Inventions are cards which you can build during the game, giving you new abilities or other advantages. Inventions can be found in three different locations:

• On the main board (can be built by anyone)

• On the scenario sheet (can be built by anyone)

• On the right side of a character sheet (can only be built by that character)

Once an Invention has been built, its card is flipped over to the Item side and it becomes an Item.

Building Inventions

As with all Build Actions, you can only build an Invention if its requirements are met. The requirements are printed on the Invention cards and may include:

• already having another specified Item

• already having explored a specific terrain type

• discarding specified resources

Each Invention can only be built once, unless the rules specify otherwise.

When you build an Invention during the Action Phase, put it in the Future Resources space, Invention side up. (If it was a personal Invention from a character sheet, the character gains 2 Determination tokens.) Then, at the end of the Action Phase, any Inventions in the Future Resources space will trigger their effect, be flipped to the Item side and then placed in the Invention spaces on the board. From then on, they can be used as Items by anyone.

Inventions from the scenario sheet

Special Inventions printed on the scenario sheet cannot obviously be put in the Future Resources space. Instead, a black marker is placed on them to indicate they have been built. Like other cards in the Future Resources space, they and their effects only become available at the end of the Action Phase.

Flipping Items

During the game, an effect may force you to flip an Item back to its Invention side. When this happens, the Item ceases to be available from the start of the following round, and must be built again before it can be used. If the flipped Item had an additional positive effect, it must be reverted if possible. If the effect is only partially reversible (e.g. not enough food or Weapon level to discard), revert as much as possible, but take no additional penalty.

Items on scenario sheets can never be flipped back to Inventions in this way.

When a personal Invention is flipped back to its Invention side, it is returned to the side of the appropriate character sheet. It can be built again, but only by the owning character, who gains another 2 Determination tokens when doing so.

If an Item is required for any Actions in the same round as it's flipped, those Actions can still be resolved. Equally, any abilities granted by the Item can continue to be used during the round. Since the Item was available during planning (and while assigning Action pawns), the Action remains valid and is resolved as if the Item were still present.

Built Items that had the flipped Item as a requirement are not affected.