"Ursuppe" redirects here. For primordial soup, see Abiogenesis.
Primordial Soup is a board game designed by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel and published by Z-Man Games. It was first published in 1997 in Germany by Doris & Frank under the name Ursuppe and this original version won 2nd prize in the 1998 Deutscher Spiele Preis.
Each player guides a species of primitive amoeba drifting through the primordial soup. The player controls whether and how their amoebas move, eat and procreate using the 10 biological points which s/he receives each turn. A player may evolve their species by buying gene cards, which give the amoebas abilities such as faster movement. The abilities are pictured on the gene cards, showing amoebas growing fins, tentacles, spines, etc.
A key feature of the game is its self-balancing ecosystem. The food required by each amoeba is a mixture of the excrement of the other players' species. Food may become scarce and cause amoebas to starve, die and decompose into food. If one species becomes scarce, this will then cause problems for the other players, since their amoebas depend on all the other species to supply their food. Genes may mitigate this, for example by turning a species into a predator. However, this still requires some healthy prey to be available. Furthermore, the other players may react by turning their amoebas into predators themselves, growing spines for defense, or simply increase their procreation rate to offset the losses. The success of each strategy highly depends on the other players' actions as each species evolves to fill ecological niches.
Objectiveedit
Primordial Soup
Each turn each species scores points based upon its population and genes. The game ends when a player reaches 42 points or when the last environment card is drawn. This usually happens after 5-10 rounds so the game lasts 1–2 hours.
Equipmentedit
A game board with spaces representing the primordial soup, a scoring track, and a compass diagram.
Two dice.
28 pegged discs representing amoebas, in four sets of different colors and shapes.
11 environment cards which indicate the direction of drift and the thickness of the ozone layer.
Game rules and reference sheets.
Receptionedit
The reviewer from Pyramid #29 (Jan./Feb., 1998) stated that "Ursuppe is a very fine, fun game for three or four players from the game design company/team of Doris & Frank."[1]
primordial, soup, board, game, ursuppe, redirects, here, primordial, soup, abiogenesis, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, remo. Ursuppe redirects here For primordial soup see Abiogenesis This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Primordial Soup board game news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Primordial Soup is a board game designed by Doris Matthaus amp Frank Nestel and published by Z Man Games It was first published in 1997 in Germany by Doris amp Frank under the name Ursuppe and this original version won 2nd prize in the 1998 Deutscher Spiele Preis Primordial SoupClose up of a game in progressDesignersDoris Matthaus amp Frank NestelPlayers3 to 4 5 6 with extension Setup timeapprox 10 minutesPlaying time90 minutesChanceMediumAge range12 years and upSkillsDice rolling Bidding Capture Contents 1 Theme 2 Objective 3 Equipment 4 Reception 5 Reviews 6 References 7 External linksTheme editEach player guides a species of primitive amoeba drifting through the primordial soup The player controls whether and how their amoebas move eat and procreate using the 10 biological points which s he receives each turn A player may evolve their species by buying gene cards which give the amoebas abilities such as faster movement The abilities are pictured on the gene cards showing amoebas growing fins tentacles spines etc A key feature of the game is its self balancing ecosystem The food required by each amoeba is a mixture of the excrement of the other players species Food may become scarce and cause amoebas to starve die and decompose into food If one species becomes scarce this will then cause problems for the other players since their amoebas depend on all the other species to supply their food Genes may mitigate this for example by turning a species into a predator However this still requires some healthy prey to be available Furthermore the other players may react by turning their amoebas into predators themselves growing spines for defense or simply increase their procreation rate to offset the losses The success of each strategy highly depends on the other players actions as each species evolves to fill ecological niches Objective edit nbsp Primordial SoupEach turn each species scores points based upon its population and genes The game ends when a player reaches 42 points or when the last environment card is drawn This usually happens after 5 10 rounds so the game lasts 1 2 hours Equipment editA game board with spaces representing the primordial soup a scoring track and a compass diagram Two dice 28 pegged discs representing amoebas in four sets of different colors and shapes 37 biological point tokens 25 beads for marking damage 55 foodstuff cubes in each color 4 score markers 33 gene cards 11 environment cards which indicate the direction of drift and the thickness of the ozone layer Game rules and reference sheets Reception editThe reviewer from Pyramid 29 Jan Feb 1998 stated that Ursuppe is a very fine fun game for three or four players from the game design company team of Doris amp Frank 1 Ursuppe came in 2nd for the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 1998 2 The game won the Family strategy Games 100 in 2006 3 Reviews editGames 212 Vol 29 6 2005 AugustReferences edit Pyramid Pyramid Pick Ursuppe www sjgames com Preistrager SPIEL Messe 2006 Buyer s Guide To Games Games Vol 29 no 216 GAMES Publications December 2005 pp 35 47 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Primordial Soup board game Ursuppe Home Page Primordial Soup at BoardGameGeek Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Primordial Soup board game amp oldid 1092197547, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
