Forbidden Island

Why it's in our library

Everyone at the table is on the same team, so a family wins or loses together. Each player gets a role with its own special power, and talking openly and planning together as the water rises is part of the game.

How to play

The island is a grid of tiles laid out at random. Your team's goal is to collect all four treasures, bring every player back to the helicopter landing tile, and then play a helicopter card to escape.

On your turn you take up to three actions. You can step to a tile next to you or drain a flooded tile beside you or under your feet by turning it face up again. You can also pass a treasure card to a teammate on your tile, or claim a treasure by handing in four matching cards while you stand on one of that treasure's two tiles. Roles change these choices: one player might move diagonally, another might fly anywhere, another might drain more tiles.

Next, draw two treasure cards. You may hold only five. A rising-water card pushes the water level up and puts the flood cards already used back on top of the flood deck, so the same places flood again soon. Last, flip as many flood cards as the water level shows. A dry tile becomes flooded. A tile that was already flooded sinks and leaves the game.

Helicopter and sandbag cards can be played at any time, even on a teammate's turn.

The team loses in any of these cases:

• both tiles of a treasure it still needs sink
• the landing tile sinks
• a player is stuck on a sinking tile with nowhere to swim
• the water reaches the top of the meter

Good for