Dre Goble

This is not so much a house rule, as a loophole that I noticed in the existing (English edition) rules, while playing Robinson with two-players (and Friday).

There is nothing in the rules, that prevents Friday from re-rolling a failure with the Determination tokens that he “earned” from that failure.

For every other instance in which a special ability permits spending Determination tokens to re-roll a failure, there is included in the rule-book a clause:

“Note! You cannot use the Determination tokens gained from an unsuccessful die roll to reroll that die which gave you those Determination tokens.”

Such a clause is conspicuously absent in the description of Friday’s ability. This makes a certain amount of sense, when one considers that Friday is a native of the Cursed Isle. He is perfectly capable of finding food and shelter for himself, and he knows the dangers of the island well enough to avoid any accident more serious than a wound. Given these attributes, it seems reasonable that, for example, gathering resources would be much easier for him than for the other castaways.

1. “He’s Turning!”

Any time a survivor in your party dies from fatigue, the remainder of your party must immediately fight one zombie.

In the world of The Walking Dead, anyone who dies, from any cause, comes back as a zombie. That means any injury, accident, or illness can turn a valuable ally into a potential threat.

2. Lost and Leaderless

If you lose your Starting Character, you may proceed to the nearest starting space to draw a new one

The rulebook stipulates that you lose if all the survivors in your party die. It does not clarify what happens if you only lose your Starting Character, leaving your party leaderless. In this instance:
Replace Your "Party Pawn" with the follower tokens corresponding to your remaining followers.
IF your remaining dice pool has at least three dice AND at least one of those dice is blue, THEN you may proceed to the nearest starting space. ELSE, you must stay put, and hope that one of the other players is kind enough to rescue and escort you to the nearest starting space.
When you reach a starting space, draw a new Starting Character, replace your follower tokens with the standee of your new party leader.

3. “This is Our Place!”

Once a Location has been scouted, no other party may scout it.

To make the game a little harder and more competitive, you could try this: During setup, remove half the cards from the Location deck, making sure there is one and only one copy of each Location. Then shuffle the Location deck and deal out the Locations as normal (one to each player and three to the table). During play, once a party has successfully scouted a Location, that Location is effectively “theirs”, and no other party can attempt to scout it.

The primary strategic value of followers (and starting characters), more important than the extra health that they give your party, is the dice they provide. On average, blue “Hero” dice are more valuable than red “Fighter” dice, which, in turn, are (marginally) more valuable than green “Scavenger” dice. (Green dice are useful only for a minority of the Encounter cards.)

When it becomes necessary to dole out, or “split” Fatigue tokens, it is advantageous to prioritise (minimise fatigue on) those followers that give you more valuable dice. Extra fatigue effects afforded by certain followers should be of secondary concern, unless losing them would lead to your primary character’s immediate demise.

In a solo or two-player game, the best way to deal with an Adventure token is to let Friday take a wound.

I hate Adventure tokens. Because there is nothing that you can actively do between the Event and Action phases to mitigate the effects of an Adventure card, and no way to know what those effects will even be until you have to resolve them, it is impossible to effectively plan or prepare for whatever nastyness an Adventure token will force you to endure. A single wound, by comparison, is easy to plan around, and can even be healed in the same round (using the Cook’s abilities).

Friday is immune to the effects of the Weather, Night, and Morale phases. This means that even if this tactic puts him at death’s door in the Action phase, he will still survive until the next round, and will always have the opportunity to heal by resting. Finally, Friday’s wounds cannot effect Morale, and even his demise does not end the game.

As cold and calculating as it sounds, letting Friday “take one for the team” is the best strategy for avoiding the random and potentially disastrous consequences of an Adventure token.

In one-, two-, or three-player games (depending on scenario), I sometimes use the Dog (or Friday) as a kind of additional “Wreckage” card, in the left-most Threat Event space.

Rescuing the Dog requires one pawn, and must be accomplished in the first turn. If you decide to commit to the rescue, you get the Dog (starting next turn), plus a nice morale boost, for saving the ship’s beloved mascot. Otherwise, the next Event card will push it off the board, the Dog drowns, and you suffer a morale penalty, for being such a heartless b*****d.

It’s an interesting way to get people used to making harsh, immediate, life-or-death decisions, right from the beginning. Do you rescue the dog, or the food crates, or both? Spending that much meeple-power early in the game can handicap you as much as losing the Dog.

If you take the time to inspect the dice in Robinson Crusoe, you can learn some important things about the risks involved in taking certain actions with a single pawn (as you may be forced to do in certain situations).

1. Building has the highest chance of failure (1:2), and a very high chance of taking a wound (2:1)!
2. Exploration is as likely to trigger an adventure card as it is to succeed (5:1 in each case).
3. In contrast, resource-gathering is quite safe and easy. The best possible outcome that you can roll, also happens to be the most likely.

Note also that most of the scenarios (especially #6) demand construction. In fact, the game heavily emphasises building for pretty much every facet of your survival. For example: the consequences of a minor food shortage is a wound per round, but inadequate shelter can inflate that by up to two additional wounds per round, for everyone.

The riskiest occupation in Robinson Crusoe is also the most vital.