Matthew BaileyWe haven’t had any story-driven games for a while so for the next 2 days we will be looking at 2 story-driven games that are both fairly similar in certain aspects of the execution but also quite different.
So for game 21 of the “Bailey Family Sorta Summer Board Game Bonanza” we will be looking at “Wonder Book” played by myself and Jack(7) & Toby(4).
“Wonder Book” is a story-driven adventure game for 1 – 4 players that sees a group of kids sucked into a magical book and trying to save the land of Oniria from an invasion of the evil “Wyrms”.
The game works as a simple but very story-driven dungeon crawler set into 6 playable chapters (more on that in a moment) each composed of a specific deck of pre-sorted cards that contain the rules, the story, and the challenges you have to face. Each chapter has you explore a new part of the interactive 3D cardboard pop-up book and reveals more about the world in which your adventure is set.
The book/board has incredible table presence and even though it only has “1 page” there is so much on this page that provided you do not start poking and prodding it each new game brings genuine wonder and surprises.
Combat is simple and involves dice rolls not radically dissimilar to Coraquest. I have only played the first 2 chapters so far but items and things as you go along affect gameplay and create other challenges ranging from puzzles to dexterity games.
It is best to think of “Wonder Book” less as a board game and more of an interactive storytelling experience to share with your children. It truly is magical to play and the look of wonder on the kid’s faces when I first opened the book has to be one of the best things I have seen through their eyes while playing board games. Its simple to understand but managed to keep me engaged for each of the 2 chapters we have done so far (each taking about 60 – 90 minutes).
BUT (you knew there was going to be a BUT)
It is all not rosy.
Firstly monster variety. The game comes with lovely hero miniatures but only 1 type of enemy miniature making monster battle fairly samey (even if the wyrm deck does lead to different enemy behaviours). One of the first things Jack said when we started chapter 2 was (are there no different enemies?)
Also here are only 6 chapters and there is no way to randomly generate separate stories meaning you are likely only going to get 6 plays out of this as you work through the 6 chapters of the book. Now I have played many story-driven games where it is unlikely you will go back and play again (although you can the game is resettable) but they usually have more than 6 chapters.
And now we talk about the papercraft dragon in the room and that is the price. Wonder Book’s RRP is £84.99 and while you can often find it more around the £65/£70ish mark that still equates to over £10 per playthrough!
So what do I think… There is nothing else quite like this and it truly is magical to experience with the kids less as a board game and more as a storytelling experience.
Therefore this is going to be an odd recommendation with some very large caveats.
One option is to buy it, keep it in great condition, reset it and then sell it probably for not crazy less than what you paid (there are preowned copies going on eBay for the £45/$50 range).
option 2 is to buy a second-hand copy and then sell it probably for what you paid.
at a push, you could steamroll through this game in a weekend (I think it would be n amazing game to take on holiday and play a chapter of every night before bed.) and then sell it straight on.
You can probably tell I really like “Wonder Book” and am glad I own it and look forward to finishing it with the kids and would also like an expansion but I just wish it was that little bit cheaper.
