The Adventures of Robin Hood won the Spiel des Jahres in 2022, and it represents one of the most ambitious designs ever to receive that award. Created by Michael Menzel, who also illustrated the game, this cooperative adventure game replaces traditional boards and cards with a massive illustrated book that serves as both the game board and the story delivery system. Players take on the roles of Robin Hood and his companions, moving through Sherwood Forest and Nottingham across a connected campaign of scenarios that evolve based on player choices.
Community reaction has been enthusiastic, with particular praise for the innovation of the book-board system and the narrative experience it creates. Players describe the game as feeling genuinely different from anything else in their collection, with the exploration and discovery elements creating a sense of wonder that most board games struggle to achieve. Criticism focuses on limited replay value after completing the campaign and some frustration with the movement system’s reliance on luck.
A Storybook That Plays You Back
The book-board is the game’s most remarkable achievement. Each scenario opens to a different double-page spread showing a detailed illustrated landscape, and players move their figures directly on the pages. When you reach certain locations, you look up entries in a separate story book that reveal events, choices, and consequences. This system creates a sense of exploration and discovery that traditional boards can’t replicate. You’re literally uncovering the story by moving through the artwork.
The hidden information system adds genuine surprise to the experience. Characters, items, and events are represented by numbered discs placed face-down on the board. You don’t know what you’ll encounter until you reach a location and flip the disc, which sends you to a story entry that might help or hinder your mission. This uncertainty creates moments of genuine excitement, where reaching a key location becomes an event rather than a mechanical step.
The campaign structure gives the game narrative weight that single-session experiences lack. Scenarios connect to each other, with choices in one mission affecting the story and setup of later ones. Characters develop, the political situation in Nottingham shifts, and the world responds to your actions. For families playing through the campaign together, this creates shared memories and investment that persist across multiple sessions.
The production quality is extraordinary. Menzel’s illustrations are detailed and evocative, transforming each scenario into a scene you’d want to frame. The physical act of moving pieces across these beautiful landscapes, touching down on locations and discovering what awaits, creates an immersive experience that few tabletop games achieve.
Where the Forest Gets Tangled
Replay value is the game’s most significant limitation. Once you’ve played through the campaign and discovered its surprises, the experience doesn’t hold up to a second run. The hidden information, narrative branches, and story revelations are the game’s primary appeal, and all of these lose their impact on replay. This makes Robin Hood more of a one-time journey than a replayable game, which is a significant investment consideration.
The movement system relies on a pull-and-flick mechanism that introduces more randomness than some players would like. Moving your character involves pulling a string and placing your figure where it lands, which means precise positioning is difficult. For a cooperative game where reaching specific locations matters, the imprecision of movement can create frustration, especially in scenarios with tight timing requirements.
Some scenarios have difficulty spikes that can feel jarring. The campaign generally provides a smooth difficulty curve, but certain missions are notably harder than others, sometimes due to unlucky disc reveals rather than player decisions. Cooperative games need balanced difficulty to maintain group engagement, and occasional spikes can discourage players who are otherwise enjoying the narrative.
The game requires three or more players to work at its best. At two players, the reduced hero count limits tactical flexibility and makes some scenarios significantly harder. The game is designed around having more characters available, and the two-player experience can feel incomplete.
The Map Is the Story
The essential insight about The Adventures of Robin Hood is that the game board isn’t a space to be optimized but a world to be experienced. Players who approach it as a puzzle to solve, trying to find the most efficient path through each scenario, miss what makes the game special. The exploration, the surprises, the narrative detours are the game. Wandering off the obvious path to flip a mysterious disc, or taking a suboptimal route to see what’s hiding in a corner of the illustration, often leads to the game’s best moments. Robin Hood rewards curiosity over efficiency, and groups that embrace that philosophy get significantly more from the experience.
Should You Play The Adventures of Robin Hood?
This game is built for families and groups who value narrative experiences and don’t mind that the journey is a one-time event. If you enjoy cooperative games, if you have a consistent group that can play through a campaign together, and if the idea of exploring a living storybook appeals to you, Robin Hood offers something genuinely unique. The experience it creates is unlike anything else in the family game space.
Skip it if replay value is essential to you, if imprecise movement mechanics frustrate you, or if you prefer games you can return to repeatedly. Robin Hood is a beautiful, memorable experience that doesn’t pretend to be an endlessly replayable game.
The Verdict on The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood pushes the boundaries of what a family game can be, delivering a narrative adventure experience through its innovative book-board system that genuinely feels like playing through a storybook. The exploration, the surprises, and the campaign’s evolving story create memories that persist long after the final scenario. Limited replay value and some movement frustrations keep it from perfection, but as a one-time cooperative journey, Robin Hood is exceptional. It won the Spiel des Jahres by doing something no other game had attempted, and it succeeded.