Bios: Megafauna (Second Edition)

About this board game

Bios: Megafauna (Second Edition) is an evolutionary board game for 1–4 players, with sessions lasting around 180 minutes. It begins at the dawn of the Phanerozoic eon, as life invades the land during the Cambrian.

Players start as one of four forms: a plant, mollusk, insect, or vertebral skeletal type. From there, flapping, paddling, and squawking carnivores and herbivores establish a beachhead on one of the drifting continental plates.

The central struggle is for terrestrial dominance. As the game unfolds, these competing forms of life may eventually reach language-based consciousness. While that achievement made one mammal species especially famous in our own history, Bios: Megafauna allows events to develop differently.

• Play as plants, mollusks, insects, or vertebral skeletal types.
• Compete with carnivores and herbivores across drifting continental plates.
• Explore an alternate path toward language-based consciousness.

This second edition is an evolutionary descendant of American Megafauna and forms part of the connected Bios series. It also plays well on its own, so no other game is required to experience its Cambrian-to-terrestrial premise.

For players who own Bios: Genesis, the two games can be linked: the end state of a game of Genesis may affect the starting state of Bios: Megafauna. A planned successor, Bios:Origins, is intended to cover the Quaternary period, including the rise of ideas and technology.