[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pic7376870.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:2023 edition box art]]
''Robo Rally'' is a board game from Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, a product submitted to the company by Richard Garfield, later published under the Creator/AvalonHill imprint and in 2023, published by Creator/RenegadeGameStudios. The game is a deceptively hard rush to get your robot to touch all of the flags in order, while avoiding the other players.

The ExcusePlot is that the players are Master Factory Computers, and they are extremely intelligent, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] and bored. They decide to reprogram some of the factory robots to do a race across the floors. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Did I mention they have to avoid pits, lasers, fire, radioactive waste, oil spills, pushers, conveyor belts and crushers along the way?]] Oh, and of course the other robots. The robot can also acquire random, unique upgrades which lets them do everything from [[GunsAkimbo shooting two lasers at once]] to using a jetpack to fly across the board.

The concept is fairly simple: Each player has five slots they can place a card in, which will change how their robot moves - both how far, and in which direction. After the robots all move, the floor tiles take effect, which can vary the gamut from "entering water slows your robot to a crawl", to "they are moved along the conveyor belt", to "take a point of damage from the laser beam", or simply "pushed off the tile they were standing on". The more players there are, the more crazy things get.

!!Tropes seen in this game include...
* AdaptationDistillation: [[http://www.eyeplaygames.com Robo Runner]] began as a web-based version of the board game but has since practically become its own game complete with distinct minigames and AI-controlled "scanners".
* AIIsACrapshoot: The robots all try to sabotage each other. With lasers.
** That's more the MasterComputer telling it to sabotage their opponents. No, the real crapshoot [[http://www.gamingcorner.nl/roborally-robots.htm would have to be the robots' independent personalities]].
** Lasers are only the ''start''. You can acquire bombs, one of which goes up to, basically, "trash everything around for eight squares in every direction" to tractor and pressor beams. They don't ''sound'' dangerous, but using one at juuuuust the right time can send a 'bot into a BottomlessPit. If they're unlucky.
** Another example are the "smart" rockets, a gadget that can be programmed. They're highly unlikely to fly where you want them to.
* ArtificialStupidity - Even better; ''you're'' the one who's making the boneheaded move, though often you find out too late.
* CheckPoint: Each flag the robot touches serves as one, and they will respawn at the last one touched at their inevitable destruction.
* TheChewToy: The robots themselves. It's [[AllThereInTheManual expressly stated in the manual and backstory]] as to why this is; the [[MasterComputer Master Computers]] spent their entire existence supervising chip manufacturing, and being bored out of their processors. Cue one hapless robot's navigation system malfunctioning, followed by it stepping on a conveyor belt, sent along the belt while being [[TraumaCongaLine cut by industrial lasers, smashed by crushers, crisped by flamethrowers, and finally dumped down an endless disposal pit]]. The computers [[ComedicSociopathy were amused]].
* DeathCourse: Fully customizable, at that! It includes, but is not limited to, conveyor belts, pistons, crushers, laser beams, flamethrowers, bottomless pits, pools of water, currents of water, and definitely not least, your fellow players.
* EnergyWeapon: As the robots' default weapons as well as DeathCourse elements.
* MalevolentArchitecture: Some of the stages do look like factory stages. But why does a factory need a death spiral filled with lasers?
** ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime! Also, the control computers were indescribably bored and probably messing around with the blueprints...
** Perhaps the conveyor belt maelstrom is a garbage disposal?
* MercyInvincibility: Not very merciful, since certain weapons and tiles can ''still damage you'' while your robot is existing as a "virtual copy". What actually happens is the robot is sent back to the last checkpoint touched, and for one turn is immune to other players - but not most floor hazards.
* NoOSHACompliance: Understatement. Especially once you add the extension.
* ProgrammingGame: In addition to the robots themselves, some weapons let you fire missiles, which are just as programmable, but with less "memory". Another challenge to the game is some hazards only take effect on certain turns, meaning you have to time when your robot will move through, or stop on, the tiles when they're "safe". Or else.
* RuleOfCool: Why else would this game exist?
* SubsystemDamage: That bit under "Programming Game"? This is yet another way things can quickly go pear-shaped. Once certain damage thresholds are reached, an increasing number of slots for your programming cards become "locked in" and can't be changed, forcing the player to use a self-repair "weapon" (if they have one) or just try their best to work around the new handicap(s). Of course, once all the cards are locked in, the robot is destroyed... and the robot respawns and the "mercy" invincibility kicks in for a turn.
* TractorBeam: The game features both tractor and pressor beams as upgrades that the player can opt to use instead of firing the laser. HilarityEnsues.
* VideogameCaringPotential: There is ''none''. '''Ever'''.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: On the other mechanical grasping extension, there is an ''overabundance'' of this. Bump a bot into a bottomless pit! Hit it with remote-controlled rockets! Scramble its circuits! Lock it in place with goo and drop [[TimeBomb The]] [[NukeEm Big]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin One]] next to it!
** Or have your own robot commit suicide because it's going to die next turn anyway.
* YouBastard: Not obvious at first, but you're playing as one of the Master Factory Computers... the same computers which are sending intelligent robots to their (or if you're very good) ''other's'' doom.
----