Lead a team of history's greatest minds to glory in Legendary Inventors, a game in which 2-5 players each captain a group of four inventors working to bring their knowledge to life by creating useful objects to improve the world. Compete against rival teams to patent inventions and work to improve the knowledge of your inventors. The inventing team who has patented the most inventions or who has the smartest inventors wins.
In more detail, the game takes place over three ages, with each age representing a different period of technological advancement and those inventions becoming more complex in each subsequent age. On a turn, you either send one of your inventors to work on an invention or refresh your inventors to make all of them available again. When you send an inventor to work you apply that character's skills — Albert Einstein has a starting skill of four Physics, for example, while Johannes Gutenberg has a starting skill of two Mechanics — against the needs of the invention, marking off what you've done with colored cubes.
When an invention is complete, the three players who have contributed the most reap the rewards of its completion! Players can choose to acquire and patent the invention by placing the invention card face up in front of them, or they earn reward tokens to upgrade their inventors, gain extra victory points, and even add additional knowledge to an invention.
As soon as all but two inventions in an age are complete, that age ends and a new one begins. After the third age, the team of inventors with the most victory points wins!
- stunning artwork and components
- strong tactical and strategic depth
- high interaction among players
- quick playtime suitable for a wide audience
- pigeonholing due to fixed invention choices
- possible concerns about replay value and sense of routine
- Innovation, collaboration and competition across three eras
- A stylized, multi-era competition among legendary inventors in a fictional historical/academic milieu
- Era-based progression with inventor biographies guiding rewards
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- invention drafting / token placement — Players send inventors to work on inventions by placing knowledge tokens on invention spaces; completing an invention triggers rewards.
- progress tokens / skill upgrades — Tokens upgrade inventor skills; sequence progress and rewards increase VP potential.
- Reclaim as Action — Players can refresh inventors to regain actions, affecting timing and efficiency.
- refresh/recovery action — Players can refresh inventors to regain actions, affecting timing and efficiency.
- token economy / scoring by era — Inventions yield victory points, with end-game scoring driven by completed sequences and final tallies.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Legendary Inventors gets an 8 out of 10
- stunning artwork
- the game offers choice and is strong tactically and strategically but does pigeonhole you in
- the game is quick and should be pleasing for any level gamer