Washed ashore on a forgotten island with your fellow castaways, you must try to scrape together enough food to survive while avoiding illness, wild boars and deadly tsunami. Hopefully you can keep your secret love alive and help your secret hate find their proper fate.

Desert Island plays in about an hour. Each turn, players take an action and play a fate card that makes an event more likely to happen as well as a target more likely for the event. Actions include foraging for food, scavenging for valuables washed up ashore, and lighting the signal fire. Of course, it might be easier to forage for food in your neighbor's stockpile. Conflicts are resolved by comparing total size on each side of a fight. A random card is added to each side's total.

At the end of the turn, look to see if a boat was sighted and the signal fire lit. If the players aren't yet rescued, Fate will deal a blow to somebody, then everybody must either eat food or take a wound.

Secret love and hate determines victory points.