The One Piece: Escape from Egghead Board Game Is Runny and Undercooked

Escape from Egghead reminds maine a batch of the games I played increasing up, wherever determination wasn’t overmuch subordinate enactment and the games would benignant of play themselves. Leaning heavy into randomness, astir each facet of Egghead, from wherever you tin go, if you succeed, and adjacent what assistance you whitethorn get, is mostly retired of your hands. It each comes down to a rotation of the dice oregon what paper gets drawn. This won’t beryllium the crippled for folks who bask overmuch strategy successful their committee games.

The committee is divided up into six paths, composed of 3 spaces, each starring to a boss. During setup, you shuffle and spot facedown the bosses and the route’s tiles, earlier flipping implicit the archetypal tile. Then connected your turn, you rotation 2 oregon 3 dice whose values volition find which routes Luffy and Bonney tin take, with the remaining dice adding to your nutrient full – a assets that you tin walk to boost your rolls during the pursuing “Rush” phase.

This 2nd signifier is wherever a bulk of the “action” takes place, which truly conscionable amounts to rolling dice and seeing if you surpass a number. Each of the way tiles features an force for your quality and an associated situation standing for you to get past. Passing conscionable involves rolling a dice and spending nutrient to bushed the route's situation number; doing truthful gives you immoderate benignant of reward similar further nutrient oregon a reroll token. From there, you either repetition the process oregon acceptable your emblem down, which lets you commencement your aboriginal rushes down that way further along, successful aboriginal turns.

The bosses astatine the extremity of each way play retired the same, but determination is usually immoderate benignant of regularisation oregon challenge. St. Saturn for lawsuit has an accrued situation standing of 11 if you participate his abstraction with an unusual amount, whereas if you look him with an adjacent amount, it’s lone 9. Why is that the case? I person nary idea. A speedy work done from the character’s leafage connected the One Piece Wiki did not stock penetration arsenic to wherefore this antheral has an aversion to unusual numbers, and it makes maine funny however overmuch thought was enactment into champion representing the characters and their quirks.

Once you person escaped a route’s boss, you spot a marker connected 1 of the rewards and instrumentality to base. Each brag lone has truthful galore unfastened spots to beryllium claimed, meaning if determination is nary reward to beryllium claimed, the rules authorities “you tin nary longer flight from the route”. The rulebook doesn’t clarify whether the way becomes permanently closed oregon if the brag tin inactive beryllium defeated but you simply wouldn’t get a reward.

This benignant of ambiguity underlines my biggest contented with Egghead: the full happening conscionable feels a spot runny and undercooked. From typos successful the acquisition manual, missing regularisation clarifications and examples, adjacent down to the board’s design, it’s hard not to consciousness similar this was pushed retired the doorway excessively soon without getting a last walk through.

Escape from Egghead reminds maine of the games I played increasing up, wherever determination wasn’t overmuch subordinate interaction“

As for the committee itself, its outward expanding routes are visually absorbing and drawback the eye, but this leads to 2 unnecessary problems. First, it results successful a larger array footprint than the committee truly needs. Worse, it causes an unfortunate concern wherever the closest tiles to the players are each upside down. Unless you mean to play this connected a ample rotating lazy-susan oregon your players each emotion to work upside down, Egghead volition necessitate you to determination astir the array conscionable to work the tiles you’re landing on.

I often recovered myself asking wherefore couldn’t this crippled simply person six horizontal lines with the tiles connecting connected their sides alternatively of tops and bottoms? This would service the aforesaid function, and let everything to beryllium facing the players, making it instrumentality up acold little space, and let everything to beryllium readable from a azygous direction.

Another alternatively unusual facet to Egghead is that, astatine slightest utilizing the rules arsenic written, playing astatine 2 players inadvertently removes the countdown timer from the equation. There are six Vegapunks that indispensable each beryllium flipped earlier the countdown timer starts, which tin effect successful everyone losing. The crippled ends erstwhile the archetypal subordinate escapes 3 bosses. Put those 2 systems unneurotic and person yourself a concern wherever it is intolerable to trigger that losing scenario. This doesn’t consciousness intentional either, and comes disconnected much arsenic “we didn’t trial the crippled enough” since the stated nonsubjective successful the instructions reads “Be the archetypal subordinate to flight from 3 antithetic Bosses and permission Egghead Island earlier the Vegapunk Timer runs out.” Playing with 2 players fundamentally erases everything aft “and”.

The stated extremity the crippled gives players is not lone to flight 3 brag but ALSO to bash truthful earlier the timer runs out. If the timer ne'er starts, past fractional of the situation is meaningless. As a homebrew rule, I would urge adjusting the Vegapunk number per subordinate antagonistic (2 players / 4 punks, 3 players / 5 punks, 4 players / 6) conscionable to support that small spot of hostility successful the game.

One Piece: Escape from Egghead feels tailored toward the much casual wide user assemblage alternatively than the committee crippled hobbyist. This is simply a “push your luck” dice rolling crippled that leans dense into randomness and distant from giving you overmuch successful the mode of meaningful choices. Your lone existent choices travel down to whether you privation to rotation much dice oregon not and which reward spot you instrumentality connected the bosses. Everything other is retired of your control.

I person enjoyed Kess’s different One Piece offerings similar Luffy’s Bento Panic, and I'm excited for the afloat merchandise of their large Dawn of Liberation game. Even here, I spot the worth successful a bully ol’ dice chucker crippled that you tin conscionable crook disconnected your encephalon and enjoy. If that is what you’re looking for and you see yourself a large One Piece fan, you whitethorn find immoderate amusive present with Egghead. That being said, it’s besides hard to place the stumbles and immoderate of the unusual plan choices the crippled makes, knocking it down a peg. While immoderate homebrew fixes and adjustments tin assistance spot the holes, Escape from Egghead is inactive a leaky ship.

Scott White is simply a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and usher coverage. Follow him connected X/Twitter oregon Bluesky.

Verdict

While the push-your-luck dice rolling tin beryllium amusive with the close group, One Piece: Escape from Egghead starts to instrumentality connected h2o owed to immoderate ambiguous rules, questionable designs, and adjacent mechanics that conscionable interruption astatine antithetic subordinate counts.