Evolve intelligence. Reshape society. Redefine what it means to be human. 

Looking for a civilization board game where you guide early humans from instinct to ideology? In Bios: Origins, you take control of ancient human species like Sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans, or Hobbits. Guide your people through breakthroughs in language, ideology, and technology. Modular map to custom games and the ability to play as maritime species takes the game to rarely (if ever) seen levels of gameplay variants. 

Will your civilization advance through science, religion, politics or a hybrid of all three? With asymmetric factions, ideological tension, and branching victory paths, every game tells a different story of what humanity could have been.  Part of the great 7-game story arch of the Bios and High Frontier series.

Why should you play Bios: Origins?

• Play as real ancient human species: Compete or coexist as Sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans, or Hobbits

• Civilization-building through belief, science, and politics: Choose your path to evolve society

• Asymmetric factions and replayable evolution: No two games develop the same way

• Complex, science-rooted strategy: Designed for deep thinkers and fans of realistic world-building

Game designer:  Phil Eklund, Jon Manker

Artist: Karim Chakroun, Johanna Petterson

Complexity: 4.10

How to play Bios Origins?

One to four players represent the human subspecies extant at that time: Sapiens, Neanderthal, Denisovans, & Hobbits. Take them on an adventure to enlarge your brain, acquire language, discover new worlds, domesticate strange beasts (such as riding war kangaroos or mammoths), discover the wonders and terrors of religion, dive for pearls, challenge the gods, enslave rival hominins, and perhaps enter the Enlightenment. Although wars of conquest and religion are possible, most of the fighting will be internal. You have only limited control of over your ruling class, and if your priests are in control and do a poor job, they will get killed and usurped by merchants or warlords.

Win by specializing as a cultural, political, or industrial civilization. This means, unlike most civilization games, that a cult figure on a mountaintop in New Zealand can win over an Emperor that has swept the globe with his armies.

• Map board
• Punchout sheets
• Cards
• Brain placards
• Species placards
• Elder pawns
• Migrant figures
• City cuboids
• Cubes
• Player aid

Download

Game designer: Phil Eklund

Living rules and other files, administrated by respective game designer.

• DOWNLOADABLE RULES Bios Origins
• Bios Origin on Tabletop Simulator
• Bios Origins Boardgamegeek

Videos

• Review on BGG by CampaignBoardGame
• Bios: Origins second edition - Unboxing and Overview by Heavy Cardboard
• Bios: Origins 4p Teaching & Play-through by Heavy Cardboard
• Bios: Origins 2nd ed game overview at Origins Game Fair 2019 by BoardGameGeek Express
• About Bios: Origins 2 by Ion Game Design 
• Bios: Origins review by Space-Biff
• Bios: Origins French play through and review by Les Jeux de Chaps
• How to Play Bios: Origins by Bits of Board
• Top 10 Heavy Games discussion with Jess and Radho 
• Review part 1 and part 2 by Freethemeeple
• Bios: Origins by Darwin’s Game Night
• Bios: Origins "Know thy selves while surviving" by Meeple Eksyen
• Review "Know thy selves while surviving" by Meeple Eksyen