Off the Island
From the continuing exploits of the board game playing Thomer-Gillett family:
Today we tried out Forbidden Island, another cooperative game. I first heard about the game after the Tabletop episode Pandemic. I like cooperative games where the the players are working together to achieve a common goal, but trying to stop the global spread of disease seemed like too much of a downer of a theme. Wil Wheaton suggested on his blog that Forbidden Island had similar mechanics but might be less grim. After my daughter had a good experience playing the game on Tabletop Day on Saturday, we decided to give it a try.
Considering that the object of the game is to escape from an island before it sinks, I’m not sure it’s substantially less grim than stopping a global disease, but it was fun. We managed to win the game pretty much on our last turn. So we cued up the Raiders March on Pattie’s iPhone as we made the last move to escape the island. It’s definitely a worthwhile game if you’re looking for something that a group can play together.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.