I died 5 times today. That's a good day.

After going on a rant last time, let’s continue on a more positive note. Robinson Crusoe is one of our favorite cooperative games, and one of our most thematic games. 😊 When playing, you really do feel like you are shipwrecked on an island, cold and hungry. 🙀 Let’s take a peek at how the game achieves this!

If you strip away everything, Robinson Crusoe is basically a worker placement game. 🧐 However there are many rules and mechanics that strengthen the thematic connections. Most notably cards will infuse your adventures with emerging story. Some people tend to dislike event cards in games, but I always appreciate them, and here they work cleverly - often you get some reward, but the card comes back later to punish you. It’s always a fun trade-off. 👍

Characters all have 2 discs, and they can use them to plan actions together each round. There is always more things to do than discs at your disposal, so there is a lot to think through and discuss. 😵‍ Some actions will be safer with more discs, but like I said, you just cannot always play it safe.

Without enough discs, certain actions will require you to roll 3 dice, which determine the outcome. 🎲 The dice show whether you succeed, take a wound or need to draw a card. Even though this outcome is random, that I normally would dislike, here it helps the theme come alive. And you don’t just fail, failing always gives you something: most often adventure cards that although penalize you, they add to the story and immersion! 😁

Finally, I love the scenario variety. 🥰 They can have quite different themes, though of course most often it’s about surviving on an island. Scenarios have different objectives and special rules that keep things interesting. This game can be insanely hard, so you really have to plan and prioritize to be able to win. I also like how there are totem symbols on map tiles and special discovery tokens, that mean something else depending on the scenario. A clever design choice! 🙃 Oh and scenarios tend to ramp up: as you build up your camp, the weather or something else gets worse, and you start feeling more and more desperate. Just like a shipwrecked person trying to stay alive!