Dinoverse: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Point Salad, Line Manipulation, Modular Setup
Player Age: 10+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 30 - 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Steve Ng Wen Xi
Player Age: 10+
Game Designer: Steve Ng Wen Xi
Objective:
Capital Gains has launched their latest kickstarter which does not focus on financial aspects, but instead on dinosaurs. Dinoverse is a point salad game with a shared pool of cards that is manipulated throughout the game.
Game Anatomy:
Dinosaur Cards:
Dinosaurs come in two types; carnivores and herbivores. Each dinosaur has abilities that will activate when they enter the play area (herd) or when they are targeted in the middle of the herd. There is also a scoring ability that will be activated for the two cards in front of each player at the end of the game. There are 5 carnivores and 6 herbivores although each game will only use only a couple of each to keep the setup modular.
Key Words:
There are several keywords that will activate throughout the game; arrival, ambush, awake, defend and eat.
Arrival - effects that will activate when dinosaurs enter the herd face up from in front of players or from the deck. This effect does not occur when dinosaurs enter the herd through the start of every round.
Ambush - effects that occur when the card is flipped face-up in the herd through eat effects.
Defend - works the same as ambush effects but instead of activating when the card is flipped face-up, it will activate anytime the card is targeted by an eat effect.
Awake - simply occurs when a dinosaur is flipped face-up through any effect other than eat.
Eat - this effect is the carnivores doing what they do; eating other dinosaurs. This effect will move the targeted dinosaur into the discard pile. If the dinosaur is face-down it will instead be flipped face-up before being eaten, activating any ambush or defend abilities.
Events and Extinction:
There are three events that will signal the end of the game and that also come with an added effect. The extinction card will brings the end of the game with no additional effect.
Egg tokens:
Each player will start the game with an egg token that allows for an additional action on a turn.
Setup:
- Choose a mix of three carnivores and four herbivores to shuffle together and create the main deck. In a two player game this will be two carnivores and three herbivores instead.
- Deal each player one herbivore and one carnivore randomly, to create their pack, as well as an egg token. The player will choose one of these cards to be face-down and one to be face-up.
- Re-shuffle the main deck and take out two cards from the bottom of the deck. Shuffle these cards together with the event cards to be replaced at the bottom of the deck. Place the extinction card as the very last card.
- Reveal five cards from the main deck and line these up in the middle of the table, alternating from face-down and face-up (starting face-down).
- Whoever loves dinosaurs the most will be given the first player card.
How to Play:
Start of Round:
At the start of each round the first player draws two cards and places one card of their choice to the far right space of the herd, facing the opposite direction (face-up/face-down) and discards the other card. This helps to fill the herd while progressing the game with fresh dinosaurs.
A Players Turn:
On a players turn they can perform one action of exchange, peek, redraw, flip, or populate. If a player chooses to use their egg, they can choose an additional new action or perform the same action twice.
Exchange:
Swap the positions of two cards facing the same direction in the herd, or exchange one from the herd with one from your pack.
Peek:
Look at two of the face-down cards in the herd.
Redraw:
Pick up your pack and draw one more card from the deck. Place one card in your pack face-down, one face-up and discard the last card.
Flip:
Flip one card face-up and one card face-down in the herd.
Populate:
Draw and place the top card of the deck into the herd facing the opposite direction of the last herd card.
End of game and scoring:
The game ends when an event card or the extinction card is revealed in the herd face-up. The players will now do any effect on the event card then score the face-up dinosaurs in their pack.
Final Thoughts:
Pros:
- Easy rules
- Unique but easy scoring on dinosaurs
- Modular setup
Cons:
- Randomness with ending the game where the events can change your scoring possibilities.
- you can miss out on scoring possibilities if you forget to change your pack cards aren’t face-up.
Dinoverse is a great family or filler weight game as players will be manipulating the herd and their own pack to create scoring possibilities/strategies that suit their goals. For example, if you are aiming to score carnivores you may want to constantly eat other dinoaurs to fill the discard pile. If your looking for a fast point salad game with some modular setup and a great theme of dinosaurs then your family should look at Dinoverse for your latest addition to your collection and you should head straight to the kickstarter for more information and backing options.
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