Officinalis

Officinalis is a game of folds, observation and combinations. You play as an herbalist whose objective is to collect medicinal plants in order to concoct infusions that bring in a lot of money while avoiding the toxic plants of your opponents! More concretely, this game includes 7 large families of plants that correspond to the natural environments in which they grow (Common, Forest, Prairie, Mountain, Heath, River and Garden plants). 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 most commonly grow.

Each Environment has 7 plants: 5 widespread plants, 1 rare plant and 1 toxic plant. By simplification, we qualify as Toxic, a plant which is potentially dangerous. In reality, most of these plants can have beneficial virtues if used correctly. As Paracelsus (considered the father of toxicology) said so well: "Everything is poison, nothing is poison... It is a question of dosage". The game also features two plants that we invented from scratch for the purpose of the game. They have special exotic abilities that spice up the gameplay nicely.

The last 4 cards are the Gatherers, they are not playable and are used to define the environment of each player. To win the game, you have to accumulate as many points as possible by collecting plants. The rarer the plant, the more points it earns. On the other hand, toxic plants lose points. But the secret to be victorious is to create infusions by combining certain plants in order to score bonus points that will make all the difference. There are 8 possible combinations: Anti-Stress, Circulation, Detox, Hepatant, Silhouette, At Your Wishes, Articulation and Peaceful Night. The amusing detail is that these combinations are authentic infusion blends created by the herbalist Jean Maison of Comptoir d'Herboristerie. The icing on the cake: each Officinalis box 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 may seem trivial but it adds a very interesting notion of stress. Indeed, the round can end after two or three rounds, 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 extending 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 Nov 23, 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%.

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