The latest play-through reports for my current Outgunned RPG campaign (resumes in July). Ongoing reports for Vaesen Mythic Carpathia. Play-through reports for indie games. Video reviews for various TTRPGs.
I’ve covered Land of Eem at bit here, including my first (and currently only😬) character creation video.
Below you’ll find the two-part series of how the game works with play-through summaries. I also wrote up detailed footnotes explaining many of the rules, mechanics, and more for readers to gain a greater understanding of the game.
✨Official Review: Roll For Your Life by 3 Much Fun
by K.J. Montgomery
This is not a tabletop roleplaying game, but rather a supplement for anyone who is interested in TTRPGs, whether a newcomer or veteran. Read on to learn more.
In 2023, a group of friends from Washington state (Dakota Sandoval, Henry Nolan, Daniel McCurdy, and Conor Nolan) launched a Kickstarter for a fun TTRPG supplement. It’s title: Roll For Your Life. I didn’t discover this myself until early 2026, as I’m not one to even remotely try to keep up with every single crowd-funder in the tabletop roleplaying game space.
Dakota was kind enough to send over a box of goodies for reviewing, which included the book, a 50-count pad of Roll For Your Life character sheets, a pair of the Sci-fi dice (described as ‘cosmic swirl glitter flecked silvery-blue base color with white numbers’ - although the numbers on mine are yellow), a custom 4-inch pencil ( which ‘features numbers (1-6) on each of its six sides, an eraser and pre-sharpened tip’), a few stickers (to joyfully add to my collection). Now to snag one of those cool shirts they offer.
Thank you, Dakota, for the review copy and box of goodies.
Title: Roll For Your Life
The pitch: (from the creators) “The activity book that comes to life with the roll of a die. . . . Roll For Your Life guides you through an entertaining and visually stunning journey where random chance plays a clever role in unlocking the power of your imagination. . . . accompanied by helpful and humorous interjections, explanations, and examples . . . an essential companion for any storytelling project.”
System: System agnostic, allowing for greater flexibility regardless of what you create.
Mechanics: All you need is 2d6, even though the majority of of rolls are only d6.
Playtime: You can spend a few short minutes on each section, assuming you don’t suffer from analysis paralysis while imagining all the various possibilities or whether to use a Do-Over (a re-roll to possibly get another outcome).
Alternatively, you can leisurely take your time, analyze every option and allow the building out of something to be a fun exercise for your creative muscles.
Player count: This can be a solo endeavor or a fun beer-and-pretzels activity with multiple participants, as long as everyone has access to the material, a d6, and some way of recording the results (the sheets provided are lovely, but one could simply reproduce these via a few minutes of manual labor).
Character creation: N/A, as the entire process is creation process to make something.
Complexity: I’m seeing this as great for folks new to tabletop roleplaying games, so Beginner-Intermediate, but could easily be utilized by Advanced or Expert level players or gamemasters for basic or quick homebrewing and worldbuilding.
Core Loop: It’s not a game, but the basic process is to select which section you want to tackle first (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or Adventure). Next, select which chapter to roll through (anywhere from Wizard in Fantasy to Mutant in Sci-Fi to Secret Agent in Adventure). Then, going through each category, begin rolling a d6 (unless instructed to roll a 2d6, which will be very rare) and record the results. Use Do-Overs to re-roll and possibly getting a different outcome if you don’t like the original result. Hand pick your preference when you roll a 6 and the entry states ‘player’s choice.’ Finish everything out by writing a brief cohesive statement in the ‘Put It All Together!’ section at the bottom of the custom character sheets (or the one you created by hand). You can also sketch out a picture of your creation in the empty frame at the bottom right on the sheet.
Originality (i.e. does it do something new?): There are loads of supplements out there both online and listed on TTRPG sites like DTRPG for consumers to access which allow them to roll up a wide variety of pretty much anything and everything nowadays. That said, Roll For Your Life does offer a clear, bespoke product for creative exercises in a limited fashion that can invite newcomers to the hobby in a way that introduces them gently and openly.
Layout: The lay is clean and well done. It’s very easy to read and navigate. I only have a physical copy, so I don’t know how the PDF is set up as far as hyperlinks or accessibility features.
Art: Jam-packed with original artwork by Colon Nolan. It’s colorful and varied, with a cohesive, slick comic book feel to it. I appreciate seeing so much keen art that provides inspiration and examples of how one might interpret their roll results.
Table of contents, chapter instructions, dice, character sheet pad
Conclusion
Does Roll For Your Life hit the target of its pitch? Yes. It’s a fun activity to do, and this comes from someone (me) who doesn’t necessarily enjoy making characters (except for something like Traveller, otherwise I prefer GMing games). My two other review/playtesters said they really enjoyed it; one is eager to play the character he made from the Alien chapter, while the other said he has a story idea from our time creating things from the various chapters.
So it does guide you in a way that can help ‘unlock your imagination’. It does have loads of quality examples with great artwork and humorous interjections.
That said, some folks may have reservations when evaluating the price tag versus the content. If the physical version is too costly, digital ones of the entire book or even just individual chapters can picked up on the official website. For those who want a multi-point starting line for revving up their creative engines, this book could prove to be quite valuable. It’d also make a great gift for someone unsure about whether tabletop roleplaying games are ‘the’ hobby for them (I say, let them see how fun and diverse TTRPGs can be through this one book before asking them to invest more). I hope the team produces more of these, as I think they can be useful resources for many folks out there.🍿🍿
Here’s what I made:
Chapter: Dragons. Drawings: Two different wyrms. Creation name: saku.
Yonaguska (referred to, not met yet) - leader of the tribe
Highlights:
Father Lazarus received from railway foreman Samuel El Jakksun one ready-to-go dynamite pack (nitroglycerin and black powder fully contained with blasting cap detonator attached; long wire and plunger-box included).
The PCs crossed the northern border of Texas and entered Oklahoma. They soon found themselves in a beautiful countryside with sprawling landscape, where a group of Native American women came into view.
Kenko approached Inola, who asked Kenko if she was a prisoner to the posse or the answer to her prayers. Kenko reassured her that she was indeed no one’s prisoner.
The PCs all learned from Inola that her daughter Zuni has been taken by an outlaw who only arrived two days/nights ago.
Upon approaching a shack up on a hill some distance away, they heard the outlaw yell and then take pop shots at the PCs. He then quickly fled on horseback, and a chase began.
O.B., Flint, and Kenko chased the outlaw, successfully capturing him in the end. Lazarus and Pyotr stayed with Zuni, confirming she was safe and assessing any immediate injuries.
In return for rescuing Zuni, the PCs were promised one favor from the Yonaguska, who would be arriving in the next day or two.
