Forbidden Island: Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, Bobak Ferdowsi, and Jason Finn on TableTop

Woohoo WIL WHEATON. Imagine if you will a mysterious island not to be found on any map Delivered to this island, four adventurers who live at the intersection of brave and stupid, Because this is no ordinary island. This island is alive and it will stop at nothing to protect its secrets.
Today, on “ TableTop, ,”, Jason Finn, John Scalzi, Bobak Ferdowsi, and I will have to work together to capture the island’s treasures and successfully escape from the Twilight –. The Forbidden Island, [, MUSIC, PLAYING ], WIL, WHEATON “ Forbidden Island”, is a cooperative play, set collecting game designed by Matt Leacock, who did “ Pandemic” and “ Roll Through the Ages.

.” We’re a team of adventurers trying to recover these four magical relics from this island that is sinking into the sea.

Of course, the island has other ideas and is actively trying to kill us. The waters are rising and the island is sinking into the sea.
The only way on and off the island is through the helipad at Fool’s Landing.

If Fool’s Landing sinks we lose If the path to Fool’s Landing sinks, we lose Like all good cooperative games. There are a lot of ways to lose and only one way to win On our turn. We get three actions that can be some combination of the following:
We can move our guys orthogonally on the board. We can shore up sinking island spaces or we can play some of these cards. We’Ve collected to get us closer to victory.

We will have to build our team very carefully in order to have any chance at all, of winning. Every character has a special ability. The messenger can give treasure cards to any other player in the game.

The diver can swim across open water,
The pilot can move to any space on the board at any time, Very handy when the island is sinking underneath you, Because seriously you guys the island is trying to kill us Every turn we will draw from this treasure deck and if we get a Waters Rise Card we increase the level of the water and the island sinks, even faster Glug, glug glug game over moon pie.
Well, will we sink or will we swim We’re about to find out?

Let’S play “ Forbidden Island .”, JASON FINN: My name is Jason Finn and I am the drummer for the Presidents of the United States of America.

John SCALZI, My name, is John Scalzi.
I’M a science fiction and fantasy writer and I’m best known for the “ Old Man’s War” series of books, BOBAK FERDOWSI Hi. My name is Bobak Ferdowsi and I’m one of the flight directors on the Mars Science Lab Curiosity mission, WIL WHEATON.

So, every time we play a game on TableTop, we set it up randomly. We do not fix anything. Everything that you see is exactly the way that it happens, which is why our board position is bullsh. –, [, BLEEP, ], JOHN SCALZI. Yes, we’re doomed,
Wil WHEATON: This is terrible, JASON FINN, So I’m looking at the opening board position and I don’t really know enough about the game to have an intuitive feel about whether this is good or this is bad.

But then I look over and Scalzi and Wheaton are both openly weeping BOBAK FERDOWSI Our pieces are sort of scattered over the board, but lots near the edge Trying to get back and forth between the two corners where our trophy pieces are. Those are a little more challenging
John SCALZI, The other thing is Fool’s Landing is way over here. So, even if we get all the temples we have to do, this basically run through the jungle to get back to Fool’s Landing.

Jason FINN, So that doesn’t bode well, But I had a nice breakfast, so I’m feeling good WIL WHEATON. I guess before your first turn.

Maybe just tell the kids at home who you are JASON FINN. So I’m a pilot
[ HELICOPTER BLADES ] WIL WHEATON. So what do you think you’re going to do? First, JASON FINN? Well, if it were up to me, I would hit the observatory there.

I would fly over to the Observatory and then I would shore up these two WIL WHEATON, The Copper Gate and Phantom Rock JASON FINN. Yeah yeah

Bobak FERDOWSI, But this one’s actually a thing that you that we need JASON. Finn, That’s a good point. It is indeed [ WAVES CRASHING ], [ WATER BUBBLING, ] JOHN SCALZI. If you go out to Iron Gate, then you have options: WIL WHEATON Sure,
Jason FINN: OK I’m allowed to land on a sinking, –, WIL, WHEATON, Yeah, sure Yeah.

You can actually land where Scalzi is JOHN SCALZI. You can land on my head, WIL WHEATON. It just means that unless you’re wearing high water pants, your cuffs are wet.

Jason FINN, No I’m wearing knickerbockers today, So those are actually they stop at the knees: WIL WHEATON, Yeah, you’re, good JASON FINN. I scored the iPad app yesterday and so I feel, like the other two games that I’ve completed, have made me somewhat of an expert and kind of the go-to strategy.

Guy WIL WHEATON, OK, great
So it looks like — JASON FINN, So one of you move me to Iron Gate. Then JOHN SCALZI Whoosh whoosh, whoosh whoosh And WIL WHEATON You’re, going to make that sound every time right, JOHN SCALZI, Every time, BOBAK FERDOWSI. And what would you like? What do you think about shoring up
Jason FINN, I will shore up Cave of Shadows and, I suppose Iron Gate, because we don’t want that to sink while we’re on it.

Wil WHEATON, Let’s make some theoretically good stuff happen for you, JASON FINN.

Ok, let’s do that Yeah WIL WHEATON! So let’s go from the Treasure Deck!
Oh, look at that JASON FINN Off the bat WIL WHEATON All right, so the waters are going to rise. That’S fantastic! In my game!

At home. Whenever you draw the Waters Rise card which is randomized in the deck, it’s your fault!
Jason FINN. Sorry, my fault

Wil WHEATON, OK, So we’re going to move the water from level two Elite, JOHN SCALZI, You couldn’t let us cheat. You could have looked away while I switched the tiles around
Wil WHEATON I couldn’t I could not do that And your treasure card.

Ok, great WIL, WHEATON! That’S not that’s! Not all that bad! Look! Jason FINN.

I will take that
This is a set, as they say, WIL WHEATON, That’s good. That is a set JASON FINN. Almost a complete set Yeah WIL WHEATON. Now what we do is we take these guys that we use that we flipped over at the beginning of the game to find out how things are going on this magnificent island.
And we hope and hope and hope and hope that we don’t draw Copper Gate or Phantom Rock or Howling Garden.

Jason FINN, How many other cards are there? Besides, those there WIL WHEATON? Well, there’s the ones we already flipped right, JASON, FINN, OK, yeah About six in there yeah
Ok. WIL WHEATON, Ready Iron Gate, BOBAK, FERDOWSI, OK., WIL, WHEATON, OK, so you’re on Iron Gate,
That’S fine, that’s!

Ok! It’S not a big deal. You guys are on it. Bobak FERDOWSI, Just getting a little damp in our socks, WIL WHEATON Good! It’S actually!

Now it’s really good that you had shored that up.
And then we’ve got the Cave of Shadows. Awesome, Also, really good that you shored that up OK. And our last one here is going to be the Howling Garden, which goes away, which is bad
Bobak FERDOWSI, Oh already lost it; Yeah, that’s bad JOHN SCALZI, We’re doomed, WIL WHEATON. That is bad All right!

So that’s the end of the first turn.
Very uneventful, JOHN SCALZI, Very uneventful,

Wil WHEATON Very uneventful, Scalzi you’re up. What are you going to do?
John SCALZI, And did I mention we’re doomed? Well, I’m the diver, [ SCUBA BREATHING SOUNDS ] JOHN SCALZI, So I will just basically do a whole lot of shoring up [ INTERPOSING VOICES, ] JOHN SCALZI, The Cave of Shadows, because it’s got this little thingy here and I want it to stay around WIL WHEATON.

All right action, one
John SCALZI And I think that I want to keep Copper Gate, WIL WHEATON Action, two JOHN SCALZI. I don’t really know this game very well at all.

This is actually the first time I’ve ever played It’s the first time. I’Ve actually seen it
But the good thing about it is as long as you have a good crew of people with you. Then it’s really easy to pick up and actually figure out how to work in concert.

So so far, so good WIL WHEATON. Now, let’s find out where the waters are doing their water thing, OK, ready! We’Ve got the Copper Gate.
John SCALZI, Ah gee. Well, that’s was good to do that.

That was smart, WIL, WHEATON, OK, all right! Then we have number two: the Phantom Rock JOHN SCALZI Bye, bye, Phantom Rock. You have that
Wil WHEATON Goodbye Phantom Rock And the last thing is going to be the Silver Gate, which is where I am So. That’S actually great Take the Silver Gate out and then so now check this out.

I get to move to a place of my choosing.

I can either go to the Misty Marsh or I can go to the Cliffs of Abandon These actually sound. Like titles of Zeppelin songs, JOHN SCALZI, You can’t go to the Temple of the Moon, WIL WHEATON! No! I can’t because that’s diagonal Every time you play Forbidden Island. You hope that you get maybe one or two turns at the start of the game, just to move around the board a little bit.

And we don’t get to do that today. I can move one to Lost Lagoon, two shore, Copper Gate and three. I could give this to you Bobak, since you have — BOBAK FERDOWSI, So I start the fire quest WIL WHEATON, Since you have a fire already JOHN SCALZI, And why can you give that to him WIL WHEATON, Because I’m the messenger

I can give cards to anybody, regardless of where I am on the board And now, let’s get me some theoretically good cards All right. I have a chalice of — JASON FINN, Victory, WIL WHEATON, Something yeah And I have a Lion of Wind-ing
Jason FINN: Oh good WIL WHEATON! So that’s all right.

We avoided waters rise And now, let’s find out what happens with the water We’ve got, the Coral Palace is going to get wet.
[ WAVES CRASHING ] WIL WHEATON, Which is not good. The Fool’s Landing is now going to get wet, which is really really bad. [ WAVES CRASHING ] JOHN SCALZI. It is [ WATER, BUBBLING, ], WIL WHEATON, It’s really super bad And the Cliffs of Abandon are going to do that, which is fine, because we’re going to abandon them.

Now I can shore up Fool’s Landing immediately with sandbags for free

[ INTERPOSING VOICES, ] WIL, WHEATON, Yeah, yeah yeah. You know how sometimes you get a case of the stupids JOHN SCALZI Yeah. No, No that never happens to me.
Wil WHEATON Really JOHN SCALZI, No WIL WHEATON All right Bobak. What are you thinking?

Bobak FERDOWSI, I’m feeling pretty good. I, like being an engineer.
I think that’s a good role for me. It’S a little different than my job, of course, but it’s a lot of fun.

I, like the aspect of it, that’s really fun for me.

Is I get to do a lot of actions near the beginning and strategize a little bit about how I’m going to use my move. Wil WHEATON Actual NASA engineer playing the engineer. We’Ve got this
Bobak FERDOWSI So yeah. I think I can fix up the Fool’s Landing and Coral Palace WIL WHEATON, All right, so Fool’s Landing one and then move to Tidal Palace. Two Coral Palace, three, All right, great, All right, Theoretically, good card number one is a Chalice of Chalicing
Ok, we have three of the four on the board And card.

Two is Sandbags: JOHN SCALZI, Yeah, WIL WHEATON, All right, that’s great, And that puts you at your hand limit. So just know that as we go on
Now, let’s find out what the island does,

The island says Cave of Embers, which is next to Fool’s Landing. [ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON. Then the island says Misty Marsh JOHN SCALZI, Which is where you came in WIL WHEATON, Which is where I came in
And then the island says Whispering Garden, Oh man, this is bad news. We have both fires and the last remaining wind sitting in the potential go away deck.

That’S not good! Jason you’re up

John SCALZI But you’re next right, JASON FINN, I am next WIL WHEATON All right Finn. What are you doing? Jason FINN, It’s interesting because I want to be in the same square as you Scalzi to receive this from you. Wil WHEATON, Yeah,
I love cooperative games because we all live and die together.

I feel really bad that I asked my friends to come play a cooperative game with me on TableTop, because it means we’re going to lose

John SCALZI, You know the thing is: is that we really this thing it can’t go. We have to save that regardless, because it’s the only one that we have left WIL, WHEATON Yeah
John SCALZI, That’s always mission critical, WIL WHEATON And I can just sandbag it right now, JOHN SCALZI Yeah. You do that WIL, WHEATON And free us up BOBAK FERDOWSI. Should I do that or should you because I have more cards than you guys,

John SCALZI, I want you to keep yours WIL WHEATON, Oh, wait! A minute!

Yeah He’s closer to his hand, limit BOBAK FERDOWSI, Because I have a sandbag as well.
Wil WHEATON Yeah good call Good call, BOBAK FERDOWSI. So let’s use that to shore up Whispering Garden, WIL WHEATON, Yeah yeah, So we’ll use the sandbag
John SCALZI Very well played JASON FINN When the mohawk guy meme started. I was at the front of it.

I was like that is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

I could give him all three cards. Couldn’T I with three actions BOBAK FERDOWSI, But he would then he would reach his hand limit very quickly.
And he would have to discard JASON FINN Well, he could discard this other stuff, But then it would take him forever to get to the — WIL WHEATON Wait a minute, wait a minute. Ok, you get everything. Ok, Then you swim to –.

You get it on your next turn.
[ WHISTLES ], WIL WHEATON, OK, That’s catching the next turn. Ok And you’re going next JOHN SCALZI. Everyone else would have to go around and they basically have to burn turns, But I can go in one turn to a tile all the way across and then just do one more step and then my third final step is delivering the cards.

And that’s what I’m going to do And then we do the ahhhhhhh WIL WHEATON Great, So go ahead and claim the treasure, which is now rightfully yours, John Scalzi, JOHN SCALZI, Sweet
Wil WHEATON And place it in front of you, JOHN SCALZI.

It looks like like a little fruit dish. Doesn’T it BOBAK FERDOWSI, It’s an incomplete Death Star, but you know WIL WHEATON Incomplete Death, Star JOHN SCALZI. It’S Venus!
Bobak FERDOWSI There you go Nice, JOHN SCALZI. Getting that first one makes me think we can get the whole thing.

Wil WHEATON All right Want some theoretically good cards.
John SCALZI, I do WIL WHEATON, Theoretically good card number. One is not theoretically good JOHN SCALZI. What WIL WHEATON It’s theoretically bad JOHN SCALZI! I blame you
Wil WHEATON And then the second card is going to be a helicopter, lift So take that JOHN SCALZI, Which we clearly need WIL WHEATON.

So the first thing we do is we increase the difficulty level. The waters rise, we’re still drawing three cards.

Bobak FERDOWSI: What’s the name of this level now WIL WHEATON, This level’s now called “, Legendary .” So had we started with Legendary we’d, be drawing four cards: BOBAK FERDOWSI Yeah? No, that would not be good.

Wil WHEATON. All right. Let’S find out what happens.
This is not good, So they’re shuffled they’re back on top of the thing here And ripping it off like a Band-Aid Temple of the Moon, JOHN SCALZI. Well, we can let that one go

Wil WHEATON We lose the Temple of the Moon,
[ WATER BUBBLING ] BOBAK, FERDOWSI Goodbye to the Temple, WIL WHEATON; OK, all right, BOBAK FERDOWSI; That’s not bad WIL, WHEATON, OK, Cave of Shadows, Not as bad as if it’s the Cave of Embers
John SCALZI, But we still have a problem because now both of these are submerged WIL, WHEATON, OK and Fool’s Landing again, Also not good [ WAVES CRASHING ] WIL WHEATON OK.

Well, if I move to Bronze Gate, I can shore up Fool’s Landing.
Bobak FERDOWSI. Oh that’s a good point. Wil WHEATON! If I move all the way to Fool’s Landing, that’s one two!

Then I can shore up Cave of Embers JASON FINN. I love that we all get to argue and discuss and do all this stuff before every move. It’S very Congress-y, isn’t it WIL WHEATON Yeah all right, so I’m going to sandbag the Cave of Shadows!

Cave of Shadows is sandbagged. Now, let’s find out what the island wants to do.

The island is all hey: Coral Palace, [ WAVES, CRASHING ], WIL, WHEATON, Coral Palace and Cliffs of Abandon. We have abandoned you, [ WATER, BUBBLING, ], WIL, WHEATON, Goodbye
And lastly, Whispering Garden is here: [ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON? That is less good again, because it is the only card we have where we can get a lion Right now. I think Bobak is the most important player on the team. We have so many flooded tiles.

We’Ve got to get those shored up or we’re not going to survive. Two waters rising
Bobak FERDOWSI, So I think I can shore up Breakers Bridge Cave of Embers WIL WHEATON. That’S one BOBAK FERDOWSI Move to Coral Palace, WIL WHEATON! That’S two BOBAK FERDOWSI Then fix Coral Palace and Whispering Garden.
Wil WHEATON, That’s three BOBAK FERDOWSI Yeah Good plan, guys WIL WHEATON!

That’S a good move! Yeah! I’M on board with this
John SCALZI Well done BOBAK FERDOWSI. I can’t reach everything JASON FINN. It’S like laundry day, You’re just doing you’re just fixing stuff

Wil WHEATON The whole reason you want the engineer on your team is so he can flip over four tiles in a turn.

That was huge, BOBAK FERDOWSI, I’m not sure if that’s going to help the end game or not, but I hope it plays out well WIL, WHEATON And now I have some theoretically good cards. John SCALZI, Oh BOBAK FERDOWSI. I knew that was coming.
I knew that was coming, JASON FINN, It’s the way. You said, theoretically, that time WIL WHEATON And then your bonus card is a lion, So you have to discard something BOBAK FERDOWSI.

I think at this point it’s the best one
We’Ve got four fires on the board: JOHN SCALZI Dump the chalice right now: WIL WHEATON Yeah dump the chalice JOHN SCALZI, And then we’ve got the two chalices right next to each other, so we could actually just stay there focus on that WIL WHEATON. We may end up regretting that

But — JOHN SCALZI, What we do is focus here And every time it wants to sink those we just rebuild those BOBAK FERDOWSI. That’S true Yeah JOHN SCALZI. So we could do that and then we’re right here.
This is a brilliant plan and I fully endorse it.

Wil WHEATON I’m on board. I second Scalzi’s brilliant plan. Do we have a quorum for the plan? Jason FINN, We do
I have four sandbag cards in my pocket. I brought home too WIL WHEATON, Oh good, good, JASON FINN.

There has to be all this discussion or there’s going to be a –. If you had to do a silent version of this game, it would just be mind. Blowing, I bet there’s a pro league in Belarus or somewhere like a pro Forbidden Island league, where it’s like totally silent, JOHN SCALZI. I see no possible way. This brilliant plan could ever fail.

Wil WHEATON [, INAUDIBLE, ], OK, So now the waters will rise. This is the last time we’re going to be drawing three

So, look, we are going to be drawing — every one of these cards is terrible. Super bad news.
Jason FINN, Yes, BOBAK FERDOWSI, I think with the water rising as it is right now, it’s a little scary just because parts of the board are so far apart And we need to keep the center of the board intact. Also so that people like myself, which can’t move over water or fly, can get around WIL WHEATON.

How does this compare to guiding Curiosity to the surface of Mars, BOBAK FERDOWSI? You know what
At least on Mars, everything was over by the time we realized what it was

So waiting for that 14 minute delay was kind of nice WIL WHEATON. The first time I played “ Forbidden Island ,”. It was before the official release on the only copy of the game that existed in the world with the designer Matt Leacock And now I’m playing with my friend, who is a real NASA engineer. My friend, who is an award-winning science fiction author and my friend, who is from the freaking Presidents of the United States of America.

I cannot lost this game.
Here’S what’s going to happen Ready, This is happening, The Cave of Shadows is flooding, Fool’s Landing is flooding
And then finally, Whispering Garden is flooding BOBAK FERDOWSI! Oh that’s my biggest fear. I got it. I got it.

Wil WHEATON, We’re safe for two more turns Because we have the three Waters Rise cards are already here.
John SCALZI Right, WIL WHEATON, So we’re safe for two turns JASON FINN. The plan that I have at least for this round of turns involves some risk.

And that would be me taking the pilot and flying over to the engineer’s square, giving Bobak the fourth I’m sorry the third flame card and then shoring up. I don’t know Whispering Glen BOBAK, FERDOWSI, Whispering Garden there.

Jason FINN And then, of course, your turn, the risk is, if Fool’s Landing comes up, we lose the game.

So I probably have to ditch that and shore it up now right, WIL WHEATON. Another thing you could do Jason you could fly to me. You could give me the fire card, which does not cause us to discard a fire card. Jason FINN Right,
Wil WHEATON All right, That’s two actions And then on your third action.

You shore up Fool’s Landing. Jason FINN You’re great. I love that
That’S what we’re doing BOBAK FERDOWSI Because he’s the messenger JASON FINN. You knew that the whole time He just wanted me to talk about stuff.

Wil WHEATON: Look I’m not going to be a table.

Captain
Jason FINN: Oh jeez. I really like the cooperative nature of this game, I’m really enjoying playing it, But the reason that I signed up in the first place was I’m going to kick Wheaton’s ass at something WIL WHEATON. That was great
That was good. It was thinking ahead there, JOHN SCALZI, It’s teamwork. Teamwork is happening all over the place.

Wil WHEATON All right how about some? Theoretically good cards? Jason FINN In theory, yeah
Wil WHEATON, How about a helicopter, lift BOBAK FERDOWSI? Oh lucky you, the pilot with two helicopter lifts WIL WHEATON. Now your second card is earth, which is great because it’s the thing we don’t care about All right.

Let’S find out what the island does. On its turn. Coral Palace will flood
That’S underneath the engineer: [ WAVES CRASHING ] WIL WHEATON. Now the Gold Gate is going to go away. [ WATER, BUBBLING, ], WIL WHEATON And our final thing that’s happening is the Cave of Embers, which is next to Fool’s.

Landing is going to flood

[ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON, So go ahead and do that Hey Scalzi how’s it going
John SCALZI [ SINGING ]. I feel good WIL WHEATON. What are you going to do now, sir JOHN SCALZI? One go to Whispering Garden and two to flip it and then to flip the Coral Palace WIL WHEATON. That’S three moves.

May I just throw a thing out here:
John SCALZI, You so often throw things out, He’s got a losing record, but he’s played so many games that he’s won more games than almost anybody else. Even if he’s got the losing record So he’s like the football coach that keeps getting two year contracts and gets, let go at the end of it and still gets another two year. Contract

You know he knows the game. You just hope this time it’s going to get you to the Super Bowl.
Wil WHEATON OK.

You have a helicopter card. I do have a helicopter card, WIL WHEATON. So with a helicopter card you can move one person or two people on the same tile anywhere else. Ok,
We can even use two of those cards and the three of us end up here: JOHN SCALZI, Whispering Garden yeah

Wil WHEATON. Ok, That saves you a move action You still get to shore two things:
But you also give me a wind which then I can just distribute around Helicopter cards are really valuable, really powerful, But we have got to increase our ratio of good cards to bad cards in the treasure deck before we reshuffle JOHN SCALZI.

I am totally for this. In a general sense, if you think we can pull this off, Do you feel confident about this
Wil WHEATON! No, No, of course I don’t. I don’t feel confident about anything until I’m in front of the wall of victory. Jason FINN: Yes, yes, WIL WHEATON, So helicopter
John SCALZI Thup thup thup thup WIL WHEATON All right.

These go back into this pile here. Ok, So now do your first real action.
John SCALZI Shoring up that WIL WHEATON Uh-huh JOHN SCALZI And shoring WIL WHEATON Yup, OK. JOHN SCALZI, And then here
I got nothing. I literally got nothing JASON FINN, Man with four people getting the cards to the right spot.

As things start to get underwater man, it’s hairy.

Wil WHEATON Now, let’s find out what kind of nasty nastiness the island does to us. The Copper Gate is going to flood
[ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON, The Misty Marsh is going to sink. That’S behind the yeah [ WATER BUBBLING ] JOHN SCALZI, Bye, bye, Misty, Marsh WIL, WHEATON And Breakers Ridge is going to flood All right.
That’S good: that’s there [ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON, All right!

That’S good!

John SCALZI, How far away are we from Waters Rising, WIL WHEATON? We don’t know You want me to count it
One two three of 12, 13, 14, JOHN SCALZI So 3 to 14 WIL WHEATON 3 in 14, JOHN SCALZI, That’s about 20 %! How do you, like those odds?
Wil WHEATON Look a 3 in 14.

Chance of success is better than a 1 in 14 chance of success. In fact, it’s three times as good JOHN SCALZI. The simple fact of the matter is that we can’t risk losing that, because we also have the Cave of the Shadows: submerged

So somebody’s got to go shore that up And he might as well go here and shore up both of these
Wil WHEATON, So on my turn, I go watch this Two actions: Scalzi –, JASON FINN: Why don’t you give Bobak the two fires? Wil WHEATON? Well then he has to discard things and I don’t want that to happen.

Jason FINN, Right right! Right right! I see
[, INAUDIBLE, ] High stress, WIL WHEATON, You know it’s. The whole peer review process is really intense. I normally enjoy strategizing in a game like this, but I’m really self-conscious today, Sitting to my left is an actual NASA flight engineer who put a spaceship on Mars.

Bobak FERDOWSI, Thank God. I’Ve got Wil Wheaton on my team and on my shirt.
This could be game over WIL WHEATON. This could be super duper. Duper duper duper bad, It could be.

Super duper duper bad JOHN SCALZI, But you have to do a little bit of risk. Wil, WHEATON, Yup,
The game over aspect would be if the waters rise and we drop both the caves JASON FINN, Let’s just clear our minds and not think too much about the particular cards that will totally kill us, We’ll just think about — JOHN SCALZI. If we die on this turn, I always loved you, JASON FINN. Oh that’s sweet! If we all die on this turn, I’m going to fly away in my helicopter and leave you all to drown.

John SCALZI, If a flood happens, if the waters rise, we’re screwed, But if it doesn’t and we manage to get through this particular round, then we’re going to be in a really good position.

It’S gambling WIL WHEATON, OK, all right! I can keep shuffling them forever, but sooner or later I have to draw them All right. You ready for some theoretically good cards.
I’M going to show I’m going to turn it away from me.

First, Oh [ DISAPPOINTED YELLING ] JOHN SCALZI. Damn you Wheaton BOBAK FERDOWSI. At least it wasn’t [, INAUDIBLE, ], WIL, WHEATON, Wow earth.
That’S super [ BLEEP ] great Thanks. That’S helpful!

Ok, the waters rise JOHN SCALZI, So this is on you.
This is you WIL, WHEATON, Totally on me All right, [ WATER, BUBBLING, ], WIL WHEATON. By the time you get from three to four. Your deck is so thin from sunken tiles. Every single time you turn something over.

It is bad. This might be where we lose. The game
This might be, it might happen, JOHN SCALZI, It’s all on you, WIL WHEATON, It might happen. It is all on me.

Of course, if it’s all on me, we’re losing
If it’s all on me, we’re drawing two caves, I’m just going to tell you if it’s all on me, two of these four cards are going to be caves Because I watch this show And we recycle plots All right.

You guys I’m going to do my best. I’M doing my best
Here we go JASON FINN; OK, don’t [, INAUDIBLE, ], WIL, WHEATON, Copper, Gate, [, WATER, BUBBLING, ], WIL, WHEATON, That’s good, Breaker’s Ridge,
That’S also good [ WATER BUBBLING, ], WIL, WHEATON, OK., Coral Palace. No, that’s! Ok.

We don’t lose this turn.
[ WAVES CRASHING ], WIL WHEATON, You guys, we don’t lose this turn. John SCALZI Wil is fun because he’s so clearly excited about the game. You just watch him And it really is literally the 12-year-old boy in the candy shop And by literally I mean figuratively
Wait was that three WIL WHEATON, That’s three four, The Cave of Embers, That’s bad BOBAK FERDOWSI! That’S bad!

That means that we have to shore –, that’s bad WIL, WHEATON, That’s bad!

That’S bad! That’S bad! That’S –, BOBAK FERDOWSI! I physically cannot get to the Cave of Shadows.

For example,
Wil WHEATON Definitely bad, But the only person who can get to Cave of Shadows is Finn because he’s the helicopter pilot This game just got really really hard. John SCALZI, But can the diver get there JASON FINN? Scalzi can get there sure
Wil WHEATON, You could get there from the Observatory or the Watch Tower. John SCALZI, The diver becomes more powerful. The longer you play because he has a longer reach.

I mean he can get all the way across the board if he needs to as long as there’s a clear path: WIL WHEATON, But it’s Bobak’s turn BOBAK FERDOWSI. It is
I’M feeling good, So I think first move –, WIL, WHEATON, Hey, guess what You don’t have to worry about shoring up that cave anymore, BOBAK FERDOWSI! No! I don’t have to save that guy anymore. I want to give you this wind
Wil WHEATON [ SINGING ].

Thank you. I’Ve got the wind BOBAK FERDOWSI, Aslan there WIL WHEATON Yeah. I’Ve got lots of wind

Bobak FERDOWSI, I guess honestly, shore up Coral Palace, because — WIL WHEATON Good idea, yeah Keep a path.
Yeah all right, BOBAK FERDOWSI, And then I assume my best bet – is to keep near this area. Let’S make that happen, WIL WHEATON, How about some good cards?

Bobak FERDOWSI, I, like those
Wil WHEATON Have some earth that’s useful and have some air BOBAK FERDOWSI. I have the chalices WIL WHEATON. That’S actually really good. Bobak FERDOWSI I’ll discard that Yeah
Wil WHEATON, I am as surprised as anyone that we have not lost the game yet

Yet being the operative word in that sentence, Now we might lose the game, but we would lose it on your turn. Instead of mine, BOBAK FERDOWSI, That’s true!

That’S true! Wil, WHEATON, OK, the Cave of Shadows. We lose the game.
The Cave of Shadows, sinks, [ WATER, BUBBLING, ], BOBAK, FERDOWSI, GG, guys, JASON FINN, That stinks WIL WHEATON GG everybody GG
Way to go Bobak JOHN SCALZI. I would just like to say at the moment that this is probably what we get for coming to this island rapaciously, with the intent to steal these priceless artifacts that the Arkaeans spent so much time hiding to avoid this sort of destruction, WIL WHEATON I mean they Did make it very clear that the island was forbidden, JOHN SCALZI, That’s right there!

It’S right there on the title.

Wil WHEATON, So what’s going to happen now is we’re going to go to the loser’s couch
“ Forbidden Island” is going to go downstairs and it’s going to take its place next to Matt’s other game “ Pandemic ,”. That also beat us, And it’s going to get a [ BLEEP ] thing that it does You don’t even care, You don’t care that you won you’re a box, [ BLEEP ],
[ TRUMPET FANFARE ] -Guys. Can you scoot down? I forgot the Will sign out and I don’t want to get fired.

Jason FINN Right, yeah -There’s, one more thing on this show: JASON FINN: It’s always something! Isn’T it
Wil WHEATON, Oh you guys, you guys, you guys. I am so so sorry. I really thought that we had a chance until I saw what the board looked like at the beginning of the game.

All right look, I got to go downstairs and give an award to a box that doesn’t even care Sincerely, though thanks a lot for coming to play on the show you guys, JASON FINN Cash prizes,
Wil WHEATON Um.

Yes, there are cash prizes. Let me just [ MUMBLE ] –, JASON FINN. Whatever comes back here, it’s not going to be a cash prize, WIL WHEATON, Well, “ Forbidden Island ,”. I think you got a little bit of a lucky draw, but you played really well. We played our best game.

You played your best game. You emerged victorious, you earned this victory.
You absolutely deserve the Wall of Victory. In fact, I’m going to let you go ahead and call for it. So whenever you’re ready you just let us know,

I have to say Forbidden Island, I think you’re kind of being a dick.

You are not being a gracious winner at all.
But Matt Leacock, You are now two and zero against TableTop. I think you should have a special badge of board game geek. Thank you very much for watching Until next time play more games and we’ll see you right back here on “ TableTop
“ -They’re uh, not cash Or real JASON FINN Or prizes, really