The Quest Kids: Trials of Tolk the Wise Review

At a Glance: The Quest Kids: The Trials of Tolk the Wise (Expansion)

Find more about The Quest Kids by visiting Treasure Falls Games online on Facebook and Instagram, and purchase the game on their website!

Check out the review of The Quest Kids (base game) to become familiar with the game before learning about this expansion!

Find more about The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure by visiting Treasure Falls Games online on Facebook and Instagram, and purchase the game on their website!

“We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

Intro Story: Tolk’s Trials

The four young heroes of Treasure Falls—Noah, Ivy, Skylar, and Crash—stalk through the old cave of Tolk the Wise. Unseen and unheard of for years, the old wizard left without a trace. Having just scared away some bad guys who had been lurking in Tolk’s abandoned lair, the Quest Kids move silently, searching for any secrets Tolk may have left.

Torches line the walls—all lit, probably from the baddies who were just in here—casting dark shadows that could hide a number of things, good or bad.

“What is that?” Crash’s voice calls, echoing through the cave. The others rush to his side. Crash looks at a pool of golden…something. 

“Is that lava?” asks Noah.

“Can’t be,” says Skylar. “It’s not giving off enough heat.”

“Let’s touch it,” Crash suggests, ever eager to try new things.

“Are you crazy?” Ivy asks, the elf’s ears pointing straight up in alarm. “We don’t know what it would do to you!”

“Only one way to find out,” Crash says with a grin.

Skylar shakes her head. “Let’s keep looking around first. Maybe we’ll find something we can use to test on that lava-that’s-not-lava.”

The heroes of Treasure Falls continue scouring the cave. After some time, Noah comes back to the rest of the group.

“I found it!” He exclaims, panting. “Look! A clue!”

Noah extends his hand to show his friends and, sure enough, on the parchment looks to be part of a riddle, along with part of an incomplete picture.

“Cool,” whispers Crash. “Let’s find the rest!”

Now with a plan, the four young adventurers look through the cave for other pieces of the parchment. They find more, and Skylar reads the combined clue. “Count the rooms as you read to find a puzzle for add one more.” She raises an eyebrow.

“I don’t get it,” says Crash.

“Maybe we’re missing something,” Ivy says. “Maybe we don’t have all of the clues yet.”

“Wait,” Noah says and takes the pieces of parchment. He places them on the ground and organizes them in a pattern. The others gasp when they see what he’s done. “Now it makes more sense!”

The four heroes look to the lava-that’s-not-lava.

“Well,” says Crash, “there’s only one way to find out!”

Note: I was provided a complimentary copy of The Quest Kids: The Trials of Tolk the Wise for the purpose of review. The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Overview/Roadmap

This review has two parts. First, there is the Short Review, where various aspects of the game are discussed. Then comes the Gameplay Review, in which the setup and gameplay are discussed in detail, along with initial thoughts. Following the Gameplay Review section are some final thoughts and a final verdict of the game. Feel free to jump around, or read it all in one go.

Because this review is for an expansion, you will need to be familiar with The Quest Kids base game to really get a feel for how this expansion interacts with the game itself. Feel free to read my review of The Quest Kids (base game) here at Board Game Immersion.

About My Kids

The Quest Kids is geared toward young children (ages 5+), so it’s important you know a little bit about my kid in order to know if this game might work for your little ones.

I have three children, two of which are old enough to play this. The boys, ages 4 and 5 (6 in a month, as of this writing), love games. My oldest plays anything from Guess Who to My Little Scythe to Forbidden Island to Herbaceous to anything we’ll let him play, really. He lives and breathes games, and he will play them as often as he can. My four-year-old, however, struggles to finish games that are too involved. He enjoys My First Orchard, Crokinole (and he is very good at it), My First Castle Panic, and other games where there are few rules.

I was interested, then, to see how appealing The Quest Kids would be to a kid who will do anything to play a game, and to one who really struggles to find games engaging. Spoilers: I was pleasantly surprised on both sides of the spectrum. And that pleasant surprise goes even further with this expansion.

Short Review

The Quest Kids: The Trials of Tolk the Wise turns the base game into a narrative adventure! At Board Game Immersion, we looooove our stories, and when playing with kids, it would appear that they get even more pumped when there’s a narrative involved. This review will look at the Trials of Tolk the Wise expansion from the eyes of the children playing, along with a few insightful comments from me, the reviewer.

Immersion

From the very first adventure, my boys (ages 4 and 5) were beyond excited to start learning more about this “Tolk” fellow. “Is Tok…how do you say it? Tolk? A bad guy?”

That was the first—and more frequent—question my oldest would ask. I told him we’d just have to play through and find out. This made him even more eager to play the game!

There are a few new cards exchanged during setup, along with a new rule or two and a deck of story cards. The new rules change up the game just slightly, but enough for a child to really get caught up in the story. The rules are all the same, but a few additional rules are added in (i.e. *and spoilers* in the first adventure, some of the bad guys move around the cave. My kids loved that aspect of it.

Needless to say, the immersion factor is stellar. The kids love the story and adventure, and the fact that they’re playing it out makes it even more exciting for them. 

Theme

The theme in The Trials of Tolk the Wise stays the same as its originator—a fantasy-themed dungeon crawler designer for kids. The theme is expanded upon, however, in this expansion due to the story-driven campaign. The theme was fun initially, but it’s even better with this expansion.

Components

The components are the same quality as the base game, but they do add some more cards. Specifically, there are new dungeon tiles, character abilities, a story deck, and some envelopes with secrets inside! These additions make the already fun game even more exciting. Seriously, the kids are eating this up like Bor Gullet finding out the truth. But they wouldn’t get that reference.

Standout Performances in The Trials of Tolk the Wise

Perhaps the biggest “standout” performance is the storytelling campaign. I mean, that’s what this expansion is all about, and it does it incredibly well. Everything included with this expansion helps strengthen the narrative, and the kids are certainly aware of the goodness included (even if they can’t quite pinpoint what it is they like so much about it).

Breaking the 4th Wall

In theater, breaking the fourth wall refers to when characters (or something else) directly address the audience, thus pulling them out of the narrative and making the astutely aware that they are, in fact, watching a performance and that’s it’s not actually real.

As mentioned in the review of The Quest Kids base game, having the kids set up the game on their own can be a bit tricky. Fortunately, a few times of setting up with help will see them pretty savvy in that regard. However, because of the need to replace base-game cards with new cards from the expansion, the ability to read and to understand what is to be replaced will make it even more difficult for the younger kids. My five-year-old is at a high reading level for his age, but it’s still not nearly close enough for him to be able to grok the needed switcheroos during setup. Likewise, the story cards are far too advanced for him to read on his own.

So, while the additions to the game are wonderful, the need for an older child or an adult present increases drastically. Not a huge deal, personally, since I enjoy playing with them anyway, but if they ever wanted to play without me or their mother, they’d have a hard time of it.

Gameplay Review: The Quest Kids: The Trials of Tolk the Wise

First Impressions

Since my kids already loved The Quest Kids (base game), they were obviously delighted to have more content show up for it. That said, if your kids are only somewhat into the base game, I can see the additions from The Trials of Tolk the Wise expansion making them even more into it.

Setup

Setup varies from quest to quest. As there are five different quests, setup will be different each time. As mentioned above under “Breaking the 4th Wall,” a parent or older child (who can read) will need to aid with setup, since some of the core components are swapped out with some of the new ones. Other than that, though, everything is the same as the base game.

Gameplay

The gameplay is the same as the base game. Any rules changes are noted in the setup instructions, but those are minimal and nothing changes the core way in which the game plays. To learn more about the gameplay, check out my review of The Quest Kids here on Board Game Immersion.

There are some additions, however, that are worth noting. Specifically, the story-driven campaign. Every so often, players will uncover a piece of the story, which will be read from the story deck. There are also other cards in this deck that act as puzzles, which my kids were enthralled with. The puzzles aren’t difficult (for me, anyway), but the fact that they had to do something extra made it even more exciting, like they were in the cave with their characters. 

Thoughts on Gameplay

My thoughts, particularly, are all positive regarding the gameplay of The Trials of Tolk the Wise. It’s easy to play, and the additional rules found in this expansion aren’t too much, but rather just enough to create a deeper sense of adventure that the kids can really grab onto.

From a child’s perspective (and this is mostly from my observations), the gameplay is even more engaging than in the base game. Sure, they loved the base game, but kids love stories, and the storytelling aspect of The Trials of Tolk the Wise really bolsters their engagement and, quite honestly, becomes rather addicting. I love that my boys want to play game after game to discover more secrets and learn about this “Tolk” fellow. Now if only there was more time in a day that it were possible to do just that.

Final Thoughts

I love The Trials of Tolk the Wise. I don’t love it because it speaks to my level of gaming preferences, but I love it that it so wonderfully captures my kids’ imaginations. I love that they are invested in the story, and that they want to play this over screen time. I also love that it’s a great introduction to deeper games. If you’re looking for a game to indoctrinate your kids into a deeper love of board games, The Quest Kids—along with The Trials of Tolk the Wise expansion—is quite likely it.

Final Verdict for The Trials of Tolk the Wise

My final verdict is based on a lot of things, and when my kids are involved, I’m giving my verdict more from their eyes than from my own. Still, I’ll take into consideration other things that they might not think about, but for the most part, this is all on them. 

With all of that said, let’s briefly recap what I saw in my kids as we played. They were genuinely excited to learn more about the story. They were genuinely worried when new mechanics came into play that threatened their win condition. They were genuinely eager to play again…and again…and again. There were no tears when they lost, and that is a huge improvement for my oldest (bless his heart). I think part of that has to do with the fact that we add all points from game to game, so no one really “wins” until after the final game. That said, and given the amount of excitement before, during, and after each session, it was a win for everyone involved. 

Because of all of this, The Quest Kids: The Trials of Tolk the Wise expansion receives a final verdict of a Captivating Ovation. It is so close to perfection. In the minds of my kids, I think it might be a perfect game. I think the only thing that could make it better is if they were able to set this up and play it by themselves, as they like to do with other games. But that’s it. It’s just a wonderful game of adventure, puzzles, and surprises, and Dustin McMillian did an excellent job with the design.

Bravo, bravo!

Verdict Scale (Lowest to Highest)

The Final Verdict is based on a scale of 1-7, although this scale is not numbered. Instead, it uses thematically appropriate words to describe the performance of the game.

Tomatoes – This game was emotionally taxing and difficult to finish.

Uninspiring – This game had me daydreaming about other games.

Lackluster – This game had its moments, but it probably won’t see much table time.

Laodicean – This game is decent. It works. There’s a reason people like it.

Two Thumbs Up – This game is very good.

Captivating – This game is outstanding! It’s more than good; it’s practically a staple.

Standing Ovation – This is the best game you will ever play. Period.

Read short fiction inspired by board games at BGI’s stories page!

Find more about The Quest Kids by visiting Treasure Falls Games online on Facebook and Instagram, and purchase the game on their website!

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