Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island Board Game Review:

In Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island, You have been shipwrecked, and night is fast approaching. You must collect resources to build the camp While fending off starvation. You may craft tools to explore the island better. You must survive long enough to complete each game’s secondary objective, such as building a signal fire or building a haven.

How to Play

Before each game of Robinson Crusoe, you will pick a scenario. Your scenario determines your winning objective, such as signaling a passing ship, building a boat to escape an erupting volcano, or fighting back against cannibals. Each of the 7 scenarios included in the base game has different rules and winning conditions. Each player then takes a character card and 2 corresponding action tokens, wound tracker, and invention. Then lay out the board and put the tiles, tokens, decks, and dice in their corresponding spaces on and around the board.

Each round has 6 phases: Event, morale, production, action, weather, and night.

Event Phase

In the first round, the event phase is skipped. During the event phase, draw an event card. An event usually has a negative effect, such as harsh weather. Immediately resolve the first effect of the card. Then place it on the threat track. If an event card is left on the threat track for too long, it will trigger a secondary negative effect. You can remove event cards from the threat track without triggering their adverse effects during the action phase.

Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island Morale Phase

During the morale phase, the first player gains or loses determination equal to the number shown on the moral track. This track ranges from -3 to +2. You start at 0. Different in-game events and actions can change morale. If you do not have enough determination to pay the morale cost, you suffer 1 wound instead.

Production Phase

During the production phase, gain wood and food tokens. Gain the number of resources shown on your camp tile. Place these resources on the available resources space.

Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island Action Phase

the heart of Robinson Crusoe lies in the action phase. During this phase, each player will place their 2 action pawns on various spaces to accomplish an endless list of objectives. Some spaces require multiple pawns. You will first have everyone place their action pawns simultaneously. Then everyone resolves their actions.

The first place you can place your worker is on the threat track. This will remove the threat without triggering its effect. You will often get a bonus for removing the threat.

To hunt, place 2 pawns by the hunting deck. To fight the beast, compare your weapon strength to the beast’s strength. You take 1 wound for each point of strength the beast has more than you. Then regardless of how many wounds you have received, collect the food and pelts from the successful hunt.

Building allows you to be better prepared for the dangers of the island. You can build a better camp, improve weapons or make an invention. To make an invention, you must first meet its requirements. These include finding specific terrain, spending resources, or using other inventions. Once you complete the build requirements, you may place 1 or 2 action pawns on the item you wish to build. If you place 2 pawns, you succeed automatically. If you place only 1 pawn, you are rushing the build, which may cause various consequences. Roll the 3 brown dice associated with the build action to determine the results of a rushed construction. The first die determines whether you succeeded or not at creating the invention. If you failed, gain 2 determination. The second die determines if you were injured during the construction. If you rolled an injury, you suffer 1 wound. Finally, if you roll a question mark on the third die, you must draw a card from the building adventure deck. This card details an accident or other unfortunate event you experienced during construction. Each card will give you a unique consequence.

You may also gather wood or food. To gather, select a nearby resource and place some action pawns next to that resource. Like the build action, you may place 2 pawns for guaranteed success or 1 for possible success. You will also need to pay additional action pawns if the resource is far from camp. If you succeed, gain food or wood depending on the resource space. If the action was not guaranteed, roll the 3 gather dice. These dice function the same as the building dice, but the odds are slightly different.

You may also explore the island. Exploring is helpful because you can find different terrain for inventions, new resources and make discoveries (the one thing on this island not trying to kill you). Similar to the gather action, you may place 1 or 2 action pawns to determine how likely you are to succeed, and you may have to use additional pawns if you are exploring too far from camp.

You may also take care of the camp. You may place 1 pawn at camp to gain 2 determination and raise morale. You can also place an action pawn at camp on the rest space. This heals 1 wound.

Weather Phase

If you have any dice set in the weather space, roll them and resolve their effects. Weather dice may be placed by events or the scenario.

If it rains, check the rain level against your roof level. for each rain symbol more than your roof level, you must pay 1 wood and 1 food. If you cannot pay this cost, every player receives 1 wound per resource missing

if it snows; you must spend 1 wood per snow symbol. For each wood you cannot burn, each player receives 1 wound.

If hungry animals attack, you may lose food, have your walls destroyed, or have to fight it.

Night Phase

During the night phase, each player must discard 1 food or suffer 2 wounds. You may also move the camp to an adjacent explored space on the map. If you are sleeping without shelter, you suffer 1 wound. All perishable food remaining is discarded, and the first player token is handed to the next player.

Ending the Game

The game continues until you complete the objective given by the scenario, resulting in everyone winning. The game can also end with one of the players dying by suffering too many wounds, or you run out of turns, resulting in a group loss.

Pros

The 7 different scenarios mixed with the event cards allow for a lot of replayability as no 2 stories will be quite the same.

There is always something to do. There is never a dull moment as you are not focused on succeeding but simply not failing. As you are constantly confronting problems, you are given the tough choice of whether to dig a well to compensate for the drought or to find food so you can eat tonight.

Cons

this game is challenging. This may be good if you enjoy a challenge. You will need excellent communication, a well-executed plan, and some lucky card draws to win. Just fail 1 of those 3 elements, and you will lose. This game is heavily luck based, and it is possible to lose even when played perfectly.

The rules are very complex. While an abbreviated version of the rules is provided in this review, to fully understand the game, you must read the 40-page rulebook that explains all the details missed in this summary. The rulebook is well written, and you will easily understand the game after reading it, but it is time-consuming and challenging to explain to your fellow players. If you struggle with rules, you may watch one of the comprehensive video tutorials or use the free Dized app to provide an interactive tutorial.

This game is prone to quarterbacking. Quarterbacking occurs when the smartest, most influential, or most confident group member plans out the strategy, then everyone else follows that plan. This may help increase your odds of winning, but it is destructive because it takes away the other players’ ability to make decisions. This may cause other players to lose interest due to wondering why they are playing if another player plans out all their characters’ actions. This is especially bad in a game like Robinson Crusoe because of how hard this game is to win. You need every last bit of help.

Accessibility

Colorblind: everything in this game has a place. While many colors look similar, as long as the game is kept organized, you should have relative ease playing the game. A non-colorblind person will be able to set the game up significantly faster. Neutral action pawns will be nearly impossible to tell apart. They may need to be marked.

Reading: Reading comprehension is necessary for this game, but you can have everyone else tell you what cards say. Nothing is kept a secret, so the game will not change.

Children: this game includes questionable topics such as death, cannibalistic humans, curses, and serious injuries. Kids will struggle to make decisions in this game, let alone decisions that will help the group, But if the adults guide the kid toward the few best options, the kid will feel empowered as they can easily see their contribution.

Who would love this game?

Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island is an excellent game for people who love deep strategy games but are not afraid to experience all the randomness that comes with the game. While this game is great at all player counts, it shines in the lower player counts due to the lack of quarterbacking. This is not the type of game where you are the mighty hero who will escape their horrific fate. Instead, you will fight for every last advantage against the island. So if you can’t stand luck, and want to play a fun, quick game with friends that you want to win, do not buy Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island. If you enjoyed the novel and wonder if you could beat the odds and survive against everything thrown at you, this may be your new favorite game.

Final Thoughts

Robinson Crusoe is a great game, as it tells a thrilling story, as you are constantly unsure if you will live to see the next day. The game has a lot of replayability. No matter how many times you have played Robinson Crusoe, the random events and adventures will always make it a challenge as you struggle as if it was your first time on a deserted island. This game excellently simulates all the twists and turns of an actual survival situation.