Pteridomania

Enter Pteridomania and be transported back to Victorian fern hunting and botanical exploration. Players embody four distinct characters all with different playstyles, each uniquely driven to expand their fern collection.

Pteridomania Research

Areas of Focus

Research was focuses around the general Victorian era and the period’s ‘fern craze’. Focusing on aspects such as class, fern species, geography, plant cultivation, and superstitions. Investigating these aspects of Victorian life heavily informed the motives, mechanics, and variables of Pteridomania’s gameplay and player interactions.

Asymmetry

Players choose between four play styles within Pteridomania’s asymmetrical gameplay. Each of these play styles was inspired by researching and forming archetypes from the Victorian fern craze: prestige, wealth, research, and mythology. Each archetype has its own motives, playstyles, and pieces.

Pteridomania Pieces

Pteridomania Player Pieces

FERNS!

Using botanical data bases, Pteridomania uses regional data to accurately place different species of ferns across the United Kingdom. Regionally distributed ferns are traded to other regions, consumed, or discarded creating scarcity. These mechanics simulate the environmental impacts, collection process, and lucrative markets surrounding the Victorian fern craze.

Pteridomania Regional Card Patterns and Front Samples

Rule Book

Pteridomania has a twenty-three page rule book going over game rules and individual playstyles for each character. Additionally, there are player aid cards for quick access to critical game mechanics and function.

Pteridomania Rule Book Sample

Boards

The main board was period inspired, drawing inspiration from mid 1800’s maps and cartography. Player tableaus were quickly wireframed along with developing mechanics, starting as rough outlines and growing into each character’s identity as the game was refined.