Robinson Crusoe

We were having a long enough discussion in the perpetual games thread that I thought it deserved its own dedicated thread.

I just played another game today. This time just solo, playing the way that the rulebook tells you to. I was the cook with Friday and the Dog to help. If you play solo, you basically get a deluge of determination tokens, which has the knock on effect of keeping your health up pretty high most of the game, which means that you stay at +3 on the morale chart almost all the time.

Around turn 9-10 Friday died while building the knife, which was the game changer. It was a tough roll---I rolled a wound AND an adventure token which killed him. He finished the knife though. I like to imagine the cook coming across Friday's dead body impaled with the knife he was testing out or something. In the end, the whole game came down to turn 12, when I finished the mast, I fell JUST short. It left me with ONE stinking wood pile box left to fill because the storm phase had been very rough for a couple turns. I had to do an explore action with my other move so the dog could help me. I needed an "oil" result from the discovery tokens but I came out emptyhanded. I can imagine the cook watching the ship sail away, not seeing his big fire, knowing he just needed a LITTLE bit more wood.

Super easy to miss rule for anybody starting the game out like I did---gather and explore actions require an extra pawn if they are down on a tile 2 hexes away!

The game improves once you have the sequence memorized. Speeds it up considerably.

Rules question---I've only played the castaways scenario, so I haven't tangled with this yet. So in the other scenarios, if you hit a tile with the totem on it, something happens according to the scenario. Specifically, there are numbered tokens that determine what happens.

How does this work? Which token comes out first? Does it go 1-4 in order each time a totem tile comes up? Do you pick randomly? I don't see anywhere it says in the rules. What's the rules reference?

Gary Sax wrote: Rules question---I've only played the castaways scenario, so I haven't tangled with this yet. So in the other scenarios, if you hit a tile with the totem on it, something happens according to the scenario. Specifically, there are numbered tokens that determine what happens.

How does this work? Which token comes out first? Does it go 1-4 in order each time a totem tile comes up? Do you pick randomly? I don't see anywhere it says in the rules. What's the rules reference?

The first totem tile you discover is #1, the second #2 and so on. So for instance in one scenario the second totem tile is the Altar of Death and you lose I think two health. Having them come out in a predictable order means in a multiplayer game you can choose the player best able to take those hits.

The game is already tough enough without random picking. Determination tokens btw are just as important as you describe.

My review of Robinson Crusoe is running today. It's a pretty terrific game.

After a couple games, I've moved it up from "good" to "terrific" myself. First couple games are brutally euro, but you get used to it and the game streamlines.

There are a couple rules I'm still a little fuzzy on. Like, do you always start with just one food and one wood, regardless of the number of players? From all I can tell that's the case, but that basically forces the group to immediately take a hit from lack of food or shelter in the first round, unless you can explore and find a shelter right away.

But it doesn't really matter to me how that works. It makes sense that there wouldn't be a lot of food early on, and I think it totally works to have it be such a stressful experience.

Also, it's the first game in a while that I've played with my wife. She liked it pretty well too, though she found it somewhat stressful. We always get a laugh when someone gets injured building a shovel or something.

Yeah, on the first turn or two you have to rely heavily on those starting items with more players. I haven't played 4 players but it looks brutal.

San Il Defanso wrote: There are a couple rules I'm still a little fuzzy on. Like, do you always start with just one food and one wood, regardless of the number of players? From all I can tell that's the case, but that basically forces the group to immediately take a hit from lack of food or shelter in the first round, unless you can explore and find a shelter right away.

But it doesn't really matter to me how that works. It makes sense that there wouldn't be a lot of food early on, and I think it totally works to have it be such a stressful experience.

Also, it's the first game in a while that I've played with my wife. She liked it pretty well too, though she found it somewhat stressful. We always get a laugh when someone gets injured building a shovel or something.

You always take a hit from lack of shelter the first turn or two and you need to gather the second food. It pays to figure out the dice too. "Gathering" with one token is the least punishing because the dice are very forgiving and chance of success is high. "Exploration" is a little more dangerous with less successes and "Building" is the most dangerous with the least chance of success if you don't assign two pawns and have to roll.

Never Build with less than two if you can help it.

Also, don't forget the wreckage card you start with for either food or wood boost. With extra players you should also have a lot more time on your hands to fish that out of the ocean.

BTW, is there a rule I missed? How do you decide which wreckage card you start with?

Piling on Mike's comment, the exploration and gathering event draws don't suck even close to as bad as the building ones. The building events tend to be really bad.

San Il Defanso wrote: There are a couple rules I'm still a little fuzzy on.

And you published a review of a game that you don't fully comprehend? Why didn't you email the publisher/designer and get answers before you published?

Because it's really just the one I mentioned, and whatever the result would be wouldn't change my opinion on the game at all. It's not really am ambiguity at all, I'm just impressed that it's so brutal at the front end.

Gary Sax wrote: BTW, is there a rule I missed? How do you decide which wreckage card you start with?

In the "additional rules" section it says you can randomly choose one of the wreckage cards to start the game. That's what I've done every time.

San Il Defanso wrote: My review of Robinson Crusoe is running today. It's a pretty terrific game.

It's stuck in the pipe for me. Can anyone else see the review?

S.

If it's supposed to be on the Front Page...the answer is no.

I dug out my initial impressions of this game a day after getting it back in February. Thought you guys might find it interesting in light of everything that's being written about it now. Click here