Drug use, personal demons, wild episodes, and more. Side Effects is a "take that" card game where players race to treat all the diseases in their psyche with medication and therapy.
Players start with four disease cards dealt face up in front of them (their "psyche") and then four cards in a concealed hand. Players take turns picking up cards from the deck and trying to find the right drugs to treat their diseases. A drug card will treat a disease but also leave the player open to receiving new diseases (of that drug's list of side effects) from other players.
Each disease card has a unique punishment written on it and episode cards will trigger these punishments. Play an episode card on another player to hinder them or help yourself.
The game is over when one player treats all of the diseases in their psyche.
- Fast paced gameplay
- Lots of player interaction
- Suitable for new gamers
- Suitable for seasoned gamers
- Interesting theme
- Dynamic gameplay with side effects
- Mental health, drugs, therapy, psyche management
- Treatment of psychological conditions
- thematic card game
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Play — Deal and manage disease cards representing the psyche
- Side effects — Treatments cause unwanted side effects and new conditions
- Treatment system — Treat diseases with drugs and therapy
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hello guys and welcome to one more wine around up
- We're gonna see some new and interesting board games that you can check out and possibly back on Kickstarter
- The kind of game you need to invite your friends over and have some jazz playing and make some fancy cocktails and just enjoy the game
- This game is a love letter to the sci-fi movies and comics of the 80s and the 90s
- Root is an asymmetric game of adventure and war where you rule a fantastic forest kingdom