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?
Drug use, personal demons, wild episodes, and more. Side Effects is a "take that" card game where players race to treat all the diseases in their psyche with medication and therapy.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Drug use, personal demons, wild episodes, and more. Side Effects is a "take that" card game where players race to treat all the diseases in their psyche with medication and therapy. Players start with four disease cards dealt face up in front of them (their "psyche") and then four cards in a concealed hand. Players take turns picking up cards from the deck and trying to find the right drugs to treat their diseases. A drug card will treat a disease but also leave the player open to receiving new diseases (of that drug's list of side effects) from other players. Each disease card has a unique punishment written on it and episode cards will trigger these punishments. Play an episode card on another player to hinder them or help yourself. The game is over when one player treats all of the diseases in their psyche.