Tabletop games
Forbidden Island
Together, capture the island's four treasures and fly off from Fools' Landing before everything sinks.
- players
- 2–4
- minutes
- 30
You’ll need the game box. Marquoir sums up the rules and keeps score.
Setup
- Lay out the 24 tiles to form the island, then flood six tiles drawn at random.
- Each player receives an adventurer with a special ability, and two Treasure cards.
- Set the water level according to the difficulty.
How to play
- On your turn, take up to three actions: move, shore up a flooded tile, give a Treasure card to a player on the same tile, or capture a treasure by discarding four matching cards on the right tile.
- Then draw two Treasure cards; a Waters Rise! card raises the water level and puts the Flood discard pile back on top of the Flood deck.
- Finally, turn over as many Flood cards as the water level: a dry tile becomes flooded, an already flooded tile sinks.
Scoring
- No points: the team wins or loses together.
End of the game
- Victory: all four treasures captured, every adventurer on Fools' Landing, and a Helicopter Lift card played.
- Defeat: Fools' Landing sinks, both tiles of an uncaptured treasure sink, an adventurer cannot swim to safety, or the water reaches the skull and crossbones.
Frequently asked questions
Can you give a card from a distance?
No, except for the Messenger: everyone else must be on the same tile as the player receiving the card.