Most weekends I will, at some point, visit my parents’ house. And, without fail, HGTV will be on the television. Maybe House Hunters. Last weekend was the newest installment of Windy City Rehab. Either way, my parents love that stuff. And I even might even be weirdly drawn to watching to the end just to see how much the owners love their new hardwood floors and shower with 47 jets.
All that to say this—in Floor Plan you’ll be rolling and writing your way to be the most successful architect and meeting all the needs of your clients.
Gameplay Overview:
If you aren’t familiar with roll and writes… well… let’s just assume that isn’t possible at this point.
Floor Plan consists of two dice and a bunch of scoring pads. Each turn someone will roll the dice and everyone will use the same results. You essentially have two options:
- Build a room: Each type of room is associated with a number (1 for closet, 3 for bedroom, etc.) The room you create must be the dimensions of both dice (4×5 if you roll a 4 and a 5) and you can choose the type the matches either die.
- Add features: Each value is associated with a feature. A 1 will get you to add a tree. A 3 will let you add three windows. A 6 will let you make six stones. If you choose to add features you get to use both die results.
So you’ll spend the game filling your paper with the most luxurious home you can imagine. Drawing rooms. Adding furnishings, pools, and doors. But the house isn’t for you—you’ll have to do your best to fulfill your client’s wishes. You’ll have three clients involved in each game, each with two different demands. When you complete any of the goals you’ll write down those points and also unlock a bonus to go along with it.
When any player has successfully completed six goals (you can complete the same one multiple times, so long as you don’t reuse any rooms or features) the game ends. Players will total their points and whoever has done the best at meeting the client’s demands will score the most points and be declared the winner.
Game Experience:
Now, when it comes to a theme in my roll and writes, I can take it or leave it. But if there is going to be a theme at least it should be an interesting one. And Floor Plan definitely delivers here. If you are a fan of the multitude of HGTV shows, like my family is, you’ll enjoy the attempt at bringing that to your tabletop.
It even lends itself to having a bunch of different clients you can mix and match, giving every game a unique combination of goals to try to fulfill. You’ll be hard-pressed to have the same set more than once and that, along with the randomness of die rolls, will mean every house you make will look quite a bit different.
Calling these things you are building “houses” might be where the theme falters a bit. In most cases, you’ll maximize your points by doing things that just don’t make a lot of sense from a thematic point of view. In one game I had like five dining rooms all next to each other, without any doors, just because of the abnormally large number of 5s that were rolled and the goals that could be scored with dining rooms.
If you can get by the fact that your house may be a bunch of disconnected rooms, some with doors and some without and the occasional odd interior window… there is quite a bit to enjoy here. The decisions aren’t necessarily difficult but there are always multiple paths to victory. Even though there are 6 different goals to score each game, you can, theoretically, score the same one six different times. Or just pick some of the higher scoring ones and try to maximize those.
There are a few rolls every game where none of the options will benefit you. Often your decision then will come down to what you can do that won’t ruin your other plans. I don’t necessarily mind this, but some will be turned off by the turns which amount to hoping not to screw up too much rather than making any actual progress.
Final Thoughts:
Taking the theme away for a minute—Floor Plan is a solid roll and write with a strong emphasis on spatial awareness and planning to meet goals. There is a small amount of combo-building as you unlock more bonuses when you score any of the goals.
But the theme in Floor Plan is really what will sell it for most folks. While it isn’t perfectly integrated (that house with nothing but dining rooms still haunts me) it does well enough. And you can always chalk up any weirdness to just having some eccentric clients that want to host a dinner party in a different room every week.
Final Score: 4 Stars – A fun roll and write where you have to be aware of the space available. And the theme will certainly appeal to the home improvement crowd.
Hits:
• All the normal R&W hits—easy to learn, quick to play, travels well.
• Great theme.
• Great variety of different clients to mix and match every game.
Misses:
• Theme isn’t perfect as sometimes you’ll have some really weird houses.
• Some turns feel wasted when you can’t do anything useful.
