Designed by: Matt Leacock
Forbidden Desert is inspired by the designer’s previous game Forbidden Island and operates on similar principles.
Players are en route to the excavation site of an ancient flying machine when their own helicopter crashes. Their only choice now is to find the ancient parts of the machine and rebuild it in order to escape the searing heat of the desert.
The board is made up of randomly distributed landscape tiles that are set out face-down (sandy side-up). Sand tiles are laid on top of some of the landscape tiles also. Players start at the crash site and move around the ‘board’ using a maximum of 4 actions: move (1 space) remove sand, excavate or pick up. Move and remove sand are pretty obvious – excavate means (as long as there is no sand on it) you can flip the landscape tile and discover what’s buried there. Some will be clues as to where to find the flying machine parts and some will be little bits of equipment to help you on your mission. There are also a couple of wells where you can refill your canteen – absolutely crucial in a game where if you canteen level reaches zero, you die. At the end of each players turn cards are revealed that move a sandstorm (represented by the absence of a landscape tile) around the board.
Each player plays an individual expedition role so everyone has a specialism, be it it movement, sand clearance or finding water. Once players have located and picked up the pieces they need everyone heads to the launch pad to escape. If everyone manages this, they escape in the now-functioning flying apparatus!
All the players work as a team, but it's possible that not everyone will make it out.
Low
Pretty low; there are decisions to be made and some mental calculations over your best move. But nothing too taxing.
The tiles are laid out randomly and the equipment cards also shuffled. You can also play the game at different levels of difficulty.
2-5
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
Despite my irrational dislike of games that come in tins as opposed to boxes, Forbidden Desert is a winner. I played with my son (when he was 7) and we both enjoyed it a lot. Great for youngish children and families as the co-operative play avoids arguments, but the tension of the desert storm keeps things exciting.