← All games
The Thicket box cover, in a mid-century print style: under the word THICKET, a wolf, a hawk, an owl and a fox look out from the four corners, while a mouse, a bunny, a bat, a hedgehog, a raccoon, a jay and a chipmunk, several in scarves, hats and sweaters, gather along a winding path through the branches

Flight FBG-007 · Board game

Thicket

Four forests. Seventy-two creatures. One thicket to cross.

You are a forest, and the woodland creatures are yours to send. Roll the three food dice, then gather, forage and pounce across a thicket of 64 tiles that nobody has explored yet. The first forest to link every forest with its creatures wins.

  • 2 to 4 players
  • About 40 to 60 minutes
  • Strategy
  • Designed in 2026
  • Brennan Pope
  • Art in the works

Vote for Thicket to go to Kickstarter first. One vote each, and you can move it any time.

Art subject to change. Thicket is still being designed, and every picture on this page is prototype art.

How it plays

Roll, explore, gather, pounce.

Every tile in the thicket shows three foods: a nut or seed, an insect and a plant. The three dice roll one of each, so together they name exactly one tile, and every creature lands only where it finds something it eats.

  1. 01

    Explore

    The 64 tiles start face down, a new thicket every game. When a creature lands, the tiles around it turn face up. Risk a hidden tile, and if there's nothing to eat there, your creature goes home.

  2. 02

    Gather

    Use one die: place one creature on a tile showing that food. The simplest play, and the one you'll make most often.

  3. 03

    Forage

    Use two dice: place two creatures where both foods meet. Two steps along your path in a single turn.

  4. 04

    Pounce

    Use all three: land on the one tile they name, even if a creature is already there. Spook it back to its forest, or, if your creature is its hunter, hunt it out of the game.

The forests

Pick a side of the thicket.

Each player is one of four forests, laid along a side of the thicket, each with its own season, its own eighteen creatures and its own appetite. Link your forest to the other three and you win.

  • The Pine Forest: a grey wolf walks through snowy pines

    North · WinterThe Pine Forest

    Hoarders of nuts and seeds, watched over by Luna the Wolf.

  • The Willow Forest: a hawk perches on a branch over a winding stream under willow fronds

    East · SpringThe Willow Forest

    Insect eaters by the stream, watched over by Skye the Hawk.

  • The Oak Forest: an owl looks out from a hollow in a great oak

    South · SummerThe Oak Forest

    Grazers of clover and leaves, watched over by Hoots the Owl.

  • The Maple Forest: a fox curls up asleep beneath red and orange maples

    West · FallThe Maple Forest

    A bit of everything, watched over by Ember the Fox.

The creatures

Seventy-two of them, and every one has a name.

Twenty-nine kinds of woodland animal, from the mouse to the bear, numbered 1 to 72 by strength. Each card shows what its creature eats and how many of the 64 tiles carry its food, so you know the odds before you send it somewhere unexplored.

  • Card 1, Pip the Mouse of the Pine Forest, in a rust scarf with a sunflower seed in its mouth; eats pinecones, sunflower seeds and thistle, on 40 tiles
  • Card 8, Crumb the Mouse of the Pine Forest, plump in a yellow bandana, hugging a biscuit; eats pinecones, sunflower seeds and thistle, on 40 tiles
  • Card 9, Thimble the Mouse of the Pine Forest, standing tall with a thimble for a hat and a blue scarf; eats pinecones, sunflower seeds and thistle, on 40 tiles

  • Told apart at a glance

    Repeated animals are never copies. Pip, Crumb and Thimble are all mice of the Pine Forest, but each has a look of their own: a scarf, a bandana, a thimble for a hat.

  • Scouts keep secrets

    Fliers and fast runners, marked with a looking glass, peek at one to three hidden tiles before they land. Only you see what they found, and a tile passed up can't be gone back to.

  • A food chain, not a free-for-all

    Any pounce can spook a creature home, but only a true hunter can take it out of the game: the owl a mouse, the wolf a deer, the badger a mole. Who eats whom is printed on every hunter's card.

  • Your thicket, your way

    Rather see everything from the start? Play on a thicket laid face up, or on one of the set maps, the original Quadclusters board among them.

The hunters

One at the top of every forest.

Each forest's strongest creature is a predator. It lands on a tile with food it eats, like any creature, or right on top of the prey it hunts.

  • Card 72, Luna the Wolf of the Pine Forest, with a crescent moon on its brow; eats berries, and hunts deer, bunny, beaver, groundhog, porcupine, turkey and raccoon
  • Card 71, Skye the Hawk of the Willow Forest, wings spread wide; eats grasshoppers, and hunts mouse, chipmunk, squirrel, bunny, quail, finch, robin, jay, woodpecker and mole
  • Card 70, Hoots the Owl of the Oak Forest, in round spectacles and a tie; eats grasshoppers and beetles, and hunts mouse, bat, mole, chipmunk, squirrel, bunny, skunk, finch, robin, quail, jay, woodpecker and hedgehog
  • Card 69, Ember the Fox of the Maple Forest, mid-pounce; eats berries, grasshoppers and beetles, and hunts mouse, chipmunk, squirrel, bunny, quail, turkey, mole, groundhog, finch and robin

What's in the box

No board. The thicket is the board.

  • 64 thicket tiles, 2½ inches square, laid in an eight-by-eight grid, face down, in a new order every game
  • 72 creature cards, eighteen for each forest, that sit on the tiles they land on
  • 4 forest boards that lay along the sides of the thicket and hold each forest's creatures and looking glasses
  • 3 food dice: nuts and seeds, insects, and plants

The story

Grown from Quadclusters.

Thicket is the spiritual successor of Quadclusters, the single-, double- and triple-play strategy game. It began as a new coat of paint and kept going: the printed board became a thicket you explore, the stones became creatures with appetites, and a food chain came with them.

Where it stands

The newest game in the hangar.

Thicket is still being designed. Every idea on this page has been played out thousands of times in simulation, to keep the forests and the seats even, and the rules come next. Want to see it on Kickstarter? Give it your vote.