Gamehelpinnovation

Overview

Innovation is a card game of civilization building, with 105 unique cards.

Each card represents an innovation throughout ten ages of history, starting in Prehistory (1), and going all the way to the Information Age (10).

Each player has their own personal play area, called their board.

A card's primary use is as an innovation, played face-up to your board, representing your civilization's adaptation of this new technology, idea, or ingenuity.

However, cards can also end up face-down in your score pile, representing your civilization's current power and influence, or as achievements, denoting its legacy throughout the years.

Anatomy of a Card

In the top middle of each card is its title. Each card has its own unique title. In a few cases, titles are compared alphabetically, and a few expansion cards reference specific other cards by their title. Otherwise, it is simply a way to distinguish each card.

"Alphabetical" comparisons are done by the English version of the title, and include leading articles. i.e., The Wheel is considered to come before Tools alphabetically.

In the top right of a card is its value. A card's value matches its age, which is displayed prominently on its back. Cards in the supply are split by age into separate face-down supply piles.

The background of each card will be one of five colors: blue, red, green, yellow, or purple.

(If the preference Card appearance is set to "Third edition", the value of the card will be outlined in different shapes, depending on the card's color.)

In the center of a card are abilities that this card can grant you, called dogma effects. Some are demands that can attack other civilizations. Others help you improve your own civilization. Every effect is preceded by a featured icon.

Going around the left and bottom of a card are four potential icon locations. Each location will show one icon, and exactly one location on each card will have a black hexagon icon with an image related to the card.

In the base game, these black hexes have no game effect, other than to affect where each card's three other icons appear.

There are six basic icon types that appear on cards. Three appear in any age, and three are limited to specific ages. A few expansion cards have icons appearing outside these restrictions. Hover over the player reference card for more info.

Actions

On a normal turn, you must take two actions. If any effect or rule gives you a "free" action, it does not count as one of these two. For each action, you must choose from the following four options (you may choose the same action twice):

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DRAW (Click on the blue button at the top of your screen, or the supply pile to perform this action)

Draw a card from the supply pile of the age matching the highest value among all the top cards on your board, into your hand.

Whenever you draw a card for any reason, if the corresponding supply pile is empty, draw from the next higher age's supply pile instead. If multiple ages are empty, keep skipping as necessary.

If you ever attempt to draw a card higher than 10 for any reason, including skipping an empty Age 10 supply pile, the game ends immediately (even in the middle of an action/effect - see End of Game).

If a game effect has you take a card of a specific value from anywhere other than the supply piles, you only do so if the specified value is present. You do not skip to higher numbers in this case.

Cards in your hand are kept secret from other players; although they can see how many cards you have in hand, and which ages they are from. (Also each expansion's card set has different colored backs)

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MELD (Click on the card in hand that you want to meld to perform this action)

Melding a card represents your civilization adapting a new innovation into its society, possibly replacing the importance of a previously adapted one.

Place a card from your hand onto your board. If you already have cards of that color on your board, this card is stacked on top of those, becoming your new top card of that color.

If you do not already have that color on your board, it starts a new stack, becoming the top (and bottom) card of that stack.

Each color only ever has one stack on each board, and colors are never mixed within a stack.

If the stack is already splayed (spread to one side, see Basic Keywords below), that splay is maintained by the new card.

You may not take a Meld action if you have no cards in hand.

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DOGMA (Click on the top card you wish to activate to perform this action)

A Dogma action has multiple steps, and is the heart of the game. This represents your civilization turning its main focus to one of the innovations it has adapted.

• (1) To start a dogma action, you must choose one of the top cards on your board, thus activating its effects. All of the effects on the card you chose will be executed, regardless of what happens to the card or other cards during the action (unless game end is triggered).
• (2) Before executing any of the effects, the amount of times that the featured icon of the activated card (the small version of the icon that precedes each effect) appears is counted on each player's board. (A running count for how many times each of the six basic icons appears on each player's board is shown in the BGA player panels.) Any player with at least as many of that icon visible as you will share all non-demand effects. Any opponent with fewer of the icon visible than you is vulnerable to demand effects. The icon count is only performed once per Dogma action, and sharing/vulnerability for all the effects on the activated card will be determined by this count, regardless of how the state of the boards changes while the effects are applied.
• (3) All effects on the card must be executed during the Dogma action. They will be executed in order from top to bottom, with each effect completed entirely before moving to the next effect.
  • •Effects with a darker background that start with "I DEMAND" are demand effects, which give opponents instructions to follow. All vulnerable opponents, in turn order, follow the instructions as if the activating player is reading them to the vulnerable player. Thus any "you/your" refers to the vulnerable player, and "me/my" refers to the activating player. No other players follow the instructions.
  • •Effects that do not start with "I DEMAND" are non-demand effects. Each player who was determined to share non-demand effects of the activated card follows the effect's instructions, in turn order. All sharing players execute the effect before the activating player, who executes it last. Each player who executes the effect does so as if they were the player reading the card. Any "you/your" in the effect refers to the player currently executing the effect.
• (4) If any of your opponents shared any of the non-demand effects, and their doing so changed the game state in any way, then after all the effects have been resolved, you must take a free Draw action, with your now-current highest top card (which may be different than what it was before the Dogma action) determining the supply pile you draw from.

(For the purposes of point 4, if the game state was changed, and then changed again so that it is now in the exact place it was before, that still counts as changing. For example, "Return all the cards in your hand, then draw three 6s". When your opponent shares the effect, they only have three 6s in hand, and the age 6 supply pile is empty. First, they return all three 6s to the supply, then they draw the same exact cards back into their hand, as these are the only three in the age 6 supply pile. This still triggers the free Draw action for sharing.)

In the extremely rare situation that you have no cards on your board, you may not perform a Dogma action.

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ACHIEVE (Click on the red button at the top of your screen, or the eligible achievement, to perform this action)

During the setup of the game, one card from each (base set) supply pile 1-9 is set aside as an available achievement. These cards are always kept face-down, and can never be looked at. They are simply used as markers to denote achievements made by players.

You may only take the Achieve action if you are eligible to claim one of the available achievements. In order to be eligible, you must satisfy both of the following conditions:

• (1) The total of the ages of all the cards in your score pile (usually simply referred to as your "score"), must be at least five times the age number of the achievement.
• (2) You must have a top card on your board of equal or higher value to the age number of the achievement.

If you take the action, claim an achievement you are eligible for by transferring it from the available achievements, to your personal achievements pile on the right side of your player reference card.

You may only claim achievements that are set aside as "available". Once another player claims an achievement, it is no longer available to be claimed.

Special achievements are automatically claimed immediately, for free, if they are still available, by meeting the requirements listed on them, even on another player's turn. They cannot be claimed with this action. Each special achievement also has an associated card whose dogma effects can allow a player to claim them.

Like standard actions, once a special achievement has been claimed, it is no longer available for another player to claim.

If you now have the required number of achievements (See End of Game), the game ends immediately, and you win!

You must choose one of these four actions, you cannot simply "pass". However, it is legal (and sometimes strategically preferred) to perform a Dogma action, activating a top card that will have no effect (for example, the card only has a Demand effect, and no player has fewer icons than you), as a way to effectively "pass" the action.

Basic Keywords

Splaying is an important concept to understand. Many dogma effects will instruct you to splay cards in a specific direction. At any time, a color's stack is always either: unsplayed, splayed left, splayed right, or splayed up. When an unsplayed stack is splayed, the top card is slid in the direction indicated, revealing one icon location on the card beneath it when splayed left, two when splayed right, and three when splayed up. If there are more than two cards in the stack, this process is repeated down the entire stack. If a stack was already splayed, it is briefly unsplayed before being splayed in the new direction (That is to say, splays don't compound. You can hover over your player reference for a visual example of splayed stacks).

This increases the number of icons visible on your board, increasing the likelihood you will share other players' dogmas, and that more opponents will be vulnerable to your demands .

Thus, your civilization is able to learn from previously adapted innovations, once thought obsolete, in order to improve their implementation of their newest innovations!

A color stack with one or zero cards in always unsplayed. If a stack is ever reduced to one or zero cards, it does not "remember" what splay it had. (The nice developers on BGA put handy little arrows under stacks to denote their current splay, but the rule still applies)

Tucking a card means to place it face-up on the bottom of its stack on your board, maintaining any current splay.

Returning a card means to place it face-down on the bottom of the supply pile it came from. If that supply pile was empty, the returned card becomes the only card in the supply pile, and it is no longer empty. If you must return multiple cards to the same pile, you choose the order.

Scoring a card means to place it face-down in your score pile, to the left of your player reference. Your score is increased by the age of the scored card. You may look at the fronts of the cards in your own score pile, but not other players' score piles.

Draw [and ...] when a dogma effect tells you to draw a card, it will always specify what value to draw. Use this value, even if it is different from what a Draw Action would have you draw. If the effect tells you to get that value from another card, and no such card exists (e.g., "Draw a card equal to the value of your top purple", but you have no purples on your board), then the value is 0. As there are no 0 supply piles ever in the game, you skip up to 1 (and further if necessary). If you are are told to Draw and [something else], you do the [something else] with the card that you just drew. "Draw and meld a 6" means you draw from the age 6 supply pile (or age 7 if age 6 is empty, and so on), and then meld that card. You cannot choose to meld a different card from your hand, or any other card.

Start the game, already!

At the start of the game, all players Draw two 1s, then each secretly pick one of the two cards. Once everyone has picked, the chosen cards are simultaneously melded by all players, and the player who melded the card whose title comes first alphabetically goes first.
On the first player's first turn, they only perform one action. In a four player game, this is also true for the second player's first turn. After that, all turns are two actions each.

However, playing with 4 players, or any expansions, is not recommended for a first play, if avoidable.

Innovation is best learned by playing, and if you've never played before, it is advisable to stop reading here, and just start playing, coming back as you need to reference specific rules or keywords.

End of Game

The game can end in three ways:

By achievements
The game ends immediately (even during a dogma effect) when a player has claimed the required number of achievements.

In a 2 player game with just the base set, 6 achievements are required.

For each extra player, subtract one from the requirement. For each expansion added, add one to the requirement.

Optional rule: The game may be set up to make the achievement goal one higher, for a longer game. In Options during table setup, choose "Enable" for "Extra achievement to win".

The player who reached the achievement goal wins the game, as their civilization has the greatest legacy.

Drawing above a 10
The game ends immediately (even during a dogma effect) when any player attempts to draw a card higher than a 10, for any reason.
Time has passed by the relevance of your achievements, and the player (or team) with the highest score wins, as their civilization has the most current power and influence.

If tied, the number of achievements is the tie-breaker; if still tied, the game is a draw.

By dogma
The dogma effects of several cards award a win if certain conditions are met. Others allow the single player with the most (or least) [X] to win; these will only award victory if there is no tie for [X]. If there is a tie, the effect is ignored.

In either case, if victory is awarded, the game is ended immediately.

In a team game, this grants victory to that player's teammate, as well.

Playing with Expansions

Each expansion has 105 additional unique cards, split into 10 ages, just like the base set. Each set is kept in separate supply piles, and has unique rules for how its cards are drawn.
Draw actions and Draw effects will draw base cards unless the expansion's rules state otherwise. Once expansion cards are drawn, they act like any other card, except where specifically outlined otherwise in that expansion's rules.
Returned cards are returned to the specific supply pile they came from.
In general, if a base card supply pile is empty, all expansion card supply piles of the matching age are considered empty (even if they still have cards in them).
If an expansion supply pile is empty but the corresponding base pile is not, you usually draw a base card when you would have otherwise drawn an expansion card (Dig events from Artifacts of History are a notable exception).

Artifacts of History Expansion

In Artifacts of History, each card represents a unique artifact through the ages. Artifact cards generally are more powerful than base cards of the same age, but are harder to obtain and get onto your board.

Many Artifact cards influence the game in ways very unique to this particular expansion. However, the cards themselves still look and act like base cards in most situations. A notable exception is Battleship Yamato, a red card from Age 8. This card has no basic icons, and no effects. However, the value printed on its front side is 11. It counts as an 11 when face up (notably, as a top card on your board, causing the game to end if you take a Draw Action), and an 8 when face down (in the supply, in your hand, in your score pile). Because it has no featured icon, it cannot be the target of a Dogma action.

Unless a dogma effect explicitly tells you to draw an Artifact, or to draw a card from any set and you choose Artifacts, the only way to bring Artifact card into play is to trigger a dig event.

Dig Event
A dig event is triggered by a Meld action (and not other meld effects) if the meld action covered up a top card of that color (that is, you already had at least one card in that color's stack on your board), and either:

The melded card is equal or lower value than your previous top card of that color, OR
The location of the black hex icon on the melded card is the same as the location of the black hex on the previous top card of that color.

If either/both are true, you draw an Artifact from the age equal to the value of the covered up card (skipping any ages with empty base supply piles), and place that card "on display".

The dig event is ignored if you already have a card on display, or if the Artifact supply pile of that age is empty (you never put non-Artifact cards on display).

Cards on Display
A card "on display" is not considered part of a player’s board, nor hand, and thus no dogma effects targeting your board, hand, or anything else have any affect on it.
At the same time, because it is not on your board, its icons do not count toward your icon totals, and it is not a top card.

However, if you start your turn with an Artifact already on display, you get a free special action at the start of your turn, before your normal actions. With this action, you choose one of three options:

(1) Take a free Dogma action, targeting the card on display. Solely for the purpose of determining sharing/vulnerability, the card's icons are added to your board's totals. Dogma effects on the card that care about your icon totals will not count the icons on the displayed card during this action. Using your free special action this way will also trigger Echo effects on your board in this color before the card's dogma effects (see Echoes of the Past Expansion). At the conclusion of all the dogma effects, return the displayed Artifact.

(2) Return the displayed Artifact (without triggering the dogma effects).

(3) You may pass the special action, leaving the Artifact on display.

During a normal Meld action, you may treat the card on display as if it is in your hand, and meld it. This may trigger another dig event, and/or any other effects triggered by Meld actions.

Compel Effects
Some Artifacts have a special type of Demand effect that starts with the words "I COMPEL".
Compel effects are considered demand effects for all purposes, and behave exactly the same, except that opponents are only vulnerable to a Compel effect if they have the same or more of the featured icon than you. In other words, the same situation where they would share any non-demand effects. In some cases, opponents will be forced to follow the instructions of a Compel effect, and then also share other non-demand effects on the card. Remember that the free Draw action will only be triggered if a non-demand effect is shared (and the game state is changed by it).

Relic Cards (optional)
Relics are an optional addition when playing with Artifacts of History, and must be chosen during table setup to be included. The five relics are placed in an "available" area next to the supply piles at the start of the game. Each Relic has a different age, 3-7, and its card back matches the color of a different Innovation card set/expansion. They are the "lost relics" of each set.

After you dig an Artifact, you may seize the Relic whose age matches the value of the Artifact.
Relics may only be "seized" from the available Relics area, or from any player's achievements pile (including your own).
If you seize a Relic, you transfer it to your achievements pile. Or, if its card back matches the card backs of any set in play this game, you may instead transfer it to your hand.
A Relic in your hand acts like any other card, possibly being melded, scored, returned, etc. While in your hand, on your board, or in your score pile, it cannot be seized. A returned relic is returned to the available Relics area, where it may be seized again.
A Relic in your achievements pile counts as a claimed achievement as long as it stays there (remember that Relics can be seized from achievement piles).
A Relic in an achievement pile or in the available Relics area is not affected by any rule or effect that affects standard achievements. Only the rules that apply to Relics may affect it.
A relic in your hand, on your board, or in your score pile is affected by all the rules and effects that apply to those cards.

Echoes of the Past Expansion

In Echoes of the Past, each card represents a unique invention or discovery through the ages. These cards introduce new icons and mechanics into the game.
Like the base game, Echoes of the Past has five special achievements, which are added to the five from the base game at setup. Any of these special achievements can be claimed during the game.

Drawing Echoes Cards
When playing with Echoes, whenever any player would draw a base card for any reason, they might draw an Echoes card instead.
This includes if you are playing with other expansions, and have to draw a base card because that other expansion's supply pile is empty

Echoes Draw Rule: If you have cards in hand, but none of them are an Echoes card, draw an Echoes card from the age matching the base card you would have drawn.

When drawing multiple cards, this rule is evaluated for each card, one-by-one. So if your hand is empty and you are instructed to draw three cards, you draw: Base, Echoes, Base
Revealed cards are considered to be in your hand for this purpose.

Echo effects
An echo effect is a special type of effect that appears in an icon location on a card. During a Dogma action, before executing the dogma effects of the top card, a check is made for any visible echo effects in that color's stack, including on the top card itself. Execute any such echo effects, starting with the bottom card of the stack and moving up the stack, ending with the top. Each effect is shared with players who were determined to be eligible to share by the dogma effect's featured icon.

Which echo effects will be executed is determined by which ones were visible when the Dogma action was declared. Any echo effects being covered up or revealed during the execution of the effects does not change this.

Although they act in a similar way, echo effects are distinguished from dogma effects. If an effect tells you to "execute the non-demand dogma effects" on another card, you would not execute any Echo effects. If an effect tells you to "execute all the effects" of a card as if they were on this card, this would include any echo effect on the targeted card, but not any other echo effects in the targeted card's stack.

New Keyword: Foreshadow
Foreshadowing a card means to place it in your forecast, a new area defined for this effect, face down. You may look at the fronts of the cards in your own forecast, but not other players' forecasts.

After you perform a Meld action (but not other meld effects), any card in your forecast of equal or lower value to the card you just melded is considered eligible for promotion.
If any cards are eligible, you may choose one to promote, melding it to your board (this is not a Meld action, and will not trigger related events).
If you do, you may then take a free Dogma action, targeting the promoted card.

Bonus Icons
Echoes cards introduce a new type of icon, a copper circle with a number in the middle, called bonuses. Bonus icons add additional points to your score as long as they are visible.
Your highest visible bonus adds its full value to your score. Every other bonus visible on your board adds 1 to your score.

Duplicate Achievements
Several effects on Echoes cards can add or remove cards from the available standard achievements, or allow you to claim a card from somewhere else as a standard achievement, if eligible.

In addition to needing a top card of value equal or higher than the card you are trying to claim to be eligible, if you already have a standard achievement of that age, your score needs to be twice as high to be eligible. If you already have two, your score needs to be three times as high, and so on.

Cities of Destiny Expansion

In Cities of Destiny, each card represents an important city through the ages. Cities do not have dogma effects, but have six icon locations, and introduce new icons into the game.
Like the base game, Cities of Destiny has five special achievements, which are added to the five from the base game at setup. Any of these special achievements can be claimed during the game.

Drawing Cities Cards
There are two situations that can cause you to draw a Cities card. In either case, if you already have a Cities card in hand, you ignore these triggers and do not draw.
Drawing a Cities card is automatically triggered in these cases, it is not optional and does not use an action.

(1) When you take a Meld action to meld a card that adds a new color to your board, draw a City.

(2) Immediately after splaying a color in any new direction, draw a City. (including effects that allow you to splay colors on other players' boards)

In either case, draw a Cities card of value equal to your highest top card.

New Action: Endorse
Endorse is a new action available to you on your turn, allowing you to perform a doubled Dogma action. It can be used as either of your normal actions, but cannot be used twice on the same turn.
(To Endorse an action, click the card on your board that you want to Endorse. Endorse-able cards will have a pink border)

(1) Click the top card on your board that you want to Endorse, noting its featured icon.

(2) Choose a top City on your board that has that icon on it.

(3) "Pay" for the Endorse action by tucking a card from your hand of equal or lower value than the chosen city. The tucked card's color and icons are irrelevant to this action.

(4) Execute the effects of the targeted card from step 1 (and any visible echo effects in its stack) as if it were a Dogma action:

    (a) Determine sharing, vulnerability, and visible echo effects as normal.
    (b) When you execute a non-demand effect, do it twice.
    (c) When another player shares your non-demand effect, they only execute it only once.
    (d) When you issue a demand, effect all vulnerable opponents twice (Going around the table in turn order the first time, and then again the second time)
    (e) Draw for sharing, if applicable.

City Icons
Each City has one or two icons unique to this set. Plus, Arrow, and Search icons take effect immediately when melded, but only if the City was melded with a Meld Action (not other Meld effects).

Plus icon — Draw a card of value one higher than the city’s age.

Arrow icon — Splay the city’s color in the direction indicated by the arrow.

Search icon (basic icon with a magnifying glass) — Search icons count as normal icons while visible. In addition, the Search effect causes you to draw and reveal X base cards of value X, where X is the value of the city. Of all the revealed cards, take all cards that have the same icon as the Search into your hand, then return the rest. During this effect, ignore all other expansion draw rules and do not skip to a higher age if the supply pile is depleted.

Flag icon — While a flag is visible, it counts as an achievement if no opponent has more visible cards of the flag’s color than you do.

Fountain icon — While a fountain is visible, it counts as an achievement.

Cities may also have Bonus icons as described in Echoes of the Past.

Top Cities cards can be targeted for Dogma/Endorse actions, despite not having Dogma effects. The icon that appears the most on the City is considered its featured icon.

The "Legend", "Repute", and "Fame" Special Achievements can be triggered by any meld effects, not just Meld Actions.

Playing with Multiple Expansions

When playing with more than one expansion, multiple events may trigger from a Meld action. When that happens, the triggers are performed in this order:

(1) [Cities] Execute the City's icon effects.
(2) [Cities] Draw a City card.
(3) [Artifacts] Dig an Artifact, placing it on display.
(4) [Echoes] You may promote an eligible foreshadowed card.

Clarifications and Other Keywords

THE GOLDEN RULE : — "Do as much as you can, and ignore the rest."
If you are unclear what a card's effect will do, remembering this will resolve most ambiguities.

(For example, "Score three cards from your hand", and you only have two in hand. You will score both cards, ignoring the attempt to score a third.)

Effects are not optional unless they say "you may". Only the part that says "you may" is optional, and your decision may impact the rest of the effect.

"You may [X]" — it is your option to execute the effect, but if you choose to, it must be executed completely, or as much as possible.

(ex: "You may tuck a card from your hand for every two [icon] on your board." You have seven [icon]s on your board. You can either:

1. Do Nothing, or

2. Tuck three cards from your hand, or every card from your hand if you have less than three in hand. You cannot choose to stop at two if you have a third card in hand.)

"You may [do X], if you do, [Y]" — it is your option to do [X]. If you do, [Y] will happen in full, or as much as possible. If you do not have enough cards in the right place to completely do [X], you must ignore the effect.

(ex: "You may return two cards from your hand. If you do, score the top red card from your board."

1. If you have one card or no cards in hand, you must ignore the effect.

2. If you have at least two cards in hand, you may choose to ignore the effect.

3. If you have at least two cards in hand, and choose to return two, you must then score your top red card.

4. If you have no red cards on your board, you may still return two cards from hand, but nothing else will happen if you do.)

"[Do X]. If you do, [Y]" — you must do [X]. "If you do" does not imply that you have a choice. If you have no cards, or no cards of the specific color/value, in the right place, then you ignore the [X] effect. If you do not have as many cards as the [X] effect asked for, you do it with as many as you have, but then ignore the "if you do" [Y] effect (as you did not fully do [X]). If you could not ignore [X], you must then execute the full "if you do" [Y] effect, or as much as possible.

(ex: "Score a blue card from you hand. If you do, draw a card of value one higher than the card you scored."

1. If you have no blue cards in hand, the effect is ignored {on BGA, your hand will be revealed to everyone else in the game log to verify you had no appropriate cards}

2. If you have any blue cards in hand, you must score one. If you have multiple, you may choose which one. Then you must draw a card of value one higher than you scored, possibly even triggering end of game.)

(ex: "Score your top two red cards. If you do, splay your green cards up."

1. If you have at least two red cards on your board, you must score the top two (possibly losing their splay if you had only two or three). Then you splay your green cards up, if possible (if you have at least two greens on your board).

2. If you have one red card on your board, you must score it, but then you do not splay your green cards up.

3. If you have no red cards on your board, nothing happens.)

Top/Bottom — The top card of each color's stack is a "top card". The bottom card of each stack is a "bottom card". If your board has only one card of a color, it is both the top and bottom card of that color. Effects such as "non-bottom top card" ignore single card stacks.

"Draw"/"Meld"/"Achieve" — Dogma effects that instruct you to do one of these things are performed similar to taking the action, but do not count as that action for any purpose that cares about that distinction.

(e.g., A dogma effect that tells you to meld does not trigger dig events or foreshadow promotions, as those are triggered by the Meld Action.)

(While taking a normal Dogma action will be one of your two actions for your turn, dogma effects that have you draw/meld/etc do not use up more actions. Dogma effects that trigger other cards' dogma effects do not use up more actions. If the original Dogma action was a free Dogma action, neither of your two normal turn actions have been used at all)

Reveal — Revealed cards are shown face-up to everyone. If a "Draw and Reveal" effect does not specify what to do with the card after revealing it, it is placed in your hand at the end of the effect. Revealed cards are considered to be in your hand for effects that care about whether cards are in your hand.

Transfer a card from [X] to [Y] — Move the card from area [X] to area [Y]. If [X] is a player's board, this may cause that stack to lose its splay if one or zero cards remain. If [Y] is a player's board, the card becomes the new top card of the appropriate stack, maintaining any splay. However, this does not count as "melding" (or "scoring","achieving", etc) for any cards that care about that (such as Special Achievements).

Exchange — Simultaneously transfer cards between the two areas given, even if one side is empty. Exchanges do not need to be symmetrical. Depending on the situation, 2 cards can be exchanged with 2, 1 card with 4, or even 0 cards with 10. As with transferring, the cards have not been "melded", "scored", etc. for effects/triggers that care about that. To be clear, cards moved to your score pile still nonetheless add to your score, cards moved to your hand can be melded with future Meld actions, cards moved to your board can be activated with future Dogma Actions, and cards moved to your achievements pile still get you closer to winning. They just weren't technically "melded", "drawn", etc.

Highest (or Lowest) — The card with the highest (lowest) value/age among those referenced. If several cards are the highest (lowest), you may pick which one is affected. "All your highest/lowest cards" affects all such cards, although you can pick the order when that matters.

Remove — completely set aside from play, and the game is continued from that point as if those cards no longer exist.

Card Set — this refers to all innovation cards that came from a specific expansion, or the base game. E.g., the Base set, the Echoes set, the Artifacts set, etc. Effects that instruct you to draw from a specific set, or let you choose which set to draw from, override normal rules about which set to draw from. However, expansion supply piles for ages where the corresponding Base age is empty are still considered "empty" and are not drawn from, instead skipping to next age with a non-empty Base supply pile.

(ex: "Choose a card set and draw two 2s." You choose "Artifacts". There are cards in the Artifacts age 2 supply pile, but the base age 2 supply pile is empty. There are cards in the base age 3 supply pile, so you draw two cards from the Artifacts age 3 supply pile, skipping over age 2, as it is treated as "empty".)

(Original printings of some cards referred to a card's "type", which is the same as card set. The wording of all the cards on BGA have been changed to "card set" to reduce confusion.)

Visible — All top cards are visible. All icons on top cards are visible. All cards in a splayed stack are visible. Some icon locations on non-top cards are visible in splayed stacks, as defined by the splay direction. No non-top cards are visible in an unsplayed stack, and neither are any of their icons.

(Because it could be perfectly tracked through the game log anyway, all cards in all players' piles can be seen fully in BGA by clicking the "Look at all cards in piles" button. However, for the purposes of in-game mechanics, they are not necessarily all "visible")

Execute each of its non-demand effects. Do not share them — you will not share the effects of the targeted card, no matter the icon count. The effects can still impact other players. (e.g., Rocketry can still return score cards from other players' score piles)

Execute the effects ... as if they were on this card — execute the effects printed on the targeted card as if they were printed on this card, meaning the featured icon will be the one on this card, which may affect who shares them or is vulnerable to them. References to "other" cards could affect the targeted card.

Any value/Choose a value — you must choose a potential card value; namely, an integer 1-10, inclusive.

Choose a number — you must choose a non-negative integer. Zero is a valid choice.

Claim an/any achievement — Only applies to Standard Achievements. If told to "Claim an achievement of (value [X]/matching value)", you can only do so if a standard achievement of that specific value is available.

Team games

To play a less chaotic and more strategic four player game, you can play in teams (partnerships).

Your Demand effects are not executed by your teammate. Your teammate can share in your non-demand effects, but if they are the only other player who does, you do not get a free Draw action.

Any effect referring to your "opponents" does not affect your teammate.

Your team's achievements are counted together, with the required total amount for victory being the same as a 2-player game.
However, you must only use your own score to claim an achievement.

If a dogma effect ends the game, the winning player also grants victory to their teammate.

If the game ends from a player attempting to draw above 10, the teammates combine their scores, and the higher total team score wins.

Game editions and differences

The game was first published by Asmadi Games in 2010.

Then Iello published another edition of the game in 2011 with the same mechanics and card effects, but using a different terminology.

More recently, Asmadi Games gathered the original game and all its expansions in a new box "Innovation Deluxe" with new graphics, and also made some slight modifications on nine cards for balancing purposes.

The online adaptation is based on the third edition of Asmadi games for the artwork. For the rules, you can choose between:

-Last edition (this is the default): these are the rules of the Asmadi "Innovation Deluxe" pack. The expansions will only be compatible with this version.

-First edition: these are the rules of the original Asmadi game. These rules are consistent with the Iello edition too.