New Upcoming Card Game Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor

Last year, Forest Shuffle earned widespread praise as a charming card game in which players build a forest by placing trees that attract various woodland creatures and plants.

As with many successful titles, Forest Shuffle quickly expanded. Two small-box expansions—Alpine and Woodland Edge—followed the base game, and more recently, a brand-new standalone title has been announced: Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor.

Unlike the previous releases, Dartmoor is a completely independent game and is not compatible with the earlier Forest Shuffle sets. It supports 2–5 players and has a playtime of approximately one hour.

Named after the national park in southwestern England—famous for its moorlands and its connection to The Hound of the Baskervilles—Dartmoor maintains the core mechanics of the original. Players place cards on the table to build a balanced ecosystem of flora and fauna, scoring points through synergy and biodiversity. As before, each player begins with 6 cards and, on their turn, either plays 1 card or draws 2.

However, Dartmoor introduces a major new twist: terrain cards. Unlike tree cards, terrain cards are placed horizontally, and various animals can be played above or below them. Terrain type matters—deer, for instance, tend to avoid bogs and peatlands and prefer to stay near water.

The game includes 180 cards and introduces caves, which provide asymmetrical player powers and are selected at the start of the game. Also, instead of 8 tree types, Dartmoor features only 6, slightly simplifying bonus collection.

Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor is scheduled to make its public debut at the Essen Spiel board game fair in fall 2025.