Unlike some other games in the genre, Fjords is strictly limited to two players.
In the first phase, the players draw random hexagonal tiles and place them on the game table in alternating sequence to form a map.
Tile edges must consistently match with respect to terrain types (clear land, mountain, and water).
In the second phase, they expand from their villages by placing tokens of their colour on the tiles.
The new edition includes rules for 2-4 players, 5 new variants designed by Phil Walker-Harding, and art by Beth Sobel.