I do apologise for interupting the Halloween feature and all the wonderful Halloween products I have been talking about but I have a special announcement to make. Santa has just called and told me as he is coming in less than two months, he need's to get the girls and boys prepared for the big day and let them understand why its important they go to bed early on Christmas eve night!
By getting one of his elves in disguise to drop a parcel off to us, we was delighted to receive Santa's Rooftop Scramble. Who can get bored of board games!? Christmas ones too!? Not me and Spud!
By getting one of his elves in disguise to drop a parcel off to us, we was delighted to receive Santa's Rooftop Scramble. Who can get bored of board games!? Christmas ones too!? Not me and Spud!
Spud is a typical excited child when it comes to Christmas eve, the one day (okay maybe second because birthday's have the effect on children too) that he does not want to go to sleep early. Actually it's not because he doesn't want to go to sleep early, it's because he is full of excitement and joy, because he knows when he wakes up in the morning he will find a tree surrounded by loads of gifts just for him.
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| Last year's presents from me for my prince. |
Being a full time single mum who also works I find it incredibly hard to get everything done before the big day so I am one of those who stay up until the early hours of Christmas morning to finish wrapping the presents I found impossible to hide. Getting Spud to bed at a suitable time would be great, but its always hard to do, with the help of this game, I have been able to drum it into Spud's head, why it's important he goes to bed at a decent time.
Santa's Rooftop Scramble is a Ravensburger board game, Christmas themed of course which is suitable for ages 5+ and is playable for 2-6 players. Inside the box your find a game board, 6 coloured Santa characters with stands, a spinner board, 3 rooftop cards, 28 surprise cards, 36 transport cards, 36 letters to Santa cards, 1 die, 65 present tokens and a game manual.
Each player picks a Santa character, Spud chose blue and I chose pink and then each player is dealt five letter to Santa cards. On each letter to Santa you will find either one, two or three children (only one card has three children, which is the children who live at number 13, see why I don't like the number!) with their Christmas gift wish. The cards that display one child, will have one present, the child that display's two children will have two presents and the one card with the three children, contain three presents. The object of the game is to be the first player to drop all the presents off from your list of cards to all the children first.
Before any player can start whizzing around the board dropping off their sack full of presents, they need to gather the presents first and for that, each player takes it in turn to spin the spinner. If the spinner lands on the doll for example, the player who's turn it is will then look at their cards and see how many doll's are required from their list of five cards. If three dolls are wanted by the children featured on their cards, then the player will retrieve three doll presents from the present list.
This applies for all five presents; the doll, the teddy bear, the train set, the bike and the game console. If however a player lands on the Santa icon, then that player is able to retrieve all of the presents from their list on the five cards they have and is then able to move onto the game board starting on the start space.
Once the players are able to go onto the game board they are able to roll the die and move the total amount of spaces of which they have rolled (for example if I roll the die and it lands on five, I would move five places forward on the board). Spud was first onto the board and it took me a further eight minutes before I was able to get onto the board!
When a player lands on a house, if they have any presents to deliver to that particular house then they can but only one present at a time (if they need to deliver two presents, the player must wait until their next turn to be able to do so). They drop the present into the rooftop and once the present list is cleared they discard that particular letter to Santa card to the bottom of the letter to Santa card pile in the middle of the board.
Of course just like any other Christmas eve for Santa, obstacles will be thrown in your way. Santa faces problems all the time (Reindeer's are hungry, chimneys blocked, no key left for the flat windows and much more), in the game if a player lands on a transport card, they must move to where ever the transport card they pick up tells them too, sometimes it works in your favour but sometimes it leads to more disruption. If players pick up a surprise card again, this can save you time but it can also cause you more delays!
The spinner's play does not end at the start of the game either, if a player is unfortunate enough to be sent to the compass in the middle of the game board, then they must spin the spinner and arrive at where ever the compass lands (outer circle), land on north, east, south or west and arrive at your destination, this is another 50/50 element it can work in your favour, or cause you more delays, its all down to the luck of the spin!
The first game me and Spud played was of course won by Spud,and this time it wasn't even down to me being the kind parent and letting him win, he was dealt a lucky hand of cards and fortunately didn't come across too many delays! The game lasted us around 20 minutes and was both stimulating and fun! We've played the game many times since and due to some of the features of the game, Spud now knows if children are not asleep, their present's can not be delivered!
I must lastly add in about the packing away of the game. Keeping board games together seem's to be a little challenging, things get misplaced and lost and are thrown all over the place inside the box. Thanks to Ravensburger great design of the inside of the box, the pieces all fit into their selected places with the board simply placed on top ready for the lid to be put on ready for the game to be played another day!
Overall me and Spud found the game really fun, the instructions are something that do need to be looked over a few times on the first few plays but are easy enough to pick up after a few plays.
Santa's Rooftop Scramble is a Ravensburger game and is available to purchase for a suggested RRP of £19.99 from Smyths Toys, Amazon, Littlewoods, Isme, Very and many more toy and game retailers.
To find out more about Ravensburger including all their other fantastic games & puzzles check out the official website here.
Jada x
Before any player can start whizzing around the board dropping off their sack full of presents, they need to gather the presents first and for that, each player takes it in turn to spin the spinner. If the spinner lands on the doll for example, the player who's turn it is will then look at their cards and see how many doll's are required from their list of five cards. If three dolls are wanted by the children featured on their cards, then the player will retrieve three doll presents from the present list.
This applies for all five presents; the doll, the teddy bear, the train set, the bike and the game console. If however a player lands on the Santa icon, then that player is able to retrieve all of the presents from their list on the five cards they have and is then able to move onto the game board starting on the start space.
Once the players are able to go onto the game board they are able to roll the die and move the total amount of spaces of which they have rolled (for example if I roll the die and it lands on five, I would move five places forward on the board). Spud was first onto the board and it took me a further eight minutes before I was able to get onto the board!
When a player lands on a house, if they have any presents to deliver to that particular house then they can but only one present at a time (if they need to deliver two presents, the player must wait until their next turn to be able to do so). They drop the present into the rooftop and once the present list is cleared they discard that particular letter to Santa card to the bottom of the letter to Santa card pile in the middle of the board.
Of course just like any other Christmas eve for Santa, obstacles will be thrown in your way. Santa faces problems all the time (Reindeer's are hungry, chimneys blocked, no key left for the flat windows and much more), in the game if a player lands on a transport card, they must move to where ever the transport card they pick up tells them too, sometimes it works in your favour but sometimes it leads to more disruption. If players pick up a surprise card again, this can save you time but it can also cause you more delays!
The spinner's play does not end at the start of the game either, if a player is unfortunate enough to be sent to the compass in the middle of the game board, then they must spin the spinner and arrive at where ever the compass lands (outer circle), land on north, east, south or west and arrive at your destination, this is another 50/50 element it can work in your favour, or cause you more delays, its all down to the luck of the spin!
The first game me and Spud played was of course won by Spud,and this time it wasn't even down to me being the kind parent and letting him win, he was dealt a lucky hand of cards and fortunately didn't come across too many delays! The game lasted us around 20 minutes and was both stimulating and fun! We've played the game many times since and due to some of the features of the game, Spud now knows if children are not asleep, their present's can not be delivered!
I must lastly add in about the packing away of the game. Keeping board games together seem's to be a little challenging, things get misplaced and lost and are thrown all over the place inside the box. Thanks to Ravensburger great design of the inside of the box, the pieces all fit into their selected places with the board simply placed on top ready for the lid to be put on ready for the game to be played another day!
Overall me and Spud found the game really fun, the instructions are something that do need to be looked over a few times on the first few plays but are easy enough to pick up after a few plays.
Santa's Rooftop Scramble is a Ravensburger game and is available to purchase for a suggested RRP of £19.99 from Smyths Toys, Amazon, Littlewoods, Isme, Very and many more toy and game retailers.
To find out more about Ravensburger including all their other fantastic games & puzzles check out the official website here.
Jada x
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