Life in the village is difficult, but life here also allows the inhabitants to grow and prosper as they please. One villager might wish to become a friar. Another villager might feel ambitious and strive for a career in public office. A third one might want to seek their fortune in distant lands.

In Village, players takes the reins of a family and attempts to help them find fame and glory in many different ways. There is one thing you must not forget: Time will not stop for anyone, and given enough time people will disappear. Those who find themselves immortalized in the village chronicles will bring honor to their family and one step closer to victory.

In more detail, every turn you take a cube from an area on the game board, then take the action of that area. The board has zones with specific attributes, a market, a crafting zone, a travel zone, a church, and a council house, and each zone is seeded with cubes of four colors as well as black cubes that serve as curses. Many of these areas offer multiple actions, so if for example you take a cube from the crafting area, you can get a horse, an ox, a cart, a plow, or a scroll, or you can convert wheat to gold. Some areas give short-term scoring, others offer long-term scoring, and still others offer only endgame scoring. The round is over when no cubes remain at any location. The game is over when either the village chronicle or the anonymous graveyard is full.

Village: Big Box comes with the Village base game, the Inn and Port expansions, every promo previously released, and a new "Marriage" expansion, with all of the materials being integrable with one another and with the game now containing a solo mode as well as revised gameplay, dual-layered player boards, and a larger, double-sided main board that eliminates the need for the overlays used in the original expansions.