Gizmos
The smartest minds of our generation are gathering together at the Great Science Fair. Everyone's been working hard on their creations, but only one will be crowned champion. Contestants have to think on the fly to build their machines quickly and efficiently. Whose project will be the best?
In Gizmos, you win the game by gaining victory points from building engines. And engines help you get things done faster. Whoever builds the greatest machine and collects the most victory points wins!
Machines give you victory points, and allow you to do more actions when conditions are met. As you build, new attachments can trigger chain reactions, letting you do even more on your turn.
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 13 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Gizmos and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Gizmos is an engine building resource management game. You will start with simple turns consisting of a single action while building your engine up to the point where you can trigger many actions per turn.
The Player Turn
On your turn, you must perform 1 of the following actions:
- File: File 1 Gizmo from the Display Area.
- Pick: Pick 1 Energy of your choice from the Energy Row.
- Build: Build 1 Gizmo from the Display Area or from your Archive.
- Research: Draw Gizmo cards from 1 of the facedown Level Decks and choose 1 to File or Build
File
Select 1 faceup Gizmo card from any row and then choose File. After Filing a Gizmo, it is immediately replaced with the top card of the corresponding deck. After you draw this new Gizmo, your File Action is over.
Your Archive has a limit to how many Gizmos it can hold, as indicated in your Player Dashboard’s Upgrades Area. Each player starts the game with a File Limit of 1, but some Upgrade Gizmos will increase that number. Your Archive can never hold more Gizmos than your File Limit, so if you are at your limit, you cannot take a File Action.
Pick
Choose 1 Energy from the 6 available in the Energy Row to add it to your Energy Storage Ring. Your Energy Storage Ring has a limited amount of Energy it can hold, as indicated in your Player Dashboard’s Upgrades Area. Each player starts the game with a Storage Limit of 5, but some Upgrade Gizmos will increase that number. Your Ring can never hold more Energy than your Energy Storage Limit, so if you are at your limit, you cannot take any more Energy, not even to replace existing ones.
- IMPORTANT: Some abilities let you Draw a random Energy. This is not a Pick Action and thus will not trigger any other actions.
Build
Choose 1 faceup Gizmo card from the Display Area OR from your Archive. Spend Energy from your Energy Storage Ring matching the Gizmo’s Energy Type and Cost. After building a Gizmo from a row it is immediately replaced with a new Gizmo from the top of the corresponding deck. After replenishing, your Build action is over.
The Gizmo goes below your Player Dashboard in the area corresponding to its Gizmo Type stacked so you can see all of their effects.
Converters
When performing a Build Action, you may be able to use your active Converter Gizmos to convert the Energy you have into the Energy you need. You may do this by selecting your built Converter. More details on the types of Converters may be found in the linked List of Effects PDF.
Research
Choose any facedown Level Deck (1, 2, or 3) and draw a number of cards equal to your Research Amount. You may not draw from more than 1 Level Deck at a time. Each player starts the game with a Research Amount of 3, but some Upgrade Gizmos will increase that number. If there are fewer cards in the chosen Level Deck than your Research Amount, you will draw only the number of cards available. After you draw the cards, choose 1 of them and either Build it (if you have enough Energy) or File it (if you have space in your Archive). Or you can choose to do neither and Pass.
The remaining cards are then returned to the bottom of the corresponding Level Deck, in the order of your choosing.
- Note: The File or Build Action you perform during a Research Action also counts to trigger active Gizmos (see Triggering Gizmo Effects below).
Triggering Gizmo Effects
While taking 1 of the 4 available actions is the basis of the game, the real core of it (and the key to victory) is triggering your Gizmos’ effects in order to accomplish much more on your turn than you would otherwise. Every Gizmo you Build and place below your Player Dashboard has an Effect that is activated by a specific Trigger (learn all about these in the linked PDF of List of Effects). Whenever you perform an action, Gizmos that have triggered will be highlighted. After the triggering action is complete, you may activate the Effects of any triggered Gizmos, in any order you wish. Just keep in mind that each Gizmo may only be used once per turn even if its trigger conditions are met more than once.
- Note: you may use the Effect of a Gizmo on the same turn it is built. However, it cannot be triggered by the same action that Built it.
Chain Reactions
The secret of master inventors is building their Gizmos in a way that will cause chain reactions, with one Gizmo triggering another to generate the most benefits! The Effect of one Gizmo may be a different action than the one originally performed. So, when you then perform that secondary action, it may trigger other Gizmos, and so on. Whenever you perform an action, whether it’s your one action for that turn or an action triggered by a Gizmo Effect, always check the Gizmos under that action to see if any of them are triggered.
There is no limit to the number of Gizmos that may be activated, but always remember that each Gizmo can only be used once per turn. The order in which each Gizmo’s effect is executed is up to the player, regardless of the order in which the actions that triggered those effects occurred. A Gizmo built at the beginning of a chain reaction may end up being activated later in that chain reaction, as long as it’s not triggered by the action that Built it. Sometimes finding the optimal order to execute actions and effects can yield greater results.
End of the Game
The end of the game is triggered when a player builds their 4th Level 3 Gizmo or their 16th Gizmo total (including their Starting Gizmo). Once that happens, play continues until the player to the right of the First Player completes their turn. That is, until all players have had an equal number of turns in the game. If the player who triggered the end of the game is the player to the right of the First Player, then the game ends when they complete their turn.
Naturally the player with the most Victory Points wins! In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Gizmos in their Active Gizmo Area wins (this does not include Filed Gizmos). If it’s still tied, the tied player with the most Energy left in their Energy Storage Ring wins. If it’s still tied, the tied player furthest from the First Player, going clockwise, wins.
