Discover Nature

I’m Dominic Crapuchettes, founder of NorthStar and the lead designer of the Nature board game. Nature is launching on Kickstarter on September 17th. Discover more about Nature in this behind-the-scenes series.

Nature Kickstarter Notification
Nature at Essen Spiel

Episode #3: Size is Power

In previous blogs, I’ve discussed the inspiration behind the Nature board game and the goals of its modular game system.

• Discover Nature - Episode #1: Evolution has Evolved
• Discover Nature - Episode #2: Creating a Modular Game System

The next two entries will focus on the first two Nature modules, Jurassic and Flight, and show how they dramatically change the game experience.

What is Nature?

In Nature, you’ll experience the drama of the natural world in a dynamic ecosystem where species must adapt to a changing environment, look for food, and protect themselves from predators. 

Designed using ten years of experience creating the Evolution series, Nature is a modular game system that lets you build and explore a unique ecosystem each time you play.

The core game of Nature is welcoming to new players and adaptable to experienced ones. Discover Nature, then easily add a module to alter gameplay dramatically. Mix and match five unique modules to create 15 different ecosystems, with more to come!

Fight or Flight

A crucial goal with Nature was for each game module to elicit different feelings through play. To help me achieve this, I’ve been designing Nature and the first five modules simultaneously, allowing me to amplify certain aspects of the ecosystem with each one. The Flight and Jurassic modules showcase this by pulling Nature in opposite directions. Flight gives players more ways to avoid conflict, while Jurassic offers more opportunities to seek it out.

The Thrill of the Fight

In this episode, we'll focus on the Jurassic module. The core game of Nature is friendlier and more welcoming to new players. The Jurassic module is designed for people who enjoy direct conflict and head-to-head competition. It’s my “boys in a basement” module and uses a power fantasy metaphor. Consider playing Survivor's song “Eye of the Tiger” to set the mood.

Size is Power

Body size plays a significant role in Nature. A species' body size determines how much plant food you can eat in one action and your ability to hunt other species or defend yourself. Size becomes even more important in the Jurassic module, as species size grows at double the usual rate and maximum body size is massively increased.

In Jurassic, size is power, and the bigger your species, the more untouchable you'll feel. Yet, no matter how big you are in Nature, no species is immune to hunger.

All species in Nature begin as herbivores. However, plant food is limited, and the bigger species of the Jurassic module can chomp through the ecosystem's supply faster than ever. Whenever access to plant food becomes less reliable, hungry species are increasingly likely to look for another type of food by adapting to become predators.

Walk the Dinosaur

When most people think of the Jurassic era, they picture enormous apex dinosaurs. So, the first traits I designed for Jurassic were hidden predators. In the core game of Nature, predators are a free and public trait anyone can take and play on their species. Everybody knows when a species has become a predator. By hiding predators in the deck for Jurassic, it combines the power fantasy of massive species with the tense threat of not knowing what they will eat.

Life Finds a Way

Thanks to popular movies like Jurassic Park (or Jurassic World), most of us wonder how it would feel to be surrounded by huge apex predators and no longer at the top of the food chain. To tap into this emotion, I also created defensive traits to help small species survive.

Allowing a space in the ecosystem for small species resonates with the feeling of existing in the Jurassic era, and it importantly keeps the module from becoming one-dimensional.

Seismic Impact

Modules tweak core rules in Nature, and even the smallest changes can seismically impact a well-balanced ecosystem. Whenever Jurassic is in play, the ramifications of body size are felt well beyond the Jurassic cards.

A great example is a card called Horned from the Nature core deck. If a predator hunts a species with the horned trait, that predator will lose population equal to the hunted species size. This was incredibly well balanced in Nature but devastating to predators when a species' body size massively increases.

Maintaining the balance when creating these different ecosystems is a big design challenge. Instead of scrapping Horned from the base set, I mitigated its power by designing traits that counter this. Each module should give players more options in play and this change allowed more traits to be consistently viable.

Discovering combinations between modules has been part of the joy of designing Nature. I’m excited for you all to experience this sense of discovery as you combine modules yourselves.

Next Episode in Discover Nature

In the next episode, we'll examine the Flight module and learn how it changes the game as it takes you toward safer skies.

We Need Your Help

NorthStar will be at Essen Spiel this year! Please help us bring attention to Nature by clicking on the green thumb next to Nature in the Essen Spiel BGG Preview.

This would be very helpful. Thanks!

Useful Links

Get a Kickstarter Notification for Nature
Nature Essen Preview
Nature Rulebooks
Print & Play Files

Let Us Know Your Thoughts

Where would you like to see the Nature game system develop? Are there any themes or ideas you'd like to see introduced? Let us know in the comments below, or join our Discord Community!