Forks

About this board game

Forks is a competitive card game for 2–4 players that plays in about 30 minutes. Released in 2019, it challenges players to make financially disastrous decisions for their neighbours while trying to avoid the consequences themselves.

Each turn, players draw three cards, choose one to embezzle by adding it to their hand, and pass the other two onward. The next player must then choose which card to embezzle and which card to invest in the central tableau.

This creates a constantly shifting set of choices. You can make yourself richer by taking a card, or help grow a company while enriching the competition. Every decision also gives someone else an opportunity to influence what reaches you next.

• Draw three cards and choose one to embezzle.
• Pass the remaining two cards to the next player.
• Choose one passed card to embezzle and one to invest in the central tableau.
• Try to avoid an audit when the final company values are assessed.

At the end of the game, only the three companies with the highest values in the middle score positive values. The remaining companies are audited, and players receive negative points for embezzling from those companies.

That final scoring rule makes every tempting card a potential liability. In Forks, players work together to build company values, but do so in the most uncooperative way possible—sharing wealth, shifting blame, and looking for the least bad option among the choices they are given.