A cards-only foraging game for 2–6 foragers, 20–30 minutes. No board, no meeples, no tokens — just one plant deck, one event deck, and the turning seasons. Collect wild plant cards, harvest the ripe ones to claim more from the market, and time your plays to build food forests before the weevils hit.
Every card is a real plant. Learn when each one yields, where it grows, and which food-forest layer it fills, and you turn a fistful of cards into a lasting, scoring pile.
Quick start. First time playing? Read Setup and How a Turn Works, then start building. Come back to Scoring and Mushrooms as questions come up.
Overview
The seasons cycle continuously — Spring → Summer → Fall → Winter → Spring … — with two rounds per season. On your turn you do two things in order:
- Market acquisition. Make one acquisition: draw 1 blind from the deck, take the oldest market card free, or buy a bundle (the free oldest card plus newer ones) in a single transaction, paying by harvesting in-season cards. You can't take a free card and then buy more.
- Main action. Do one of: build a biome forest, build a layer set, build a mushroom set, burn a card, or pass.
You score by building — committing sets of cards into your face-down scoring pile, where they're safe and locked in. There are two ways to win: build forests in a target number of distinct biomes to win the race outright, or be ahead on points when someone crosses the points target. Whichever someone reaches first ends the game.
There is no hand limit. The catch: when a weevil event hits, you lose half the cards you're holding. Cards already built into a forest or set are safe. The game rewards learning the deck — each plant's yield shifts with the season, so when you play a card matters as much as what it is.
Components
- Plant deck — 86 cards. 71 plant cards + 11 mushroom cards + 4 Foraging Safety & Guidance cards. Each plant/mushroom shows its biome(s), layer(s), per-season yield values (Cal/Bot/Seeds), and a field-guide ID note. Mushrooms carry a mycelium glyph.
- Event deck — 24 cards. One event is revealed at each season change, colour-coded by tone (boon / blight / calm / social): pests, frost, floods and storms, feasts, droughts, abundance, the market, knowledge, gifts and trades. A few are choices (burn a resource card or take a bigger loss) or optional boons. The card flips up face-down → reveal, then you resolve its effect.
- The Forager's Codex. The 4 guidance cards carry real safety rules instead of yields. They can't be harvested or burned and are weevil-safe (never owed to a discard event). See { e.preventDefault(); document.getElementById("hh-rb-mushrooms")?.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth", block: "start" }); }} style={{ color: "var(--ink)" }}>Mushrooms & Guidance.
- Season tracker. Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter, plus a pip for the round-within-season (1 or 2).
That's it — no meeples, no rings, no resource tokens. In this digital version the deck, market, season tracker, and scoring are all kept for you.
Anatomy of a Card
Every card teaches its own plant. Here is how to read one:
Mushroom cards use the same layout with a mycelium glyph and act as wildcards (double-stack for the Mycorrhizal layer) — see { e.preventDefault(); document.getElementById("hh-rb-mushrooms")?.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth", block: "start" }); }} style={{ color: "var(--ink)" }}>Mushrooms & Guidance.
Setup
- Choose your foragers. Play solo against bots or pass-and-play with up to 6 foragers total.
- Choose a game length — Sprint (3 biomes / 25 points, ~10 min), Standard (4 biomes / 42 points, ~20 min), or Marathon (5 biomes / 55 points, ~60 min).
- Shuffle the plant deck. Each forager is dealt a 3-card starting hand. Hands are private.
- Lay out a 4-card face-up market.
- Begin at winter's end. You've just crossed the mountain pass into new lands as winter is ending — the opening Across the Pass round is a calm gather round (no event, no weevils) so everyone fills a hand. Spring arrives next round and turns over the first event card; the seasons cycle normally from there.
The standard game ends when a forager builds 4 distinct biomes (an instant win) or reaches 42 points, whichever comes first.
How a Turn Works
On your turn you take the market phase, then one main action, then end the turn. Play passes left. After every forager has taken a turn, the round ends; two rounds make a season. At each season change the market refreshes and a new event card is revealed.
The free pick & market phase (optional): take your one free card — draw 1 blind from the deck, or claim a free market card — then buy extra market cards by harvesting. See { e.preventDefault(); document.getElementById("hh-rb-market")?.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth", block: "start" }); }} style={{ color: "var(--ink)" }}>The Market.
You choose exactly which cards to play into any build — nothing is forced. A card that fits two biomes, or a mushroom you'd rather save for a set, can always be held back.
Your main action — pick exactly one:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Build a biome forest | Play a set of cards from one biome covering 3+ different layers. You choose which cards. Scores immediately into your pile. |
| Build a layer set | Play 3+ plants that all share one layer, from any biomes. You choose which cards. Scores immediately. |
| Build a mushroom set | Play 4+ different mushroom cards together. Big points. |
| Burn | Discard 1 card from your hand. Defensive only — clears clutter before weevils. No reward. |
| Pass | Take no main action. |
Drawing is your free pick, not a main action — so you can draw your one card and still build, clear, or pass the same turn.
The Market
Each turn you make one market acquisition — you can't take a free card and then buy more; it's a single transaction. You either take the oldest card for free, or buy a bundle in one go: the oldest card plus the next-newer ones beside it. (Your one free pick can instead be a blind deck draw — but then you've spent your acquisition and skip the market this turn.)
The market is priced oldest → newest; buying up to a given card also sweeps every cheaper card before it, and the free oldest card is always part of the bundle. You pay by harvesting — discarding in-season cards whose combined value (the current season's Cal + Bot + Seeds) meets or exceeds the bundle's cost. You may overpay; excess value is lost.
| Cards in the bundle | Added cost | Bundle total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (oldest — free) | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | 11 |
Cost is paid in value points, not specific resources. A Wild Garlic worth Cal 1 + Bot 2 = 3 value in Spring can cover a two-card bundle (cost 1) with value to spare. The same card in Summer is worth 0 and can't pay for anything.
Mushrooms and guidance cards have no market value and can't pay for takes — they're worth holding for builds.
Building
Building is how you score. There are three kinds of build; all of them score the instant you play them and move the played cards face-down into your scoring pile, where they're safe from weevils and locked in for the rest of the game. You choose exactly which cards go into each build.
The seven layers
A build scores by the number of different layer types it covers, drawn from the permaculture stack:
- Canopy — tall trees (oak, walnut, conifers)
- Sub-canopy — understory trees (serviceberry, sassafras)
- Shrub — berries and woody bushes (elderberry, blackberry)
- Herb — non-woody flowering plants (ramps, nettle)
- Ground — low spreading plants (wild strawberry, violet)
- Vine — climbers (wild grape, groundnut)
- Root — taproots and tubers (burdock, Jerusalem artichoke)
An 8th Mycorrhizal Network layer unlocks only when a mushroom is in the build.
Biome forests
A biome forest is a set of cards covering 3+ different layers in one biome. Multi-biome cards (most generalists list 2–3 biomes) count toward whichever forest you build them into, then commit to it. One plant per layer — you can't double up a layer with a second plant. The one exception is the mushroom wildcard: a mushroom may double-stack onto a layer that's already filled, adding the Mycorrhizal Network as one extra layer — but only one double-stack (one mushroom) per biome forest. A mushroom does not unlock a biome's restricted layers. Each biome's restrictions cap how many layers you can reach in a single forest (a double-stack adds one more):
| Biome | Buildable layers | Max | + mushroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | All 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Forest Edge | All 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Wetland | All except Canopy | 6 | 7 |
| Disturbed | All except Canopy | 6 | 7 |
| Mountain | All except Vine | 6 | 7 |
| Meadow | Shrub, Herb, Ground, Root | 4 | 5 |
Completion bonus. Fill all of a biome's buildable layers and earn +5 on top of the layer score. You may build any number of forests in the same biome over the game — each is scored on its own.
Layer sets
A layer set ignores biome restrictions: play 3+ plants that all share one layer (three Herbs, four Shrubs, and so on), drawn from any biomes. Mushrooms and guidance don't count. It scores on its own curve (3 cards → 3, 4 → 6, 5 → 10, 6 → 15, 7 → 21, 8 → 28) plus the in-season value bonus. A layer set does not count toward the biome trigger or set bonus — it's the answer to "I drew the same layer over and over."
Mushroom sets
Play 4+ different mushrooms (by name) together for a huge bonus — 20 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 points for 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8+. With only ~11 mushrooms in the deck, this is a serious commitment, but it dwarfs everything else. Mushroom sets don't count toward the biome trigger.
Mushrooms & Guidance
Mushrooms — the wildcard
Mushrooms can't pay for the market (though they're forage, so you may burn one). They have three roles:
- In hand — weevil-safe. Pest events never take them automatically or count them in what you owe, though you may always discard one by choice.
- In a biome build (wildcard) — a mushroom plays two ways. As its own layer: like a plant, it fills one of its listed layers that's still open (several mushrooms can join a build this way, each on a different layer). As a double-stack: placed on top of an already-filled layer, it adds the Mycorrhizal Network as one extra layer — so a full Forest (7 layers) plus a double-stacked mushroom reaches 8 (top tier + completion). Limit: one double-stack per biome forest. A mushroom does not lift a biome's layer restrictions.
- In a mushroom set — 4+ different ones for mega points.
The tension: a mushroom spent plugging a forest gap can't also go in a set, and vice versa.
The Forager's Codex (guidance cards)
Four guidance cards carry real safety rules — Positive ID, Beware Lookalikes, Prepare & Process, Harvest Responsibly. They have no yield, can't be harvested or burned, and are weevil-safe (never owed to a discard event, though you may give one up by choice). They do double duty:
- Wild (spend one). When building a biome forest, add one guidance card to fill a single missing layer. It can't exceed the biome's layer cap.
- The Codex (hold all four). Play all 4 together for a flat +25 bonus — mastery of safe foraging.
Seasons & Events
The game opens at winter's end (the calm Across the Pass arrival round — no event), then seasons cycle Spring → Summer → Fall → Winter → Spring …, two rounds each. The first event card is a Spring event, drawn after everyone's had a round to gather. At every season change, the old event is discarded, the season advances, a new event is revealed, and the market is refreshed. The season change is also when card values shift — a Spring-rich card goes worthless in Summer and ripens again in Fall. Timing your plays around the cycle is the central strategic axis.
The 24-card deck is colour-coded by tone — boon (good), blight (bad), calm, and social. At a season change the card flips up face-down, you reveal it, then resolve its effect.
| Event | Effect |
|---|---|
| Still Day ⬜ | Nothing — a quiet turn. |
| Pest Pressure 🟥 | Each forager discards 1 card of their choice. |
| Infestation 🟥 | Each forager discards half their hand (round up). |
| Drying Wind 🟥 | Each forager discards 1 out-of-season card. |
| Hard Frost 🟥 | Each forager discards 1 in-season card. |
| Sudden Storm 🟥 | Each forager discards 1 card at random. |
| Rot 🟥 | Each forager discards their lowest-value in-season card. |
| Thicket 🟥 | Each discards 1; the forager with the most cards discards 1 more. |
| Wildfire 🟥 | Each forager discards 1 in-season card, then draws 1. |
| Accident 🟥 | Discard a Botanical card this season, or discard 3 cards. |
| Harvest Feast 🟥 | Discard a Calorie card this season, or discard 3 cards. |
| Drought 🟥 | Discard a Seed card this season, or discard 2 cards. |
| Bounty 🟩 | Each forager draws 2 cards. |
| Open Market 🟩 | Refresh the market; each forager takes 1 card free. |
| Knowledge Keeper 🟩 | Look at the top 3 of the deck and keep the best 1. |
| Mentor's Visit 🟩 | Look at the top 2 of the deck and keep the best 1. |
| Forager's Cache 🟩 | Take the top card of the discard pile (or draw 1 if empty). |
| Overgrowth 🟩 | Hold 4 or fewer cards? Draw 2; otherwise draw 1. |
| Reseed 🟩 | You may discard a Seed card this season to draw 2. |
| Foraged Medicine 🟩 | You may discard a Botanical card this season to draw 2. |
| Hearty Provisions 🟩 | You may discard a Calorie card this season to take a free market card. |
| Forager's Gift 🟦 | Each forager passes 1 card to the player on their left, all at once. |
| Generous Neighbor 🟦 | Each forager passes 1 card to the player on their right, then draws 1. |
| Market Fair 🟦 | Each forager may swap 1 hand card with 1 market card. |
Weevils
Many events cull cards from hands when revealed at a season change. For most (Pest Pressure, Infestation, Drying Wind, Hard Frost) you choose which eligible cards to drop; Sudden Storm is random and Rot takes your lowest-value in-season card. Mushrooms and guidance in your hand are safe from automatic loss — they never count toward what an event makes you discard, and random or forced discards can't take them — but when the pick is yours, you may always choose one. Cards in your scoring pile are never touched.
Winter kills the weevils. The two true pest events — Pest Pressure and Infestation — are neutralized if they turn over in Winter (too cold for bugs): the card still appears, but has no effect. Frost and drying wind still bite, even in Winter.
Weevils are the reason there's no hand limit: the "right" hand size is whatever you can afford to lose half of. Building before a season change locks cards safely into your scoring pile — the surest protection.
Scoring
Each build scores the moment you play it. The endgame just totals the scoring pile.
Per biome forest (different layers in one biome):
| Different layers | Base score |
|---|---|
| 3 (biome forest minimum) | 3 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 (mature) | 10 |
| 6 | 16 |
| 7 | 25 |
| 8 (biome + Mycorrhizal Network) | 40 |
Per layer set (plants sharing one layer):
| Same-layer plants | Base score |
|---|---|
| 3 (layer set minimum) | 3 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 15 |
| 7 | 21 |
| 8+ | 28 |
Per mushroom set:
| Different mushrooms | Base score |
|---|---|
| 4 | 20 |
| 5 | 30 |
| 6 | 45 |
| 7 | 60 |
| 8+ | 75 |
Bonuses:
- Biome completion — +5 when a biome forest fills all its buildable layers (7 in Forest/Forest Edge, 6 in Wetland/Disturbed/Mountain, 4 in Meadow). The mushroom double-stack is a bonus layer on top, not required for completion. Layer sets and mushroom sets don't earn this.
- In-season — for each card in a build that's in-season when played, add its current-season value. Building a Fall-rich forest in Fall can far outscore the same forest in Spring.
- Forager's Codex — +25 for playing all four guidance cards together.
Biome set bonus (end of game):
| Achievement | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Biome forests in 3 different biomes | +5 |
| Biome forests in 5 different biomes | +15 |
| Biome forests in all 6 biomes | +30 |
Layer sets don't count toward the biome set bonus. Highest total wins; ties break to the most builds, then the most cards still in hand.
Endgame & Length
There are two ways to win, and the game always offers both — whichever a forager reaches first decides it:
- Biome race (instant win). The moment a forager has built forests in the target number of different biomes, they win outright — no final turns, no score comparison. (Multiple forests in one biome count it once; layer and mushroom sets don't count.)
- Points win. When a forager's running score reaches the points target, every other forager takes one final turn (the trigger player doesn't get an extra one), then scores are totalled and the highest score wins. A forager who completes their last biome on one of those final turns still steals the instant win.
If the deck, discard, and market are all empty, the endgame triggers the same way: every other player takes one final turn, then highest score wins.
| Preset | Biome target (instant win) | Points target | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint | 3 biomes | 25 | ~10 min |
| Standard | 4 biomes | 42 | ~20 min |
| Marathon | 5 biomes | 55 | ~60 min |
The biome and points targets are co-tuned so racing wide (biomes) and building tall (points) are about equally fast — the choice is real. This digital version plays the Standard target by default.
Community Forests Advanced
Learn the base game first. Out of the box this is a game about building your own forests — that's where new foragers should start. Community Forests is an optional mode for groups that already know the rules and want more interaction and higher stakes. Turn it on at setup (it's off by default).
In a community forest, no half-finished planting is truly yours to sit on — anyone can add to it and take credit for the growth they bring.
The rule. If an opponent's biome forest has open layer slots (layers of that biome it doesn't yet fill), you may spend your main action planting the missing layers from your hand — one card per open layer, cards that grow in that biome. You score the difference between the forest's new layer tier and its old one (growing a 3-layer forest to 5 layers scores 10 − 3 = 7), plus the +5 completion bonus if you fill its last layer, plus the usual in-season bonus on the cards you add. The owner keeps every point they scored, and the biome still counts only toward their biome race. Restricted layers stay closed unless the forest has a mushroom (or you add one).
The reverse trap. Completing a forest earns points but never biome credit, so the two win conditions prey on each other. A biome-racer can leave thin builds as bait, hoping rivals burn turns topping them up instead of racing. But every open layer you leave is income for someone else — your half-built deep Forest is the most efficient points on the table, so expose too much and you fund the very points win you're trying to outrun. And points-per-card rise as a biome fills (the 7th card is worth far more than the 4th), so a banked-but-incomplete deep biome is your richest prize and your biggest liability at once.
Because completing forests is an extra income stream, this mode uses higher points targets to keep the race fair: Sprint 3 biomes / 32 points · Standard 4 / 53 · Marathon 5 / 79. In the digital game, look for the dashed ⤳ Grow… actions on your turn.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take several market cards in one turn? Only as a single bundle — the free oldest card plus the next-newer ones beside it, paid in one transaction by harvesting in-season cards. You can't take the free card and then buy more separately. Then take your one main action.
Do I have to play every matching card when I build a biome? No. You choose exactly which cards go into the build from a composer — handy when a card could fit two biomes or you want to save a mushroom for a set.
Which card gets discarded when a weevil hits? You decide. Eligible cards become tappable; mushrooms and guidance are always safe.
Can a mushroom be in a forest and a set? No — once a card is built into a forest or set it's locked into your scoring pile. That's the core tension.
What if I have nothing worth building? Use your free pick to draw 1 (or grab a market card), burn dead weight before a weevil, or just pass. Seasons loop, so a worthless card now may ripen again — if it survives the weevils.
Glossary
- Biome forest — A built set from one biome with 3+ different layers. Counts toward the biome trigger and set bonus; can earn the completion bonus.
- Build — A biome forest, layer set, or mushroom set. Scores immediately, then cards lock into your scoring pile.
- Burn — Discard a hand card. Defensive only — softens the next weevil. No reward.
- Codex — The 4 Foraging Safety & Guidance cards. Play all four together for +25.
- Completion bonus — +5 when a biome forest fills all its buildable layers.
- Harvest — Discard an in-season card to pay value toward an extra market take. Harvested cards leave play; built cards score.
- In-season — A card whose current-season yield row is non-zero. Mushrooms are in-season only in their fruiting seasons.
- Layer — Canopy, Sub-canopy, Shrub, Herb, Ground, Vine, Root, or Mycorrhizal. Builds score by number of distinct layers.
- Layer set — A build of 3+ plants that all share one layer, from any biomes. Scores on its own curve; doesn't count toward the biome trigger or set bonus.
- Multi-biome card — Lists 2–3 biomes; counts toward a forest in any of them, but commits when played.
- Mushroom set — 4+ different mushrooms played together. Big scoring tier.
- Mycorrhizal Network — The extra layer a mushroom adds by double-stacking a filled layer (one per forest). It does not lift the biome's restrictions.
- Scoring pile — Your face-down stack of built cards. Safe from weevils, locked for the game.
- Value — A card's current-season Cal+Bot+Seeds total. Pays for market takes. Mushrooms and guidance have no value.
- Weevil — A pest event that culls cards from hands at a season change.