Forbidden Island was the secluded retreat of an ancient mystical empire known as the Archeans. Legend has it that the Archeans possessed the ability to control the Earth’s core elements – fire, wind, water, and earth – through four sacred treasures: The Crystal of Fire, The Statue of the Wind, The Ocean’s Chalice, and The Earth Stone. Because of their potential to cause catastrophic damage if they fell into enemy hands, the Archeans kept the treasures secretly hidden on Forbidden Island and designed it to sink if intruders ever attempted to claim them. In the centuries since the mysterious collapse of their empire, Forbidden Island remained undiscovered ... until now.
While that may sound like the description of an adventure novel or movie, it's actually the premise of the cooperative board game, Forbidden Island. The game is designed for 2-4 players whose objective is to retrieve four treasures from an island before it sinks into the ocean. Each player takes on the role of a different adventurer with their own unique ability that they can use to help the team. The game is won if all four treasures are retrieved and all players escape from the island before it sinks.
The board itself is created by placing tiles randomly in a grid pattern to build the island, making the game a little different each time. Gameplay follows a pattern familiar to many cooperative games: players take actions, then bad things happen. In this case, players choose actions from moving, shoring up a sinking island tile, giving a treasure card to another player, and capturing a treasure. After each player's turn, flood cards must be drawn, which cause regular island tiles to become flooded and flooded tiles to sink away completely, leaving holes in the island.
With its fairly simple rules and cooperative style, Forbidden Island is a great introductory game for new players, while more experienced players can up the difficulty to Elite or Legendary level for a tougher challenge. Since everyone is working together, kids younger than the recommended age (10 and up) can often join in, making it a good choice for families. And, if you have competitive members in your gaming group, winning or losing all together helps to keep the peace!
If you'd like to learn and play games like Forbidden Island, join us at an upcoming Tabletop Games event! Details and dates here.