Games
Popular GamesTrending Games
Add a Game
Discover
GamesPublishersDesignersMechanicsCategories
Feed
Forum
Posts
HotNewRecently ActiveMost Comments This WeekMost Comments All Time
Create Post
DealsGiveawaysKickstarters
Play Logs
Log a PlayYour Plays
Lists
BGG Import
Board Game Atlas Board Game Search
Games
Popular GamesTrending Games
Add a Game
Discover
GamesPublishersDesignersMechanicsCategories
Feed
Forum
Posts
HotNewRecently ActiveMost Comments This WeekMost Comments All Time
Create Post
DealsGiveawaysKickstarters
Play Logs
Log a PlayYour Plays
Lists
BGG Import
Quick LinksToolboxOfficial Links
Community Stats
Loading...
Contributors
Quick LinksToolboxOfficial Links
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island board game
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island board game

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

73
210 Ratings
Leave a Review
Overall Rank: #59 | Trending Rank: #78

In Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island you will build a shelter, palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect yourself from weather changes…

Take the role of one of four characters from the ship crew (cook, carpenter, explorer or soldier) and face the adventure. Use your determination skills to help your team mates, discuss with them your plan and put it into practice. Debate, discuss, and work on the best plan you all can make.

Search for treasures. Discover mysteries. Follow goals of six different, engaging scenarios. Start by building a big pile of wood and setting it on fire to call for help, and then start new adventures. Become an exorcist on cursed Island. Become a treasure hunter on Volcano Island. Become a rescue team for a young lady who’s stuck on rock island…

In the 2016 edition players will find custom wooden pieced for all resources, thick cardboard player boards for each character, additional 7th scenario and what's most important, a completely rewritten rulebook.

IT
See All 210

User Ratings & Reviews

  • by
    A really fun game! I'm going to compare it to Eldritch Horror and Nemo's War as they bare a resemblance to RC in that the game is throwing spokes in your wheels in a war of attrition fashion.The interlocking mechanisms are really engaging, and you always feel as though you are being torn in different directions with regard to decision making, which keeps it really ticking and alive. My memory of Eldritch Horror was basically just camping out in Tokyo and spamming the monsters from a distance, and spending a lot of time shopping for items as we felt there often wasn't much else we really wanted to do. Yawn...and don't even get me started on how long that game takes. Not that I'm averse to long games, but the game has to be captivating enough to warrant the time sink and EH really outstays its welcome. RC really captures the adventure aspect so well, somehow. Very thematic. I never feel as though I am 'cube pushing'. I can follow the events in a cohesive fashion. There is a narrative I can build in my mind by the end. Events are things like 'you fall into a burrow and hurt your leg' whereas EH just throws abstracted scenes from the Cthulhu mythos at you and says 'good luck filling in the blanks'. Entirely forgettable. Nemo's War also has this issue too. If you don't know anything about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the event cards will mean nothing to you and you'll end up just ignoring them and chucking dice and number crunching. The theme just disappears after a while, whereas in RC it goes on to the end. The flow of the game is easy to understand. I still have no idea what Nemo's War wants me to do. Something to do with ship placement perhaps...The only part I'm not sure about yet is the shelter. Playing 2-player, it seems easy enough to make your first goal to pay for a shelter with a fur or 2 wood early game and not have to worry about penalties to sleeping out in the open for the rest of game (once you build a shelter you keep it, regardless of whether you move camp or not). I hope it will make more sense as I play, as there seems to be a big deal made about 'not sleeping out in the open', despite it being pretty easy to avoid.In general, it's a wonderful blend of highly thematic randomness and significant choices on the part of the players. My 7 y/o old son, to my surprise, loves it. No idea what people are going on about re. the rule book. The second edition is very well laid out. Small details in the rules can be worked out later, but really there aren't that many. I held off buying RC because of its reputation for it being 'extremely complex', which was a mistake. It really is much more accessible than I had imagined.
  • by
    At the time of this review, I've only played solo so I can't comment on the multiplayer aspects of this game, but I am really enjoying the solo play. Its tough, thematic and provides you with plenty of tough decisions every single turn. You have limited actions and to many things to do that you can't do them all. A game that I've enjoyed getting to the table.
  • by
    For: Gamers, AdultsType: Resource management, Missions
  • by
    This is my kind of game, I can sit and puzzle it out and really get into the theme. Yes!
See All

Top Forum Posts

Robinson Crusoe Review - Game Cows image
ReviewRobinson Crusoe Review - Game Cows (https://gamecows.com/robinson-crusoe-review/) [Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island]

by | updated 15 days ago

Like| 11 comments | [+]
See All

User Activity Feed

I saw #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island on sale today and briefly considered it. 

I think a Chip Theory game is the perfect way to spend a gift card like that. It's the kind of luxury purchase that is quite hard to justfiy since it costs so much, but if someone else is paying... why not! I'm a #Too Many Bones fanboy so I'm surprised to see you go with #Cloudspire, but I'm intrigued to see how you find it.

Matthew Robinson did an episode of "Solo Mode" about #Cloudspire that was really informative. If you wanna check it out, it's here: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/game-brain-a-board/solo-mode-4-cloudspire-PBka9CwotDn/

Thanks for the recommendations! Of the ones I don't own, I'm most curious about #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island. Used to be on my wishlist until I took it off after hearing again and gain and gain how brutal the game is.

By the way, I'm just curious--what's the "sponsored" on some of the game box images for?

The style and theme of this game wouldn't useally be my thing, but this game just seems to pop! I would love to give it a go.

My favourite worker placement game is currently #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island , despite the pain it causes me every time I play.

Daily Deals for Nov. 20:

#Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is $34.97 as the Game Nerdz Deal of the Day, save $30.03 (new low on BGA). 

#Forbidden Sky: Height of Danger is $19.99 as the Cardhaus Daily Deal, save 50%.

#Fallout Shelter: The Board Game is $27 as the Miniature Market Daily Deal, save 32%.

I've played #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island 6 or 7 times as well and it is very, very hard.  However, there is much more replayability due to the large number of event cards that you draw from to start each round.  You only draw 4 - 6 out of 40 - 50 cards from two different stacks, thus each game will have different incidents and events that you'll have to deal with.  Most of the primary actions potentially end up with you drawing from a large stack of events to add to the incident deck. 

The game does give you a very strong feeling of being stuck on a deserted island with no hope of survival.  If that sounds fun for you, then I'd give it a shot. 

However, it sounds like you're looking for a reason NOT to purchase G:JotL.  What concerns you about it?  Theme, mechanics, campaign, lenght, fear of being sucked into a game for the next year where that's all you'll want to play?

That is great to know about #Legends of Andor. I was hoping there was more replayability with each scenario. If what you are saying is true though, solve it once and then move on. Is there enough variability in consecutive game plays that the solution could change at all? Maybe I should be looking at some other options. #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island has come up a lot. Not to shift the conversation entirely, but maybe that's a better option?

#Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island has been high on my wishlist even if it is a coop...LOL

I can honestly say that every one of your suggestions, is or has received serious consideration. (Though not all of them are available at GN right now.)

Hmm, lots of solo eh?  

WIth that much cash you have a lot of options for sure.  I'm not sure if this falls under "Generic Fantasy" or not but #Gloomhaven would offer you a ton of playtime for your dollar and perhaps the most diverse solo experience over multiple game sessions with the option for multiplayer.  I was initial turned off by this game as I didn't connect with the theme much and figured it was a typical dungeon crawl.  I was wrong.  Best game made to date imo.

Hisotrically speaking I think #Brass: Birmingham or losely #Maracaibo fall into this range with Brass being a bit more historically founded (by a bit I mean QUITE a bit).  I am not sure if Brass has a solo mode however and Maracaibo has a decent solo mode in my opinion.

#Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island has a difficult solo mode for sure and a decent amount of setup and several scenarios with lots of other options avaialble online down the road should you wish to pursue them.  Very challenging game involving dice, cards, a bit of development.

I think #Paladins of the West Kingdom has one of the best solo modes of any game I've played solo and games generally last close to 2 hours for me as I like to think through my choices. #Teotihuacan: City of Gods also sports a good solo feature with a unique mechanic for automa turn and has a little historical aspect.  Another great game with historical connections and a great solo mode is #Clans of Caledonia.  

#Gloomhaven would be my first choice. #Clans of Caledonia and #Paladins of the West Kingdom is think you could afford together and possible even toss in #Teotihuacan: City of Gods for a threesome.  For high complexity maybe consider #Clans of Caledonia and #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island.

Hmm, lots of solo eh?  

WIth that much cash you have a lot of options for sure.  I'm not sure if this falls under "Generic Fantasy" or not but #Gloomhaven would offer you a ton of playtime for your dollar and perhaps the most diverse solo experience over multiple game sessions with the option for multiplayer.  I was initial turned off by this game as I didn't connect with the theme much and figured it was a typical dungeon crawl.  I was wrong.  Best game made to date imo.

Hisotrically speaking I think #Brass: Birmingham or losely #Maracaibo fall into this range with Brass being a bit more historically founded (by a bit I mean QUITE a bit).  I am not sure if Brass has a solo mode however and Maracaibo has a decent solo mode in my opinion.

#Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island has a difficult solo mode for sure and a decent amount of setup and several scenarios with lots of other options avaialble online down the road should you wish to pursue them.  Very challenging game involving dice, cards, a bit of development.

I think #Paladins of the West Kingdom has one of the best solo modes of any game I've played solo and games generally last close to 2 hours for me as I like to think through my choices. #Teotihuacan: City of Gods also sports a good solo feature with a unique mechanic for automa turn and has a little historical aspect.  Another great game with historical connections and a great solo mode is #Clans of Caledonia.  

#Gloomhaven would be my first choice. #Clans of Caledonia and #Paladins of the West Kingdom is think you could afford together and possible even toss in #Teotihuacan: City of Gods for a threesome.  For high complexity maybe consider #Clans of Caledonia and #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island.

Good topic!  It's great that our hobby is so diverse.  There's games for everyone.  Sometimes a game is good but something else is better.

And of course, the most important criteria...is the game going to actually get played?

Sticking with the same vein as your post here are games I used to own that you might have heard of:

  • #Archipelago: This game was my first "designer" purchase.  You get to build a map (I love building maps!) it's economic, it's in an odd semi-coop space.  What's not to like?  Well two big things for my group: 1) The game always seemed to end just as you got things going.  We played the short, the medium and the long games and never felt satisfied and 2) The semi co-op aspect just didn't work for my group.  Someone ended up keeping the game goiing while someone else just plowed ahead or no one could/would handle crisis and we'd get overwhelmed.  A LOT of potential there that didn't quite work for us.  
  • #Arkham Horror: The Card Game: Another popular game and for good reason.  However, I'm not a massive solo player and the game play just didn't quite grab me as much as #Mansions of Madness: Second Edition which I really enjoy with the app.  I only really want one Cthulu style game in my collection as I find them all quite similar.
  • #Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition): My group has so many games that there is only room for one epic dungeon quest and #Gloomhaven is it.  (Yes, I know they aren't the same but they are in the same general game play area.)
  • #Love Letter: Premium: I love Love Letter. #Love Letter (2019 Edition) is my favourite implementation of it.  Love Letter Premium is a text book case of taking a simple game and expanding on it until you lose what was great about it.  I could pull out the original love letter at work during lunch, do a 5 minute teach and we're off.  Love Letter premium doubled the roles and complicated the game.  I traded it for #Keyflower and feel like I came out way ahead.
  • #Rajas of the Ganges: It's a good game but despite my best efforts I found it quite unbalanced towards one side of the equation.  Again, with all of the other games my group has to play it only makes sense for me to give a limited amount of time to making a game work for me.
  • #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island: A much beloved game I know but it didn't do it for me.  I didn't like the core gameplay loop and the story wasn't enough to draw me back.

 

#Architects of the West Kingdom....never won a game. #Heaven & Ale my wife destroys me just about everytime. #Boggle and Becky kills me 5/4 games.  

#Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island - I won one game with like 4 players and lost all the other 24 games I've played.

How hard does it seem to win? #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is famously hard to win, did that translate into this game?

No surprises here, except for #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island, I keep seeing at the top of these lists but I have yet have someone say a good thing about it lol. 

Played #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island with 4 players last night.  We actually won, I was kinda surprised but its easier than the solo mode (or we screwed up a rule or two). 

Finished the evening with 3 games of #The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine  We completed 2 scenarios last night. 

You already have #Spirit Island which is a great one.  I'd suggest #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island and #Marvel Champions: The Card Game as good co-op options.  Though it lacks the dice I think you find #Gloomhaven very much up your alley.  

A few other's you might like include #Scythe: The Rise of Fenris which would require the base game as well. #Maracaibo has a legacy play option with "chapters" and might be intriguing as well.

I played #Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island solo for the 3rd time.  I came 1 wood short of winning, which is the best I've done so far.  The first two times I didn't survive past day 8 so to make it to day 12 and to be that close felt good, yet heartbreaking to know there was nothing left for me to do.  I've only tried the first scenario and am enjoying it.  I've only solo'd it so I can't say how it is with more players.  Will hopefully get a multiplayer game in sometime this week.