Mycelia – North American Fungi Join the Family

Split Stone Games has brought Mycelia back to Kickstarter, this time with the North American Expansion. It weaves in new elements to explore by introducing new mechanics, more components, extra species, and even raising the player count from four to five. The expansion focuses on fungi that grow in North America and takes inspiration from the hidden relationships between trees and fungi, especially the way they communicate through mycorrhizal networks. If the base game is already about exploring the underground world of mushrooms, this expansion digs even deeper.

👥 1-5 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 40-130 minutes
📝 Designer: J.J. Neville
🎨 Artwork: J.J. Neville

🏢 Publisher: Split Stone Games (prototype copy provided)

Gameplay Overview

The Base Game

At its core, Mycelia is a competitive board game for one to four players that pulls you into the underground world of fungi. Each player controls their own mycelial network, trying to grow mushrooms, spread spores, and use decay to unlock powerful actions and upgrades. The goal is simple enough: finish the game with the most points. Points mainly come from fruiting mushrooms, gathering insect tokens, and grabbing the final end-game token.

Your network is made up of spores, mushroom tokens, and a central figure called the mother mushroom. On your turn, you choose two different actions from a set of six. These are move, spore, explore, fruit, decay, and discover. The spread of spores is determined by a roll of the wind die, which tells you in which direction the spores travel across the hexagonal board.

To fruit a mushroom, you need to gather the right coloured spores on connected tiles that match the requirements on your mushroom card. Once a mushroom has spread spores twice, it is ready to decay. When this happens, it leaves the board but gives you a special ability that can change the flow of the game.

Insect tokens give you extra tricks to work with. You can collect them by moving your mother mushroom onto special tiles. Insects can be spent outside your normal turn to do things like move an opponent’s piece or refresh the mushroom card market.

The end of the game is triggered when a player has filled all five decay slots below their player mat. That player also gets a bonus token. Points are then added up from fruited mushrooms, decayed mushrooms, and insect tokens.

The North American Expansion

The expansion grows out of this system without changing its core. The biggest new idea is the sapling system. During setup, saplings are placed on the board in one of three patterns, either decided by a roll of the wind die or chosen by the players. More saplings can appear later in the game whenever a new tile is placed and the wind die shows the right result.

Players now have the option to invest a spore into a sapling instead of their network. Each sapling accepts just one spore per turn, and once placed, that spore is no longer part of your network. You can’t use it to fruit mushrooms later. What they give you is the chance to roll for a symbiosis bonus. The more spores a sapling has, the higher the chance of success. These bonuses can be extra spores, insect tokens, or new tiles placed on the board.

Once a sapling has three spores and your mother mushroom is standing on the same tile, you can use the age action to turn it into a grandfather tree. The sapling and its spores are removed, and you place one of your grandfather tree tokens instead. Each tree is worth five points and counts as part of your network.

Grandfather trees also reshape the board. You cannot place spores on them anymore, and any that land there are redirected to neighbouring tiles. The owner of the tree decides the direction. Mushrooms already on that tile immediately decay. Spores can even travel through several connected grandfather trees, which opens up new routes for moving spores around.

Mother mushrooms and grandfather trees can share a space without blocking each other. Other players can also move through these tiles with their mother mushrooms, though they still cannot place spores or mushrooms there. This adds new options for controlling space and disrupting other players.

On top of that, the expansion includes 34 new mushroom cards featuring species native to North America, shuffled into the base deck. The cards work in exactly the same way as the originals, with spore costs, spore counts, and decay effects, and they blend seamlessly into the system.

Game Info

Mycelia: North American Expansion is published by Split Stone Games and designed and illustrated by J. J. Neville. It’s not a standalone game, so you’ll need the original Mycelia to play. At the time of writing, it’s available through Kickstarter, so keep in mind that the final version may look slightly different.

The game is recommended for ages 10 and up, and playtime can vary quite a bit. Some of our quicker games wrapped up in just under an hour, while five-player sessions with new players pushed well past two hours. Like with many games of this type, the pace really depends on how familiar people are with the system.

Components, Production and Artwork

Although we were working with a prototype version, it was already clear that Mycelia keeps its strong table presence. The play area grows from hex-shaped forest tiles that look like slices of mossy ground, complete with natural textures and a very calm palette. The symbols blend in visually, but remain clear enough once you know what you’re looking for. It manages to be thematic without getting in its own way.

The mushroom cards are a highlight. Each one shows a real-life species, complete with Latin names and a kind of botanical illustration style that gives the game a slightly educational feel, but in a good way. They’re clean, detailed, and easy to read during play, which is always appreciated.

The wooden pieces are lovely. The mushrooms are chunky and satisfying, the spore cubes are clear and colourful, and the saplings and grandfather trees are shaped in a way that makes their role immediately obvious. You don’t need to memorise anything; you just look at them and know what they’re supposed to do. That helps a lot, especially in a game where there’s already plenty to keep track of.

Even the triple-layered player boards feel thoughtful. The swirling artwork frames each section of the mat, guiding your actions without being too busy. It’s a nice example of design that’s both functional and thematic.

Rulebook and Learning Curve

The rulebook for the expansion does its job without making things complicated. It assumes you already know how to play the base game, which is fair, and then jumps straight into what’s new. We liked that it didn’t waste time repeating things.

The writing is friendly, even playful in places. There’s a casual tone that makes it feel more like someone is explaining the rules across the table. There’s even the odd joke thrown in, which we didn’t expect but appreciated. You’ll still need to pay attention the first time through, and there aren’t many diagrams, but most of the rules clicked after a round or two.

The FAQ at the back was genuinely helpful. A few edge cases came up during our first game and the answers were right there without needing to go online.

How It Feels to Play

Mycelia falls into that familiar mid-weight spot. It’s not the kind of game where you’ll need a long explanation or a second rulebook, but it’s also not light. You’ll need to think ahead, manage your resources, and be careful about where and when you grow your mushrooms. The game rewards good timing, and sometimes punishes careless positioning in ways that feel fair but still sting a bit.

The new mechanics from the expansion (saplings, symbiosis bonuses, and the ‘age’ action) all build naturally on the base game. Nothing feels bolted on. You can see where it fits as soon as it enters play. The randomness from the wind die still plays a role, especially when sporing or rolling for bonuses, but you can plan around it most of the time. It’s more about reading the game and nudging probabilities in your favour than relying entirely on luck.

We had a few moments where someone spored into a corner, or ended up with the wrong spores entirely. That’s part of the learning curve. Once you get used to the flow, you learn to avoid backing yourself into those dead ends.

Player Interaction, Pace and Flow

Blocking spaces, breaking up opponents’ networks, and jumping ahead to grab an insect token: there’s enough room to mess with each other in small, satisfying ways.

The grandfather trees from the expansion offer some extra chances to cause gentle chaos. Redirecting someone else’s spores at just the right moment can turn their clever setup into a bit of a scramble. It’s never mean-spirited, but it does reward players who pay close attention to the board.

Once everyone knows what they’re doing, turns go quickly. Most of the information you need is visible, which helps keep things moving. That said, with five players, the game does start to stretch, especially if one or two people are still thinking through each option. It wasn’t a dealbreaker for us, but we wouldn’t always choose to play with five unless the group was already familiar with the rules.

Setup is fairly straightforward, but you’ll want a big table. Between the growing map, the card display, player mats, and all the tokens, the game can spread out quickly. It’s one of those games that starts neat and then slowly takes over the table.

Replayability

This is the kind of game that grows with the group. The base structure stays the same, but the way players build their networks, choose cards, and manage space shifts from game to game. Add in the variable tile setup, wind die, and 34 new mushroom cards, and you’ve got plenty of combinations to keep things fresh.

The symbiosis system also brings an unpredictable element. You’re never quite sure what bonus you’ll get, but that bit of risk makes each decision feel more alive. Over a few plays, we started seeing more ambitious strategies emerge. People chaining actions together, planning three turns ahead, or setting up clever grandfather tree placements.

Final Thoughts

This expansion adds more to think about, but Mycelia still keeps the same puzzle-like flow. It’s not trying to dazzle you with big moves or dramatic takeovers. Instead, it gives you a space to think, plan, and slowly grow something that feels satisfying.

There’s definitely luck involved, and if you prefer games where every move is under your control, you might find the wind die a bit frustrating. But if you’re open to adapting your plans and rolling with the unexpected, there’s a lot to enjoy here.

It plays well at most counts, but we found three or four players to be the sweet spot. Five is possible, but can drag a little unless everyone knows what they’re doing.

The expansion adds variety, gentle disruption, and more strategic options, without making the game harder to learn. For us, that’s the kind of expansion that works: something that deepens the game without overwhelming it. We were already fans of Mycelia, and the expansion gives you new decisions to chew on while still feeling natural and never too heavy. It feels like Mycelia is still the same game at heart… just with a few more roots and branches to explore.

📝 We received a preview copy of the game from the publisher, Split Stone Games.