The Goonies: Under the Goondocks – A Never Say Die Expansion

Troy and his father’s plan to turn the Goondocks into a country club golf course have failed. But since the Goonies discovered that One-Eyed Willie’s treasure was real, Troy has been searching for it out of spite.

Hey you guys! We’re back again with a follow-up to our review earlier this year of Goonies: Never Say Die. This time we’re taking a look at the latest expansion, Goonies Never Say Die: Under the Goondocks. This expansion brings new adventures and additional playable characters to the game. Just like the original, it plays 2-5 players ages 12+ in around 50-60 minutes. Don’t worry – no spoilers ahead!

The Goonies: Under the Goondocks is designed by Prospero Hall and published by Funko Games.

New to The Goonies: Never Say Die?

To play this expansion, you’ll need a copy of the base game The Goonies: Never Say Die. Goonies is an adventure style campaign game where players team up as the Goonies, while one acts as the Goondocks Master (DM) who runs the game and seeks to prevent their victory. Each game is played over a series of rounds where players will explore the same underground terrains as they did in the movie. You can learn all about the gameplay of the original game in our The Goonies: Never Say Die review.

A Guide To Expanding Your Adventures

The Under the Goondocks expansion extends the base game with three new adventures, three new playable characters, new cards and the Boss Foe Troy Perkins. Each adventure also introduces new components that bring new challenges.

New Goonies

In the base game we all wondered where Stef, Andy, and Brand were. The crew didn’t seem complete without them. Under the Goondocks brings them into the fold! Each teen has dice check stats, along with special (and handy) unique abilities. Stef’s Observant ability lets her look at the to two cards of the Treasure deck when drawing. Her Sucker Punch allows her to upgrade dice on her first attack each turn.

Andy’s Cheerleader ability allows her to gain a wish token the first time she passes a dexterity check. Her Rejection ability forces cancellation of a react effect played by the GM.

Lastly, Brand flexes his muscles by Working Out to remove up to two rubble tokens from a passage without performing a dice check. As the Older Brother, if Brand isn’t given Teamwork, he may spend a wish token when attacking to double his roll.

Assist Cards

Formerly known as teenager cards, these cards have special abilities to assist players. Once an Assist is used, the card is flipped over. Whenever the GM moves a Sand token to the bottom of the Hourglass, the Goonies may choose one Assist card to flip face up again. Three of these cards are selected during setup and you can only choose Goonies who aren’t being played in the adventure.

New Foes

Under the Goondocks introduces three new foes: Troy Perkins, Giant Spiders, and Wisps. Troy Perkins is a tricky boss on his Possessed side. When he deals damage he creates Wisps. Then whenever he attacks, he gets a free die upgrade for each Wisp in his room. He also can’t be stunned. Troy does have a second side, but we won’t spoil that.

Spiders are a particularly dangerous; when they deal damage the affected Goonie must pass a dexterity dice check or become poisoned. Poison is tracked with tokens and at the end of a GM round, Goonies take one damage for each poison token they have.

Wisps aren’t too scary; they only have one health! But when defeated, the Goonie doesn’t gain a wish token.

Impressions

Under the Goondocks is a great expansion for two reasons: first, it introduces the rest of the teen movie cast not included in the base game. When we first played, we all wondered where Stef, Andy and Brand were. Stef and Andy are go-to characters for our family.

Just as importantly, this expansion creates three new exciting adventures.

Mechanically the expansion doesn’t introduce any major changes to gameplay, other than the Giant Spiders and poison. The three new adventures are creative, especially when Troy is involved.

This game system can technically be played with two, but it feels like a lot of work to control multiple Goonies. It’s really inteded for higher player counts due to the cooperative design. Get your friends together, and never say die.

What makes Goonies: Never Say Die fun is that it totally captures the feel of being in the movie. The game is mostly a themed dungeon crawl, with narrative elements, terrain traversal, and rooms and obstacle reveals along the way. It has other dungon-esque mechanisms as well like dice checks, rolling for battle damage, and a game master controlling the enemies.

Once you complete both the base and expansion adventures, what’s a Goonies fan to do? On the back of expansion rulebook there’s a chart called “Roll for Adventure” that helps players create a randomized adventures. So, you can squeeze some extra play out of the game if you’re really fond of the system.

The Finale

The game system in Goonies: Never Say Die isn’t super rule heavy which makes this easy for families and new comers to the genre to jump right in. If your family has played The Quest Kids or CoraQuest this could be an easy transition.

The only catch is context! Playing the game without having seen The Goonies would really lessen the experience. This game oozes theme and ties in perfectly to the movie’s plotline. The Goonies: Under the Goondocks – A Never Say Die Expansion expands on the lore that is the Goonies franchise. Spoiler alert: the three new adventures aren’t scenes from the movie!

Should you buy it together with the base game? I would say yes. One of the obvious reasons is that when we played as a family, my wife and daughter wanted to play as either Stef or Andy. The base game only has male characters. For our family owning this expansion is a must and rightfully so as they want to see themselves represented. And with a price point under $20, it is well worth it for all the content you get. Super fans could certainly use the Roll for Adventure guide to create fan-fiction scenarios and keep the experience always expanding.

The Goonies: Under the Goondocks – A Never Say Die Expansion is perfect for Goonies fans who’d like to recreate the onscreen adventure at the table. Take the plunge and Find The Goonies: Never Say Die on Amazon, or ask for it at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Goonies Never Say Die; Under the Goondocks expansion from Funko Games.

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