How to play the NINJAGO Choose the Path board game

 How to play the NINJAGO Choose The Path board game

The Choose The path board game from NINJAGO sounds fun, because it is. Basically, you buy four sets, including: 71722 Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons, 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons, 71719 Zane's Mino Creature and 71721 Skull Sorcerer's Dragon. You put them together and you form one big set, which is the game. In each one of these four sets, you get a spinjitzu-style dice. It has five sides, unlike a normal dice. There are a bunch of dots, just like a normal dice. But there is one of two symbols above each set of dots. I will talk about them later.

There are rules, of course. There are also roles you can take. For example, one of you is a Gamemaster and the other is a Player. The Gamemaster's job is to read the entire adventure,  game and roll for non-player characters, like bad guys, and finally, make sure the Players 

follow the rules. Also, the Gamemaster has the authority to ignore the rules if the game seems to have been going on too long. 

The Players take on the roles of one of six ninja. Basically all of them. They choose which action they take throughout the game. The dice decides if the action is a success or a failure. You see, the symbols above the dots are either a heart or a skull. If you get a heart on your roll, then your action is success. If you get a skull on your roll, your action is a failure and occasionally lose the game for you. It's not fair, but is Snakes and Ladders fair? Every action is determined on a roll of a dice. 

There are attributes in this game, just like sports cards. There are four attributes and several skills. The four attributes are: Body, Toughness, Mind and Skills. Of course, there are no skills for Skills. There are also no skills for Toughness. 

The skills for the Body include:

Climbing

Dodging

Dragon riding

Driving

Flame breath

Hiding

Jumping

Running

Spinjitzu burst

Spinjitzu punches/kicks

Spinjitzu tornado

Stealth

Strength

The list of skills for the Mind include:

Blacksmith

Computer operation

Elemental power

Engineering

Invention

Mechanics

Persuasion

Search

Trick

All of the skills for the Mind are probably available with Nya or Zane. Attacking is a key element in this game for it to work. Attacking is actually really simple. You roll to attack. The number that you roll is added to the Body or the relevant skill of that character. The defender, or possible victim rolls too. The number that they roll is added to their Toughness. Yes, non-player character have attributes too. For example, if Kai is attacking an Awakened Warrior. Kai rolls 4, giving him a total of 16. The Awakened Warrior rolls 2, giving him a total of 15. Kai's attack is successful. Like I said before, the heart or skull also play a part in the attack. An unsuccessful attack, is the opposite of the example I just gave. Just make the bad guy successful instead of the Player. You may be surprised to find that some players may not have skills. So, if a player doesn't have a skill, they may roll on their Body attribute. It may not make sense, but at least it's not as complicated as coming up with the game. For example, if Nya is going to fight an Awakened Warrior. She decides to use a skill she does not have. The roll's result is added to the Body attribute to determine success or failure. Then the defender rolls, just like usual. 

Doing damage is the main point of attacking. What would be the point of attacking if you couldn't deal damage? The first successful attack deals minimal damage and doesn't affect the game at all. But the second attack stuns the opposition. This means they are stuck and miss a turn. The third attack stuns the opposition for up to four turns! 

An opponent that is stunned can try to regain consciousness. They can roll each turn they are stunned and if they roll a Heart, they regain consciousness and can play once more. If they can't get a Heart, they wake up after the number of turns they are stunned for. Like I said, this can last for up to four turns.

There are treasure chests in this game. They aren't called treasure chests, but they are similar. They are called loot boxes. If you look at my 71722 Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons review, you can see two boxes on the bottom left. Those are loot boxes. They carry weapons and three heart-shaped tiles which you can also find on the build. These hearts are health. If you are defeated while attacking or defending, you can use one to immediately recover. They are very useful in emergencies, so if you are in trouble while performing an action, make sure to have a loot box with you. Loot boxes are automatically fill up at the start of every game, obviously. You wouldn't want to have to keep collecting tiles and weapons, unless you're a collector.

In total, the four sets start at around $259.96. The price could be even lower, but only in some shops. The 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons is probably the most expensive for it's size. Remember, these sets are extremely easy to find, you may even find them in a shop that doesn't sell LEGO.

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