Set sail in a mystical archipelago filled with bustling towns, sea monsters, pirates, and gold! Compete to build the best sea-faring nation with up to three friends by collecting treasure, hiring crew, and conquering or befriending island towns. In Islebound, you take command of a ship and crew. You sail to island towns, collecting resources, hiring crew, and commissioning buildings for your capital city. Each building has a unique ability, and your combination of buildings can greatly enhance your strength as a trader, builder, or invader. You also recruit pirates and sea monsters to conquer towns, which, once conquered, allow you to complete the town action for free, and charge a fee to opponents if they want to use it. Alternatively, you can complete events that give influence, which can be used to befriend towns. Islebound: Emerald Edition is a special edition of the game with some altered components and rules. It's best to think of it as a variant of the game, rather than a 2nd edition. This edition of Islebound removes the book resource from the original game and replaces it with emeralds. Emeralds have different uses than books. You collect them when visiting a player-owned town and when you taking over a town. Emeralds must be used to buy building cards, and they can also be used to perform special abilities, such as keeping pirates and serpents after combat! The building deck is revised to account for this resource change. It includes altered building cards from both the original game and some from the Metropolis expansion. There will not be a building card expansion for Islebound: Emerald Edition, and the Metropolis expansion is not compatible with this version