A Perfect Rock by Nick Gralewicz
dicepool Book Club, August 2026
What you need to play:
- The A Perfect Rock source material
- A d6
- Pen and paper/text editor/voice recorder
- Rocks or The Rock Oracle deck
- A printed star map (nice, but not necessary)
In August, we played A Perfect Rock, a planet-building exploration game for 1-4 players. We all played a solo adventure, but there were a number book club members (BKMs) who have played multiplayer and enjoyed that too. The solo version of the game takes 1-3 hours, depending on how in-depth you want to get. I ran a shorter session for my first game and was done in an hour and a half. The object of the game is to leave your home planet to explore the solar system and find a new home, your "perfect rock", before you run out of fuel. You also explore your ship and the relationships with your crew (this is where multiplayer shines) as you go on your journey. The solo adventure has a section to create a set of ship companions and explore the various ship aspects.
The play loop is surprisingly simple, you create your home planet and your character, select a keepsake, and then you begin the search for a new home. You will always begin at Sol, and then you journey to explore a new star and then a new planet, you continue exploring stars and planets until you choose a new home and navigate to your perfect rock. Exploring the stars and planets each have sub-tasks, where you roll your d6 to determine aspects of your search. When you journey to a new star, you get to explore your ship and crew, also using a d6. In solo play, you alone determine where you land for a home planet. When playing multiplayer, everyone must agree on your new home planet, which adds a level of complexity.
I love rocks, and almost double majored in Geology (I couldn't make myself take two more years of math), so this game was right up my alley. The book itself is really delightful. The paper is nice and thick with a matte finish and the art adds to the story. My favorite "Human Made" icon graces the back cover and the accompanying Rock Oracle deck is pretty and informative. For book club, I had BKMs bring their favorite rocks. We had a great selection that included a sampler box from a member's recent trip to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals. I attempted to bring my favorite piece of carnelian and some moss agate, but forgot to put them in my bag.
My playthrough was funny and very analytical. I ended up playing androids from a dying Earth, where all the humans had disappeared long ago and the only living thing left were Madagascar hissing cockroaches (hissers). I was one of three android bodies that contained the remaining human knowledge and everything we needed to reseed a new planet for our hissers. We ended up exploring five planets and all got sick of each other and our charges before we landed on the arid planet of Pelos, which orbits a red dwarf star. Pelos is in a Aetheric Nebula that contains magical Aether. The magical atmosphere did some interesting things to our hissers, and I may have learned more than I wanted about cockroaches.
Everyone at book club loved this adventure. We usually are more mixed in our enjoyment of the solos, but this one was a crowd favorite. Multiple BKM's had played more than once, and there were a few that had played multiplayer games too! We all had fun showing off our rocks and our playthroughs. We decided that the game is most enjoyable when you take your time, there was a suggestion for solo play to tackle a single star system/planet exploration a day and extend your play session to take around a week. We felt like this would be a fun and more realistic way to play. One BKM noted that some of the star descriptions didn't meet their expectations, but they acknowledge that they are a bit of a space nerd and it would be fine for us planet bound folks. None of us explored our ships much, so that was another aspect of the game to revisit the next time I play. The BKMs that had played multiplayer games noted that exploring your ship was easier with additional people, rather than solo.
One of the final things that we talked about was how this game could be homebrewed into a more Earth-bound focus if we used islands. My first thought was taking Darwin's various journeys and making something fun out of that. The book club discussion and the ideas that come from it continue to a great time and make for two enjoyable Tuesday nights. It makes me want to start writing one-shots. If you are interested in RPG discussions, our Discord continues to be a fun place to see playthrough notes and observations. We would love to see you at book club in the future and all of our shop events can be found on our Events page.
What will you do when you find your perfect rock?