Many roll & write games are popping up these days, but if there’s one publisher who has a proven track record for me with this type of game, it’s definitely NSV. Two of their earlier releases, Qwixx and Silver & Gold, are games that I count among my favourites in this genre, so when they announced Splitter I was very eager to try this one out too!
1-12 players, ages 8+
Playing time: 15 minutes
Designer: Stefan Nikolic
Artwork: Oliver Freudenreich
Publisher: Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag
https://nsv-games.com/
Splitter is a fast roll and write game in which you need to keep an eye on the central line, which functions as a mirror when writing in the rolled numbers by the two dice: You need to put these on the sheet, one on the left and one on the right side from the mirror line exactly at the same spot. Points are only scored when you manage to make groups of numbers: for example two orthogonally adjacent two’s will score you two points, six adjacent sixes will score 6 points. And
filling in the stars with a scoring group will double your points scored for it. The rules are as easy as that, but since you have to place both dice results mirrored I guarantee you this can be quite a challenging puzzle.
Roll & write games are always nice to play as a filler or close a gaming night and this one is no exception. Splitter takes only a couple minutes to explain, but is a fun puzzly game offering quite some decisions to make, plan ahead on where to place their numbers or decide what group to forfait to be able to score a higher one. For me Splitter has earned a well deserved spot in the collection, thanks to those easy rules and how streamlined the gameplay is. It succeeds in giving me this satisfied feeling at the end, and I cannot say there’s been one play that I didn’t have fun. If you’re still looking for a solid new roll & write, this is totally worth its ten euros!
Tabletopping 