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Tag Archives: Oregon Trail

Chubby Unicorn’s Favorite Games 2017 Edition

When we first started working on this blog, we filled out player profiles which included our favorite games. I listed mine as Castle Panic, Shadows Over Camelot, and 7 Wonders.

In the nearly two years since then, we’ve played a lot of new games or revisited older games with a new expansion or end goal. A lot of other things have changed as well, so I don’t think I’d pick the same games today as I did back then.

Castle Panic is a great co-op game, and it’s often one I like to pick as a new game for someone.

Shadows Over Camelot we don’t play as much. It’s a co-op game, but with how many quests there are to complete, you end up splitting up and working alone, so a lot of the time you don’t feel like you’re working together.

7 Wonders is a great game, but we haven’t been able to play it lately. It’s hard to be excited about a game that doesn’t see a lot of play. Right now it’s just Professor and me, so we’re more likely to play 7 Wonders Duel.

So I think today I would say my favorites are:
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Oregon Trail play by play

I received The Oregon Trail game for Christmas, and I was pretty excited to play it. I remember all those times in the computer lab elementary school playing Oregon Trail. Sadly I never made it to Oregon. Not once. I probably died in all the ways you can die in that game: sickness, injuries, starvation (I sucked at hunting), dead oxen, broken wagon, drowning… Maybe I could survive the card game. Maybe.

Game play is simple. Everyone has trail cards and supply cards. If possible each player plays a trail card (the trail has to match and be continuous). If the trail card played has text written on it, you follow those instructions. If it’s blank, you count yourself lucky. There are also Town and Fort cards that can be played on the trail. Fort cards give you two supply cards of your choice, and Town cards give you one supply card or the ability to remove one Calamity card from play.

Many trail cards instruct you to draw a Calamity card which, unsurprisingly, are bad. Supply cards can help with Calamity cards. For instance if someone gets typhoid, they need medicine and clean water to get better. The player who drew the Calamity card can play the supply cards needed, otherwise she relies on the other players to save her. As a free action one or more players can turn in two supply cards for one supply card.

If a player either doesn’t have a trail card that matches or doesn’t have any trail cards, they draw a trail card as their turn action.

In this play by play, we’re skipping over a player putting down a trail card without text or drawing a trail card. We’re going to focus on the exciting stuff which is the stuff that could kill us.
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Oregon Trail

March 10, 1848

We’re on our way! We’ve left Independence, Missouri and are headed for Willamette Valley, Oregon. We know the trail is treacherous, but our spirits are high. I’m thankful Professor and I were able to find others to travel with (Space Cat, Clumsy Ninja, and Signing Monkey), otherwise I don’t think we’d have set out on this journey. I’m excited to see more of this great country and hope Oregon is as beautiful as people say.

Even though we’re traveling together, we agreed to keep our supplies separate. We each have our own area in the wagon, and we’ve clearly labeled our supply crates. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t share if something bad happens, though hopefully we won’t have to worry about that.

CU

March 30, 1848

Everything was going so smoothly. I managed to drive the wagon without anything horrible happening, even though I’d never done it before. Professor led us safely across the first river we came to. It was quite impressive. Even when the wagon tongue broke, Space Cat had it fixed in no time. It almost seemed like luck was on our side.

Then Signing Monkey got sick. It wasn’t hard to tell she had measles, and we were pretty worried for a while. I’d packed some medicine which I gladly shared with her. I didn’t want her to die, and I certainly didn’t want anyone else to catch it. She seems like she’s on the road to recovery. I hope this is the worse we have to deal with.

CU

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