History TabletopGame / RoboRally

''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, 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.

''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, Creator/RenegadeGameStudios. (Wizards liked it, and mentioned that they were also looking for, say, [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering a portable strategy game played using a deck of cards.]]) The game is a deceptively hard rush to get your robot to touch all of the flags in order, while avoiding the other players.

''Robo Rally'' is a board game from Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, a product submitted to the company by Richard Garfield. (Wizards liked it, and mentioned that they were also looking for, say, [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering a portable strategy game played using a deck of cards.]]) The game is a deceptively hard rush to get your robot to touch all of the flags in order, while avoiding the other players.

[[caption-width-right:350:2023 edit box art]]

* 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.

* FrickinLaserBeams: As the robots' default weapons as well as DeathCourse elements.

* 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 most floor hazards - but not other players.

* TheChewToy: The robots themselves. It's [[AllThereInTheManual expressely 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 customizeable, 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.

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". Needless to say, the more players there are, the more crazy things get.

''Robo Rally'' is a board game from Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, a product submitted to the company by Richard Garfield. (Wizards liked it, and mentioned that they were also looking for, say, [[MagicTheGathering a portable strategy game played using a deck of cards.]]) The game is a deceptively hard rush to get your robot to touch all of the flags in order, while avoiding the other players.

* 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", 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.

Needless to say, the more players there are, the more crazy things get.

** 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 you're lucky.

* TheChewToy: The robots themselves. It's [[AllThereInTheManual expressely 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 [[HumiliationConga 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 customizeable, at that!

* MercyInvincibility: Not very merciful, since certain weapons and tiles can ''still damage you'' while your robot is existing as a "virtual copy".

* ProgrammingGame

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: On the other mechanical grasping extention, 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!

RoboRally is a board game from WizardsOfTheCoast, a product submitted to the company by Richard Garfield. (Wizards liked it, and mentioned that they were also looking for, say, [[MagicTheGathering a portable strategy game played using a deck of cards.]]) The game is a deceptively hard rush to get your robot to touch all of the flags in order, while avoiding the other players.

** 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. [[ItGotWorse If you're lucky.]]

* FridgeLogic: If you have to program in the robots' moves, why are they independently intelligent in the first place?
** The robots were grabbed out of other jobs (where, presumably, their intelligence was an actual asset) to be used as pawns in this game. And yes, this means that the Master Computers played by the players use intelligent creatures as pawns while sending them to their death for no reason other than amusement.