, you only get four dice to choose from and two action spots get taken before you get to make your decisions. For example, a card could say the first die needs to be placed on the DNA acquisition action spot and the fourth die needs to be placed on the money/security action spot. Once the AI “takes its turn”, you get to choose two of the four remaining dice to keep and gain rewards from. The other two dice get returned to the bag, but before that happens, you choose one for its benefits and then you take the threat level from the other die. This can make for some interesting analysis and strategy. Do you go for the rewards and resources you need but increase the danger, or do you play it safe and sacrifice useful items to keep your threat level low? Once those decisions have been made, you choose which two actions to perform this turn. The actions include getting DNA (needed to make dinosaurs), making dinosaurs, getting money, adding security to the park, building roads, building attractions (wheeeee!🎢), and doubling your resources from one die.

After two action phases, it’s time for the run park phase. There are multiple steps to this phase, but it’s the best way to gain resources, points, and help grow your park. The first step is to gain money, extra resources, and/or “excitement” from your attractions. Then, you get to utilize any specialists (they have immediate bonuses when you hire them and bonuses during the run park phase). After that, you get to give a dino tour through your park (my personal favorite theming element). The tours give you victory points and “excitement” (a separate track) which is a conduit for gaining even more resources and points. You can use money during the game to construct buildings (actual buildings, not attractions) that provide immediate benefits and/or end game points, and then can be shown off on your tours. Once you’ve finished all the fun stuff, you assess the threat level in your park. If that level is higher than your security level, you move along the death toll track. ☠

These phases continue for three total rounds and then you tally your points! There are many ways to score points, so it’s fun to try different strategies and focus on different aspects of your park each game. In terms of the solo game, the nature of the game lends itself nicely to replayability. The different specialists and buildings, and the random nature of the AI deck, objectives, dice rolls, etc., help with game variety.

I definitely encourage you to take a bite, give it a chew, and see what you think! I’m pretty sure you’ll find it dino-mite (all puns intended). The theme is very well executed and your actions always seem relevant, so you really feel like you’re building a dinosaur theme park, and it’s rawr-some (I’m the worst)! 🐱‍🐉