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Pete Belli
United States
Florida
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Prince Caspian is a vintage Narnia adventure published in 1983. While advertised as “A fun and enlightening game for children based on The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis” we found the play experience to be uninspired. The level of enlightenment provided by Prince Caspian is entirely subjective but since I did absorb some new information about the book series we’ll give that claim a “mission accomplished” banner. I paid a couple of bucks for my copy at the thrift store and I decided to create this article since the game currently has no review on BGG.
According to the box Prince Caspian was designed to be enjoyed by 2, 3, or 4 kids ages five and older. Reading is required to play so younger children might require a little help from a parent or older sibling. The basic mechanics of play are easy to grasp (too easy, actually) so the rules can be explained in a couple of minutes.
Players travel along a pathway depicting Narnia as they attempt to reach a central space containing the six crucial magic horn cards. The children must draw the single “Victory!” card in the deck to summon Aslan, the great lion. The game can end when the first magic horn card is revealed (truly a blessing) or it might take a full series of six dreary cycles to find the treasured talisman.
The components are simply crafted but the quality is acceptable. The cards are a little thin but the printing and artwork is good. The board is solid but the tokens are just simple pawns… a few inexpensive stand-up characters with plastic bases might have added something to the theme and helped to create an authentic Narnia mood.
This is a drab roll-and-move game that revolves around the 26 Narnia cards. One of these small cards is placed faced down on each space of the board. Players roll a standard six-sided die and move along the pathway. The random distribution of the Narnia cards is a positive element of the design since the pattern will be different for every game.
However, there are no decisions to be made by the players. As the hidden cards are revealed the contestants simply follow the instructions with zero options. Some cards require a child to advance (or retreat) to a square containing a certain symbol card. The evil Nikabrik cards always sends a player on a retrograde movement. My opponent had an unfortunate tendency to roll 1s and 2s when moving forward but she seemed to hit 5s and 6s when running into Nikabrik.
This helps to illustrate the essential flaw in the Prince Caspian design. The constant back and forth shuttling between spaces based on a combination of random die rolls and ironclad card instructions vacuums all of the oxygen out of the game. The only bright spot was the battle cards.
A player landing on a square containing a battle card must fight a Telmarine soldier. These fierce Telmarines have a combat rating of between 1 and 4 and the player must roll a higher number to defeat the enemy. When a player wins a battle the child receives a battle chip. The kid can trade three chips for the top magic horn card regardless of his or her position on the pathway. This rule provides a shortcut to victory and offers a welcome “sudden death” end to a game which might drag on for many, many cycles.
Prince Caspian avoids the obvious pitfalls of an unimaginative children’s game like requiring a player to roll the exact number to reach the final objective square. The components are attractive and do a reasonable, but not dazzling, job of matching the theme. However, the entirely random nature of the game’s play pattern could take the magic out of the game. Prince Caspian might appeal to collectors of Narnia memorabilia but does not offer an inviting gateway to the board game hobby for intrepid young adventurers.
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LSU LSU
United States
Virginia Beach
Virginia
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I have fond memories of playing this as a kid - mostly because I loved the books so much. From what I remember, I think you're right - it's basically roll and move. But for little kids, it can be fun for a while. At least as much as something like candyland.
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Does anyone have the rules for this game? Would love to get a pdf of them. I have the game but no rules. I am trying to figure out how the goto cards work. If someone could post the rules so I could print them out it would be appreciated.
Thanks
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