{"id":14295,"date":"2015-11-19T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=14295"},"modified":"2015-11-19T16:00:09","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T16:00:09","slug":"unplugged-the-little-prince-rising-to-the-stars-boardgame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/19\/unplugged-the-little-prince-rising-to-the-stars-boardgame\/","title":{"rendered":"Unplugged: The Little Prince: Rising to the Stars (Boardgame)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-little-prince-rising-to-the-stars\"<\/a>Designers<\/strong>: Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala
\nPublisher<\/strong>: Ludonaute
\nPlayers<\/strong>: 2-6
\nAges<\/strong>: 6+
\nTime<\/strong>: 15-30 minutes<\/p>\n

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\nLe Petit Prince (The Little Prince), protagonist of the third most translated book in the world, is back in the form of another boardgame. \u00a0This time, it\u2019s a young aviator who is leaving her grandfather\u2019s house to fly to meet the little prince on his home planet. \u00a0Players use cards to move their personal aviator across the map while collecting stars. \u00a0The twist is in the turn order. \u00a0The last place plane always takes the next move. \u00a0The Little Prince is a quick little game that makes a good filler (a quick short game), but despite its art and straightforward rules it does have some aggressive play that may not fit well with younger players.
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\nThe board is constructed out of a start and end tile and three curved, middle tiles. \u00a0Clouds on the tiles represent spaces on the game board. \u00a0As players progress, they earn stars, whoever ends with the most stars wins the game. \u00a0Players start with a hand of 8 hards and play them to move forward on the board any number of spaces up to the number on the card. \u00a0In a curious twist, turns do not rotate around the board. \u00a0Instead, whichever player is last on the board takes their turn. \u00a0This could mean one player takes two turns in a row.<\/p>\n

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The cloud-spaces on the board are either blank or contain stars, telescopes, or birds. \u00a0Landing on an occupied space lets a player exchange one of their own cards for a random one in the other player\u2019s hand. \u00a0Landing on an unoccupied space grants you that space\u2019s bonus. \u00a0Stars give players points, telescopes let players take a telescope token, and birds let a player draw from a special deck of cards. \u00a0Telescopes grant a player extra stars, lose stars, or allow one to steal stars from other players. \u00a0Special cards drawn from the bird symbol join the rest of the cards in a player\u2019s hand. \u00a0These typically grant fairly large movement bonuses. \u00a0Gaining extra movement through cards is extremely important. \u00a0There are 28 spaces (including the final planet) on the board and if a player uses each of their cards for maximum movement, they will only go 24 spaces. \u00a0The first player to complete the course gains a 5 star token, with each subsequent finisher earning one star less.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe one other significant section of the game are three sections of story tiles. \u00a0The three sections come at roughly one third, two thirds, and near the end of the race. \u00a0When the first player crosses one of these sections they select one of four face up tiles or one of the two face down tiles at that location. \u00a0Later players select story tiles from those that are remaining. \u00a0These tiles grant extra stars, from one to five points, with the higher point tiles much rarer. \u00a0The one point tiles come in two versions. \u00a0Collect both kinds of the one point tiles and you score a bonus 6 points (for a total of 8.) \u00a0Careful, though, as they may be in high demand and players are only able to collect three total story tiles.<\/p>\n

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The game ends with all players have run out of cards. \u00a0(Players who complete the course discard their remaining cards.) \u00a0The player with the most stars wins, with ties broken in favor of the player who first completed the course.<\/p>\n

 
\nVerdict:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the idea of the lasts player taking the next turn. \u00a0It has been seen before, but it is a great fit here. \u00a0When combined with the very limited movement cards, the game is a careful balance between staying last while not using too many cards. \u00a0Staying last gives one more actions, but moving slowly consumes cards. \u00a0Move too slowly and risk running out of cards before the end of the game.<\/p>\n

 
\nI love nearly everything about the game, the gameplay, the art, and the simple-to-grasp rules. \u00a0However, the telescope tiles are my main concern. \u00a0They are a luck-fest. \u00a0Final scores are commonly in the high teens and are often tightly fought. \u00a0Getting lucky on one or two telescopes can swing the game. This may be forgiven in light of the game\u2019s quick play, making it a decent quick, filler game. \u00a0It can also be seen as a skill-leveler, giving less experienced gamers a shot at the win.<\/p>\n

 
\nMy other concern with the telescopes lies with the ability to directly attack other players (to steal their stars.) \u00a0This results in king-making, where one player can determine the winner even if they aren\u2019t in contention. \u00a0The game claims it is for ages 6+, but when played with younger gamers, negative effects often engender hard feelings.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs a result, I can\u2019t give it a recommendation as a family game for all ages. \u00a0The conflict involved in the telescopes makes it less suitable for the youngest gamers, and better for young teens and up. \u00a0However, the art and theme of the game match up so well with the younger set, it makes a strange contrast with the game play. \u00a0As a filler, I found it quick and fun, but I\u2019m going to have to wait awhile before I can bring it to the table in my own home.<\/p>\n

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Designers: Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala Publisher: Ludonaute Players: 2-6 Ages: 6+ Time: 15-30 minutes         Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), protagonist of the third most translated book in the world, is back in the form of another boardgame. \u00a0This time, it\u2019s a young aviator who is leaving her grandfather\u2019s house to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unplugged-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14301,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions\/14301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}