The Board, The Cards, The Counters

Starting the game you will have...

One game board

Sixty-three 'divisions' cards - nine cards for each of the seven divisions

Fourteen '!' cards

One die

Fourteen patent priority cards

Four company playing pieces

Eighty company patents - twenty patents for each of the four companies

N.B. There are QR codes on the board and all the game cards which can be scanned on a smart phone and link to different pages on our website to help you find out more about biomimicry

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Each player needs...

One patent priority card, a playing piece and the corresponding company patents

Playing the Game

On each of the patent priority cards the divisions will be given a price - this varies depending on how valuable each division's adaptations are to the company you're playing as.

The aim of the game is to go round the boards collecting patents - which is achieved by answering questions correctly - in order to gain the most money for your company by the time all the patents have been taken.

Playing the game

Each player starts with their company playing piece on the corresponding tile. Each player must then select a patent priority card for their company, this tells you how valuable each division is to your company, and so which patents you want to aim for.

When the dice is rolled and a division tile is landed on, the player has a choice of answering a question (from the division's cards) to try and gain that patent, or passing so it is then the next persons turn. If the player answers the question correctly they gain the patent and must place one of their company counters on that tile. If they answer the question incorrectly it moves on to the next persons turn.

It is worth remembering that while a patent may not be very valuable to you it will almost certainly be valuable to someone else and may help you with bargaining later in the game.

If a '!' tile is landed on then a '!' card should be taken and its instruction followed - these may be beneficial or detrimental to the player!

If a player lands on a tile which somebody has already patented (ie. with another company's patent counter on) or the company's 'home' tile then the company who owns that tile is allowed to remove a patent from the player who landed on their tile and replace it with their own patent counter (unless the person who landed on the tile has no patents). 

Players may also bargain and exchange their patents throughout the game by mutual agreement, and two or more patents may be exchanged for a single patent depending on how valuable they are to the individual player.



The game ends when every single tile is owned. At this point each player must add up the value of each patent they own, if one player owns all the tiles in any division then they count the value of that division 4 times (once for each tile and once extra as a reward for controlling the whole division). The winner is the player who has made the most money for their company. 

Ending the game