Throughout time immemorial, there have been heroes all over the world. Some are quite recognizable, like Winston Churchill or Joan of Arc, but there is a far greater number that you hardly ever hear about – and many of them are female! These women did extraordinary things without expectation of recognition or gratitude, but have, instead, inspired and changed the world. HerStory from Underdog Games showcases the biographies of 120 of these remarkable women while placing players in the role of authors competing against one another by creating the best anthology to tell these women’s tales.

Setting up for a game of HerStory is fairly quick and easy. All players receive a player board/”Desk”, Library Card, and Player Aid that doubles as a book cover. The Chapter cards (biography pages) are shuffled and placed near the included playmat (a.k.a. “Idea Board”) in the center of the table along with the bag of Research tokens and player markers. Chapter cards and Research tokens are dealt to their respective spaces on the play mat and the game is ready to start. The last person who finished a book is the starting player.

While the theme may not appeal to every gamer or every game group, HerStory is actually quite a solid game with some light strategy. On a player’s turn, they Research, Draft a New Chapter, and Complete a Chapter (if able). Researching allows a player to draft a token from the Idea Board to their Desk. Before drafting a token, however, players can use their Library Card to wipe the Research Token row. Library Cards may only be used twice per game, so use them wisely! Players may also select a Chapter Card to put on their Desks if there is an open Draft space. Should a player have enough icons between the Research tokens on their Desk to complete the requirements of a Chapter card either still on the Idea Board or said player’s Desk, they may complete the Chapter. The used tokens are returned to the token bag. Completing chapters earns a variety of benefits – not just victory points! Some provide symbols that act as permanent Research icons. Others provide “text powers” that grant either end-game bonuses or in-game boosts. Once a player completes their 8th Chapter, the current round is finished and the game ends. Any end-game points are added to the players’ scores and the highest-scoring player wins.

It is important to note that there will be turns where all you do is Research. This is where the game has a few flaws – especially with lower player counts. The board can become stagnant, with no one able to draft or complete a card and all Library cards used. This can last for several rounds while players continue to Research and only Research. To modify this, we added a house rule for 2 player games (and potentially 3-player, too). Instead of using the Library Card twice to wipe the Research tiles, we have players using it once for the tiles and once for the cards. We found it kept the game going and we got to see/use more cards during the game. Otherwise, Herstory really shines for us at 3-5 players.

The all-star design team behind HerStory includes Nick Bently, Emerson Matsuuchi, and Danielle Reynolds. With previous releases such as Spector Ops, Oceans, Century, and Nut Stash, it comes as little surprise that HerStory is a well-put-together product. The components are of excellent quality and ensure a great tactile experience. Eunice Adeyi and Cristina Aguirre’s artwork is respectful and appealing to their audience. HerStory presents its subject in an accessible, fun format that I feel will really appeal to educators, troop leaders, or others who use “gameschooling” as part of their repertoire. This one has certainly been a lot of fun to have at our table the last couple of weeks and I can not help but recommend it!

Underdog Games provided us with a copy of the game, but all photos used in this review were taken and edited by Krista.