Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Officinalis is a trick-taking played with a deck of 55 cards : 7 suits of 7 plants classified by localisation of growth. Each family is composed of 5 communes cards rated from 1 to 5, plus one rare rated 10 and one "toxic" rated -3.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Officinalis is a trick-taking played with a deck of 55 cards : 7 suits of 7 plants classified by localisation of growth. Each family is composed of 5 communes cards rated from 1 to 5, plus one rare rated 10 and one "toxic" rated -3. 2 special cards and 4 specialists are also present to give some bonus. Each round there will be a Trump chosen from the remaining (not dealt card). Then the first player play the first card, and every one should either in order : follow with the same family (with a higher or lower number) play a trump card if he possesses no trump card he may play any card from his hand. Trump cards win against regular ones, then from higher to lower. Continue the round with the winner. The round will end when the 5 rare cards have been collected (you may still have card in hands). The collected cards will give points at the end depending on their values. In addition if you have the specialist (given secretly at the beginning of a round), you will double those point. Then some cards can be combine to make more points. You will play 7 seven rounds. —user summary