Hello everyone!
Today I’m bringing you a little solo board game gem: R.A.V.E.L.
R.A.V.E.L. is a quick, clever dice manipulation puzzle that’s perfect for filling a short gaming session. Despite its small size and simple rules, it offers surprising depth and replayability through adjustable difficulty levels.
Game Overview
R.A.V.E.L. is a 2025 release for 1 player, ages 10+, with a playtime of approximately 10 minutes. The game was designed by Daniel McKinley, illustrated by Christine Alcouffe, and published by inPatience.
R.A.V.E.L. box via BoardGameGeek
What Does R.A.V.E.L. Stand For?
R.A.V.E.L. stands for Rare Artefact Vertiginous Enigmatic Logical, an endless resettable puzzle where you manipulate 8 dice of 3 different colors on a grid to solve Cog cards.
Setup
The setup is really quick, making this game perfect for a small gaming spot during your day. Inside the box you’ll find a grid with 8 perforated spaces, 8 dice in 3 different colors, 32 Cog cards (16 normal difficulty, 16 higher difficulty), and gear tokens.
R.A.V.E.L. components overview
To set up, place the grid at the center of the table, then take the 8 dice and, in a random manner, take one die at a time, shake it, and place it on the grid. Take the 16 normal difficulty Cog cards for your first play, shuffle them and place 4 face-down on each side of the grid (top, bottom, left, right), then flip face-up the first card on each side. Finally, take 8 gear tokens for a normal difficulty game.
R.A.V.E.L. setup ready to play
How to Win
To win, you must solve all of the Cog cards. If you’re unable to solve cards due to a lack of tokens or available moves, you lose the game.
Gameplay
You’ll manipulate the 8 dice on the grid to solve Cog cards placed around it. You have 8 gear tokens (at normal difficulty) that allow you to buy actions.
Each Cog card has a condition to be solved, such as having 2 dice of the same color on the card’s side, all 3 dice in sequential order, or all dice showing different numbers. When you solve a card, you gain a one-time effect that must be used immediately, if not used, it’s lost. These effects can include recovering tokens, modifying dice faces, moving dice, or moving cards around the grid.
You have two main actions available using gear tokens: move a die to an adjacent space (1 token), or change the face of a die (2 tokens). Beyond gear tokens, bonuses from solved cards allow you to further manipulate the grid.
Cards with all conditions satisfied
Difficulty Levels
You can make the game easier by starting with more than 8 gear tokens. To increase difficulty, add high-level Cog cards to the deck, the more you add, the harder the game becomes. You can play with all 16 high-level difficulty cards for the ultimate challenge. High-level cards add stricter conditions, such as sequential dice needing to be in ascending order, or same-color dice all showing even numbers.
Cards and their higher difficulty versions. Top row: for the basic card, the 3 dice must show the same number; for the higher difficulty card, the dice must also be different colors.
My Thoughts
I’ve played this game more than 10 times already. So far, I’ve tested it by adding 4 high-level difficulty cards, and I haven’t yet managed to win at this difficulty level.
The game is quick, fun, clever, and addictive. You have to carefully think about which card to solve first to take advantage of the bonuses, for example, if you haven’t used any gear tokens yet, solving a card that allows you to retrieve tokens won’t let you use the bonus, so timing matters.
Final game. 2 Cog cards not solved so game over 🥲
Rating
Rating: 8 out of 10.
For a small game, I rate it 8/10. I would have liked to see some kind of story or theme to make it more thematic. Besides that, I have nothing negative to say about the game. It’s an excellent game to take with you on a trip.
Final Thoughts
R.A.V.E.L. is a perfect pocket puzzle game: quick to set up, quick to play, and endlessly replayable thanks to its variable difficulty. If you enjoy solo puzzle games that require careful planning and resource management, this is definitely worth checking out.
Your Turn
Have you played R.A.V.E.L.? What difficulty level have you tried? Have you managed to beat the highest difficulty?