Science Professor

You are a science professor in charge of a lab group. The goal of the game is to conduct research, get data, and publish papers sooner than your opponents. Along the way, you’ll recruit students to join your lab group, mentor them so that they get good data, and enhance their talents so that they publish high-quality papers.

There are a variety of paths you can take to achieve your goals: attending a short course, giving a seminar, and going to a conference. These are all optional, so different players can pursue different strategies.

A key element of the game is that each student in your lab group has their own strengths (which you pick): analytical, broad knowledge, collaborative, creative, and hard-working. Publishing papers, adding a student to your group, and adding strengths to students accelerates the pace of research and the pace of the game. Will your hard-working student drink enough coffee to publish their paper before your opponent's creative student has a brainstorm blizzard? Will your analytical student discover a new technique that transforms their work from a medium profile paper into a high profile paper? Will the referees nit-pick your paper before it gets published?

The game takes about 20-30 minutes per player. Enjoyed by both my 12-year-old daughter and by the physics graduate student play-testers!

Note you need to download and print out the score pad (one sheet per player). I used to have it bundled as part of the game, but it added $14 to the cost. Please download and print! Also, the game does not come with a box, again to keep the price lower. I find a 1 gallon ziploc bag works well for holding the board, cards, and playing pieces.