Can’t wait for Red God? Play the board game Red Rising

It’s 2025, and no, we still haven’t heard anything about a Red God release date. But in the meantime, I’ve been watching myself lately with the Red rising board game. It turns out that a nifty, color-coded social hierarchy lends itself not only to timely social commentary, but also to the bones of a great board game.

The entire core of Red Rising, an excellent series of grim science fiction novels written by Pierce Brown, is a futuristic version of humanity that has recreated itself – quite literally, via genetic modification – in color-coded castes. The Reds are the bottom of the ladder, blue-collar workers who spend their lives mining for helium. Gold is now at the top: faster, smarter, stronger and richer than everyone else. The rest of the social order breaks down into neatly clarified roles: the Silvers are bankers, the Greens are tech wizards, the Violets are artists and journalists, and so on. (You see the whole hierarchy here.)

The series consists of six novels so far, starting with the one from 2014 Red rising. Brown announced Red Godthe seventh and final entry in the saga, in 2022. But at the time of writing, neither the author nor his publisher, Del Ray Books, have set a release date for the book. The most recent in the series, Light bringerhit shelves in the summer of 2023, meaning it’s been a dry spell for a few years for Red Rising fans, who may be more used to a regular release cadence than readers of some other popular fantasy books.

But the connection to the board game is right there! Has been around for years! And to say this as a rabid fan of Brown’s series: absolutely lines.

Red risingdesigned by Jamey Stegmaier and Alexander Schmidt and published by Stonemaier Games in 2021, is a spirited, fiercely competitive tabletop game. Better yet, as an adaptation it’s wonderfully faithful to the source material.

You can play the six houses like in Red Rising.
Image: Stonemeier Games

At the start of each game, each player randomly chooses from one of the six houses associated with the Institute, essentially Red Rising’s version of Hogwarts. (The first novel is an archetypal “fantasy war school training for kids who can’t imagine war well.”) From there, each player draws five cards from a deck of more than 100, all of which are based on characters from the novels. You complete the setup by placing two cards, drawn from the deck, on each of the board’s four locations: Jupiter, Mars, the Institute, or Luna (the moon).

The general structure of a turn involves placing a card in one location and drawing a card from another location. Depending on how and where you place your cards, you will make progress towards one of the cards Red rising‘s three win conditions – earning seven helium tokens, earning seven influence tokens, or moving your ship token seven spaces on the “fleet track” segment of the board – and will ultimately earn points depending on how much progress you make in the direction of each. The game ends when a player meets two of these conditions, or when all three are hit by a combination of players.

Where Red rising becomes difficult is the end game – meeting the win conditions of the game ends the game, but doesn’t really guarantee victory.

Each card has a point value. When the game ends, the points of the cards in your hand count towards your final score. Cards also have additional requirements that, if met, will earn you even more points. (For example, the characters Ragnar and Sefi are siblings; if you end the game with both in your hand, you get a higher score.) In every round I’ve played, whoever has the most points in hand is the victor – and more often than not always comes from behind. So this isn’t that kind of game Katanwhere you race to victory. Instead, you will often try to prolong the match until you can get the strongest hand.

Three blue cards from the board game Red Rising are on a table.

Blue cards are usually pilots and help you progress on the fleet track.
Image: Stonemeier Games

Red rising is a solid board game on its own, but it really comes into its own when you play alongside other fans of the novels. For the most part, the cards are an accurate reflection of the characters they are based on. Gold cards usually have the highest number of points. Red cards aren’t that powerful on their own, but if you get a bunch of them together you can rack up a game-changing total of points.

This dedication to the source material gives a natural advantage to those who have read the books and inherently understand that, for example, orange cards are tricky and white cards are incredibly rare. But it’s great to play with fellow Red Rising fans and shout in mutual recognition when characters like Nero (“Fuck that guy!”), the Jackal (“Fuck that guy!”) or Lysander (“(incoherent string of curses that are the functional equivalent of “Fuck that guy!”)”) appear on the board.

Yes, we may have to wait a little longer Red God – and to be clear, I believe Brown should take all the time he needs to make a landing he’s proud of. That’s fine. We can keep waiting. In the meantime, the Red rising board game is a damn fine relic.

The box art for the Red Rising board game is on a purple polygon backgroundThe box art for the Red Rising board game is on a purple polygon background