Romi Rami

• Designer: Antoine Lefebvre
• Publisher: Randolph
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Says the publisher: “Romi Rami is a game that feels like it’s been around forever, with thousands of people quietly and gradually polishing it over time. Falling squarely in the family of ‘Rummy’ games, Romi Rami features a double market. The first one has number cards, and the second one has contracts to complete. The goal of the game: Make the most points by optimizing the combinations required by the contracts. Keep an eye on the trophies (they change from game to game) which will propel you to to the top spot on the podium!”

The back of the box proudly proclaims that Romi Rami is “The Modern Take on Rummy”, and after reading that, I had no choice but to get a copy to try!  I grew up playing card games like Rummy, and I love seeing modern takes on some traditional games.

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Although they didn’t have a booth in the exhibit hall, Hasbro was once again there with a nice presence in the gaming hall next door. They were showing off expansion to popular games like a new Betrayal expansion: The Yuletide Tale – Evil Reigns in the Wynter’s Pale, and new expansions for Heroquest: Rise of the Dread Moon Quest Pack and Hero Collection – Path of the Wandering Monk. There were also new games, Risk Strike – an attempt to jam Risk into an attack/defend game with cards instead of a map, and Galaxy Goldmine that involves tile flipping on a grid with some memory overtones. Finally, if toys are your thing there was a line of plastic D&D monsters that could be folded back up into a 20 sided die.

Chip Theory Games, who never go halfway in any of their games, has a somewhat surprising new line of dice games entitled 20 Strong, all of which use the same set of 20 dice which are included in the base game. Three of the titles in the line are releasing to backers soon, with more to come later. I was also able to take a peak at an early prototype of the upcoming adventure game based on the Elder Scrolls video game franchise. Planned for a September 2024 release, its full title is The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era.

Keymaster was going with the farm theme this year with its quick little exploding egg push-your-luck dice game, Chicken! and then Keymaster’s upcoming farm sim, Harvest, which goes up on Kickstarter at the end of this month.