By Jove: A Game and a Book of Classical Adventure

Unfortunately, this game isn't made anymore. I only write this for the few people who will buy the used ones and in the hope that it will be made again. This a tremendously exciting game for adolescents and some of my fellow teachers like it, too. It can be played simply for fun or to gain familiarity with mythology. There are many, many mythological characters employed doing the types of things they would do. As we play it I can talk a little about each character, but I have to keep it brief because the game is exciting and time in a classroom is limited. It is artistically done, unlike many games these days, and thrilling and devastating as the kids win and lose their award cards and gold coins. It sets the basis for mythology to be interesting and as stories are read at other times, the kids recognize some of the characters from the game. I highly recommend it and wish more such games were around. There were cooperative games also that I loved. A whale game and others, but they also aren't being made anymore, though my students loved them. I was gone from school for some time and sadly a colleague 'cleaned' the cupboard.

My husband had this game when he was a kid, and he has talked about it from time to time, describing it in such vivid detail. When all efforts to relocate his old copy at his parents' house failed, he began searching for it on the internet. Very few copies were around, and mostly used ones. Finally, he found just one new copy of the game. It was expensive for a board game (since it's so hard to find anymore), but I surprised him on his birthday and ordered it for him. Now we're both addicted to it, and play it several times each week.

Arrived in good shape with all pieces. Thanks.

Love it!

My wife and I are board game fans. We have many games and appreciate the value of a good game. My mother originally gave me this game for my birthday thirty years ago. I liked it then but the game got misplaced over the years. My wife thankfully purchased me a fresh new one which we enjoy every time we play. There are a lot of things that you have to do to win this game. Basically, you go around the board. You collect and loose items as you go around. You start as a mortal with opportunities to collect hero characters. You can loose these as well. To win the game, you have to kill 8 monsters, collect the required VAP awards, 14 gold coins, complete the Quest for the Golden Fleece and the Labyrinth. There are award cards associated with each quest and each quest is not easy to get out of. What makes this game fun is that it is fast paced. Things can go bad really fast. Many times I was almost going to win only to have everything taken from me. You never know who is going to win. There are two different cards to draw as you go around the board, Oracle and Pot Luck. Both results can be really good or really nasty. You also learn a great deal about Greek Mythology as you play. I can see the value of this in the classroom. However, having said that, the way things swing around in this game, the game itself could take longer than a class period to win. Also, the instructions for this game are within a short book with excellent mythology stories. What you would do with these stories is read one to another player so that you won't loose coins, get sent back to the beginning or get kicked out of a quest.There are a few drawbacks to this game. It doesn't seem to come with enough gold coins. What I've done is printed out By Jove Vouchers worth 20 or 40 gold coins each to keep a supply of gold coins in the bank. The heros don't stand very well on the plastic bases. I've corrected that by using glue to the plastic bases. Now they are completely durable.I hoped that this company would make an updated edition to this game. Of the many games I have, this one is one of my favorites for its fast pace, unpredictability and variety of things to do to win. This is an excellent game.