Trial of the Forest

• Designer: Giancarlo Spinelli
• Publisher: Rebel studio
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 60-120 min
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Tpm9MK
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Embark on a journey deep into the ancient forest of The Trial of the Forest. Traverse labyrinthine paths, gather resources and choose which deeds you wish to accomplish. You may peacefully forage for berries or seek lost artifacts on dangerous expeditions; ambush your rivals or surprise them with a cup of tea; buy equipment at a store or burn it to the ground. Each deed improves your skills and earns you fame. However, only one adventurer can emerge victorious from the Trial of the Forest.

The Trial of the Forest is a strategic narrative adventure game featuring resource management, multi-use cards, skill progression, combat and an evolving board. Every decision shapes your own story, creating a unique emergent narrative and forging a personal path to victory.

To set up, place the board on the table and randomly assign the location tiles matching the icon on the tiles to that on the board.  Ruins tiles get 2 small items and 1 large item placed on them facedown.  The rest of the items are organized by type and then the stacks are placed into the store at the bottom of the board.  The deed cards are shuffled and placed in the bottom left while the 3 expedition card decks are separately shuffled and placed in the upper right.  The encounter cards are shuffled and a 3 card market is made in the upper left corner.

Each player chooses their character (bird, frog, hedgehog or mouse) – taking the matching player board and figure.  The 4 paw tokens are placed on the board as well as 3 random tent tokens.  Three expedition flags are placed above the backpack area.  The morality marker starts in the central space of the track at the bottom of the board.  Each player starts with a hand of 3 deed cards and 1 each of raspberry, mushroom and acorn.

The game is played over 4 rounds – with multiple turns in each round. On a turn, the player has 3 possible actions which can be done in any order: Use a paw token (obligatory), play a deed card (optional), make a move (optional).

Play a Deed Card – play a card from your hand – the card may specify a location you have to be in, and it may have either a cost or inventory prerequisites in order to be played.  If you can play it, resolve the action on the card and then tuck in under the top edge of your player board in the appropriate column based on the icon in the upper left of the card.   Each column affects your character. The leftmost alters your morality track, the next gives you advantages when you go to the store.  The third column increases your movement and the final one increases your fighting strength.  For the last three columns, the player to first get 5 cards in each of those will collect the legendary bonus (worth 3 VP) for that type.  Finally, in the center top of each card is a possible ongoing bonus which grants you one extra thing each time you collect the shown thing.

Making a Move – counting up all the move actions on your board, on deed cards played under your board, and possibly on the left side of cards you discard from your hand, add up your movement allotment.  Each step on the board uses one movement icon.  You can move through tunnels, consider a tunnel space directly adjacent to any other. 

Using a Paw Token – players start the round with 3 regular paw tokens and 1 strong paw token.  These are used to mark places that you have visited. There are four different ways to use a paw token – 

1] Resolving an Encounter Card – place your token underneath any of the 3 encounter cards in the upper left of the board; pay the cost and then resolve the card. If you have to fight, you must have more fighting strength than the opponent; you count all the icons on your cards, points from your die rolls as well as those on up to 2 cards you discard.  Tuck the card in the appropriate column at the top of your board

2] Using a Location – at the 12 locations on the board, there is a banner near the bottom.  If you use a regular paw, you get only the left side as a benefit. If you use your strong paw marker, you get both the left and right.  Each of the four types of locations has a different action:

• Grove – gather food and possibly a wild tea leaf
• Ruins – look at the items and choose one, returning the others
• Lookout – draw 2 deed cards and place them next to your board, you can use them on the next turn
• Store – you can make multiple buy and sell transactions with the store. You can also move artifacts from your backpack to the storage area.  Finally, you get a bonus based on the number of scales icons you have

3] Embarking on an Expedition – there are three different expedition areas on the board (The Forgotten Swamps, The Frosty Hill and The Dark Caverns). The goal of each is to reach a finishing space – and the further you go, the bigger your reward will be.  You place your paw token next to the deck of the expedition you are at and then draw the top card from that deck and resolve it.  If you succeed with the card, you will likely be able to move forward in that particular expedition.  On your next turn, you could place another paw token here to draw another card to keep going.  Certain expedition cards may give you artifacts which you store in your backpack.  While in your backpack, they may also give you ongoing benefits.  You can choose to store artifacts at the store, where you will still score for them at the end of the game, but you will no longer get their benefits.  If you reach a finishing space and want to stop, place your expedition token of that type onto your current space.  This will mark your progress and help you remember your score for it. 

4] Helping the Forest Residents – place your paw token in the help space and gain either a resource of your choice or a deed card.

If you start a turn without a Paw Token, you still can play a deed card and move, but you will be forced to camp (and end your actions in this Round).  Certain spaces on the board will give you a bonus if you camp there.  Also, if there is already a tent token in the space you are camping in, flip it over and gain the bonus shown on it.  Then, pitch your own tent by placing a tent token from your board in your current space.  The next player to camp here will get the bonus on the token.  Take all of your paw tokens back and end your turn.  If you are on expedition, there is a special camping space at the bottom of the board.

When all players have camped, the round ends.  Whoever is holding the first player token at that time begins the next round.  There is a one-time chance for the first player to decide to wipe and refill the Encounter display.

At the end of the fourth round, the game ends.  Players sum up their score:

• Points on face up cards in your story
• Points on items in your backpack
• Points from the spaces where your expedition flags were placed
• Points for your morality track
• Points for legendary deed markers
• 1 point for having the first player token
• Points for artifacts stored in the gallery at the store

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player with the most cards tucked under the top of their board.

My thoughts on the game

Trial of the Forest is a thematic exploration game where players travel around the forest collecting resources, fulfilling deed cards and getting set up from grand expeditions.  After all, what sort of hero just runs around the forest doing piddly errands?!  The real glory (and victory points) are to be had by going on expeditions.

The game is played in four rounds, and in each round you’ll likely only get 4 Paw actions – so you have to make those 16 moves count!  Trying to get to locations where you can do multiple things is key due to the limited supply of Paws.  The player board also has a bit of engine building to it as your played cards will build up your attributes in different areas of the game. As you progress through the game, you’ll find that you’re able to do more and more with each turn as you build up your stats.

Figuring out when to use your Strong Paw token is also key to success.  Whenever you use it, you’ll get a much stronger action, but you are normally limited to doing this just once a round.  There are Deed and Encounter actions which might allow you to recycle your Strong Paw, and those are worthwhile options to pursue.

Be sure to save up time to go on Expeditions.  It will take a number of your paw tokens to get all the way to the end of one (should you choose to go that far) – so be sure you have budgeted for that.  That being said, there are multiple benefits to the expeditions.  First, as you progress, you’ll often gain cards that you can add to your story, and this will improve your action engine each time.  Each of these will also likely come with VPs.  Furthermore, as you progress through the expedition, you’ll also likely gain a VP bonus from that, so this is a nice way to double dip so to speak.

Each expedition has clues as to what sorts of equipment will be useful in each, and I’d definitely pay a lot of attention to those hints.  Many of the cards require you to either have a particular item or to discard it, and deep progress or at least efficient progress will depend on having these needed tools.

While the Expeditions seem to be the most efficient way to gain points and cards, the regular deed cards and Encounters will still help you with little tasks in between expeditions as well as extra ways to use your resources to grow your engine.  

One thing I’d make sure to recommend to players is to try to get one of the large items, whether from the store or from exploring the Ruins.  These large items each have a unique ability that you can lean into for your overall strategy.  The Compass at first seemed overpowered (allowing you to discard a drawn card in an Expedition to see the next one), but after a few plays, we’ve seen players use each of the large items as the basis of a successful strategy.

Make sure you have a big table to play this – the forest board is a bit larger than a standard board (6 panel instead of 4), and each player also needs room for their player board as well as for cards to be tucked above the top.

While the overall mechanisms of the game are easy enough to grasp, there is definitely a lot going on in the game with plenty of options for the players to have to think about.    On each turn, you’ll have to figure out where to move, what resources to gather, what cards to try to fulfill, etc.  As you have a limited number of Paw actions, the challenge will be to make the most of those opportunities in order to be the best hero in this Forest.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Tpm9MK