Fool's Gold takes place during the gold rush of 1849. Players are investors sending prospectors on a quest to find gold. There are various locations (mountains, a forest, a river, etc.) each with unique perils and quantities of gold. As players remove valuable gold cards from the location decks, silt becomes more prominent and gold becomes harder to find. At the end of the game the player with the most gold wins, with one twist. Each player must throw out all gold cards from the area they found the most (turns out it was so easy to find because it's fool's gold)!