Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor is a standalone two-to-five-player card game. On each turn, draw cards or pay to play a card into a growing forest of trees, shrubs and moor terrain. Animals and plants occupy the available sides of those habitats. Your aim is to build a high-scoring combination before the third winter card is revealed. These instructions use the Dartmoor box; its deck is separate from the original Forest Shuffle.
Set up the clearing and winter stack
Place the clearing board centrally. Put the three winter cards and five cave cards aside, shuffle the other Dartmoor cards, then return cards to the box unseen: 45 with two players, 30 with three, 15 with four, or none with five. Divide the remaining cards into three similar face-down piles. Shuffle two winter cards into one pile and put the third on top of that pile. Stack the other two piles over it to make the draw stack. That structure keeps winter in the lower part of the game, though card effects can reveal it unexpectedly.
Each player draws six cards. Put one random cave per player into the clearing and return any unused caves to the box. The player who last visited a moor is first. In reverse turn order, players choose a cave and place it face up in front of them, then resolve its opening effect in reverse order. Cave 4’s indicated effect waits until game end. Choosing after seeing the available caves is part of setup, not a normal draw or play turn.
Choose one action each turn
Play proceeds clockwise. On your turn, take exactly one of these actions:
- Draw up to two cards: take them one at a time. For each, choose the face-down top of the stack or a face-up card from the clearing. Your hand limit is ten; with nine cards take only one, and at ten you cannot choose this action.
- Play one card: pay its printed cost by putting that many other hand cards face up into the clearing. Place the chosen card in a legal position in your forest, then resolve its effect and eligible bonus. Check the clearing at the end of this turn.
If you can perform neither action, the rulebook’s rare fallback is to reveal your hand, discard two cards and draw two from the stack, then end your turn. Do not use this swap simply because neither normal action looks appealing.
Place habitats and their inhabitants
A tree or shrub offers four slots: top, bottom, left and right. A terrain lies horizontally and has two top and two bottom slots, with no side slots. These slots matter when a split card shows an animal or plant on two halves. Choose one visible half, place it in an empty slot on its corresponding side, and slide the unused half underneath. Only the visible inhabitant counts as being in the forest. A split card cannot be played without a suitable empty slot.
Some inhabitants say they can only be placed in a moor. Check the actual card restriction before spending cards to pay for it. Terrain cards are moors; a face-down card back is a universal moor, but you can put one into play only when an effect or bonus instructs you to do so. Its back does not make “play any hand card face down” an ordinary action.
When you play a tree, reveal an additional card from the draw stack into the clearing. This can reveal a winter card. Once a played card is in place, use its instant or ongoing effect as printed, then any bonus. Some bonuses need all payment cards to match the played card’s color or tree symbol. Finish by checking whether the clearing has at least ten cards; if it does, discard all cards there. Effects that grant another turn are the exception to proceeding to the next player.
Know exactly when the game ends
The first and second winter cards are placed beside the clearing and replaced with another draw from the stack. The third winter ends the game immediately when revealed, whether during a normal draw, a tree’s extra reveal or an effect. You do not finish the current turn. Sum points from all visible cards in your forest under their printed conditions, then add one point per card in your cave. A tied top score is a shared win.
Quick first-turn example
Suppose your opening hand has a tree costing two cards and a split plant requiring a bottom slot. You could play the tree by discarding two other cards face up to the clearing; it provides a bottom slot and reveals another stack card to the clearing. On a later turn, you may pay for and place the plant under that tree if its bottom slot remains empty. The order matters: without a habitat and legal slot, the split plant cannot enter your forest.
Continue with placement and timing tips, scoring examples, and the Exmoor setup changes. Source: Lookout’s English Dartmoor rules, checked October 3, 2026. Read the included cards and publisher appendix for individual effects.
