Red Rising is one of my favorite book series in recent memory. It’s a superlative exploration of a social caste system, dystopian strife, and futuristic warfare. Pierce Brown, the author, has really matured over the course of the five books—part of two distinct trilogies—and I can’t wait to see how he concludes the saga in the next title.

Apparently, Jamey Stegmaier is just as much of a fan (probably more) because he’s been working for years now to develop a board game adaptation of the series. And he’s finally achieved his goal with Red Rising, a hand-management card game based in the universe of the book series and centered around the ideas of class warfare, rebellion, and breaking the chains!

In this combo-building game, one to six players will engage in a tight economy of cards. Players will either Lead—deploying cards from their hand, activating an ability, and then retrieving a different card from the board—or Scout—taking a new card off of the deck and placing it down on the location. Both actions give small benefits but Leading shifts the composition of your hand to enable better combos and Scouting brings new cards into play and helps to block other cards or change the state of the board’s four locations.

Whoever has the highest score at the end wins! And since I’m getting to jump back into the world of Red Rising while playing a board game, then I win no matter what…

What It Does

In the world of Red Rising, everyone is divided into fourteen different color castes. The stratification is a suppressive foundation for the dominance of the Golds, who rule with an iron grip. In the oppressive societal pyramid, there are three tiers— HighColors, MidColors, and LowColors. Within those layers are the Golds, Silvers, Whites, and Coppers; the Blues, Yellows, Greens, Violets, Oranges, and Grays; and then the Browns, Obisidians, Pinks, and Reds.

Players of the board game will see all of these Colors represented and each of them features variable core values in points as well as unique deployment abilities that trigger when placed on the board, endgame abilities, and additional scoring potential based on what combos a player has created.

The game is quite simple. Within an hour, players will prune their hand, add to it judiciously, and slowly create a winning combination of Colors and characters who maximize the scoring potential.

You could focus on acquiring Golds at all costs, relying on their sturdy core point value. Or you could build an insurrectionist deck of LowColors that work together to overwhelm higher Colors. But then again, maybe a mix of those two strategies will be the best. It’s up to you to figure that out because players will likely not exhaust the 112 character cards in the deck. The best combinations won’t necessarily be the easiest ones to see.

Outside of your hand of cards, you will also be racing against players on several victory tracks, which are what triggers the endgame and provides other avenues for scoring. The Fleet track, the Institute, and player reserves of Helium are all valuable in the game and will contribute to a player’s winning strategy.

How It Does It

Why You Might Like It

Why You Might Not

Final Thoughts

After two plays—one with four players and one with three—I’m definitely interested to see how this fares after half a dozen more sessions. I want to see how it is with two players. I want to explore more of the deck. In each game, we’ve only made it through about half of the more than 100 cards.

The production quality is fantastic. I got the Collector’s Edition, and though it’s not necessary, it’s a very appealing design. The metal cubes, gold-foil cards, and other premium components all give it a nice heft and table presence.

For someone who cherishes the book series, it’s a real treat to play a game based on the characters who I love and the story that I enjoy so immensely. I think that plenty of players can appreciate and love the board game without any knowledge of the books, but it does make it even better knowing the context of these characters and their motives.

I imagine I’ll be discovering combinations in this game for quite some time. I took two different approaches in the first and second games, so I’m curious to see what I’ll do next. I anticipate high replayability in that regard as players discover new ways to manipulate the Colors and their powers.

I’m not sure if it will play as well with five or six players. Four felt good and will likely be better when the players know the cards better, but I suspect that having more than four will slow the game down too much.

I want to keep playing, which is always a good sign, and I think it will stay on the “ready shelf” in my dining room for a little bit. Bravo to Jamey for sticking with it through multiple designs. And the artists have done a wonderful job in giving life to characters who have only been in my head until now.

Definitely try out the game and see if it’s for you. I think it will be one of my staple “lighter” games for quite some time.

If you want to check out Red Rising, you can visit Stonemaier Games or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.

And… if you loved the awesome photos of the game from @gralutka, please check out her Instagram page and her YouTube channel!

Have you played Red Rising? What about other combo-heavy hand-building games?

Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.