Cellular Powerhouse

Here's how to play Cellular Powerhouse!
Video: 

2 - 4 Players
60 - 120 Minutes

 

Goal:
Have the most Nutrients by the end of the game to win!

 

Terms:
Before reading the rest of this here are some terms you'll have to familiarize yourself with:

• The Center - A communal space between all players
• Convergence - All face up cards in the Center, these cards are considered as belonging to all players
• The Gene Pool - The deck of face down cards in the Center
• The Source Decks - The decks of cards outside the Center
• Microbes - Each players individual space
• Hunt - Take a random Trait card from its Source Deck and place it face down into your Microbe

 

Setup:

• For each player in the game place the following into the Center: 3 four sided dice, 2 six sided dice, and 1 eight sided die
• Put 1 twelve sided die into the Center
• Shuffle each deck of cards individually (Competitions, Adaptations, Evolutions, and Traits), these are the Source Decks
• Remove 90 Traits from the Source in a two player game, 45 in a three player game, or none in a four player game
• Give each player a Mutation card
• Start the first Round!

Advanced Setup:
In someway deal out Starting Genome cards to each player, either randomly or through a Snake draft
A Snake draft is where you place 2 Genomes face up into the center for each player, then in a specific order, players pick one to keep, then in the reverse of that order, they pick another one to keep.

 

Rounds:

1. Take 5 Evolutions, 5 Adaptations, and 10 Traits from the Source decks for each player in the game
2. Shuffle those cards and place them face down into the Center, this is the Gene Pool
3. Take a Competition card from its Source and place it face up into the Center
4. Each player draws 8 cards from the Gene Pool (if there aren't enough cards, it gets spread as evenly as possible)
5. Players Draft simultaneously
6. Players Compete
7. Activate Round End Adaptations (Note: Adaptations that Converge get triggered first)
8. If that was the third Round, end the game, otherwise start a new Round

Drafting:

1. You may draw a card from the Gene Pool, if you do you must also remove a card in your hand from the game
2. Pick a card in your hand
3. Once all players have picked a card in their hand (ignoring those without any cards in hand), all players place their chosen card face up into their Microbe and activate its Draft effect if it has one
4. You may then give any other player one of your Mutations to take any other card in their Microbe and place it into your own
5. All players pass their hand of cards to the player on their left
6. If no player has cards in their hand, stop Drafting and move to the next step of the Round: Competition

Competition:
Players follow the instructions on the face up Competition card in the Center
Whoever wins as dictated by the card, puts both the Competition card and the entire Gene Pool face down into their Microbe 

If there is no clear winner, do a Scarcity roll among those who have tied, or among all players (Scarcity rolls will be explained later on)

Game End:
After the third Round ends, players count the Nutrients they have gathered:

• Each face down card in your Microbe is worth 1 Nutrients
• Each Mutation in your Microbe is worth 5 Nutrients
• Each Evolution has a condition that, if met at this time, will award or deduct Nutrients

Whoever has the most Nutrients wins!

In a tie, do a Scarcity roll among those who have tied

 

Scarcity:
When you draw cards from the Gene Pool, when you take dice from the Center, or in any other case where you attempt to take more resources than is available, you only take what you can get

When you attempt to gain resources at the same time as another player, and that resource is scarce, you must do a Scarcity roll:

1. Players pick any amount of their dice to roll and roll them, whoever rolls highest gains the resource
2. If there is a tie, then both players keep rolling until there is a clear winner
3. If no players committed any dice, then all tied players roll an eight sided dice from anywhere (instead of chosen dice), afterwards the eight sided die is returned to wherever it came from

 

Rolling Dice:

• Whenever you roll dice, the chosen dice must come from your Microbe unless specified otherwise
• Whenever you choose dice to roll, the dice you choose are kept secret from your opponents until the dice are cast
• If you do not have enough dice to roll, you roll what you can
• After rolling any dice, they get returned to the Center, unless specified otherwise

 

Ties in Adaptations and Evolutions:
In a tie for Adaptations or Evolutions, no one is awarded the reward or penalty

 

Race Conditions:
You cannot wait to complete your Draft action until someone else completes their Draft action
You can imagine that all gained / removed resources are considered in "transition" and cannot be effected by other Draft effect upon their arrival to their destination (though you can still try to take them through Scarcity rolls if there is an applicable opportunity)

This also applies to Mutations, you cannot wait for someone to steal something, in order to steal it from them

Essentially, all Draft effects and Mutations get triggered at the same time, as if their was no lag time