Advert: Flatout Games loaned a copy of this game in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are ours. 

Looking for a new puzzly roll & write perfect for Autumn? Let me introduce you to Forage!

Key stats

1 to 6 players | 15 to 30 mins 

Publisher: Flatout Games / AEG
Designer: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich
Artist: Beth Sobel

Categories: Nature
Key mechanics: Roll and write, Action chaining, Contracts

Game overview

In Forage, you roll dice to explore the forest and gather mushrooms, berries and plants to fill your pantry or make into gifts. At the start of each round the Forage dice are rolled, then players simultaneously perform an action of their choice (multiple players can choose the same dice/actions):

• Store – choose a single group of matching foraging dice (e.g. a group of salmonberries) to fill jars on your Pantry cards.
• Explore – choose all the non-matching foraging dice (i.e. showing different faces to any other dice) and use them to cross off paths on your Exploration cards.
• Gift – take EITHER a single group of matching dice or all the non-matching dice to tick off items on your Gift cards.

And in addition to the normal Foraging dice, there’s a special black Foraging die that you can use as part of any action.

When you complete rows/columns on Pantry cards, or circular routes on Exploration cards, or finish all the items on a Gift card, you unlock various nifty bonuses. These can be prestige points, crossing off additional pantry jars/exploration icons/gift items, taking additional dice actions, or collecting knowledge/experience on your score cards (worth prestige points at the end of the game).

Another bonus you can earn is the wonderful gift of Time, which you mark on your Time Tracker. Time can be spent in place of an additional dice of your choice (1 Time) or to take a whole additional dice action (2 Time), or to claim an available Journey tile for its corresponding bonus (usually a mix of prestige points and/or additional bonuses).

Each game also has 3 public Goal cards, such as completing 3 of the same card type or earning 20 Time. When a player completes a goal they claim Prestige points based on its current worth, and cross that value off (meaning its worth less points in future rounds).

When a player is ready to end the round – that is they’ve completed their dice action and any additional bonuses/actions – they draw a new Forage card from the deck of their choice (Pantry/Exploration/Gift Giving) and place it face down in front of them. When all players are ready, they reveal the new cards and choose to either add them to their personal tableau, or discard it in exchange for 1 Time. After 13 rounds (tracked by revealing new Journey tiles at the start of each round) the game ends and the player with the most Prestige Points wins.

Solo mode

Solo mode is basically identical to multiplayer mode, with the exception that the Prestige points you earn for completing a Goal card depends on how far into the game you are.

Our thoughts:

Once you’ve got your head around the iconography, the gameplay is straight forward and it feels like an easy choice to grab off the shelf when you want a laid-back game. BUT while it is fairly easygoing, it’s also fairly puzzly, and I think it’s more brainburny than it first appears.

This is mainly due to how the tableau cards interact with each other, as you want to trigger bonuses and cross items off (and use Time) in a way that gives you the best action chains. We found that the more we played, the better we got at lining up the bonuses into the most satisfying combo-tastic turns! The action chaining is reminiscent of the classic Ganz Shön Clever (aka That’s Pretty Clever), but Forage has a nice cozy theme on top.

The solo and multiplayer modes feel practically identical. And that’s because there’s practically no player interaction – there’s racing to complete goal cards for the most points (which the solo version adjusts for) and grabbing Journey bonuses (but you can still claim the bonus yourself in the same round), but calling this interaction would be a stretch. This is 100% multiplayer solitaire, which goes hand-in-hand with the cozy theme (foraging isn’t competitive!) but we know it’s not for everyone.

Your choices in the game feel fairly open – you can choose to focus on a particular type of card or multiple types. I also liked the contrast between Pantry (sets of the same foragables) and Exploration (routes having a variety of different foragables). I usually found myself focusing on either the Pantry or the Exploration cards, with a bit of Gift-giving on the side. This is somewhat directed by the goal cards in play for the game – for example if you have a goal that requires Pantry cards, you’ll probably want to prioritise pantry cards. If you have a Goal about gaining Time, you’ll probably try to collect it as quickly as possible across any card type you can. There’s 12 potential goals to choose from, which adds a bit of variety to how you play.

Beth Sobel’s art – which you may recognise from the likes of Cascadia and Calico – is the ultimate cozy choice for a foraging game. Although I do think it could have been utilised more across the game, as it’s mainly featured on the Gift-giving cards and the box itself. And I love love love the large wooden dice. They are tactile and very satisfying to roll – plus being wooden adds to the natural foraging theme. 

Time is so valuable and can easily be forgotten, but using it at the right time is how you can get a mega-action-chain. I had turns where I would gain time, spend it to do more actions, then trigger more bonuses and gain more time to spend on more dice actions! And it’s easy to feel like you should hold on to new cards, but being able to let them go to build up time is essential if you wanna max out those actions or grab juicy Journey bonuses.

You’ll like this if:

• You’re looking for a new roll & write with action chaining (like the forever classic Ganz Shön Clever)
• You want something cozy that also scratches a puzzly itch.
• You enjoy nature-based games.

You won’t like this if:

• You hate multiplayer solitaire (i.e. no player interaction).

Verdict

We were pleasantly surprised by Forage! From the chunky dice to the cozy art and quick but puzzly gameplay, it’s a satisfying addition to the verb & write genre.