Ambie ValdésI received a review copy of Story Time Backgammon and my 4-year-old twins have played through part of it.
Story Time Backgammon is a game that teaches you backgammon through a series of 10 stories and mini-games. It’s by the makers of Story Time Chess (which is a game that teaches you Chess through stories). I had bought Story Time Chess and enjoyed it with my kids (we haven’t played through all of it), so I was super excited for Story Time Backgammon, especially since I like Backgammon better than Chess.
The story in the game is that one of the team is pirates and one is vikings, so the pieces are their ships. The pirates are trying to get to Diamond Cove (the home of the vikings) to get treasure, and the vikings are trying to get to Fruit Harbor (the home of the pirates) to get fruit. It’s got some cute stories with why rolling the dice helps them move, and a little chant for the kids to say when they roll dice.
The game is split up into stories and mini games that teach the mechanics super slowly – the first minigame just has them roll the die and count the pips on it. That actually turned out to be useful to my kids though, since they haven’t played many games with regular dice, so they’re not familiar with seeing what number it is. They also haven’t played many roll and move games, so the later mini game that taught them roll and move was new to them! 
I like how it introduces the mechanics of Backgammon slowly, and my kids are able to play the mini games and understand what to do. When my kid learned about bumping, he was even counting what he needed to roll in order to bump my piece.
The components are very colorful. I’m not a huge fan of the dice rolling cups since I’m used to Backgammon having nice felt-lined cups and these are just plastic, but my kids like using them and they’re super into the pirates and treasure chest theme. The pieces have slots in them to make each piece a ship, but my kids like playing with the pieces just as stacking chips (they stack really nicely).
I’d recommend this for 3-5 year olds if you want them to get into Backgammon (and if you want them to get into Chess, I’d recommend Story Time Chess). With both this and Story Time Chess, it seems like it’s made for active parent involvement, since you’re reading a story to them and then playing the mini game with them. So if you have no interest in Backgammon or want a game that they can play together with just other kids then it’s not for you.
Story Time Backgammon website: https://storytimelearning.com/products/story-time-backgammon
Matthew Bailey
