Speculative Evolution

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

8 hours ago, RoyalBeeMage said:

6 hours! That’s a bit of a time commitment. I could spread it out over a few days or weeks 

Well, maybe not Genesis, but expect 4 hours. Also every video tutorial I have found is unreliable. For Megafauna and Origins, trust no one but Heavy Cardboard.

People say you need to be a molecular biologist to understand Genesis fully, a paleontologist/geologist/maybe even an astrobiologist for Megafauna and an anthropologist for Origins.

I agree. I just play them anyway.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

On 5/23/2025 at 3:01 PM, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Well, maybe not Genesis, but expect 4 hours. Also every video tutorial I have found is unreliable. For Megafauna and Origins, trust no one but Heavy Cardboard.

People say you need to be a molecular biologist to understand Genesis fully, a paleontologist/geologist/maybe even an astrobiologist for Megafauna and an anthropologist for Origins.

I agree. I just play them anyway.

so basically just grab all of my super nerdy friends after i force them to go and spend an afternoon reaserching various sub biologies and we'll be fine

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

51 minutes ago, RoyalBeeMage said:

so basically just grab all of my super nerdy friends after i force them to go and spend an afternoon reaserching various sub biologies and we'll be fine

Yes.

I don't actually have anyone I know who can get the rules, so I mostly play solo.

Also, to play Megafauna, you don't have to continue off of Genesis, but you can for the campaign experience. Same with the Megafauna-Origins transition.

All 3 are 1-4 player.

I usually play 1 solo game in a single sitting per week if I don't have anything going on, so a full solo campaign in 3 weeks. I've played a total of four of these, my last being my most successful.

Each game also has an introductory variant, but I don't haven't used them as they seem like they take away a major part of the game (no macro-organisms in Genesis, no plate tectonics in Megafauna, no inventions in Origins) and in solo you cannot use it. Solo in Megafauna also uses extra plant and trophic level rules I call 'realistic mode'. They can be used in multiplayer as well. 

The rules are bad at teaching people how to play. I couldn't find a Heavy Cardboard tutorial for Genesis, but there's one for Megafauna and Origins. Use those. The rules are made for players to refer to throughout the game, which you will undoubtedly have to. However, I'm pretty sure they don't cover the extra campaign or solo rules. 

So, yeah, play multi-player first.

On second thought, you won't have to do that much research. If you know what amino acids and nucleotides are for Genesis, you should be fine. The footnotes in the rulebook will take you the rest of the way. 

Also Megafauna is very expensive. Like $200 in AUD. I can't remember the price of Genesis, but Origins was also quite expensive.