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Author Topic: BIOS Origins  (Read 2686 times)

bayonetbrant

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on: October 02, 2022, 10:31:42 AM
x-posted from What's On Your Table

Three of us tried out BOIS: Origins today.  It's basically a Civ-type game where the players start out as a species of predator ape.  We played with Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals, and Homo floresiensis in our game.  There are also options to play with non humans species like cephalopod people and Triffids but we went with the standard game. 

The Sapiens player took an early lead in brain development, adding vocabulary and free will which allowed him to retain more ideas and inventions than the other players.  He quickly expanded his knowledge of fire use and was able to spread out from Zimbabwe into the rest of Africa, parts of the Middle East, and even Southern Europe.

The Neanderthals (me) got cut off from much of the rest of the world by re-glaciation and had to be content with hanging around in Northern Europe.  We managed to figure out pointy sticks but not how to effectively use them in combat.  The game swung back and forth in the early stages with the Sapiens player spreading all over the map due of his development of navigation and effective use of animals for mounts.  The Neanderthals were trapped but developed a high degreed of immunity from disease due to various practices such as burying the dead and child swaddling.  This did end up helping them ride out some catastrophic diseases like tuberculosis that ravaged the other two players.  The Hobbits were the first to spread into North America but they never did manage to fully develop their cognitive functions and so had a weak culture.  He easily fell prey to the Sapiens player.  Once the Sapiens player developed monotheism and converted to Islam (very rough event that utter destroyed the civilization that he had managed to build up until that point), he was able to spread his religion via fire and sword and pretty much ran away with the game.  I did try to stop him later on by limiting the power of religion through various acts of the Enlightenment but he was just too powerful by that point.

Very interesting title.  There are just so many options available to choose from that it's easy to get brain lock.  It's also frustrating than in any given game, you're only going to see a small number of ideas, inventions, and events so that you can't rely on any single strategy to win.  Looking forward to playing again.

If you're a fan of Civ type games, this one's worth a look.  The rulebook makes it seem very overwhelming but once you start playing, the actions are actually pretty intuitive and easy to pick up.

The game also wins a prize for worst box art I've seen in ages.














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Staggerwing

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Reply #1 on: October 02, 2022, 02:45:00 PM
The game does sound interesting, though I must confess that I clicked on the link thinking I would be reading anecdotes about IBM's first use of the basic input/output system in their model 51XX series of personal computers.

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Silent Disapproval Robot

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Reply #2 on: October 02, 2022, 03:02:09 PM
You can develop that tech and unlock the minigame in Epoch IV.  Then it becomes a timed dexterity game to see who can use a hole punch to make the most 5 1/4" floppy disks dual sided and format them in under a minute.



Staggerwing

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Reply #3 on: October 03, 2022, 07:43:43 AM
If I win the mini game do I unlock 3 1/5 inch 720Meg DD drive tech?

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa


Barthheart

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Reply #4 on: October 03, 2022, 08:15:57 AM
Is it possible to play through all the BIOS games in sequence with carryover from one to the next?

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Silent Disapproval Robot

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Reply #5 on: October 03, 2022, 11:54:55 AM
Yes, you can carry over the game-state from Genesis into Megafauna then into Origins and finally to High Frontier 4.

I haven't tried it myself and I've only briefly skimmed the rules regarding doing do.  I did read a post on a BGG forum that said it was interesting in theory but in practice, whoever was ahead at the end of Genesis got a hugYes, you can carry over the game-state from Genesis into Megafauna then into Origins and finally to High Frontier 4.

I haven't tried it myself and I've only briefly skimmed the rules regarding doing do.  I did read a post on a BGG forum that said it was interesting in theory but in practice, whoever was ahead at the end of Genesis got a huge advantage at the start of Megafauna and things snowballed to the point where they were impossible to beat by the time Origins started. 

I can see that happening, but I can also see the cards absolutely thumping the guy in the lead as well.   
« Last Edit: October 03, 2022, 12:52:45 PM by Silent Disapproval Robot »



Barthheart

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Reply #6 on: October 03, 2022, 07:43:58 PM
Cool. Hadn’t realized that High Frontier was part of the same group.

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Silent Disapproval Robot

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Reply #7 on: October 04, 2022, 12:38:32 AM
I don't think it is officially part of the BIOS series.  I suspect that the designer of all the games thought it would be a neat idea to allow Origins to carry over into High Frontier. The rules for merging Megafauna into Origins are quite detailed and extend over multiple pages in the Origins rulebook whereas the rules for progressing on to High Frontier are comprised of 9 bullet points.

Quote
M - TRANSITION TO HIGH FRONTIER
The end state of a game of Bios:Origins can serve as the starting condition for a game of High Frontier (any edition).

Follow these steps:
a. Starting Faction.
Choose factions in the order of victory, with the highest scoring player choosing first. If your high score in Bios:Origins is political, preferably choose either Yellow or Purple. If it is cultural, preferably choose either White or Green. If it is industrial, preferably choose either Red or Gray.

b. Starting Politics.
The Active Law starts in “CENTRIST” if the ending Philosophy in Bios:Origins is in the center or adjacent to the center. It starts in “UNITY” if the ending Philosophy is to the right (pacifist or unity), or in “EQUALITY” if the ending politics is to the left (agnostic or equality). It starts in “FREEDOM” if the ending politics is in abolitionist or freedom.

c. Starting Player.
The winner of Bios:Origins is the starting player in High Frontier.

d. Transferable Victory Points.
See C6j to transfer VP to the game of High Frontier.

e. Orbital Capacity.
Any player who has attained maritime 8 starts with double the usual Aquas.

f. Nuclear Energy.
Any player who has attained energy 8 starts with a random starting thruster.

g. Bellwethers.
For each Bellwether (E3e) a player has, he starts with one extra Aqua in addition to the normal starting Aqua.

h. Bios: Solar System Campaign.
If playing an epic game starting from Bios:Genesis, in addition to the above, follow the rules written in V7 section of appendix of High Frontier 4 All. If the winning
Bios:Genesis macroorganism came from a cosmic landform, start High Frontier on an oceanic Mars if it came from the Mars paleo-ocean, and oceanic Venus otherwise. See V8 (appendix) for details.

i. Creeples.
For thematic purposes only, it is suggested your Creeples instead of High Frontier colony domes, as a reminder of your animal heritage.



Barthheart

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Reply #8 on: October 04, 2022, 08:43:12 AM
Cool, thanks for the info.

Have you tried Mesofauna? I read it’s an alternative to Megafauna. And can actually be played at the same time.

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Silent Disapproval Robot

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Reply #9 on: October 04, 2022, 10:49:08 AM
No, I haven't.

I have Genesis, Megafauna, and Origins.  I enjoy Megafauna and Origins quite a bit but I didn't really like Genesis very much.  There's lots of good science in the rulebook for Genesis and as flavour text on the cards, but it doesn't really come through in the gameplay.   Genesis is basically a more complex game of Yahtzee.  You chuck a bucket of dice, hope to get certain combos, and hope the random flip if the cards is kind to you.  There's more luck involved than skill.  I get the design philosophy behind it.  The development of life was chaotic and the dice chucking is meant to represent that.  It just doesn't translate into compelling gameplay IMO.

Megafauna and Origins also have some luck and randomness via card decks but much less so than Genesis.  You'll only see a small portion of each deck in any given game which means there's a lot of variety but there's also a chance that you'll get a bad set of cards which will make for an unpleasant session.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2022, 08:33:22 PM by Silent Disapproval Robot »