We're Off On a Hero's Journey!

12/26/2018

Or perhaps a Saga of the Questing variety...hmmm. Either way, we're off on a fun time with Story Builders! A creativity inducing game for the young gamers in your life, Story Builders is bound to be a hit with families! Let's check it out!

What Is It?

Story Builders themselves are interlocking toys that players use within different games to help you, well, tell your story! (You'll start to notice a pattern with this).
The two flagship games are "Hero's Journey" - a light, kid-friendly role-playing game, and "Questing Saga" - a simple strategy tableau building game. Both encourage creativity and are great for family game night and kids of all ages.

Who Is It For?

I'd recommend both to families who like to game together because I think they are really nice especially to help younger gamers get more into the hobby.
"Hero's Journey" says itself that it is for ages 3+ and I'd definitely agree with that. If your kids can talk, and recognize simple images, then it works for them. It's very light and very cute and encourages them to create characters and give them abilities/powers/et cetera to basically work through challenges with them, so it's great to get their gears working. Highly recommends for kids who like to play make-believe.
"Questing Saga" recommends ages 12+, but I think younger audiences would also like it, as young as 8 or 9, especially if they are familiar with games and scoring concepts from other things. This one is great for people who like to make connections between things and convince other players that things work together. (Kind of like Snake Oil is how we saw it!)

Quality of Components

I have a prototype copy with placeholder art and handmade 3D printed toys.They work fine, but I'm positive the final components will be much nicer and click together better. The cards and instructions I have are nice, very clear and easy to read, and useful image reference in the rules as well, but I imagine those were also be higher quality in the final copies, so I look forward to that.

PROS

Both are family/kid oriented; light and simple
The overall system with the pieces is really neat and unique
"Hero's Journey" is great to start kids out with role-playing/story-telling
Adults can work with kids in "Hero's Journey" to guide them, but still let them share their creativity.
"Questing Saga" is more strategic and gives a bunch of different scoring options to players

CONS

"Hero's Journey" doesn't work if players are not willing to be creative and a little silly. You have to really get into it for it to be worthwhile.
"Questing Saga" seemed to have a lot of the same requirements and scoring patterns and I thought it might be more interesting if there was more variety. It would make it a little more challenging, but I think that would just add to the game as a whole.
Things are super open to individual interpretation in "Questing Saga" as well, which is fine as long as everyone doesn't let everything slide, because then it becomes boring. You have to agree that everyone has to actually work to convince the group that the requirements work.

Difficulty

I'd definitely give "Hero's Journey" a 1/5 for difficulty because it's super light and easy for anyone to understand!
I'd probably rate "Questing Saga" a 2.5/5 because it has a little more strategy in choosing quests and pieces, and you have to understand the different scoring patterns as well.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Story Builders isn't a game that's great for my group. However, if you game with your family regularly, or go to a lot of family events, it'll be great to share this with the kids. I think "Hero's Journey" in particular will be a hit with birthday/slumber parties and get all the kids involved in a fun way! I'm definitely excited to see the final product and see how great these little toys can be.

Happy Gaming~

Additional Information:
Designer - Sarah Pretz

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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