In Isles of Treasure players take the role of ship captains exploring the surrounding sea looking for treasure while avoiding marauding pirates and sea monsters. The board is made up of tiles placed face down at random during setup. All players begin at a shared stronghold. Players gather supplies until they feel ready to venture out to sea. Each time your ship moves it costs supplies, so the further out you venture the more expensive it is. You also use supplies to flip tiles face up discovering what is hidden underneath. What you find could be something good like an island to resupply on or search for buried treasure, or it might be pirates who ambush you and take everything in your cargo hold. Don’t worry you can get revenge on those scurvy pirates, just resupply, sail out after them, and take back your treasure by force. The only way to ensure your treasure is safe is to get it back to the stronghold. Once there, it scores victory points for you. Until you get it back, other players can attack your ship and take it for themselves. The game is over once all of the tiles have been flipped face up. Whichever player has the most treasure safely secured at the stronghold wins.
—description from the publisher