Matthew BaileyToday we’re going to be looking at a simple dexterity game called Heads Will Roll, a sort of buried treasure pirate-themed dexterity game that takes up little to no space, takes only a few minutes to play, and can be a decent amount of fun provided a high degree of fortune doesn’t phase you.
The rules of Heads Will Roll are extremely simple. You drop your six metal tokens onto a surface. The surface needs to be reasonably sized, but you can still play on a smaller surface if needed.
Once the pieces have been scattered across the table you take your shield token, which is the piece you will be flicking during the round. The aim is to strike the treasure chest token somewhere among the skulls. If you manage to hit the chest cleanly you score the basic point for the round.
Where things try to become a little more interesting is with the positioning of the skulls. The two bronze skulls form one imaginary gate and the two silver skulls form another. If your shield passes cleanly between the matching skulls before hitting the chest you score additional points, so a well-placed shot that travels through both gates before striking the chest can score quite a bit more than a simple hit.
Of course, because everything has just been dropped onto the table, the layout is completely random every time. Sometimes the skulls will line up in a way that makes a clever bank shot possible, other times everything will be clumped together, making it far more about luck than skill. Players simply take turns flicking their shield and trying to set up the best scoring path they can, which basically ends up being one obvious path most of the time. I think having multiple treasure chests could have been useful here, in the sense of choosing whether to go for a higher scoring longer flick or a more certain shorter shot. As it is, you have one flick option each round and its scoring potential is essentially based on luck.
Rounds continue with players collecting points until someone reaches the agreed score target. The rulebook suggests deciding this beforehand, depending on how quick you want the game to be, but realistically, most games are over within a few minutes anyway, given how quickly it takes to set up and play.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a fun little pocket dexterity game and there are moments where the fall of the tokens leads to some cool situations. The metal tokens are nicely made and the concept of creating little scoring gates using the skulls is actually quite clever. Occasionally, you will line up a shot that feels satisfying when it works.
Unfortunately, in practice, it never really feels like it develops much beyond that initial idea. Because the tokens are simply dropped onto the table, the layout is often either trivially easy or awkwardly impossible, and there isn’t much players can do to influence that. Most turns end up being a quick flick, a miss or a hit, and then the next player immediately does the same.
Because of this the game tends to feel less like a skill based dexterity challenge and more like a quick novelty that you try a few times before moving on to something else. The rounds are extremely short, which helps keep things moving, but it also means there isn’t much room for tension or build up. It reminds me of a game we all used to play in school flicking 2p coins across a table while the other player made goals with their hands, but with slightly less dexterity.
As a quick little distraction it works well enough and there is something satisfying about flicking the metal tokens around the table, but it never quite reaches the level where it feels like a game you would actively choose to come back to. It’s more the sort of thing you might play once while waiting for something else to start rather than something that becomes a regular part of a game night.
Heads Will Roll is certainly portable and easy to teach, and the fact it comes with a little bag means you could almost fit it in your wallet, let alone a pocket. However the gameplay never quite lives up to the clever premise, and after a handful of rounds it starts to feel a little repetitive.
Disclaimer: A copy of the game was gifted to us by Lay Waste Games. All of our thoughts and opinions are our own.
