As you play, you will accumulate cards of five different colors in an area in front of you called your board. Your most important cards are the top cards of each color, as they can be activated for their effects through the Dogma action. Cards that you cover up over time are still useful, because some effects will allow you to splay a color in a direction. Splaying will reveal additional icons from your covered up cards.

Your board consists of all the cards you have put into play.

Visible basic icons will help you share in other players’ actions, demand from opponents, and also defend against their demands.

Your score pile contains face-down cards. Each card is worth its value (the age number) in points.

Achievements are one way to win in Innovation. Once claimed, they can never be taken away from you.

On each turn, you must take two actions. There are four types of action: Draw, Meld, Dogma, and Achieve. You can perform the same action twice, or take two different actions.

If you receive a free action from an effect or rule, it does not count as one of your two per turn.

You may only take an Achieve action if you are eligible to claim one of the available achievements. To be eligible for an achievement, you must satisfy both of two conditions. First, your score must be at least five times the age number of the achievement. Your score is the total value of all cards in your score pile. Second, you must have a top card on your board of equal or higher value to the age number of the achievement.

When you take the Achieve action and claim an achievement you are eligible for, place it under the right side of your reference card. Your score pile only tells whether or not you are eligible, you do not spend cards from it when taking an Achieve action.

You can only be eligible to claim an achievement if it is available in the center of the table. Once another player has an achievement, it cannot be claimed by anyone else.

Example: You, in the supply-pile example above, have 15 points (4 + 4 + 4 + 3), and the 1 achievement has already been claimed. Your highest top card is a 2. You are only eligible to claim the 2 achievement, even though you have enough points for the 3, as you must satisfy both conditions. The 1 has already been claimed. You take an Achieve action and claim the 2.

To start a Dogma action, you must choose one of your top cards to activate. This represents your civilization turning its main focus to one of the innovations you have discovered. All of the effects on the card you choose will be executed, regardless of anything else that happens to it or other cards during the action.

Many dogma effects will instruct you to splay a color in a direction. At any given time, a color is either unsplayed, splayed left, splayed right, or splayed up.

To splay a color, take the top card and slide it in the direction indicated, revealing one icon if splaying left, two icons if splaying right, and three icons if splaying up. If there are more than two cards, repeat the process so that all cards in the color are splayed. If the color was already splayed, unsplay it before splaying it in the new direction. If a color contains zero or one card, it is always considered unsplayed. If a splayed color is reduced to zero or one card, it does not remember that it was previously splayed.

To the right are examples of purple splayed left (two cards), blue splayed right (three cards), and red splayed up (three cards).

Over the course of the game, you will accumulate cards in your score pile through dogma effects. Each card in your score pile is worth points equal to its value (the age number). When you slide them under your reference card, the number will be visible in the top left. Your score is the total value of all these cards. When playing with expansions, your score may be increased by visible bonus icons. To the right is an example score pile with 15 points:

Nine normal achievements are available to start the game, one of each from ages 1 through 9. You can claim an achievement with the Achieve action, if you have enough points and a top card of the achievement’s value or higher. Once gone, they are not replenished. You do not have to claim them in order, and on occasion it is makes strategic sense to take a higher achievement first.

Example: During a dogma effect, you meld a card with on it, bringing your total number of icons to 13 . You pause to immediately claim World, and then continue the dogma effect.

Special achievements can be claimed at any time, even in the middle of an effect, or during another player’s turn. If you meet the conditions for one of them, take it immediately. Like normal achievements, once a special achievement is claimed by a player, it is no longer available for others to claim. In the rare case that two players simultaneously become eligible to claim a special achievement, the tie is broken in turn order going clockwise, with the current player winning ties.

There are three ways to win a game of Innovation: by achievements, score, or special card effect.

To win via achievements, you need to claim a number of achievements depending on how many players are in the game. For a two player game with just the base set, 6 achievements are needed. For each extra player, subtract one. For each expansion included, add one. A minimum of 4 achievements are needed, regardless of player count.

Optional Rule: If you are looking for a longer game, increase the number of achievements required to win by 1. Agree on this before starting the game.

To win by score, the game must end due to a player attempting to draw a card higher than age 10. This can happen if the age 10 supply pile runs out, or through various dogma effects. The moment the card would be drawn, the game ends immediately. In this case, each player’s current score is more important than achievements, as time has passed by their relevance. The player (or team) with the highest current score wins. If tied, most achievements wins. If still tied, the game is a draw.

Several cards can end the game early. Some allow you to win given a certain condition, which if satisfied ends the game immediately. Others let "the single player with the most X" win. These also end the game immediately, but only if there is no tie for X. If there is a tie, the effect is ignored entirely. In a team game, this grants victory to all players on the team.

Innovation plays differently nearly every time you take it out of the box. While long term planning is possible, it is often much more beneficial to seize the best tactical option at any given moment. Splaying and thus amassing icons is important, as is spending time to accumulate points. The first few times you play, it is probably easier to focus more on the cards that you have rather than trying to internalize every possible action each player could take.

Tips:

icons (which appear in ages 1-3) are very powerful early, but can quickly be a liability later if not covered, due to cards like Gunpowder and Engineering.

icons begin appearing in age 4. You will want to get some as soon as possible. Being completely shut out of the new technologies can be very painful, as the cards that use can yield many points in the mid-game.

icons arrive in age 7. Late game effects are very powerful, and having on your board can protect you from demands and help you share in what your opponents are doing.

If you can take the Achieve action, it is almost always the correct decision. If you don’t, you might lose cards from your score pile before your next turn, or someone else could claim the achievement first!

Don’t be afraid of sharing! While it’s true that you don’t want to actively help opponents, it’s often a smart play to give another player a small benefit if you’ll reap a larger one. Always factor in the free Draw action you’ll receive for sharing.

Remember that eligible opponents must share your dogma effects, and they perform their actions before you do. If the age 1 supply pile has a single card left in it, and you share a dogma effect that says "draw a 1," your opponent will get the 1, and you’ll get a 2!

Age 9 and 10 cards are very powerful, and can end the game immediately. If you’re trying to win by achievements, you want to finish up before the game reaches this stage. On the other hand, if you’re behind in achievements, you may want to get to these cards as soon as possible. They may be your last, best hope for victory! Until the game is over, no lead in Innovation is safe.

These tips focus on playing with just the base set.

• You may never look at the identity of normal achievement cards, even if you have achieved them.
• You can always look at the cards in your hand, score pile, forecast, and board (even if covered up).
• You can always count and see the value and type of cards in each supply pile, each hand, and each score pile.

With four players, you can play in teams. Team play with four players is less chaotic and more strategic than a normal four-player game.

In a team game, demand effects are not executed by your teammate, and if you share a non-demand effect with your teammate only, you do not get a free Draw action. Any dogma effect that refers to ‘opponent’ does not affect your teammate. Your team’s achievements are counted together for determining victory, but you claim achievements without your partner’s score. The number of achievements for a team to win is the same as in a 2-player game.

If the game ends from a dogma effect, an individual player winning grants that victory to their team. If the game ends by a player trying to draw a card higher than age 10, the team with the highest combined score wins.

Once you’ve played the base game a few times, you can add in expansions. Playing with expansions before learning the base game is not recommended. The rules for each expansion are explained in the chapters below.

Each expansion you play with has additional setup steps. Once in play, expansion cards behave similar to base cards. They can be in score piles, on your board, and have value equal to their age number. The type of cards in your hand, score pile, etc are public knowledge, because they have a different colored back.

Cities of Destiny is the simplest expansion, and Figures in the Sand is likely the most complex. You can mix and match expansions in any combination (even playing with all of them!) but we recommend that you learn them one at a time. Each expansion’s rules are independent, except that Figures in the Sand contains Echo Effects and Duplicated Achievements from Echoes of the Past.

Remember that with each expansion used, you must claim one additional acheivement to win.

There are two situations that cause you to draw a Cities card. If you already have a Cities card in your hand, ignore these conditions.

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.

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

The Endorse action allows you to perform a doubled Dogma action.

It can be used as either of your two actions during a turn, but cannot be used twice.

To take an Endorse action, perform the following steps:

1) Choose the top card on your board that you want to Endorse, and note its featured icon.

2) Choose a top city on your board. It must have the featured icon on it.

3) Pay for the Endorse action by tucking a card from your hand of equal or lower value to the city you chose. The tucked card’s color and icons are irrelevant.

4) Execute the effects from the card you chose in step 1 as if it were a Dogma action:

• Determine eligibility for sharing, vulnerability to demands, and which echo effects are visible as you normally would.
• When you execute a non-demand effect, do it twice.
• When you issue a demand, affect all opponents twice (go around the table clockwise, and then a second time).
• When another player shares a non-demand effect, they execute it only once.
• Draw for sharing, if applicable.

Each city has one or two special icons. Plusses, Searches, and Arrows grant an immediate effect when melded, but only if the city was melded with a Meld action (not through an effect). Flags and Fountains provide benefits as long as they are visible. If a city has two special icons, both take effect.

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

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

Search (normal 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 bear the same icon as the Search into your hand. Return the rest. Ignore all expansion draw rules and effects during a Search action, and do not draw from the next higher age if the stack is depleted.

Flag: 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: While a fountain is visible, it counts as an achievement.

Whenever you would draw a base card for any reason, you might draw an Echoes card instead. If you have cards in your hand, but none of them is an Echoes card, draw an Echo of value matching the base card you would have drawn.

If playing with multiple expansions, the following rules apply:

1) If playing with Echoes and Figures, the Figures draw rule takes priority when drawing a card for sharing.

2) If another expansion’s supply pile is empty, and you are forced to draw a base card instead, check the Echoes draw rule before drawing that base card.

If you are drawing multiple cards, evaluate the Echoes of the Past draw condition on cards one-by-one. A card that is ‘drawn and revealed’ is part of your hand.

An echo effect is a special type of effect that appears where an icon would normally be. During a Dogma action, before executing the dogma effects of a card, first check to see if any echo effects are visible in its color. Execute each of those effects, starting from the card on the bottom of the stack, and ending with the card on top. Each effect is shared with eligible players as if it were a normal dogma effect.

Echo effects are also executed when a card’s dogma effects are performed for a reason other than a Dogma action. Other expansions add various ways for this to occur, including Endorse, Promoting and displayed Artifacts. In all of these cases, echo effects in that card’s color are executed.

Contrary to some versions of the printed rules, echo effects are not executed when an effect causes you to execute the non-demand effects of another card.

Foreshadowing allows you to store cards for future use in an area called your forecast. Cards in your forecast are face-down and tucked under the top edge of your reference card. You may look at them at any time, but your opponents may not. When an effect causes you to foreshadow a card, place it in your forecast.

At the conclusion of a Meld action, any card in your forecast of equal or lower value to the card you melded is eligible to be promoted. You may choose one eligible card to promote (meld it). If you do, you may also take a free Dogma action targeting the promoted card. This free Dogma action does not count as one of your two actions for the turn.

Echoes of the Past can add or remove cards from the standard achievements area, or allow you to claim a card as a standard achievement directly from a different area. These cards often take effect only if you are eligible to claim that achievement.

Typically, you are eligible to claim an achievement if your score is at least five times its age (5, 10, 15... for ages 1, 2, 3...), and if you have a top card equal to or higher than its age. If you already have a standard achievement of that age, you need twice as many points to be eligible. If you already have two, you need three times as many, and so on.

Example: You already have age 1 and 3 standard achievements. An additional age 3 achievement has been added to the available standard achievements. You would be eligible to claim it if you had at least 30 points in your score pile, and a value 3 or higher top card on your board.

There are two situations that cause you to draw a Figures card.

1) When you take a Dogma action, and would receive a free Draw action for sharing, draw a Figure instead of a base card.

2) When you take an Achieve action, and claim a standard achievement, each opponent draws a Figure, in clockwise order from you.

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

Each Figure has one or more karma effects. They do not need to be activated with a Dogma action to be used. There are four types: "When," "Each," "Decree," and "Would." Karma effects never chain or trigger off of other karma effects. In the rare case that multiple "Would" karmas are triggered by the same action, the current player decides which karma occurs and ignores the others.

Remember, any time some portions of an effect are not possible, do as much of the effect as you can, and ignore what you cannot do.

"When" karma effects

"When" karma effects begin with "When you meld this card," Follow the instructions immediately when the Figure is melded.

Example: You meld Alexander the Great during the dogma effect for Sailing. You immediately check all opponents’ boards for top figure of value 1 or 2, and place any that are present in your score pile.

"Each" karma effects

"Each" karma effects begin with "Each" and then list something on your cards that will be modified. This can be icons, cards in a certain location, or your score, and the karma effect will describe how they are changed. Each karmas stay in effect as long as the figure remains a top card.

Example: Fu Xi is a top figure on your board, and your opponent takes a Dogma action with as a featured icon. When you count up your to check for sharing, demands, or any other purpose, you add one for each of the cards in your score pile and forecast.

"Decree" karma effects

"Decree" karma effects allow you to take a Decree action with two figures in your hand instead of three, and also remove the need to have a figure of the correct color to issue the decree. Decree karmas stay in effect as long as the figure remains a top card.

Example: Sneferu is a top card on your board, and you wish to take a Decree action to issue an Expansion Decree. The requirement is now to have any two figures (ignoring their color and value entirely). Normally, you would need to have three figures of different values, one of which would have to be yellow.

"Would" karma effects

"Would" karma effects begin with "If you would," and then have a triggering condition and a reaction. When that condition occurs, the karma effect interrupts whatever effect or action was in progress. If the reaction starts with "instead," cancel the original effect and follow the instructions of the karma effect instead. If the reaction starts with "first," follow the instructions of the karma effect, and then continue with the original effect. Would karmas stay in effect as long as the figure remains a top card.

Example: Homer is a top figure on your board, and you take a Decree action, which requires you to remove all the cards in your hand from the game. Each figure in your hand that would have been removed is tucked on your board instead.

Example: Takiyuddin is a top figure on your board, and you take an Inspire action. Before the Inspire action begins, you splay your green cards right. This reveals an inspire effect, which you can use during the action.

Instead of typical special achievements, Figures in the Sand includes five Decree cards, one for each color. Decrees are a special type of achievement, but one that is not safe and can be stolen. All five Decrees begin in the center of the table with the other Special Achievements. Decrees are claimed by taking a Decree action.

You may only take a Decree action if you have Figures of three different values in your hand. To do so, remove all the cards in your hand from the game (including both Figures and non-Figures). Then, choose a Decree matching the color of one of the Figures you removed.

Example: You have four cards in your hand, including three figures (one of which is yellow). You take a Decree action, removing them all from the game and claiming Expansion. You decide to splay up your purple cards.

• If it is in another player’s Achievement pile, return it to the area with the Special Achievements. Do not activate its effect.
• If it is in the center of the table, claim it as an Achievement and activate its effect.
• If it is already in your possession, activate the effect.

Decrees are very powerful! Using them effectively is key to victory.

Many Figures have a karma effect stating that you may issue a specific Decree with any two Figures. This allows you to take the Decree action with two Figures in hand instead of three, choosing that specific Decree. The colors of the Figures are irrelevant, but you still must remove your entire hand from the game.

At the end of any action (on any player’s turn), if you have more than one top Figure you must fade the excess. To fade a Figure, score it. You must continue fading Figures one by one until you have only one top Figure. You choose which Figures to fade.

If you meld a card on top of a Figure, the Figure card becomes a part of the stack of that color, continuing to contribute icons, bonuses, echo effects, and inspire effects to your board, just like a normal card. Figures that are partially visible due to splaying do not count for fading.

Example: Taking an Inspire action and targeting your red stack would cause you to (1,2) execute two Inspire Effects, and then (3) draw a card of value equal to your top red card, a 2.

Inspire is a new action type that serves as an enhanced Draw action. You may take an Inspire action as either of your two actions, but you may not Inspire twice in one turn. Choose one color with visible Inspire effects, and execute each of them in order from the bottom card to the top. Then, draw a card of value equal to your top card in that color, ignoring the other top cards on your board. These effects are not shared.

Inspire effects have a in the top left corner and a brighter, non-checkered background to distinguish them from echo effects.