Meet Roland Wright: the fictional designer described as a mixture of Willy Wonka and Reiner Knizia looking for the ‘perfect dice game’

You have never heard of Roland Wright. That’s because he’s not a real person. And, yet, the fictional designer is to be the star of a new series of games coming out next year.

Roland is the creation of real-life designer Chris Handy, most recently known for his series of bite-sized Pack O Game titles, which crammed proper, full-blooded games into a box the size of a chewing gum packet.

Handy’s publishing label Perplext has announced that it will publish three or four roll-and-write games in 2018 inspired by Roland, who is described as “a fictional game designer who is obsessed with making great roll & write games in his ‘old time’ workshop”.

“Imagine Willy Wonka crossed with Reiner Knizia, and you're getting the spirit,” Handy adds.

Roll-and-write games do what they say on the tin, in that players roll dice and write things down based on the result.

The first Roland Wright game is similarly frank with its title: A Pursuit of the Perfect Dice Game.

In a strange meta format, two to six players are trying to come up with the ‘perfect’ dice game by picking and rolling dice to complete game design modules and gain equipment to help propel their design career along.

It’s a curious idea, and we’ll learn more about it in the coming months, as it’s currently at a prototype stage.