Gnome Hollow tile-laying game is like a meatier version of Carcassonne
Mushroom mayhem.
A new board game takes the blueprint of Carcassonne and makes a more meatier version of the classic tile-laying title.
Gnome Hollow is an upcoming board game that sees two to four players cultivating mushrooms and wild flowers in order to trade with other gnomes. Set in a whimsical, family-friendly setting of a fantastical gnomish kingdom, Gnome Hollow takes the basics of popular tile-laying games such as Carcassonne and Kingdomino and elevates them with additional gameplay mechanics and a more complicated gameplay system.
The family board game has players taking the role of gnomish caretakers of the natural world, emerging from their underground dwellings in order to cultivate the ‘fairy rings’ of mushrooms native to the area. Players will be competing against each other in order to grow and harvest the most mushrooms, and flowers, before the end of the season. This is done by placing tiles into the gnome garden, before moving their gnomes in order to take actions.
By placing tiles, players will grow more mushrooms - with the aim of cultivating rings of mushrooms to be harvested. Once players have created a ring of mushrooms, they can harvest them, carry them to the market and sell for various valuable treasures. Whilst smaller rings of mushrooms will net players smaller rewards, by growing larger rings they’ll be able to exchange their harvest for an even greater reward.
Growing mushroom rings will also gain players bonuses that they can use to unlock new gameplay options and improve their strategic opportunities. Further developing the garden can unearth signpost spaces that - when they’re placed within a ring - become spots for players to place their gnomes to carry out unique actions, like a worker-placement board game. Players can also use wildflowers to fill in empty spaces in their mushroom rings - once a wildflower is planted, anyone can visit it and acquire a wildflower token to use for their own growing efforts.
Whichever player has the most valuable collection of treasure is named the winner.
Gnome Hollow was designed by Ammon Anderson, the creator behind the party board game T.A.C.O.: Taunt, Attack, Conquer, Obsess - a game in which players must build tacos in order to score points - and Twinkle Twinkle, in which players build a deep-space star chart. Anderson is also the owner of Gnome Hollow co-publisher Levity Games, with the title being co-published by The Op.
The release date for Gnome Hollow is set for Q3 2024, sometime around the Gen Con convention in late July/early August.