Thank you Doxa Games for providing us with a prototype of Trials & Triumphs!

Doxa Games is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for three of their games. We recently played and reviewed Bible Clash here. Both games we're reviewed utilize elements of classic games—while playing Bible Clash, I noticed some similarities to the card game War, whereas Trials and Triumphs seems to take inspiration from Chutes and Ladders.

Trials & Triumphs and Chutes and Ladders both have the same goal of navigating through one hundred spaces to make it to the finish line. However, some of the spots you land on may have a vine which will allow you to bypass multiple squares or you may land on cracked tiles that will set you back several spaces.

Trials & Triumphs is grounded in Christian values, and wants the players to focus on more than getting to the finish line. Doxa Games wants the players to remember that Christ is faithful and carries us through trials and lifts us up in our triumphs. Through it all, God will lead us safely home.

Nobody likes going through trials, but you can’t deny how they grow you spiritually. Spiritual lessons aside, I can guarantee that players will groan when landing on the trials and they’ll much prefer to land on the triumph vines.

The board game and pieces are nicely made and appear to be high quality. There are six wooden player tokens and a six-sided die. The game board is colorful with chibi-styled disciples and multiple Bible verse references (James 1:12, Proverbs 3:6, Romans 12:12). There are nine purple spaces for vines and eight cracked tiles which are orange.

The instructions explain how to play the game and the player order is determined by age with the youngest players going first. One extra rule worth noting is that if a player lands on an occupied square, they’ll get to move ahead one space. Various Bible verses are quoted including 1 Corinthians 10:13, Hebrews 12:2, James 1:12, John 15:5, and Psalm 119:105.

We typically play board games on our kitchen table, but we played Trials & Triumphs on our bed where our two cats were. Our male cat, Tux, enjoyed trying to capture the die after it was rolled. Meanwhile, our female cat, Shelby, preferred knocking our pieces off of the board. Even with the re-rolls and repositioning of our pieces, our game was completed in roughly fifteen minutes and my husband was the victor.

If you enjoy Chutes and Ladders and are looking for a Christian spin on it, check out Trials & Triumphs. After the Kickstarter campaign it will retail for $24.99. As of this review, the campaign is 30% funded. The most popular bundle is all three games for $49. Bulk order discounts are also available. These games would be great to have on hand for Sunday school or youth group events.