Forbidden Island is a board game developed by Matt Leacock. It is a co operative board game where all players have to work together to either win or lose as a group, rather than players trying to beat each other. The premise of the game is that the group is stranded on Forbidden Island and they have to collect 4 treasures, The Earth Stone, The Statue of the Wind, The Crystal of Fire and The Ocean’s Chalice before making their way back to the tile known as Fool’s Landing to catch a helicopter off the island. During this time however the island is slowly sinking and so all of these tasks must be completed before the island sinks. There are 24 tiles to the game and they are randomly placed around the island. As the game progresses flooding randomly occurs to different tiles. First a tile becomes flooded, if it is flooded a second time then it is lost forever and then players are unable to interact with that tile anymore. Two of each of the four treasures that the players seek are placed on designated tiles.
This wherigo is based around the game Forbidden Island. Firstly though, it is important to note that this is a play-anywhere wherigo, in that it doesn’t have to be started at the posted co-ordinates. In fact it can be started wherever you like in the world. Ideally though a Football oval or cricket pitch would be best as you are going to require an open field of approximately 50 meters radius around where you open the cartridge. Please see the image below for the kind of space that you are looking for….
Make sure you have a good level of GPS accuracy before beginning the cartridge as otherwise it could lead to problems later on. Once the cartridge is opened it sets out the 24 tiles, which are hidden zones around where you started. The pattern, as shown above, is always the same, but which zone is placed in which position is random and won’t be the same every time you play. An Earth Stone treasure is placed on the Temple of the Moon tile and the Temple of the Sun tile. A Statue of the Wind treasure is placed on the Whispering Garden tile and the Howling Garden tile. A Crystal of Fire treasure is placed on the Cave of Embers tile and the Cave of Shadows tile. An Ocean’s Chalice treasure is placed on the Coral Palace tile and the Tidal Palace tile.
Once this is done you will be able to wonder around the field that you have chosen and begin looking for these treasures. Once you find a treasure, click on it and it will go into your inventory. Once you have all four of these treasures you need to find Fool’s Landing where you will also find a helicopter. Click on the helicopter and your mission is complete and you will be rewarded with a set of co-ordinates for this geocache.
However, there are dangers too. To begin with 6 tiles are randomly flooded. You will still be able to interact with these tiles and collect treasures that they may contain, but they will be flooded. After that, every third zone that you enter will cause a flooding event. Remember, this is only triggered by moving to into zones, it is not time based, so there is no hurry. Slow down and take your time and think about your next move rather than trying to rush through it. To begin with 2 random tiles at a time will be inundated every time a flooding event takes place. If the tile wasn’t flooded before then it becomes flooded. If the tile was already flooded and it is inundated a second time, then it becomes lost forever. Once that happens you will be no longer able to interact with that tile.
Collecting the treasures is vitally important. The helicopter will not appear on the Fools Landing tile unless you have all four treasures. So, if you haven’t collected for example the Ocean’s Chalice treasure yet and both the Coral Palace and the Tidal Palace tiles are lost forever, then you have no way of interacting with the two tiles that carry the Ocean’s Chalice treasure and therefore no way of collecting the missing treasure and thus no way of meeting the helicopter at Fool’s Landing and winning the game. If this happens then you will need to re start the game.
Also, if Fool’s Landing is lost forever you will be unable to interact with it and even if you have collected all the treasures you will not be able to meet the helicopter there and therefore, again, the game is unable to be completed and you will need to start again.
Also, during some flooding events you might find it coincides with an event known as WATERS RISE. If this happens it means the level of the ocean’s rise higher than previous and instead of 2 tiles being inundated every time there is a flooding event, the number will rise to 3, and then to 4 and then to 5. So the island sinks quicker and quicker as the game progresses. But remember, it’s still not time based. The flooding events still only occur on every third move that you make, so once again I’ll remind you to not rush and to think about your moves.
There is however, some help available for you. Very occasionally, instead of a flooding event occurring, you will instead receive some sand bags. These sand bags can be kept in your inventory for future use or used straight away to sure up Fool’s Landing if it is flooded. You do not need to actually be on Fool’s Landing to use these sand bags. You can only use these sand bags to sure up Fool’s Landing, not any other tiles and you can only use it if Fools Landing is flooded. If Fool’s Landing is “lost forever”, you cannot get it back using sand bags.
You can download the cartridge and begin your adventure by clicking here.