Mushroom Lovers, There’s a Board Game for You

October 21, 2024 | Source: NPR News | by Emily Kwong, Regina G. Barber, Rachel Carlson, Rebecca Ramirez

In five years, the bird-collecting board game Wingspan sold 2 million copies. In the world of board gaming, that’s a blockbuster hit.

This fall, the game’s creator, Elizabeth Hargrave, is hoping people will fall in love with another icon of the natural world: mushrooms.

Undergrove is co-designed by Hargrave and Mark Wootton and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. The game is a meditation on the mycorrhizal relationships between trees and fungi.

Across 48 hand-painted mushroom tiles, players assume the role of mature Douglas fir trees. Players compete on a cooperative landscape, “partnering” with mushrooms to trade carbon for nutrients.