Grow a Lush Rainforest of Your Own: ‘Canopy’ Explained
In Canopy, players work to see who can create the most beautiful, bountiful, and biodiverse rainforest ever grown… with a deck of cards.
Rainforests take a long time to grow… unless you’re playing Canopy. Then it’s a competition to see which player can grow the most lush and bountiful rainforest on the globe at the table.
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Canopy
Created by Tim Eisner, with art by Vincent Dutrait, and published by Weird City Games, Canopy is a card drafting game where players work to create the most beautiful and bountiful rainforest. It originated as a Kickstarter campaign, where 5,200 unique backers pledged $140,797 of a $12,000 goal. And since, Canopy has been encouraging a love of forests as well as spinoffs.
Each player’s forest ecosystem is designed to be full of mutualism and symbiosis. So players need to not only grow their trees to be as tall as possible, but create a jungle that will attract the most diversity in wildlife as well as a perfect balance of plants and animals in order to maintain a thriving ecosystem.
But just like the real world, there are dangers in the card forest you’re creating with your friends. Fire, disease, and drought are our there (in the cards) as well as the plants and animals that will most benefit your forest. So you’ll need to play strategically, chose carefully, and have just a little bit of good luck.
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How To Play
To setup a came of Canopy, players must first place the ‘Season Cards’ on the table in order to form the game’s ‘board.’ Then the game cards are shuffled with some cards being randomly pulled out and placed at the seasons. A growth pile and seed deck are put on the table, along with the points and animal tokens. And finally, each player gets a reference sheet to use throughout the game.
Starting with the player to most recently water a plant, players take turns pulling cards from the main deck and adding them to their ‘canopy’. Players can look at the cards in the growth pile and take cards that they like, or put them back, face down along with another card from your hand. The next player may or may not pick these up and use them themselves. If none of the growth piles have what the player wants, they can take a random card from the top of the deck and adding it to their forest.
The game goes on like this until the deck runs out, signifying the end of the first season. Cards are scored or removed and any necessary actions happen, and then the next season goes on in much the same way as the first. Each season has a different theme, and has slightly different rules. For example, the “Season of Diversity” gives three additional points to the player with the most different wildlife, while the “Season of Danger” has you discard a threat card of each type at the end of the season. Gameplay lasts for three seasons and then final scoring happens.
Some cards, like wildlife, will award you points and give you a special power. While others, like threats, will remove plant or animal cards. Weather and Seed cards will work together to help your forest grow.
Awards and Nominations
Canopy was the 2022 Fairplay A la Carte Runner-Up as well as a 2023 MinD-Spielepreis Nominee for two-player games.
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How Many Players is Canopy for and How Long Do Games Take?
Canopy is a game for one to four players, and games usually take about half an hour to complete. The age suggestion is eight and up, and while there is nothing age-inappropriate about Canopy, the gameplay itself may be challenging for younger players
Spinoffs
Canopy Evergreen is a similar take on the game, only players work to create a thriving ecosystem in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. There are also deluxe and standard editions of both Canopy and Canopy Evergreen. Weird City Games also has a Canopy puzzle, for people who enjoy rainforests and thousand piece puzzles.
Is Canopy Difficult to Play?
No, overall Canopy is relatively simple to play. And once you get the hang of it, it’s very fun. But many players have had some trouble initially understanding the rules. This may be more of an issue of the rules being written in a confusing way rather a case of the game being difficult to learn. But in general, first time players may stumble a bit while learning. Meanwhile, a person who’s played at least once will more likely find the gameplay fairly simple.
How Long Does It Take a Real Rainforest to Grow?
Rainforests are constantly growing, and much of what we think of now as a rainforest is naturally regenerating new growth. But to regrow a large section, plants may show decent regrowth in twenty-five years, while animal diversity could take sixty years to return. The Amazon Rainforest has existed for millions of years, constantly evolving. Some trees would have to grow for hundreds of years to reach the sizes we can see today. In short, rainforests are always in a state of regrowth. But growing a forest from nothing would take a really, really long time. Especially compared to the 30 minute play-times we’re looking at with Canopy.
Happy adventuring!
