• Robinson Crusoe Original Book
• Robinson Crusoe Full Book

No game at Origins 2013, which recently concluded, had bigger buzz than Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island. The only thing bigger than the buzz on this mega-co-op was the disappointment when only a lucky few walked away from the con with one of the scarce copies Z-Man had on-hand to sell.But then, I know Laura.I game at Gateway Games & More in eastern Cincinnati, and a regular attendee of board game nights is Laura, who seems always to get the hottest games that no else else can find.Of course she had a copy of this rare gem. Why did I doubt?I played two sessions with Laura, one with Jeff, and one with Noah and my son, Ethan. Apart from the extensive ruleset, just setting up the game takes a long time. That box is packed with components. Brain OverloadThe greatest aspect of Crusoe is that designer Ignacy Trzewiczek has made a game that could be the king of repayability and variety. It comes with a half dozen different scenario setups, and each offers variations through differing Invention cards that players can build through exploring different terrains on the island.In fact, this game is so sprawling and filled with so many optional plays, tokens, effects, types, thingies, and whatchamacallits, that any rules or play summary on my part is worthless.

So after trying to summarize the game in previous incarnations of this session/review, I’m cashing in my Effects tokens and giving up.The full rules are here, and your best bet is to scan through them. Certain Doom Beneath the Swaying PalmsBecause there is so much to manage in Crusoe, any miscalculation is fatal in short order. Food and shelter are always issues, and it seems impossible to keep both in good supply. Any lack in either, and you’re taking damage. One player dies, and you lose. Fail your scenario objective, you lose. Face it, you're going to lose.Worse, the only way to even hope to win is to take risks, and that means rolling the dice.

You think dice hate you? Oh, baby, you haven’t begunRolling dice racks up Event cards and damage. Event cards are almost always bad. Soon your Event card deck is filled with snakes ready to poison you, pumas following you back to camp, and on and on. Disease, pestilence, alligators, and.If you can’t get the terrain you need, you can’t invent items you need, and you die.If you try to split up your player’s actions, you roll dice, and you die.If you use both your player actions to ensure success, you don’t generate enough resouorces you need in the long run, and you die.Die, die, die.

Crusoe says, “Bah!” (OK, fine, Mr. Rules Lawyer, it does have a slight boost option for determination chits and morale in the 4-player game, but it doesn’t seem powerful enough.)I’m not telling the designer how to make a game, but I think you need to have conditions balanced well enough so that a team delving into your co-op game can expect to win once every seven or eight plays.After talking with Laura, who had played the game three times before our two sessions that evening, she and her other teams had not really come close. Laura was holding out on the Castaways scenario (build a bonfire within twelve time periods, with winter storms hitting full force halfway through) until she won, and with each play that likelihood took a hit.Every positive demanded some kind of costly sacrifice in Crusoe. The Cook player character has a few healing tricks up his/her sleeve, but all of them come at a cost of food, which is a tough commodity to keep around.While this may be true to real life, reality offers a few more breaks than Crusoe does. In Which We All Die Horribly, As ExpectedLaura, Jeff, and I tried a three-player game of the Castaway scenario. We didn’t last long. Game length was just under an hour before the sound of inevitability filled our ears.In this session, nothing went right for me.

Every time I took risks, I rolled what seemed like the worst case scenario: task failure, Event card draw, and personal damage.We filled one slot in our firewood requirement and left a bunch of empty squares behind. There would be no rescue bonfire.Failures in exploration (we played Soldier, Carpenter, and Cook—no Explorer) meant delays in getting the terrain we needed, which cascaded into delays getting inventions made—which didn’t matter much because every time I attempted to build the invention we needed, the dice said, “Oh no you don’t, mister.”As the Soldier, I’d held back on killing beasts, since other needs took precedent. Despite having the pistol invention granted to us by random draw, plus a large outlay of Determination points to access my killing skills, when we really needed furs, the beast that came up was a freakin’ alligator: no fur resource to use, wicked hard to defeat, and not a whole lot of anything else.Eventually, with hardly anything accomplished, morale at its lowest point, shelter roof shoddy, winter beating down on us, not enough food and everyone pushing the limits of their damage, I succumbed.And that was that. Oh, cruel fate! When my son, Ethan, and his friend, Noah, wanted to play, Jeff opted out of a redo, and we now tried again as a foursome.Which makes sense. This is not a game you haul out and play once. Too much work setting it up, too many pieces, too much of everything.

Play multiple times or else you may have wasted the unboxing and setup effort.Now with the Explorer in play, we may have a better shot at winning. Except, as is expected, the requirements to keep four players alive bumped up. The game scales well-if remaining lethal is your idea of scaling well.Even though the Explorer did not access his special skills often, since we were not getting much of the prerequisite Determination tokens needed to do so, new Terrain tiles came up quickly. This was good.Safety prevailed this time, as each of us tended to avoid the dice by playing both player markers per task.

Unfortunately, that yields fewer resources and actions. We were barely keeping up despite the number of successful tiles we turned up. Inventions got built, we kept the personal damage down, but when the weather started turning grim, the hits kept coming.

Our Explorer started taking damage and volunteered once too often to be the one to go without food.Playing the Cook this time, I was trying to enable all the healing capabilities I had at my disposal, but the pot, fire, and fireplace always required more food than we could generate. In addition, we drew several Event cards that said we overused resources in a certain spot and tapped out the supply.By the time the group had made it through seven time periods (just over an hour of play again), we had almost no wood for our fire, the weather had turned horrible, and our roof on our shelter proved flimsy. Bad weather dice rolls and not enough food finally killed the Explorer.Dang it.

Sheer Brilliance in a Box, But That Always Dying ThingCrusoe is an achievement. Seriously, designer Trzewiczek should be congratulated on what may become a classic.

Theme, play, feel, emotions generated—this game hits all the high points. It's the pinnacle of contemporary co-op games.But, as mentioned, it may be too hard.Eurogames get a bad rap from Ameritrashers for being soulless lessons in optimization. Despite Crusoe not being in any way soulless, it nonetheless feels like a massive systems optimization exercise. While it’s more fun than a systems optimization has any right to be, you can't escape that the game has few, if any, margins of error, as if the only way to win is carefully scripted but locked away in the basement local planning office (actually a lavatory) on a planet in another galaxy with a sign on the office door reading, Beware of the Leopard.In short, not bloody likely that you’re going to get that lucky and actually find it.Would I play Crusoe again? And probably a second or third game after that.But hold out hope to win? You're kidding, right?Whether that makes this a must-buy for you is how much your inner masochist can take before running screaming into the night.Yeah, you’ve been warned.

Excellent review!Now.I am a multiple solo-player.I played at least 100 Robinsons.(I should think of myself as being experienced!)I lose the most simple scenarios and I win the most difficult scenarios.And this is what I love the most about this game: every game is different! Every time I lose I say to myself: try again!!Think about the theme. You are shipwrecked on a deserted island. Anything (devastating) can happen.!I know that I will never get tired of it.Best game ever. I have played Castaways about 30 times and can't remember the last time I lost. You shouldn't be losing that scenario after a few tries. That said, with four it is vital to get enough food and build shelter.The tricks to the game are simple enough, as long as you understand the rules.Pivotal are moving camp, knowing which dice to roll and which not (check the odds), when to roll the dice (question mark out there anyway, may as we,l roll), building a roof in time for the weather, and building items that improve the palisade.

Agree with Marion and Hendriks.Yes, if you play a few times you can become an alpha player, nothing there to stop that. But do yourself a favor and don't ruin the game for everyone. This game is dripping with theme, make yourself the 'game master' and work the mechanics and tell the story then tell the players what options are available. Try and show them what their actions would do and how it would shape the game differently.

Let them decide. Some decisions are obvious (make a roof because rain is coming), but some are more challenging(take 2 food now, but 5 points of damage later.).Great coopertive and solo game!!!What I really love is the modular scenarios. Each scenario is a different game.

So far there are 8 scenarios and the Portal team released a blank scenario template, so anyone can make a new scenario and post it online. The future of this game is wide open!!Edit: I used to have a problem with surviving Castaways, but now can beat that scenario just about every time. I can beat Cursed Island just about every time too, but I still can't beat Robinson Family, Volcano Island, and Cannibal Island.one last cool thing. If a scenario is too tough or too easy there are ways of adjusting difficulty level. If it is too hard add the dog, or Friday, if they are too easy add more book icon event cards to make more bad stuff happen during game play.

Great review! Thank you for sharing.Do you feel like the more times you play and the more experience you gain may turn a person into an 'alpha player'?

I would love a game like this, but I feel like with such a long setup time/investment I would inadvertently start telling people what to do so we wouldn't have to do a long reset or waste the past hour we spent trying to stay alive. I like to relax when it's not my turn, but I feel I need to be at full alert at all times.Thank you.You can't relax. You're always running possibilities through your head, always searching for the optimum play.Alpha player problem? It does share a style with Ghost Stories and Pandemic. Threats are constant, and the one player most into the game could Alpha player it.Where it is slightly different from Pandemic, is that in that game, you get the feeling you can win up to the second you die, whereas with Crusoe, there's that sinking feeling that sets in.

That's a really good review.It reminded me of a video review of it that the sit down and shut up guys did of it, where they said that the impentrability made it a game that needed to be played repeatedly with the same group, for people to start seeing how everything hung together, but that consequently if ina group where only 1 or 2 people had played it before, it suffered from everyone needing to differ to the experienced people to have any chance.It was being played on an adjoining table at a recent games day I was at and it really makes a great visual impact on the table! The tricks to the game are simple enough, as long as you understand the rules.Pivotal are moving camp, knowing which dice to roll and which not (check the odds), when to roll the dice (question mark out there anyway, may as we,l roll), building a roof in time for the weather, and building items that improve the palisade.Note sure why moving camp makes any difference at all unless you run out of resources nearby.Care to explain your reasoning?The reasoning is as follows: the more you explore, the more exploration tokens you get, and those are vital for survival. They give you food, goats, free weapon levels, treasures, wood, wood for the pile, etc. In every game of Castaways you should be filling up the exploration board and discover the entire island to get to its resources.You need to start exploring early so you can move camp to the middle of the island, from which you can explore easily (and cheaply). Remember that from the starting location you can only explore three times (without adding pawns). You should be exploring with only one pawn, and often in early rounds I will have three individual pawns exploring simultaneously in different locations - the risk is low of bad things happening.At the end of a four-player game, you should have your camp located in a place surrounded by island tiles (6 of them), so you can gather adequately (and the covering of tiles due to earthquakes and such aren't problematic).As Ignacy has stated, there are many many good events and things that can happen that you shouldn't worry too much about them.

The rulebook provides several ways to make the game easier:1. Only good for hunting/exploring, but can't die, so isn't a liability.2. Can perform any action, doesn't each food, ignores shelter/weather. Can die easily, but that doesn't result in an instant loss.3. Start with 3 or 4 starting items, instead of only 2.

This may not sound like much, but these starting items are HUGE! Your starting situation is dire (no food, no shelter), that having more resources at your disposal right away can make all the difference.4. Adjust the mix of book and '?' Cards in the Event deck.

This won't help in the first scenario, but is useful for other scenarios.5. In a 4-player game, don't use the special 'Arrange the Camp' card. (This variant is not in the rulebook, but I like to use it when playing with new players.)You can mix and match these variants to tune the difficulty to your liking. I haven't tried 1-4 yet, but if you used 1, 2 and 3 together, I suspect it would be hard to lose. I just received the game from origins. Played it twice and won both times. Misplayed the rules the first game, but Def got it right the second time.

Both times were not difficult as we had plenty of health and builtalmost allthe inventions and finished in round 10. Make sure you have a roof by the time you need to roll the weather. Build a shortcut if you have the explorer or an item that helps you gain additional resources during production.I am expecting the next scenario to be more difficult as I can't wait to play again.

The rulebook provides several ways to make the game easier:1. Only good for hunting/exploring, but can't die, so isn't a liability.2. Can perform any action, doesn't each food, ignores shelter/weather.

Can die easily, but that doesn't result in an instant loss.3. Start with 3 or 4 starting items, instead of only 2. This may not sound like much, but these starting items are HUGE! Your starting situation is dire (no food, no shelter), that having more resources at your disposal right away can make all the difference.4. Adjust the mix of book and '?'

Cards in the Event deck. This won't help in the first scenario, but is useful for other scenarios.5. In a 4-player game, don't use the special 'Arrange the Camp' card. (This variant is not in the rulebook, but I like to use it when playing with new players.)You can mix and match these variants to tune the difficulty to your liking. I haven't tried 1-4 yet, but if you used 1, 2 and 3 together, I suspect it would be hard to lose.Most of those helps are for two or fewer players. To me, the theme of this game and the fact it's a co-op demands a larger playing group.

With the larger playing group, the options for easing up are far more limited, at least as they are explained in the rulebook. The reasoning is as follows: the more you explore, the more exploration tokens you get, and those are vital for survival.

They give you food, goats, free weapon levels, treasures, wood, wood for the pile, etc. In every game of Castaways you should be filling up the exploration board and discover the entire island to get to its resources.You need to start exploring early so you can move camp to the middle of the island, from which you can explore easily (and cheaply).

Robinson Crusoe Original Book

Remember that from the starting location you can only explore three times (without adding pawns). You should be exploring with only one pawn, and often in early rounds I will have three individual pawns exploring simultaneously in different locations - the risk is low of bad things happening.At the end of a four-player game, you should have your camp located in a place surrounded by island tiles (6 of them), so you can gather adequately (and the covering of tiles due to earthquakes and such aren't problematic).Exploring doesn't make sense once you've covered all your terrain types. Most terrain tiles have enough on them that a half dozen good tiles out on the board seem like all you need.I don't see the reasoning of spending precious player action cycles to keep exploring once those immediate conditions are met.

You end up splitting your actions too much (because food and wood are constant needs), running into risky die roles just to explore terrain you don't need. I don't see how that can ever be a winning strategy.In addition, if you have a camp location that generates a couple perpetually used resources (such as food and wood), why move? (In addition, as careful as the designer has been in recreating reality, moving a wooden shelter and its palisade doesn't make sense. Seems semi-permanent.). Thank you very much for this review. Great read!Just in my defence I would like to note that there is 'adjust Robinson' chapter in rulebook that says how to make it a little less hard if you want less euro, more ameri feeling (adding Friday is a easiest way).Anyway, good luck with next try and remember - there are good adventures in the adventure decks!Thanks for stopping to read this session/review, Ignacy.

Robinson Crusoe Full Book

It's an honor that you did and took the time to reply. Crusoe really is a masterwork and the co-op to judge all co-ops by.And yes, I'm up for another session!

The bare nature can be seen in abundance throughout the novel and it reaches such a height that has not been achieved by any other writing since 1719 when this novel was first written.