Random mutations - board game. Evolution
You didn't expect it, but it happened! Avid players, fans and just amateurs popular game can set festive tables and celebrate the arrival of a new, improved version of their favorite game. The constant author - professional biologist Dmitry Knorre - did a great job to present board game Evolution. Random mutations.
Dmitry decided to introduce more reliable scientific facts into the game, so that the gameplay would be not only entertaining, but also educational. Random mutations are not a replacement for the base version, much less an extension to it. This is an independent board game, in which only the best principles and rules from the legendary board “predecessor” are preserved, and new ones are added.
Evolution. Random mutations - Non-random chance
Game Evolution. Random mutations are an updated and improved interpretation of Darwin's theory of how species appeared and, in fact, natural selection. Game realities are as close as possible to real natural processes: during a random mutation, an animal gets some new property: useful (which will ultimately help it survive, produce offspring, and then even form an entire species) or harmful (which can turn the animal into a dead-end link, doomed to extinction).
Buy the game Evolution. Random mutation means opening yourself up to something completely new. There are a lot of surprises in this episode, both good and scary, but otherwise it would just be boring.
The board game "Evolution" is a fascinating illustration of the principle of "survival of the fittest." In this game you need to create the largest and most developed population of living beings. To do this, participants endow their creatures with useful properties that help them fight for food and a place in the sun. "Evolution" has become one of the most popular domestic board games. She earned several awards, acquired two additions and even visited teaching aid, - but still the author of the game, professional biologist Dmitry Knorre, considered it not scientific enough. After all, in living nature, all evolutionary changes occur randomly, and not by someone’s reasonable will, as in a board game. In addition, certain sets of properties belong not to individual animals, but to entire species of creatures. Over the past two years, the creator of “Evolution” and the company “ Correct games"were working on a new, more scientifically correct version of the game. The new set is called “Random Mutations”.
“Random Mutations” is not a replacement for the original “Evolution” or an addition to it, but a separate board game. She inherited many elements from her predecessor, so those who are familiar with the usual “Evolution” will not find it difficult to master “Random Mutations”. Moreover, many properties from the first game and its additions can be used in the new game - a list of such cards is at the end of the rules.
Random Mutations features 90 cards that feature the signature "evolved" lizard on the back and one of 16 possible properties on the front, such as Predator, Bark Beetle, or Budding. As in regular Evolution, each card can be played in two ways: either face up as an animal, or face up as an ability. In addition, the game includes 52 chips in red, blue, green and black colors, as well as red, green and black dice. The basic set is designed for 2-4 participants, but if you combine a couple of boxes, you can play with at least eight people.
At the beginning of the game, each participant receives 10 cards from the common deck. He puts seven of them in front of him in his personal deck, and lays out three more in a row - these are the three types of creatures that the player has at the start. All cards are face down in front of the players, and no one has the right to look at their front side.
A game round consists of four phases. The first is the development phase, in which participants lay out cards from their personal decks. In turn, the player announces how he wants to play the top card of the deck: start the new kind, add another animal to an existing one, or give one of your species a new property. Only in the latter case does he turn over the card and see what property he got. He must then place this card under the pile of the chosen type, even if it is to his disadvantage. If the player chose the first or second option, he simply places the card face down - either starting a new pile of the type, or continuing the old one. Each animal in the stack is considered a separate creature, with all the properties of its species.
The game continues until the common deck runs out of cards. Participants finish the last round and count victory points: 2 points for each surviving animal, 1 point for each property, plus bonuses. The one who scores the most points becomes the winner.
What is our game about?
Board games are no longer easy these days children's entertainment. Long gone into oblivion are paper fields with a path of circles, a cube and a set of chips, where the only goal was to complete this very path the fastest.
Nowadays board games have become much more interesting. Both adults and children enjoy playing them. The mechanics of board games are varied; just luck is no longer enough to win; you need to think, plan, and analyze the course of the game. And recently a new direction has appeared - popular science board games. With their help, you can learn something new, simulate natural or historical processes.
Game cards with various properties for animals.
"Evolution. Random Mutations"- just such a game. It is devoted to the theory of evolution, which explains the origin and principles of development of animal species. According to this theory, the diversity of species on our planet is due to constant changes in the genes of living organisms - mutations. As a result of mutation, the animal receives new properties and new capabilities. They are tested by natural selection. Negative changes lead to extinction. Beneficial mutations that increase the adaptation of the animal are fixed in the genotype. A new species of animal is formed. The animal population grows and displaces other species less adapted to environmental conditions.
Board games are not only for men :) During the Evolution game tournament.
Game - scientific model
Previous games in the Evolution series (more about them below) illustrated the basic principles natural selection– only animal species with an optimal set of beneficial properties survived. To win the game you had to create a balanced ecosystem of interacting animal populations different types. Visibility gameplay allowed the use of “Evolution” in the field of education. The game was the subject of articles in several thematic magazines for teachers, and “Evolution” was used in laboratory work in a biology course at the University of North Dakota (USA).
However, the author of the game, biologist Dmitry Knorre, has been concerned since the first edition (2010) that the game is not, in the full sense, a scientific model of the evolutionary process. The player himself creates his own animals and decides what abilities they will be endowed with. He becomes the creator of his animal population. But evolution is a process of random changes that lead to the emergence of new species and their development. This is how it happens in living nature.
Dmitry thought about this issue for a long time, trying to make the game scientifically consistent and maintain its high playability. It was necessary to come up with rules that would reflect the decisive role of chance in the evolutionary process, but in such a way that the survival of various animal species depended on the decisions of the player.
The first version of the new game was called “The Blind Watchmaker” - this is what they sometimes say about Nature, meaning that the most complex mechanism of life is adjusted blindly, but as a result it works “like a clock.”
After much discussion and testing, which took a year and a half, we developed a new game set"Evolution. Random mutations." The appearance of new animal properties in the game occurs randomly. The player's task is to decide whether a new species of animal meets the environmental conditions and whether it will withstand competition through the process of natural selection. If so, then the population of this species should increase. If not, the evolution of the animal can continue. Perhaps it will fall in this struggle under the weight of unfavorable mutations or become food for other, more adapted species.
How to actually play?
So, at the beginning of the game, three cards are laid out on the table in front of you - the ancestors of new species. Each player has their own deck. From it you get cards that can become new types of animals or their properties. The cards are played face down - the view will have a completely unpredictable, random set of properties.
It is very important to feed and protect your animals. The more animals you have, the more new cards you get, and therefore more opportunities for further evolution. The winner of the game is also determined by the number and level of development of the animal species belonging to him. Each card after completing the game gives victory points, the more animals you have and the further they have advanced in evolutionary development, the higher the chances of winning.
History of "Evolution"
The games in the “Evolution” series were created by Dmitry Knorre, candidate of biological sciences. He is a graduate of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, currently an employee of the Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, studies mitochondria - cellular organelles responsible for converting energy inside the cell. Dmitry studies the mechanisms of division and fusion of these organelles, as well as the method of transmitting signals from mitochondria to the nucleus (the control center of the cell).
The first game in the Evolution series was published in 2010 and was a great success in Russia and abroad. "Evolution" (English title - Evolution. The Origin of Species) received many special awards:
2010 BoardGamer.ru - “Best Russian game of the year”;
2010 Prize - “Best Russian board game”;
2010 Board game - “Best Russian board game”;
2010 MIPL - “Best Board Game”.
2011 Tesera - "Best Card Game".
In 2013, “Evolution” was nominated for the “Toy Award” at the international toy fair in Nuremberg (Germany)
The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game. The player receives points for all of his surviving animals and the properties they acquired.
Preparing for the game
Mix all the cards thoroughly and give each player seven cards from the top of the common deck. Place them face down (lizard pattern) in front of the player. This pile is the player's deck. The player cannot view the cards in his deck.
The game is moving forward. Each turn is divided into four phases:
- DEVELOPMENT
- CLIMATE
- NUTRITION
- EXTINCTION
In each phase, players act in turns, starting with the first player and then clockwise. The DEVELOPMENT phase and the NUTRITION phase involve several rounds: after one round ends, the first player acts again, and so on. If a player is unable to act in the current phase for any reason, he misses his turn.
In the next turn, the player sitting to the left of the player who started the previous turn will act first.
Evolution: Random Mutations(eng. Evolution: Random Mutations) is a board game based on Darwin's theory. The game was created by Dmitry Knorre and Sergei Machin, Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, in 2013, and is part of the “Right Games” series (www.rightgames.ru). The game's publication was funded on the crowdfunding platform Boomstarter.
The game is a reworking of the game Evolution, published in 2010. A new game better reflects aspects of evolution: the formation of properties is random and occurs as a result of both positive and negative mutations; as a result of natural selection, positive mutations are preserved; populations of creatures of the same species are introduced. The presentation of the game took place on December 15, 2013 in Moscow. In 2014 it was published in English and German.
Rules of the game
Victory Condition
The goal of the game is to score the most victory points. The winner is determined by sequential comparison: victory points, the number of cards in the players' discard pile (than more cards in the reset - the better), the result of the draw. The player receives victory points for all of his surviving animals and species properties.
Game entities
- Player's deck- instead of a hand, players have a player's deck, in which the cards are turned face down. Thus, the development of their animals goes “blindly”.
the card can be played as:
- View property. If the number of a species is greater than 1, then the player cannot add new properties to it.
- View- a new population of animals with the same set of properties. All animals of a species have all the properties of that species.
- Animal, increasing the number of an existing species. Apart from the exceptional effects of certain properties, it is not possible to increase the number of animals of any species beyond the total number of animal species the player has.
Chips in the game are divided into types:
Each turn is divided into 4 phases:
- development phase
- climate phase
- power phase
- phase of extinction and receiving new cards
In each phase, players take actions one at a time in a clockwise direction. If for some reason a player cannot act, he misses his turn. When no player is willing or able to move anymore, the phase ends.
Preparing for the game
The deck of cards is shuffled and each player is dealt a player's deck - from the top of the deck, 7 cards face down. Then each player is dealt three cards face down - these are the three starting types of animals.
Development phase
During this phase, players can place cards from their player deck onto the table. The phase consists of several rounds. In each round, players take turns, starting with the starting player and proceeding clockwise, to play the top one card of their player deck. In this phase, you can play any number of cards, one per round, or say “pass”.
Scenario "Divergence"
Additional Rule "Divergence" allows you to simulate evolution even better by adding the mechanics of species divergence. Players must agree before the start of the game whether they will play according to the normal scenario or the “Divergence” scenario.
The player can add a new animal to existing species and at the same time divide it into two independent types. The new animal will have all the properties of the split species, but will also be able to accumulate new mutations. A species divided in this way can be divided in turn into two new species.
Climate phase
In this phase, all players take turns choosing one of the chips lying in the center of the table and placing it, in accordance with the rules, on their own or someone else’s animal; and/or apply properties, for example “predator”, “stomper”, “bark beetle”, etc. An animal with the "predator"\"obligate predator" property, instead of taking food from the food supply, can attack any species on the table. You cannot attack other animals within the species to which the predator belongs. The player of the attacked species selects an animal within this species - it will be eaten.
The feeding phase ends when players cannot take new pieces from the center of the table and the "predator"\"obligate predator" properties have been used by all animals.
Extinction phase and getting new cards
Determination of the winner
The last turn begins when the deck runs out of cards. After the extinction phase, the game ends and victory points begin to be counted. Each player receives:
- 2 points for each animal card
- 1 point for each property card
- additional points for those properties that increase the need for food, for example +1 point for the “large” property.
Additions to the game
Variations
mini-add-on Variations appeared in 2014, it could be purchased for free - along with the purchase basic set games. The mini-add-on consists of three new animal properties for the game Evolution and three new animal properties for the game Evolution:Random Mutations. Before the start of the game, expansion cards are shuffled into the base deck and then played according to the usual rules.
