Fantasy Forest Retrospective
What games did you play when you were growing up? In my house, we mostly played Candy Land, Monopoly, and a Bible history trivia game I got for Christmas one year. I feel like this was pretty standard fare for most folks growing up in the 80s. We also are extremely competitive so game night usually ended with someone gloating over a victory and 4 other people glaring at them trying to determine how the cheated.
Jeremy’s family on the other hand have what looks like every board game ever created, most of which are still in his parents’ upstairs den. It is not uncommon for them to pull out a game when we come over to visit, and it is never Candy Land or Monopoly.
The first game I played with them was Fantasy Forest, circa 1982 and produced by TSR, later purchased by Wizards of the Coast. I like to think of this game as a gateway drug for DnD. I was hooked from our first play through.
Before I get into the actual game play, can we just admire how loved this game is? The box is taped together, some of the cards are bent, and the board is covered with 40 years’ worth of fingerprints and memories. I love everything about it.
The rules are actually printed on the box lid, which is absolutely brilliant, especially for a kid’s game like this because you do not have to worry about anyone losing the rule book. I wish we could get back to this trend!
Fantasy Forest board is basically a race to Morley’s castle along a path full of short cuts, ambushes, and lots of bumps in the road along the way. You get three cards in your hand to guide you along the path, moving one step for each point a card is worth.
If you land on a spot marked with a red dot, you are ambushed and a battle ensues in which you fight the ambusher by drawing cards. Whoever has the highest card wins!
There are also short cuts marked with a star and paired with a monster. If you play a card with the associated monster and pass the starred entry to the shortcut, you can access the shortcut. The best of these is the dragon, which moves you seven spaces but also is the longest in the game. When we streamed our play through I felt like the luckiest kid on Earth because I got 2 dragons. Unfortunately Jeremy also got one so he could use the shortcut too.
Jeremy always points out the contrast of how the Orc is portrayed in Fantasy Forest and how we think of an Orc today. Which version do you like better?
Ultimately, I love this game. It is my favorite retro game by far. It is a fast play at 20-30 minutes. I have never won Fantasy Forest but I always look forward to playing nonetheless. That, to me, is one of best measures of how fun a game is.