Description

Legitimacy Boardgame – Strategy, Fun, and All-Ages Chaos

A Board Game for All Ages

The kingdom of Legitimant is in turmoil. The old king has died, leaving no legitimate heir… but there are several illegitimate ones ready to stake their claims. Assemble magical objects, recruit strange creatures, and deploy clever strategies to outmaneuver your rivals and seize the throne. Will you walk the path of righteousness, or embrace every dirty trick in the book to prove yourself the one true heir of Legitimacy board game fame?

A Family-Friendly Medieval Adventure by Chuck Whelon

Cartoonist and designer Chuck Whelon created the Legitimacy board game both as a showcase of his illustration and graphic design skills and as a fun project to enjoy with his 8-year-old son. The result is a game where kids and adults can play together on equal footing. Children often grasp the entry-level role-playing mechanics faster than grown-ups, and the game’s random, swingy nature keeps everyone guessing.

Moral Choices: Good vs. Evil

One of the most unique aspects of the Legitimacy board game is its good/evil mechanic. Depending on their actions and the creatures they recruit, characters can switch allegiance from “good” to “evil” (and back again). Good creatures refuse to follow evil masters, while evil companions desert a character who redeems themselves through quests. Moral alignment has no bearing on victory—you can still claim the throne either way—making for unpredictable, often hilarious, role-play moments.

Dynamic, Randomized Setup

No two games are alike. The modular board and randomized starting characters ensure endless replayability. Each character comes with a pet, which can either balance gameplay or create chaotic imbalances. For instance, the wizard with the cat is notoriously hard to start with, but can evolve into one of the most powerful combinations in the game.

Fast-Paced, Humorous Gameplay

Though officially labeled 13+, Legitimacy board game works well for players as young as 7. Families can easily omit a handful of cards to make the experience fully age-appropriate. With 67 unique cards—characters, creatures, spells, and magical items—the game balances roll-and-move mechanics with role-playing freedom. There’s a comprehensive rulebook, but house rules and player-driven storytelling are encouraged, adding layers of replay value.

Game Length and Flow

On average, the Legitimacy board game lasts about 15 minutes per player. With two players it’s a quick, breezy battle for the crown, but with a full table of six it transforms into an epic struggle for supremacy. The pacing scales naturally, making it just as fun for a short duel as it is for a sprawling family showdown—perfect for settling friendly debates like who should make the tea!

About the Publisher

Originally published by Minion Games in 2009, Legitimacy board game quickly became a favorite for families and fans of quirky medieval adventures. Its blend of humor, unpredictability, and strategic depth makes it perfect for both casual gatherings and dedicated game nights.

Watch and Learn

A video demo is available to showcase gameplay, character abilities, and the chaotic fun that has made the Legitimacy board game such a hit with families.

Legitimacy Boardgame Reviews

Legitmacy Boardgame Review Blurbs

This is a very fun game which works rather well. Legitimacy is much more varied and interesting and certainly more fun than any of the other roll and move fantasy boardgames I have played. It doesn’t take too long to play either. The game is nice to look at as the artwork is excellent and fun. The system is clear, simple and moves along. A good buy.
—Boardgames in Blighty Blog, UK

Legitimacy is fast flowing due to the simplicity, and the combat and magic systems are easy to resolve. I really liked the system. Overall an interesting and fun game.
—Richard Hardy, Scimitar Wargrames Group

This is a light game with comical artwork that is fun to play with the family. It’s length is just right for the complexity and it generates a lot of table chat and FUN!
—Felbrigg’s Gaming Blog

A great game with stunning components. I really enjoy the game and my kids (age 10 and 11) can’t get enough of it. It’s a lighthearted game that we have played many times, often consecutively. The game is a laugh factory and using the less obvious choices for characters allow adults to play against younger players without having to hold back too much.
—Doug Glisson, Alberta, Canada

The game description fit what I was looking for to a T. Adventure game with a short play time, easy play and humor qualities. The cartoonish art work makes for a light hearted approach to the game, with lots of laughing.
—Tom Stearns, Houston,  Texas

Clever and fun… Legitimacy is the type of game we will bring out to play with friends who can’t stand the thought of building up a food engine, and social games definitely mesh better with social drinking than Agricola ever will.
—Elizabeth B., Ohio

Enjoyable alternative to Talisman and Munchkin. Faster than both. Easier to play too.  Fun artwork great theming. A winner overall and a definite preference to Talisman, Prophecy and Munchkin.
—Mark R, West Sussex, United Kingdom

Nice little game. Fun and easy to play with the family.
—Michael R, Three Rivers, Michigan

This is a great game to play with the family. Kids will love it, the artwork is fantastic (I could spend an hour just exploring the boards!), and the gameplay is interesting enough to keep adults happy.
—Nick H, Los Angeles, California

I love this game. The gameplay is like a simple and fast version of Talisman. Unlike Talisman, Legitimacy ends when it feels like it should and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Great art!
—Jason S, Fairview, Oregon

Legitimacy boardgame Full-length Reviews:

Tom Stearns, Houston, Texas

The game description fit what I was looking for to a T. Adventure game with a short play time. In addition Legitimacy has easy play and humor qualities, further boosting it’s possibilities.

I took the game, along with another 5 or 6 with me to a friends house who was having my family and another family for dinner. My friends wife and their 16yo daughter usually play board games with me when we get together. The other couple at the dinner have a 10yo boy. He and his mom played Transamerica with us the last time we were all together.

The 16yo chose Legitimacy out of the pile of games to play. None of us had played before. I had scanned the rules previously. We played with five, so had all the game boards in play except one. We randomly dealt characters and pets. Everyone laughed at their character and pet cards. The cartoonish art work makes for a light hearted approach to the game, with lots of laughing. No one was quite sure what they should do to begin. The goal is to acquire through quest, theft or attack, 3 of the crown jewels, and then take them to the Throne Room in the castle. So the goal is easy enough to understand. The black dots on the board allow you to draw a card in search in quests, creatures or magic items. So everyone starts moving toward the black dots. Not having a move bonus on your character or pet is a real disadvantage. When moving you add your character and pet move bonuses to your die roll to get your movement allowance. You can use any amount of the movement allowance to get where you want to go.

As play proceeded the people with quests moved to the locations on the quest card and acquired crown jewel cards. Those who were unable to get quests used magic or attacks to take crown jewels from others. The game began to pick up after everyone grew more comfortable with the mechanics. We probably waited too long to actually read all the cards as we drew them to see what special effects they had. Some cards allow you to fly to locations which is very helpful. The other thing we noticed as the game went along is the relation between holding crown jewel cards and the hand limit of cards. You need 3 crown jewel cards to win. Your hand limit is 7 cards total,unless you have a pet or magic item that increases your hand limit. So with 3 crown jewel cards, your character and your pet, that is 5 slots of your 7 hand limit. This leaves you with only 2 spots for creatures and magic itmes, making you very vulnerable to attacks from others trying to take your crown jewels. We also struggled with remembering to flip our characters from good to evil or from evil to good, depending on what actions we took. If you don’t have alternative alignment cards in your hand when you change alignment, you can be left quite vulnerable, as your current creatures who aren’t neutral will desert you when you switch.

I, playing as the Minstrel, was the first person to have 3 crown jewels, but I was a long way from the castle. The 16yo playing as the Young Wizard, came after me with her creatures and easily took 2 of the crown jewels from me as I couldn’t escape her fast enough and she was able to attack me on consecutive turns. She then was able to get a good roll and quickly move to the Marketplace. She had recently been to the Marketplace and exchanged cards, so she knew what was in the marketplace. She now exchanged cards again, pulling out a magic spell that then flew her to the Throne Room for the win.

Everyone enjoyed the game. I think next go around everyone will be more aggressive. It will help also knowing better how the cards can be used. The 10yo played well and I think the 13+ age recommendation is more for the content on some of the cards. The content is quite humorous and most of it will be over the head of younger kids. This is actually good game to play with the younger crowd, just don’t read the cards out loud. The time of 30+ was a little deceiving. Playing with 5 and learning as we played the game took about 90 minutes, which isn’t bad. We just thought it would play closer to the 30 minute mark. I believe future plays will play within an hour, which is really good. Replayability is good also as the character and pet combinations will change each time.

I believe this game will get future plays as it has many positive qualities. Recommended as a quick playing, light hearted alternative to Talisman or Prophecy. It’s art work and humor reminded me some of Munchkin.

—Tom Stearns, Houston, Texas

Felbrigg’s Gaming Blog

A couple of months back I sold my copy of Talisman which I’d been lugging around since the 80’s. Why did I sell it? I realised that I’d become reluctant to play it. The reason I was reluctant was simply that the game was too darned long, even when I used my “play fast rules”(cheats). I also found the use of counters for everything a wee bit fiddley.

The hole that Talisman left in my collection has now been very well filled by Legitimacy!

In this game you take control of a character in a fantasy land and move around the board fufilling quests collecting crown jewels and then race to claim the throne.

The charcater you play can have three stats, move, fight and magic. Move is a bonus you add to a die roll when it comes time for you to move. Fight is added to a die when you’re bashing another player, and magic is a ranged attack which can take various forms depending on spell used.

All the chracters start as “Good” but if you attack another player your’ll become “Evil”. This doesn’t change your character as such, but if you have any “Good” followers they will leave you when you turn “Evil” and vice versa. Once you complete a mission and gain a Jewel however your character becomes “good” again, huzzar!

You’ll also start with a random pet, which adds to one of your abilities.

The board is based on large hexagons each of which has a colour. Your character has a colour too, and an associated board hex. When setting up the hexes as the play board you always start with the black hex and add the hex for each character. So if you have three players you would have a board made up of a total of four hexes. These hexes are cute with comical graphics and little characters hidden amoungst the artwork such as the nessie in the lake.

These hexes, contain a number of path ways and you can move your character along these ( roll a die add your move stat). The paths cross from hex to hex. The paths all have various munbers of spaces along them, including named spaces and black spaces. If you choose to stop at a black space you can draw a card that might be a mission or an object. If its a mission, which is usually just travel to a named space, your in luck. Once you travel to that named space you’ll get to draw a Crown Jewel card. You’ll need three crown jewels to win. As a bonus some of the Jewels also have special abilities.

As you’re traveling around you are able to attack or zap other players and nick their stuff, of course they’ll be trying to do the same to you! This leads to some careful decisions as to which direction and how far you might travel along certain branches of the paths. As I found out while playing, it does no good to travel up a dead end path to get to a named space so you can grab a jewel, only to find yourself trapped,attacked and looted!

Once you’ve got your hands on the required three jewels you race to the castle throneroom at which point you’rw the winner.

This is a light game with comical artwork that is fun to play with the family. It’s length is just right for the complexity.

Here’s why I feel this replaced Talisman:

The game DOES NOT drag on for three hours of roll and move.
It DOES NOT have lots of fiddley counters used to track everything.
It DOES NOT have a bunch of fiddley rules for what you can carry.
It DOES NOT have you constantly going backwards and forwards trying to get to a particular space.
It DOES NOT have the equivalent “Bandits” card to spirit eveything that you worked to gain in the last two hours away to the oasis!

IT DOES play in a decent amount of time.
IT DOES use cards to track your goodies and abilities.
IT DOES vary with each play depending on what characters you choose.
IT DOES vary what spells, pets, objects and missions you have to complete.
IT DOES generate a lot of table chat and FUN!

—Felbrigg’s Gaming Blog, http://felbrigg.blogspot.com/

Doug Glisson, Alberta, Canada

Spoiler Alert: I like this game!

Legitimacy is a roll and move game in a fantasy land gone crazy. The King is dead and all the illegitimate heirs are vieing for the throne. The would be heirs run the gamut from the Frog Prince, The Young Wizard, The Milkmaid, The Furfoot Princess and more. Obviously the Old King was a merry old soul indeeed!

The game is made up of large hexagonal boards that represent the lands of the would-be claimants to the throne. The boards are color coded and in addition to the home board for each player in the game the black Castle board is in every game. These are placed next to the Castle tile to create a random game board based on which characters are in play and where the players choose to put them. The Castle board also contains the deck draw pile and the Marketplace where you can “buy” items to help you in your quest. The artwork on the homeland boards and the deck of cards used in the game is beautiful. It is a tongue in cheek cartoonish art that really captures the fun feel of the game and allows you to imagine the land in which this Royal scavenger hunt takes palce in.

The goal of the game is to be the first person to acquire 3 of the Crown Jewels and return to the Throne Room to claim your reward as the true Heir to the throne of Legitimant. At is heart the game is a roll and move game. This is offset however by the chaotic nature of combat and spell casting that can occur during the game. Each character has his/her own benefits and they each are randomly assigned a pet to join them in their journey. The pets are valuable as they add their movement, attack and/or spell casting bonuses to you as you seek th e Crown Jewels. As a would be Heir, you can play nice and hope to come by the Crown Jewels honestly and hope for the best, OR you can use every dirty trick in the book to lie, cheat and steal your way to the throne. Be warned though, attacking another character will change your alignment to evil and all good followers will leave you.

Movement- You make your way through through Legitimant by rolling a D6 and adding any movement bonuses you or your followers may have. Each tile has several paths to choose from and along these paths are black spaces. It is on these black spaces where you are allowed to draw a card from the deck. Certain areas of the map have green spaces. If your movement ends in these areas (such as the swamp or the spiders lair in the forest) you will lose your next turn.

Draw Deck- This is where things start to happen. You may only ever have 7 cards total in your hand (unrevealed) and in play in front of you. The deck of cards has Quest cards, Creature Cards, Magic Spell Cards, Magic Item Cards and Curse Cards.

Quest Cards- Reveal the location where yo can find a Crown Jewel. If you can get your token to that location you may draw a Crown Jewel card.

Creature Cards- creatures found along the way will join you and grant bonuses in movement, combat and spell casting if you are of the correct alignment.

Magic Spell Cards- These allow you to effect yourself or your opponents during the game. Be warned however casting spells on other players will change your alignment from Good to Evil losing you all of your Good aligned followers. Your alignment is then returned to Good by completing a Quest card. Better make sure it’s worth it!

Magic Item Cards- These are items that give prolonged bonuses to the character that carries them.

Curse Cards- Negative effect cards that can be cast on opponents to hamper their efforts. Beware, this counts as an attackt and will change your alignment as well.

Attacking other players- You can attack other players either physically or with magic spells. If you wish to attack a player physically you must be on the space next to them and announce your intent to attack. Combat is a simple D6 plus any attack bonuses with the higher score winning. The winner is allowed to steal a card form the losing player. The card can be an object or your favorite pet! You may also choose a randomly selected card from the players unplayed cards in his hand. Congratulations. You’re Evil. Ties are no blood no foul and your turn ends.
To attack with magic you roll 2D6 and add any magic modifiers you have and your opponent must be within that number of spaces to you for the spell to be in range. If the target is withing range the spells effects happen to the target and the caster is now Evil. If the target is out of range you still discard the spell card and you are now Evil.

Alignment- All characters begin the game as Good and can have Good or Neutral followers. Once an attack is made then the players alignment changes to Evil and all Good followers immeadiately leave him. Evil players may attack attack at will naow as they are alerady Evil! Good players may attack Evil players with righteousness and fervor as it is alwyas a good thing to banish Evil right? Completing a Quest clenses one soul and turns Evil players back to the side of virture. Any Evil followers now leave the goody two shoes in favor of a more malevelent master. Rather Yin and Yang isn’t it?

Marketplace- On the black Castle tile there is a Marketplace where an aspiring young traveler can trade unwanted cards for what may be on offer at the time. There are 3 cards in the market at any given time.

All in all it is a great game with stunning components. I really enjoy the game and my kids (age 10 and 11) can’t get enough of it. They love the race and the snarkiness of the attacks when you can steal the “Golden Goose” (it’s in there) from well, Dad as it turns out and run off to the Castle to win the game. It’s a lighthearted game that can be played by the whole family. The only minor flaw I can see is that characters with movement bonuses seem to have an advantage as they reach multiple black spots to draw cards faster. All characters may gain movement bonuses through items and creatures however so this helps even things out a it. Like many games you will need to find the right way to play each character to get the most from them. Characters with attack bonuses should favor combat while those with magic bonuses cast spell from afar. The only other complaint I have is the small decks of cards for each character. I would like to see more cards added to increase the variety. All in all it is a great game that we have played many times, often consecutively. The game is a laugh factory and using the less obvious choices for characeters allow adults to play against younger players without having to hold back to much. The effort required to make a copy is minimal and is easily done in a couple of hours. I recommend laminating the cards as they will see a lot of action. I am very happy with the game overall and will be purchasing the commercial version soon.

I rated the game 8/10 mainly because while we have so much fun with the game we just plain want MORE!

—Doug Glisson, Alberta, Canada

Boardgames in Blighty Blog

Here ye, here ye! The King is dead, Long live the King! And in Legitimacy, designed by Chuck Whelon and produced by Minion Games, you find yourself as an illegitimate heir to the throne, faced with completing a quest (yes of course, this is a fantasy game…) for three Crown Jewels and returning them to the Throne room at in the kingdom of Legitimant before you are thwarted by your fellow illegitimate so-and-so’s.

This is Minion Games’ attempt to knock the behemoth that is Talisman off its throne as the King of the roll and move type fantasy board games. And you know what, I think it does! Legitimacy is a fun and sillier take on the genre. A mashup of Talisman and Munchkin that you can finish in reasonable time. Now that I’m interested in.

Gameplay

If there was one thing that drove me crazy whenever I played Talisman, its that it took way too long and the fun dried up. Legitimacy takes a slap at Talisman’s seriousness and dryness and has a go at being silly and more compact. The game board is made up of one central hexagon for the Castle region and then scales out with another board hexagon for each player adding Mountains, Plains, Swamps, Fields and Hills. With each region, you also add cards which are the central feature of the game system.

You start with a character and a pet each of which has modifiers for movement, magic and/or attack. You then move. A roll and move game, yes, and the movement is regulated through circles connecting throughout the regions.Some circles are black where you can collect cards and others are green which although on short cut path may mean you stop and lose a turn.

The fun begins as you stop and collect cards from the draw deck. The cards can be creatures, magical objects, cursed objects, magic spells, all of which can be useful in adding modifiers, giving special travel actions and allowing you to cast spells on other characters or not so useful in placing a cure on your character. There are also Quest cards which need to be collected and then achieved in order to find the Crown jewels which are needed to win the game.

So you spend most of your time traveling around collecting stuff, and completing quests. The problem is, that there are a limited amount of quests and if the other players are getting them, that’s just not cricket!!! This is where the game turns nasty as players attack each other through melee in adjacent circles or from a distance using magic. Whoever wins the battle can take a card from the other player. So its not about killing so much as thieving. This is a really good aspect of the game as even if you don’t complete quests, you can wait to attack with the right cards and steal the crown jewels.

Because there is a lot of humour in the game it makes it a lot easier to live with being attacked. And the humour works well. Shades of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This is not a game for the serious fantasy gamer but a lighthearted take on the genre.

The components are pretty good. The art work is comic-like and is very good indeed, fitting the theme of comic fantasy. The cards are varied and should make for replayability as will the game board which can change each time you play. The only let down is the use of plastic pawns for the characters. This games cries out for figures!

Did it work for me?

Generally it did. Legitimacy is much more varied and interesting and certainly more fun than any of the other roll and move fantasy boardgames I have played. It doesn’t take too long to play either which helps a lot. The rules say that it should take 20-30 minutes for 2 players and add 15 minutes for each additional player. Sounds about right. The game is nice to look at as the artwork is excellent and fun. The humour adds a lot of fun and silliness which, with the right group is a good time for all. The system works well and the roll and move function works well as the modifiers mix things up. It is perhaps aimed at a young audience but its a nice change from the seriousness of many fantasy games. This is a very fun game which works rather well. The system is clear, simple and moves along. A good buy and alternative to Talisman style games.

Family Friendly? Probably not unless it is played with older kids.

—Boardgames in Blighty Blog

Scimitar Wargrames Group

We played legitimacy with 5 players the other night at the club.

The game is based upon finding quest cards and completing them to gain enough “prizes” to win, so there is an element of a “race” style game. Prizes can also be stolen from other players by beating them in combat. There is also a magic system to assist players with moving, fighting, spying etc.

Each player has a character with unique features (faster movement, better combat, better magic) and each player receives a random “pet” which also has unique features – this system means that even if you end up with the same character twice in a row then the game should play differently due to the random pet. The system is simple enough that I would have no problems teaching and playing the game with my non wargaming mates who play a few games (Bloody Legacy, Carcassone etc) from time to time, but interesting enough to keep 5 fairly well seasoned gamers involved.

Movement does appear to be the key of the three attributes however, at some point in the game 4 out of 5 of the players looked set to win, the one who didn’t was the one with the lowest movement value. With low movement value you struggle to pick up the item/quest cards, and you find it difficult to catch other players to beat them up. I’m sure however that by judicious application of pets this problem can be avoided.

It’s fast flowing due to the simplicity, and the combat and magic systems are easy to resolve. Things can change very quickly which I like, however frustrating it is when you are playing. So overall I really liked the system.

Overall an interesting and fun game.

—Richard Hardy, Scimitar Wargrames Group

Legitimacy Boardgame Celebrity Endorsement

Carrie Henn, who once played the little girl “Newt” in James Cameron’s movie “Aliens”, owns a copy of Legitimacy (Chuck traded it with her for a signed photo at Alien Con in 2017). She is now an elementary school teacher with kids of her own. She sent this tweet to say how much she and her family love Legitimacy: The Game of Royal Bastards. Thanks, Carrie, for Legitimcay’s first celebrity endorsement!!!

Game Details

• Title: Legitimacy: The Game of Royal Bastards
• Designer: Chuck Whelon
• Publisher: Minion Games, 2009
• Format: Board game with 7 modular hexagonal tiles, 67 unique cards, 2 dice, and 6 counters
• Players: 2–6
• Recommended Age: 13+ (plays well with ages 7+)
• Genre: Strategy, family-friendly, medieval adventure
• Unique Features: Dynamic modular setup, good/evil alignment system, quirky pets, humorous role-play

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