How to play IsleForge
IsleForge is a trade-and-build game for 2–4 players (or you against three island characters). Everyone is rebuilding the island of Gullwick after the Great Storm. You settle, gather goods, trade for what you're missing, and build — and the first islander to rebuild the most (8 points) wins. Here is a full game in six ideas:
- Settle a cornerstone — You start with two cottages. Place each on a corner where lots of fields meet — count the dots (how often a field pays) and aim for a good mix of goods. A cottage collects 1 good from each touching field when its dice number rolls; a hall collects 2.
- Roll for goods — Each turn you roll two dice. Every field with that number pays its good to the cottages and halls touching it. Numbers near 7 pay most often (more dots). Nobody loses a turn — even a quiet roll, someone is gathering.
- Trade — the deal is the lesson — You'll never roll exactly what you need. Trade spares at a cove (2-for-1 or 3-for-1) or ask a neighbour — and you must say what the trade is FOR (the Ask Rule). A fair deal helps BOTH sides move toward a build. That's the real skill of the game.
- Build toward 8 — Spend goods to build: a road (reach new corners), a cottage (1 point), a hall (upgrade a cottage, 2 points), or the Lighthouse. The longest run of roads (5+ connected) earns a bonus. First islander to 8 points has rebuilt the most of Gullwick.
- The Commons (no robber) — If someone rolls a 7, nobody is robbed. Instead the islanders who are holding the most share their surplus into a Commons that flows to whoever has the least. Nothing is ever taken or destroyed — the island rebuilds together.
- The Lighthouse — Anyone can add to the shared Lighthouse (1 stone + 1 fish each time). The islander who lights the last flame is the Lighthouse Keeper — a small thank-you for the cooperative work of getting the harbour safe.
Why trading is the point
Most of the game you won't roll exactly what you need — and that is on purpose. The interesting decision is the deal: what can I give up, to whom, for what I'm short on, so we both get closer to a build? Naming that — "I need stone for my road; I'll give you wood" — is the skill IsleForge is really about (the Ask Rule makes everyone, even the island characters, say it out loud).