Donald Duck in Happy Camper

Donald Duck is the hot-tempered, barely-understandable character we love to watch fly off the handle. Frankly, he’s Andrew’s spirit animal.

But when it comes to his nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey, he strives to set a good example – especially as their scoutmaster for Junior Woodchucks.

For Donald’s 90th anniversary at Disney, Maestro Media created a boardgame that celebrates Donald – and his nephews.

Donald Duck in Happy Camper is a family-oriented exploration game for 2-4 players, suitable for ages 8+, that should take 45 minutes or less. Strap on your backpack, don’t forget your merit badge sash, and let’s get camping!

Setup

Cover the main board with face-down Area tiles. Leave Lookout Point clear, with a stack of Photography Merit Badge cards next to it (highest value on top). Set up an event deck using six Donald Duck cards, plus the “Last Day” card on the bottom.

Each player takes a character (Huey, Louie, Dewey, or Webby) and the matching backpack and tent markers, along with a starting Gadget card (Collector) and Merit Badge (Tent Pitching). They also get one of each resource token (food, tool, wood, rope) to put in their backpack.

Shuffle the rest of the Gadget cards and Merit Badge cards and set them on the board.

How to Play

The Junior Woodchucks are all on a seven-day camping trip. They’re trying to earn Merit Badges and Explorer Awards for pitching tents in a variety of terrain.

At the beginning of each “day”, reveal a new Donald Duck card. These generally give some kind of bonus for moving into Donald’s area during your turn, or let you move one or more players to Donald’s location.

In each day, every player gets one turn, with actions in a very specific order:

1. Scout

Begin your turn by flipping over a face-down Area tile. It must be next to an already revealed Area, or touching the Path that runs around the top and left side of the board.

In a two-player game, Scout twice before moving on to the next step.

Then put Donald Duck on the last Area you just revealed. Now it’s time for your Junior Woodchuck to get on the move!

2. Use Gadgets

Each player’s backpack has room for three Gadgets, each of which can be used one time on your turn – either before the Move/Build phase, or afterwards.

You start the game with one gadget, the Collector. The Collector allows you to collect resources (or gadget cards) in specific locations. Other gadgets may allow you to collect in other locations, move tents around, or convert one resource into two other resources.

After using a gadget, flip it face-down to remind you that it’s been used.

3. Move & Build Tents

Now it’s time to explore. Determine your available Movement points: the number of empty spaces in your backpack at the beginning of this phase.

Moving out of a standard Adventure area will cost three movement points. But moving out of any area with a white border (the Path, Lookout Point, and Meadow areas) only costs one movement point.

Moving out of any Adventure area where you have a tent also costs one movement point.

Building a tent costs two resources, specified on the Adventure area tile. You may build multiple tents in the same area if you have the resources.

And as long as you have enough resources, you can move, build a tent, move again, build another tent, etc.

4. Use Gadgets (Last Chance!)

When you are all done moving, you get a second chance to use any Gadgets you haven’t already flipped this turn. Remember, you’re not allowed to use them during your Move/Build phase!

5. Earn Badge

Check your active Merit Badge card at the end of your turn. If you completed the badge requirements, move it to the left side of your backpack (keep it face up). Then draw two new Merit Badges and choose one to become your new active Merit Badge to work on next. Discard the other one.

If you did not complete your active Merit Badge this turn, you may choose to discard it and draw two to pick a new active Merit Badge.

The only exception to this is the Photography Merit Badge. Earn this one by moving into Lookout Point on the far corner of the board – the sooner you get there, the higher the point value is for this Badge!

End of the Day

After each player has taken their full turn, everyone resets their used Gadget cards. Then, someone reveals the next Donald Duck card. Start the next day, with each player taking their turns in the same order again.

End of the Game

The seventh and final day starts with the “Last Day” Donald Duck card. Now the whole board has been Scouted, and it’s easier to move across the board (since you can treat another player’s tents as yours for discounted movement). You get one last chance to try to get to Lookout Point, build tents, and/or earn a final Merit Badge.

Once everyone has taken their final turn, it’s time for Explorer Awards. These are given to the player(s) with the most tents in each type of Area. If players are tied, they all get the award.

Now each player adds up their points from all their Merit Badges and any Explorer Awards. The player with the most points gets the “Beacon of the Brave” badge, indicating their rise to Senior Junior Woodchuck. Congratulations!

Impressions

Andrew loves Donald Duck, and I have a soft spot for the Junior Woodchuck scouts (as portrayed in DuckTales). Melding these beloved character concepts into a boardgame feels like it should be a walk in the park.

On our first play, we immediately liked the idea of exploring and earning Merit Badges; I began to wonder if this game would feel something like Camp Pinetop, but a little more friendly to non-gamers.

Happy Campers? Not exactly.

We love games that say “yes”. And unfortunately, Donald Duck in Happy Camper more often answered “no” to our questions:

• “Can I move here?” No, you don’t have enough movement points.
• “I have enough movement points, can I get close to Lookout Point?” No, because you can’t walk through an unexplored Area.
• “Can I build a tent before starting my turn?” No, you don’t have the resources you need (yet).
• “Can I move, collect resources, and then build a tent?” No. Collecting is a Gadget and can’t be used during your move/build phase.

It was easy to get stuck with a ton of movement points (due to an empty backpack) but nowhere we really wanted to go. Or, conversely, fill a backpack with resources, which limited movement to just the 2-3 spaces adjacent to our character.

The special Donald Duck cards were sometimes directly helpful, sometimes chaotic (although these allowed us to slow down our opponents!)

Donald Duck’s Opposite

After a few plays, we started to understand the rhythm. Get enough resources in your backpack for your next turn, but not too many. Then assess if your current Merit Badge will be achievable within a turn or two; otherwise trash it and hope for something better.

We occasionally managed a really great turn, by combining multiple Gadgets, tent-building, and maximizing the Donald Duck bonus for the round. Those turns felt AWESOME, but the rest of the turns were so-so. (It never feels great to end a turn with a bunch of movement points unused.)

And you only get seven turns in the game.

It seemed to us like the best way to play Donald Duck in Happy Camper is exactly the opposite of how the famously impulsive Donald would play it. When players can bring patience and planning, and look for just the right moment, the game still can be rewarding.

We’d recommend it for families who really love Donald and his nephews (which is more common now, given the excellent DuckTales remake). Alternately, if your family has a soft spot for camping and scouting, you’ll find enough commonalities to appreciate the thrust of this game.

But we did find ourselves frustrated more than we wanted to – so if your family just wants to break free during a gaming session and do whatever they want, they might do well to stay out of the woods here.

Either way, I think this will stay in our collection for a little while, if only because of Andrew’s soft spot for good ole’ Donald.

Find Donald Duck in Happy Camper on Amazon or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Donald Duck in Happy Camper from Maestro Media for this review.

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