Forbidden Desert
Designer: Gamewright
Players: 2-5
Playtime: 45 minutes
Ages: 10+
The Forbidden Desert game is the thrilling sequel to Forbidden Island, offering a fresh cooperative experience for fans of strategic teamwork. You and your fellow adventurers must recover a legendary flying machine from an ancient desert city while braving an ever-growing sandstorm.
Setup
Create a 5×5 grid by shuffling 24 desert tiles, leaving the center tile empty to represent the storm. Eight sand markers are placed in a diamond shape on the grid. The four flying machine parts and storm tracker are set aside. Players receive an Adventurer Card assigning them a unique role with special abilities.
Gameplay
Each turn, players can perform up to four actions such as:
- Move (up, down, left, or right, but not diagonally)
- Remove sand (clear one sand marker per action)
- Excavate (flip a tile to reveal its contents)
- Pick up parts (once located, collect a part with one action)
Working together, players must manage resources like water, tools, and equipment. Tunnels provide protection and mobility, but the key challenge comes from the storm, which moves after every turn, adding more sand and shifting tiles, making the desert more dangerous.
Objective
Find and collect all flying machine parts, transport them to the launch pad, and escape before the sandstorm buries you.
Final Thoughts
Forbidden Desert builds on the success of Forbidden Island with added depth and challenge. Its cooperative mechanics encourage tight collaboration, making it an excellent choice for family game nights or team-building activities. The evolving desert creates tension, keeping players engaged throughout.
Highly recommended for fans of cooperative strategy games, especially those who enjoyed Forbidden Island. If you would like to order your own copy of Forbidden Desert CLICK HERE
The Dinner: Forbidden Desert and the Wild, Wild, West
The Food
I’m a big fan of co-op board games and I was well into adulthood before I knew they even existed! Forbidden Island was the first one I ever played and it became an instant favorite. So now, I’ve become a bit of a fanatic and love the experience of working to win along with my fellow players instead of against them.
When we decided on Forbidden Desert, which I hadn’t played yet, we had a few ideas. I was up for a potential Arabian desert themed meal, and we thought about Mexico as well. Ultimately we settled a little closer to home and decided on the American Wild West era.
For the main dish we opted for vegan chili, using my Variant Berry-friendly spice mix (our poor girl is allergic to many peppers!). It’s a classic south-western comfort dish and a household favorite where we use plant-based protein and beans.
Our appetizer was homemade cast iron cornbread, a must-have companion for chili, and for dessert Variant Berry treated us to a delicious peach cobbler sundae. I’d never had one before. It was so good! The cinnamon crumble topping lives in my head rent-free
The Cocktail: “Cowboy” Collins
I decided to go with a classic Tom Collins, and just tagged on “Cowboy” because I could. I had a lot of fun using freshly squeezed lemon juice for this – it really makes a difference.
Recipe
- 2oz Gin (0 proof gin for alcohol free)
- 1oz fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
- Club soda
- Lemon wheel for garnish
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice
- Add the gin, juice, and syrup
- Shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds.
- Pour over ice and top with club soda.
- Garnish with a lemon wheel
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