The Willow Game (1988)

In The Willow Game, you play one (or more) of the characters from the movie. Your characters are either Good or Evil. If you are Good, you must try to keep the baby, Elora Danan, out of the evil Bavmorda's clutches and take the child to safety. If you are Evil, you must try to find the baby, capture her, and take her to Nockmaar Castle. One of the Good characters starts with Elora Danan, but the Evil players do not know who. Thus the Evil players move around the board, searching for the Good characters and fighting them in an attempt to capture the baby.

The Good characters begin weak, but become more powerful as the game progresses. They move about the board, searching for Places of Power and gaining Treasures which make them more powerful or enable them to free people who will protect Elora Danan, which is one way for them to win the game. The other is to become powerful enough to defeat Bavmorda in combat.

In the game, there are two places of power not mentioned in the movie. The first is Markath's Study. The second is the Standing Stones. According to the game's designer, Greg Costikyan, these locations were included for reasons of board symmetry, to have enough places to hold the treasure cards, and to make collecting all treasures a lengthy enough process to give the evil characters a greater chance of victory.

Game contents

• Rulebook
• Board
• "The Willow Game Display" sheet
• 6 large character cards (Airk Thaughbaer, Franjean & Rool, General Kael, Madmartigan, Princess Sorsha, Willow Ufgood)
• 12 plastic pointers
• 2 plastic tokens (one red, one black)
• 2 six-sided dice
• 6 plastic character card stands
• 144 cards:
  • 6 marker cards (Airk Thaughbaer, Franjean & Rool, General Kael, Madmartigan, Princess Sorsha, Willow Ufgood)
  • 2 Army cards (Army of Nockmaar, Army of Galladoorn)
  • 5 Transformation cards (Eborsisk, Goat, Pig, Possum, Raven)
  • 7 Treasure cards (Cherlindrea's Wand, Fin Raziel, The King's Golden Armor, The Sceptre Of Tir Asleen, The Sword Of The Forgotten Race, The Water's Bright Laughter, Three Acorns)
  • 124 Encounter cards:
    • 50 Discard
    • 1 Elora Danan
    • 7 Evil Friend
    • 16 Foe
    • 8 Good Friend
    • 22 Keep
    • 20 Spell