Officinalis (2019)

Officinalis is a game of folds, observation and combinations. You play an herbalist whose objective is to collect medicinal plants in order to concoct infusions that pay big money while avoiding the toxic plants of your opponents!

More concretely, this game includes 7 major families of plants that correspond to the Natural Environments in which they grow (Common Plants, Forests, Prairies, Mountains, Moors, Rivers and Gardens). In nature, most of these plants reproduce in several environments, but for the purposes of the game, we have chosen to "categorize" them in the one where they evolve most generally.

Each Medium contains 7 plants: 5 widespread plants, 1 rare plant and 1 toxic plant. To simplify, we call it Toxic, a plant that is potentially dangerous. In fact, most of these plants can have beneficial properties if they are used properly. As Paracelsus (considered the father of toxicology) so aptly puts it: "Everything is poison, nothing is poison... It's a question of dosage. The game also includes two plants that we invented from scratch for the purposes of the game. They have special exotic abilities that add a pleasant spice to the gameplay.

The last 4 cards are the Gatherers, they are not playable and are used to define each player's preferred Middle. To win the game, you must collect as many points as possible by collecting plants. The rarer the plant is, the more points it earns. On the other hand, toxic plants cause it to be lost. But the secret to being victorious is to create infusions by combining certain plants to score bonus points that will make all the difference. There are 8 possible combinations: Anti-Stress, Traffic, Detox, Hepatante, Silhouette, A Vos Souhaits, Articulation and Peaceful Night. The funny detail is that these combinations are authentic herbal tea blends created by herbalist Jean Maison du Comptoir d'Herboristerie. The icing on the cake: each box of Officinalis contains an infusette. This game is literally to be enjoyed by the fire.

A round ends when all the rare plants (the Wonders) have been harvested. This rule point may seem trivial but it adds a very interesting notion of stress. Indeed, the race can end after two or three laps, so it may be wise to take risks to score more points... Or not. The game is played in 7 rounds but nothing prevents you from shortening or prolonging the game if you feel like it.

Officinalis funded on the Kickstarter platform

Officinalis was funded on the Crowdfunding Kickstarter (See the campaign) platform on the 23 November 2018, the campaign lasted 22 days. 1,316 people helped funded the game, whose the amount requested was €4,000.00. Thanks to these 1,316 people the game could be funded up to €37,099.00, ~927.48%.

Rule, Educational Sheet ... 2 Files Available2 Files Available

Download the rule for Officinalis or any other documents (scenarios, goodies, pedagogical sheet, erratum, ...). 2 PDF files are available. See all available files