Here’s Fantasy Forest, an oddly combative children’s game from TSR. This is the original 1980 version.

The game feels a lot like Candyland, except with a D&D theme and, well, lots of fighting. Movement is handled with cards, which also double as monster encounters. The number on the card is your movement, and the color can be used to take shortcuts on the map. Land on a red spot, you have to fight a monster, using a card in your hand against one drawn from the deck, going back a certain number of spaces when you lose. You can fight your fellow players in a similar way, jockeying for the lead on the board. First person to the wizard’s castle wins.

I love the art for the board and the cards – its super bright and cartoony and seems like a pretty good introduction to some of the themes of FRPG, though definitely not the mechanics, if you’re OK with having your five-year-old play what is essentially a brawler. I think I am OK with that? We’ll have to see.

There are a couple different versions of the game, all essentially the same, though the 1983 version comes with PVC player figures based on characters from the LJN D&D cartoon. For what it’s worth: TSR also put out a series of young reader pick your path books under the Fantasy Forest brand name (geared toward younger readers than Endless Quest), from 1983-1984.