The Mushroom Eaters

About this board game

The Mushroom Eaters is an adventure board game for 2–5 players, with an approximately 90-minute play time. Players take the roles of apprentices who have consumed a potent psilocybin mushroom drink and entered a shared psychedelic state.

An aging Shaman is seeking a future practitioner to guide the village. As the apprentices travel together through altered states of consciousness, the Shaman observes them and tries to understand who is wisest. Some players may wander into distant realms of their own minds, but when the mushroom wears off, everyone returns.

The game’s central system is the Action Path. Each player uses a hand of cards to help the group advance along this path. Careful card play can benefit an individual apprentice or the entire group, while poor choices can affect everyone by changing the environment around them.

• Play as one of 2–5 apprentices on a shared psychedelic journey.
• Use cards to advance along the Action Path.
• Gain Experience through awakenings, centering, intense realities, and profound revelations.
• Seek the wisdom needed to become the Shaman’s successor.

Players aim to build Experience by awakening to new understandings, centering themselves in the oblivion of the moment, witnessing intense realities in the Great Paradox, and gaining wisdom from profound revelations. These experiences shape the journey as the group moves through the ritual.

Released in 2013, The Mushroom Eaters is the first game in a series to incorporate an Action Path, combining individual perspectives with consequences that can reach the entire group.