The ever-popular Oregon Trail game now in a board game version! Players compete to get their oxen, wagon, supplies, and family members across the board, from Independence, MO, to the Willamette Valley. As in the popular computer game, calamities regularly arise that must be dealt with! Amazon's Choice for oregon trail board game. The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley by Pressman. 4.5 out of 5 stars 437. 16 $39.99 $39.99. The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by MECC in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Trail is a series of card games and a board game based on the video game of the same name, produced by Pressman Toy Corporation.
The Oregon Trail series by Pressman Toy Corporation[edit]
- Card games
- The Oregon Trail Card Game
- The Oregon Trail: Hunt For Food Card Game
- Board games
- The Oregon Trail Game: Journey to Willamette Valley
The Oregon Trail Card Game[edit]
| Players | 2–6 |
|---|---|
| Setup time | 5 minutes |
| Playing time | 30 minutes |
| Age range | 12+ |
The first card game was released on 1 August 2016.[1] The game is exclusively distributed through Target,[2] although copies are also available via Amazon.com.[3] The game components are in the style of 8-bit video games to emulate the look and feel of the original releases.[4]
Gameplay[edit]
The object of The Oregon Trail card game is to follow the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, with a party of two to six players.[2] Players write their names, or 'frontier name' aliases, on a roster. On the back of the roster are tombstones, which can be customized when players die, as in the original video game.[5] Players play trail cards to progress, with the players needing to play 50 cards to win. Each trail card ends on the left, right, or middle of the card, and a subsequent trail card must be placed to smoothly connect to the previous one. Of the 56 trail cards, 46 have consequences associated with them, such as rolling a die to cross a river, which can result in the player losing a supply card or dying.[5] Other trail cards require the player to draw a calamity card, which represent accidents such as snakebites, dead oxen, typhoid, or dysentery. There are sixteen unique calamity cards, with one in eight resulting in instant death.[5] Calamity cards that do not result in instant death can be remedied by supply cards, of which there are seven different types, including clean water, ammunition, and medicine. Other trail cards represent forts or towns, allowing the player to resupply. All players win if one or more players are still alive after the 50th card is played. A successful game should take around 30 minutes to play.[5]
Reception[edit]
On the tabletop-gaming forum BoardGameGeek, The Oregon Trail card game has a rating of 5.0 out of 10, with 286 ratings, as of 13 December 2016. According to BoardGameGeek's Rating wiki page, a game with a score of 5 is described as being 'Average. No significant appeal, take it or leave it.'.[6]
Writing for Ars Technica, Megan Geuss stated that some cards have ambiguous instructions or are hard to understand, but that the cooperative aspect is 'refreshing' and that players in her group 'weren't bored by the end'.[7] She concluded that winning the game is 'really hard' and that her group never did.
The Oregon Trail: Hunt For Food Card Game[edit]
Oregon Trail Board Game Video
| Players | 2–6 |
|---|---|
| Age range | 12+ |
This card game is based on the hunting trip portion of the video game, except player's goal is to collect 600 pounds of meat.
The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley[edit]
| Players | 2–4 |
|---|---|
| Age range | 13+ |
It is a board game for 2–4 players, where player's starts the trip from Independence, Missouri in 1844 to Willamette Valley. Each player has 4 family members as in the first The Oregon Trail video game, but has the ability to upgrade wagon.
References[edit]
- ^Krol, Jacob (29 July 2016). 'The Oregon Trail is back, but this time it's a card game'. CNET. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^ abRobinson, Will (2 August 2016). 'An Oregon Trail card game is here'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^Erickson, Christine (31 July 2016). 'You can buy the Oregon Trail card game online'. The Daily Dot. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ^Zumbach, Lauren (1 August 2016). 'Target selling 'Oregon Trail' card game'. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
- ^ abcdCampuzano, Eder (4 August 2016). '6 things to know about 'The Oregon Trail Card Game''. The Oregonian. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
- ^'Ratings'. BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
- ^Geuss, Megan (5 September 2016). 'Oregon Trail Card Game: Simple, repetitive, and you'll die of dysentery. A lot'. Ars Technica. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
External links[edit]
- Pressman Toy Corporation pages:
- The Oregon Trail Card Game at BoardGameGeek
Oregon Trail Card Game Rules
My kids are currently learning about the country's Westward Expansion through their school history lessons, so were excited when I brought out THE OREGON TRAIL GAME for us to play. When I was their age it was a big deal at school to be able to play The Oregon Trail video game on our classroom's Apple Macintosh computer which was considered a 'high tech' educational resource at the time. Who else remembers playing the video game at school as an '80s kid? Pressman's tabletop adaption puts that classic video game to shame and is very fun to play.Just like in the original video game, THE OREGON TRAIL GAME has players taking on the role of 19th Century pioneers making their way from Independence, Missouri to settle America's West Coast. Your goal is to complete this perilous journey while keeping your family healthy and having as much money as possible in your pocket. Hunt wildlife and gather supplies to keep your family alive during the trek. You may even be able to pick up a hitchhiker to make some extra money along the way. Beware though because if a family member dies not only will you be grieving but their funeral cuts into your total fortune that determines who wins the game.
Start off your adventure by loading your ox pulled wagon. Four blocks placed within the wagon represent your family. Each block starts off showing 5 health points. If a family member's health gets down to 0 health points a number is replaced with a tombstone. If your whole family is showing tombstones at anytime during the game you automatically lose. So make sure you keep everyone healthy!
The wagon also holds supplies. Players start off with $300 dollars, 2 barrels of meat, and a pistol. You can buy or sell food and supplies by visiting forts and towns along your route. Your path is determined by blind-drawing tiles that represent the landscape being traveled through. These tiles include forts, towns, rivers, wilderness and winter landscapes that have different benefits and consequences.
For example if a player doesn't have winter clothes stocked in their wagon than each family member loses one point of heath and any hitchhikers DIE immediately if a wagon lands on a snowy tile. On the other hand, winter clothes take up limited room for supplies onboard your wagon and having them with you might mean there isn't room for other things like spare parts to fix a broken wheel or medicine to heal a sick family member. There is a strategic element to stocking your wagon that has risks and rewards during gameplay.
Oregon Trail Board Game Review
Running low on food? Go hunting when your wagon is in a wilderness tile. Another player draws a hunting card and keeps it information a mystery. For each pistol owned one guess can be marked on the numbers on the target chart of a wagon card. If a shotgun is owned its marker can be placed on the targets on the wagon card counting as a guess for both numbers on either side of the target providing twice the odds of matching the number on the hunting card. Players who don't guess the right number miss their prey.
Guess right though and you hit the animal which is then identified by the opposing player holding the hunting card. It could be as small as a squirrel or as large as a bison. There are six different type of animals to be hunted and each provides a different amount of food that can be added to your provisions. You have to feed your family with a block of food each turn to avoid losing health points so it is important to be well stocked during the journey.
Oh yeah here is a helpful hunting tip. If you purchase a compass at a town or fort it can be discarded to let you see the front of a hunting card before laying down your pistol and shotgun markers on the wagon card. So you are guaranteed to hit your target during that turn when hunting. That can be a life or death turn of events if your food is running low while traveling along the Oregon Trail.
Hunting and gathering supplies aren't the only challenges of traversing the Oregon Trail. Rivers can be a dangerous obstacle. When players have one blocking their paths, they must either skip a turn to cross it or roll a die to determine if they achieved safe passage across. There is a number on each river tile. A player must roll that number or higher or else they drown while attempting to cross. Is it worth the odds for a quick crossing?Beware because there is danger in every turn when playing The Oregon Trail Game. At the start of each player's turn they must pull a card from the Calamity deck. A card may announce the path is blocked by bad weather, your wagon may have become damaged, or a family member has died from dehydration. Fortunately, most calamity cards provide a way for someone to avoid a negative fate by achieving a specified result during that current turn. For example, reaching a landscape tile with a river on it negates the calamity of someone dying from dehydration.
Avoid calamities while traveling from Independence, Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley. We had a fun family game night competing against one another to see who could make their fortune as a pioneer. So this dad blogger is giving THE OREGON TRAIL GAME a Geek Daddy nod of approval in this board game review. It was nice that playing the game got my kids thinking about their history lessons while they were having a good time. I always appreciate it when an experience can combine entertaining and educating my kids at the same time!
THE OREGON TRAIL GAME by Pressman is for 2 to 4 players. It is recommended for ages 14 and up though my eleven year old twins were able to play the game with minimum difficulty. For more information go to pressmantoy.com