Gem Hunter is played on a 10x11 board but only the squares forming what looks like a capital E with 4 horizontal bars are used. Each part of the E is 2 squares wide and the horizontal bars are connected by pairs of "Crossing" squares. The other squares are Start, Barren, Miner/Prospector, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald and Diamond. There are 50 cards of each gem type with values 100-500 and 3 special decks -Prospector, Miner and Questions. Players start as a Propector and can graduate to a Miner by drawing the appropriate card from the Prospector deck and this increases their options - at a cost. It is essentially a "throw die, move, follow instructions" game and even movement is restricted to a single path that winds all round the E. The winner is the first to collect one of a number of specified gem sets.