Players are dealt a hand of program cards at the beginning of each turn, and these program cards allow a robot to move and rotate. Playing five program cards completes a turn, and after the five cards have been revealed and the actions on them performed, all the cards are collected, shuffled, and dealt out again. Program cards aren't the only things to affect robot movement. Robots can collide, pushing each other off course, and active board elements like conveyor belts can also move robots. RoboRally is not just a good-natured race game.
Laser beams crisscross the board, and lasers are also mounted on each robot.
Robots hit by lasers take damage, and for each point of damage a robot receives, the player is dealt one less program card each turn to program the robot. With even more damage, a robot is destroyed. Damage may be repaired by touching various repair sites on the game board or by choosing not to receive a set of program cards for a turn. A robot that doesn't receive program cards may still be moved by board elements, such as conveyor belts, and may still be pushed by other robots. Each robot starts with three lives.