Kids Chronicles: The Old Oak Prophecy Game Review

Written by Chad Wilkinson

I love a good walk in the forest. I find trees, and particularly the oak, to, at some subconscious level, act as a portal of sorts to our past, younger selves. Back then it was a fortress, a climbing frame, whilst now it evokes a different sort of awe: an awe towards its longevity, its role in folklore, the vast ecosystem of over 2,300 species nestled amongst its branches, and the ‘wood-wide-web’ writhing beneath.

What is the Kids Chronicles: The Old Oak Prophecy Game?

With Kids Chronicles: The Old Oak Prophecy, Lucky Duck Kids have used the venerable oak’s awe-inspiring reputation as a Centrepoint for an arboreal adventure story - one aimed at children yet designed in a way so as not to alienate adults. The titular tree here is a slumbering, sentient giant, soon to be awakened by the players to anoint them as ‘Protectors of the Forest’. From this point on they will be traversing the woods, meeting cute anthropomorphic critters, and solving mysteries within an overarching plot, but always returning to the wise, old oak.

Playing Kids Chronicles

This is a cooperative app-driven game in the same vein as Lucky Duck’s Chronicles of Crime. Just, you know, with less crime…and death. Players will travel between locations, viewing them in detail through the app, whilst scanning the QR codes present on locations, items, and characters, as they work to solve each of the game’s six scenarios.

The Destinies-esque location tiles also pull from Lucky Duck’s catalogue, whilst diverging from that game’s bleak, isometric-map style. Indeed, these tiles offer a more immediately immersive, close-up vision of each magical place, bolstered by some fantastic, dreamy art.

The scenarios are short enough to sustain attention, and never stray too far from the formula laid out in the excellent tutorial: After looking around the oak starting location, characters and items will be placed on the tile, with further tiles branching off as indicated by any signposts spotted. Moving to a location is as simple as merely scanning it, whereupon the process repeats. Certain locations will present an option to ‘solve’ something (the cure for an amnesiac turtle for example) by scanning a particular item in players’ possession. 

The app is polished and intuitive, with a useful ‘Diary’ feature to accommodate for the inevitable accidental dialogue skipping. Strangely, though, with the limited time, we found ourselves having to ‘look’ around each location at least twice to find the key objects, characters, and signposts. Granted, this is likely due to kids marvelling at the now even more immersive artwork, but then again, even adults might find some of the signpost symbology to be inadvertently abstract.

There’s a decent story being told here, and our group sometimes played two scenarios to keep the momentum. The flip-side to this is that there’s lots of reading, and thus perhaps too advanced for the suggested seven and up age rating.

Kids Chronicles Review

Ultimately, though, under £20 is a bargain for what The Old Oak Prophecy offers, which is more than merely a solid, engaging game. It’s also a kid-centric window into the hobby and what board games can be, what the idea of ‘play’ can be, and that gaming with kids doesn’t need to feel restrictive. Kids Chronicles knows its audience and that adults will often be a part of that audience, and so presenting itself with such simplicity and openness allows for an adult to take on the role as storyteller, occasional helper, full participant, or none of these things. Whatever the case, it’s a departure from agonising roll-and-move family games, or having to adapt rules to cater to younger players. Furthermore, being a cooperative game, there should be few opportunities for conflict and sibling rivalry here. Just don’t hog the phone or tablet. 

Should you play it? Yes – A smoothly handled dose of storytelling and cooperative fun. You should try it if you liked Unlock! Kids: Detective stories, which is just a different approach to kid-friendly problem solving.

Buy Kids Chronicles on Amazon

On the Box

Designer: David Cicurel

Publisher: Lucky Duck Kids

Time: 30-45 minutes

Players: 1-4

Ages: 7+

Price: £20

What’s in the box?

• 18 Location Tiles
• 19 Character Standees
• 40 Item Cards
• Item Board
• Rulebook

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