Forest Shuffle rules: how to play and how to score

Forest Shuffle quick rules

The goal

Everyone grows their own forest, card by card: plant trees, then settle animals, plants and mushrooms around them. Each species scores in its own way: some like groups, others want a specific tree or neighbor. When winter comes, the game ends.

The cards

A tree card shows a single tree. All other cards are split into two halves, one species on each, split top and bottom or left and right. Each tree and species shows its cost and its points, next to a small acorn. In the center, the clearing holds discarded cards, faceup.

A turn

Take exactly one action. Either draw two cards, one at a time, from the deck or the clearing; you can never hold more than 10 cards. Or play a card from your hand, paying its cost with that many other cards placed in the clearing. At the end of your turn, if the clearing has 10 or more cards, it’s emptied into the box.

Trees and their inhabitants

A tree provides four card slots: top, bottom, left and right. Each tree you play also sends the top card of the deck to the clearing. Instead of a tree, you may play any card facedown for free: it’s a tree sapling, with no species. For a split card, choose one half, pay its cost and slide the other half under a tree, on the matching side.

Effects and bonuses

An effect applies once, right after playing the card; mushrooms’ effects are permanent, starting on your next turn. A bonus, marked by a colored arrow, requires all the cards paying the cost to share the played card’s color (the same tree symbol). The effect comes before the bonus. A few animals put cards under your cave: 1 point each at the end.

The end of the game

Three winter cards are hidden in the lower third of the deck. When one comes up, place it next to the clearing and draw another card instead. As soon as the third is revealed, the game ends immediately: the player whose turn it is doesn’t finish it.

Scoring

Everyone totals the points of all the visible cards in their forest: trees, then the species on top and bottom, then those on the left and right. Many points depend on the rest of your forest, a few on other players’ forests. Add 1 point per card in your cave; cards in hand score nothing. On a tie, the victory is shared.

Beginner pitfalls

Planting too late (no tree, no species: play a sapling if needed); paying with the card an opponent wants, since it lands in the clearing; forgetting the clearing empties at 10 cards; holding too many cards; waiting too long to play your best cards, since after the second winter card, the end can come any turn.

Alpine

The expansion adds 36 mountain cards and has you remove more cards during setup. It brings two tree species, but cards asking for all species still need only eight. A sixth butterfly joins the collection, the Mountain Hare counts as a European Hare without sharing its slot, and a new bird fills your cave.

Woodland Edge

The expansion adds 36 cards, including 12 shrubs, and has you remove more cards during setup. A shrub provides four slots like a tree and has a permanent effect like a mushroom, but it’s neither: it doesn’t count for cards that refer to trees.

How to score Forest Shuffle

Trees

Points from your tree cards. A tree sapling scores nothing by itself. With Woodland Edge, add the points from your shrubs here.

Top/Bottom cards

Points from the visible species on top of and below your trees.

Left/Right cards

Points from the visible species to the left and right of your trees.

Cards in your cave

1 point per card under your cave card.

Worked example

Emma scores 20 points from trees, 38 from her Top/Bottom cards, 45 from her Left/Right cards and has 6 cards in her cave: 20 + 38 + 45 + 6 = 109 points.

Common mistakes

• Scoring the half slid under a tree: only the visible half scores.
• Giving points to a tree sapling: it scores nothing by itself and has no species.
• Scoring cards left in your hand: they’re worth nothing.
• Forgetting that some cards also count other players’ forests.
• With Woodland Edge: counting a shrub as a tree for cards that refer to trees.

How to set up Forest Shuffle

Setup comes in three parts. The number of cards to remove depends on the player count and the expansions.