Holotype: Mesozoic North America - Kickstarter Edition

A fast-paced light-strategy worker placement board game about paleontology for 2-5 players.

Players use their Paleontologist, Grad Student and Field Assistant workers to gather fossils, do research and publish new Dinosaurs and Marine Reptiles as Holotypes. Personal and semi-collaborative Global Objectives feature modern paleontology concepts such as cladistics and taxonomy.

The player with the most Victory Points from publishing Holotypes, completing Personal Objectives and contributing to Global Objectives wins.

Most gameplay in Holotype involves many standard board game and worker placement mechanics. Two mechanics that are slightly different in Holotype are the hierarchy of workers and Global Objectives. The game also includes two variant rules to allow for a simplified game mode and adjustments to game time length.

Worker Hierarchy and Bumping:

Every round, players use their workers to perform various actions.  Even though spaces are limited, players can strategically “bump” other workers from occupied spaces based on a hierarchy system.  Bumped workers become available to opponents to be used on following turns, so placement and timing can be important.

There are three different workers in the game: Field Assistant, Grad Student, and Paleontologist. The Hierarchy Rule determines whether or not a specific worker can bump another worker from an occupied space.

Global Objectives are an additional way to earn Victory Points in Holotype.  By referencing all published Holotypes, players can spend 5 Research cubes to move one of their discs onto an Objective area that they are completing. If they only reference Holotypes that they themselves have published, the cost is reduced to 0. Global Objectives being completed also can end the game. If a total number of Global Objective cards equal to the number of players are filled, the game is immediately over and players add up their points.

The Basal version allows for a stripped-down version for first-time players, young players, or those new to board games. Play time can be adjusted by using different Tracker Boards to either increase or decrease total game length.

The game designers partnered with several Paleontology technical consultants throughout the development process to achieve our goal.  The result has been the development of an engaging board game that treats the theme with respect. You won’t need to know anything about Paleontology to play, but hopefully you will learn something new about your favorite dinosaur or the field.

COMPONENTS:
Cardboard:
2 Game Boards (each double-sided): for 2, 3, 4, or 5 players (27.5x27.5cm each)
2 Tracker boards (Field Advancement Tracks - Published Holotypes, each double-sided): for 2/3 players (19x9cm) and 4/5 players (19x11.7cm)
5 Player boards (17.7x14.6cm), in player colors pink/magenta, red, yellow, gray, black)
30 Milestone Advancement tiles (33x23mm) 6 in each player color:
Expeditions: +1 fossil cube
Library: +1 research cube
Museum: +1 any cube
Specimen Lab: search discard pile for a card
Specimen Lab: draw and/or discard 1 additional card
Storage: increase fossil storage by 4 spaces

128 Cards (62x87mm):
60 Specimen cards (blue backs)
25 Field Expedition cards (brown backs)
12 Trace Fossil cards (green backs)
16 Personal Objective cards (yellow backs)
15 Global Objective cards (purple backs)

Wood:
150 cubes (10mm; 45 white Research, 40 lime green Cretaceous, 35 cyan blue Jurassic, 30 plum purple Triassic)
25 Disks (15mm dia. x 5mm; 5x each player color)
5 Paleontologist workers (32x14x10mm; 1x each player color)
5 Grad Student workers (28x14x10mm; 1x each player color)
5 Field Assistant workers (25x14x10mm; 1x each player color)
1 Holotype tracker token (white with full color Pentaceratops art)

Plastic:
12 Fossil Dice (15mm):
4 lime green Cretaceous dice (1, 2, 2, 2, 3, Museum fossils)
4 cyan blue Jurassic dice (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, Museum fossils)
4 plum purple Triassic dice (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, Museum fossils)

Rulebook (16 p.).

2-5

8600086776008

Brexwerx Games

120

2023

14+

2023-07-18 11:01:49

2023-07-18 11:01:49