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Pocket Pharma box art
2018 Ranked #10,357

Pocket Pharma

A compact economic game has pharmaceutical firms draft compounds and formulate profitable drugs through poker-like combinations. Side effects cause penalties, while waiting for perfect formulas risks losing market share to rivals.

Card Game Industry / Manufacturing Open Drafting Pattern Building

Players

2-5

Play time

15-30 min

Age

8+

Complexity

1.75/5

Rating

6.46

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

A reimplementation and redevelopment of the recently released game Medical Frontiers, Brett Gilbert creates a more streamlined and engaging game which can fit in your pocket!

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

A reimplementation and redevelopment of the recently released game Medical Frontiers, Brett Gilbert creates a more streamlined and engaging game which can fit in your pocket! Set in amongst the high levels of competition between different pharmaceutical companies, Pocket Pharma pits every player to formulate, create and market drugs. With the most profitable being the winner! Using public card drafting to draft compounds which you place on your lab bench, players use "poker hand" style combinations to formulate drugs required by the marketplace. However, creating a drug isn't that easy. Penalty points are applied if your drug is not efficacious and contains severe side effects beyond tolerable norms. Therefore, the search for the perfect compound formulations is critical! However, search for too long, and your competitors may get there first reducing your market penetration and therefore profit.

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–5
Best with
2–4
Play time
15–30 min
Age
8+
Complexity
1.8/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

2
Brett J. Gilbert Chu-Lan Kao

Artists

2
Sebastian Koziner Alexandra Petruk

Publishers

1
Alley Cat Games

Linked items

No published linked games yet.