Mad Scientist Invention Game

I still don’t have a name for it, but we playtested a new card game the other day and had a lot of fun. The players get five cards that say what their invention does. Some cards are good, some are bad.

The players show off the good things their invention does and hide the bad. They do a little elevator pitch for their invention and try and describe it. The fun part is the descriptions are really goofy when they’re all mashed together. We were giggling through the whole playtest.

Next the players pick if they want to be an early adopter and invest heavily in someone else’s invention, make a small investment in an invention, or not invest at all. Early adopters get to see all the bad cards, investors only get to see one bad card of the inventor’s choosing (naturally the least bad card).

Now everyone votes what invention they would actually buy. There are monetary rewards for having your invention picked and rewards for investing wisely, but bad cards cut down on the rewards. The player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner.

Except. . .

There is an “Ends Civilization” card. If an inventor can get an invention with this card in it’s stack to be purchased by the other players, they automatically win the game!

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