…Obviously you can’t complete it, but in the multiplayer version, is it legal in the first place?

A: Since there are often cases where floating islands have no Beacon because they do not yet have a Beacon, the extension of this possibility is that islands in excess of seven which already have Beacons should be able to exist as well, under some imaginary condition in which there might be further Beacons in some extended version of this world.

One might also simply imagine they are islands outside of the seven which have been set up for the grand “game show” we are playing.

As long as it’s possible for all seven Beacons to be played, it’s fine to have islands in excess of seven. Remember: floating island fragments will attach to each other if conditions are possible, so it’s actually quite unlikely to have more than seven islands occur until all seven Beacons have been played, and even then, it’s quite unlikely.

Should they occur, however, it’s true that any extra islands would not be able to be completed, since you must always leave open a place for a Beacon to be played, and there are none left to place. But the existence of extra islands would not cause a problem in the game.

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A: Well, it’s always your turn in the solo version, so playing an “extra card on your turn” is kind of meaningless…

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A: You can choose for your only card play to be a beach, and forego your “free beach” play. You also can have your card play be a beach, making your “free beach” play be a second beach card.

Remember that any terrain card which has beach on it is a “beach” including almost all of the cards with specialty locations and bridges. The only non-Beacon cards which are not beaches are one of the Wells and one of the Portals.

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A: Though it’s not explicitly stated in the rules, clearly, playing a card that makes a Ship play impossible cannot be allowed, or it would break the game. In fact, we will probably update the rulesheet to include that on the next printing.

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A: Only the Basics of Island Building section is common to both versions. If something is in the multiplayer version that’s not explicitly mentioned in the solo version, then it’s not in the solo version.

You don’t get the Icon Bonus for playing Ships or Beacons to the table. Likewise, in the solo game, you can’t start a floating island with just any type of terrain, only a Beacon.

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A: If you have the power of the Moai, then every time you draw during your turn you have the option of drawing from the discard pile.

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A: Because in the solo game, you can only start a “floating island” with a Beacon card. Though this is not explicitly stated (we should probably tweak the rules on the next printing to do so) it can be inferred via the following:

Per the Basics of Island Building rules common to both ways of playing, “A Beacon can establish its own new island whenever needed.” However, only the multiplayer rules state that any terrain card can start a floating island.

This is because, in the multiplayer game, there is no discard option: you are required to play a card on your turn. It’s possible that a player might have only non-Beacon terrain cards that cannot be played onto an existing island. For this reason, in the multiplayer games, you can start floating islands with any non-Beacon terrain card that cannot be played onto existing terrain.

In the solo game, the whole challenge is to be able to play the deck of terrain cards into a single connected group of islands in the order they come up, and if something besides a Beacon is unplayable, it goes in the discard pile, and you’ll have to retrieve it by using up one of your Ships if you want to use it.

See also: Do any of the multiplayer rules carry over to the solo version?

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A: In the multi-player game, islands don’t have any requirement to be attached to other islands at all, because there are many so ways to travel between islands. Bridges are the most obvious, and there are lots of them in the game, so naturally most islands will have some Bridge connection, but of course there are also Portals.

…but besides those two literal connectors, there are three other ways to travel between islands: Ship, Gear, and Actions. So don’t worry about how you’ll get to so-called “floating” islands. There are lots of ways!

The solo game is another story, of course! That specifically calls for the creation of an archipelago with all islands linked in one grouping by Bridges.

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A: If both of your tokens are on the same special terrain space you only get the benefit once. So if they’re both on a Pyramid space, you only get to draw one extra.

But you have two tokens with which to claim terrain-based powers, and they each get to take the benefit for their placement, even if they are on two different terrain that give the same benefit. So if they’re each on different Pyramid spaces, you do get to draw two extra.

Furthermore, if you also have Equipment that gives the same effect, that benefit is from a separate source, and you get that extra as well. For example, if one of your tokens is on one Pyramid, and the other is on the other Pyramid and you also have the Golden Pyramid, you’d get to draw three extra cards.

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A: Yes, theoretically someone could play a card that restores the ability to play a Beacon on that island, but who knows if or when that will happen? It’s just simpler to disallow it – keep the game moving, by making sure a player always has the option to add a Beacon to an island that lacks one.

So that’s just the rule.

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