Somewhere on a doomed and distant planet, life has emerged, vying for supremacy until the world’s inevitable destruction. The goal of the game is to score the most points by the time the world ends. Score points by playing Traits for your Doomlings’ species, which make them more adaptable, resilient, and mischievous. As your Doomlings assert their dominance, Catastrophes will befall the planet, resulting in setbacks for each competing species. When the third Catastrophe inevitably hits , the world ends, and the Doomlings with the strongest set of traits gets to look the Apocalypse in the eye and declare…“I scored the most points!”

Throughout the game, players get Trait cards from a community pile, and then play them for points. Traits may also have special abilities and bonuses, allowing players to build a wide range of winning combinations. The game is played in rounds, using Age cards, which have different rules players must follow. But be warned, hidden in the Ages are Catastrophes: special rounds with adverse effects that will force players to adapt their strategy.

Doomlings adds a fun twist to hand management, by adding the “Gene Pool” mechanic. Your Gene Pool is your hand size: it is unique to you, and can increase or decrease through special Traits, or even Catastrophes. Doomlings comes with 6 colorful Gene Pool counter cards, elegantly tracking how many cards you should hold at the end of your turn. There are opportunities to increase your Gene Pool (hand size), which can give your species a leg up by giving a larger pool of Traits to select from each turn.

A lightweight card game for 2-6 players, Doomlings may be played casually amongst friends, or competitively by the gaming enthusiast family. Because there are no duplicate cards, and Age cards are selected randomly, no two games are ever the same. While the game itself can be learned in 5 minutes or less, do not be fooled: with 100+ unique Traits—in Red, Blue, Green, Purple and Colorless—and rare, powerful Dominant Traits, there are countless combinations of play to be discovered.

A typical game lasts between 20-45 minutes, depending on the number of players and sequence of events. Advanced-play expansion packs are also available, including a Hidden Objective expansion for a fun addition to the game. Doomlings needs no dice or additional pieces, just a jolly embrace of the inevitable end of the world!