Fans of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean book series are in the middle of a content Winter right now. After Fourth Wing and Iron Flame were released six months apart, and Onyx Storm dropped 14 months later, the author announced she was taking a break and it would be a while before the fourth installment would be announced. Combine that with Amazon’s Prime Studios being light on details the highly anticipated Fourth Wing TV series would start shooting, and fans are eager for something to keep them connected to this world.
Enter Hasbro, which has been working directly with Rebecca Yarros on an officially licensed version of the popular party game Priorities. I’ve spent the last week playing Priorities: Fourth Wing with a rotating cast of fellow fans of the book series, and can confidently say this game will be a popular gift to give this holiday season.
For the uninitiated, Priorities is a quick-play game where the table works together to guess which order the round leader ranks a series of concepts on cards. Each round takes about 20 minutes to complete, and broadly speaking the franchise is quite popular because it can be played with just about anyone and remain pretty lighthearted. It also travels well, since the box is smaller than most board games you’ll find on shelves.
As you might expect, the Fourth Wing version of this game heavily themes the core parts of this game to reflect the artwork and concepts from the books. Despite the name, Hasbro Board Games SVP Brian Baker made it clear to me the team responsible for this game was permitted to pull from all three publicly available books and all aspects of the game were approved by Rebecca Yarros before its creation. In my time playing the game with others, I found everything was quite accessible to anyone who has only read the first book but more in-depth conversations would pop up with those who had read it all. And yes, some of the spicier parts of the books can be found in the game.
Every person I played Priorities: Fourth Wing with all had the same positive response to the game. The game format itself is a proven success, and there are no fans of this series who wouldn’t want to discuss their theories and favorites with other fans. Plus, for $25, it’s a solid addition to any board game shelf and a great way to bring your bookish friends together.
Priorities: Fourth Wing is available to pre-order now and ships September 25th.
