If you play video games, chances are, you know Stardew Valley. Like many, you either dismiss it as a waste-of-time baby game or find yourself addicted to its rural life sim RPG gameplay. If you’re the latter, you probably miss all the farming, foraging, and romancing you do in the game whenever you hang out with friends. Now, you don’t have to, since you can recruit those same friends to a tabletop round of those same activities with Stardew Valley: The Board Game.
That’s right, Eric Barone’s blockbuster indie game joins the growing list of video games now available for tabletop play, allowing you to enjoy the same addictive gameplay without having to stare at a PC, TV, or Switch screen for hours. Instead of clicking mouse buttons and pressing on keypads, you can now do all your farming, fishing, mining, and all other activities by drawing cards and rolling dice, giving you a new way to enjoy the simple-yet-oh-so-enjoyable game in an entirely new way.
Just like its video game counterpart, Stardew Valley: The Board Game can be played solo, so you can single player your way through all of the game’s objectives, making it perfectly playable even when you have no one around. Of course, tabletop gaming has always been more fun with a party, so it can also be played cooperatively by up to four players, allowing you to band together with your friends in resurrecting the Valley and driving that economy-destroying JojaMart out of your town.
The tabletop version is a direct adaptation of the video game, so you also inherit a dilapidated farm from your grandpa at some place in the middle of nowhere that, somehow, has a bunch of eligible singles in your area. You take care of the farm, do some fishing, perform some mining, and do a whole host of other activities, all in the hopes of achieving the game’s objectives.
Stardew Valley: The Board Game has two main objectives: you need to complete your Grandpa’s Goals and you need to restore the Community Center. Doing so will bring the Valley back to its glory days, while driving the corporate folks behind JojaMart out of your town. Yeah, it’s a battle between the farmer and the evil corporation that’s trying to extract value out of your town like a vampire bleeding you dry. You only get a limited amount of time to achieve these goals (20 seasons to be exact), so if you run out of turns, you lose your chance at defeating the corporate Goliath and hang your head in shame.
Cooperatively, players decide how to play each season, such as what activities to focus on and what goals to try to achieve first. Activities consist of, pretty much, the same things you do in the video game, from watering crops and feeding chickens to catching fish and exploring the mines. As you progress from season to season, you gain better tools, learn new skills, and gather even more resources, putting you in a better position to achieve what seems like difficult goals.
Stardew Valley: The Board Game is available now, priced at $55.