Micro-Engine: Pocket Workshop

Components

• Core cards (1 per player)
• Workshop deck (Parts, Upgrades, Calibrations)
• Patent deck (public objectives)
• Optional: round tracker

Setup

1. Patents. Shuffle and reveal players + 1 Patents face-up. Patents are not refilled.
2. Workshop Row. Reveal 3 Workshop cards face-up.
3. Cores. Shuffle the Core cards. Each player draws 2, keeps 1, and discards the other. Place your Core face-up at the left end of your play area. Its Output is universal: your first Part may have any Input.
4. Hands. Each player draws 5 Workshop cards. Hands are hidden from other players.
5. First player. Random.

Card Anatomy

• Input (left edge) and Output (right edge) — the connection types a Part attaches with. Chains grow left to right.
• Cost — the number of cards you discard from your hand to play the card. Every card has a Cost (it may be 0) and you always pay it.
• Requirement (some cards only) — a condition that must also be true before you can play the card, such as “Chain length ≥5” or “3 Upgrades in play”. Requirements keep strong cards out of the early game. A card with a Requirement still costs its Cost.
• VP — points scored at the end of the game.
• Slots — how many Upgrades the Part can hold.
• Effect — what the card does: When played (once, as it enters play), ongoing (always on), once per turn, or End game (at scoring).

Card Types

• Part — Attaches to the right end of your chain. Main source of VP.
• Upgrade — Tucks under a Part or your Core. Improves your economy and enables combos. Does not extend the chain.
• Calibration — A one-shot effect: announce it, resolve it, then discard it.

Your Chain

• Your chain is the row of Parts to the right of your Core. Chain length counts Parts only; the Core does not count.
• Your chain’s current Output is the Output of its rightmost Part (or your Core’s universal Output if you have no Parts yet).
• A new Part must attach to the right end: its Input must match your chain’s current Output, unless a card lets you change that.

Upgrades and Hosts

• An Upgrade’s host is the Part (or Core) it is tucked under. A host’s neighbors are the Parts directly to its left and right.
• Each Part has 1 Upgrade slot unless it shows more. Your Core has 1 slot. Never exceed the printed slots.
• If a Part leaves play or moves (both are rare), its Upgrades leave with it.

Play goes clockwise for the set number of rounds. Each turn has two phases.

Phase A — Draw

Take 2 cards in any combination from the Workshop Row and/or the top of the deck. Refill the Row to 3 cards at the end of this phase, not between your two picks.

Phase B — Play

You have 1 action. Spend it on one of:

• Play a Part. Pay its Cost, meet its Requirement, attach it to the right end of your chain, and resolve any When played effect.
• Play an Upgrade. Pay its Cost, meet its Requirement, and tuck it under a Part or your Core with a free slot.
• Play a Calibration. Announce it, resolve it, discard it, then gain +1 action. You may play only 1 Calibration per turn.
• Research. Draw 3 cards from the deck.

Bonus Upgrade. Right after you play a Part, you may play 1 Upgrade from your hand without spending an action. You still pay its Cost and meet its Requirement. It may go under any Part or your Core with a free slot.

Extra actions. Some cards give +1 action. Use extra actions in the same turn; unused actions are lost at the end of your turn.

End of turn. If you have more than 10 cards in hand, discard down to 10.

Example Turn

Your chain ends with Dynamo Coil (Output ⚡).

1. Draw. You take Boiler (⚡ → ♨️) from the Row and the top card of the deck. The Row is refilled.
2. Calibration. You spend your action on Overclock: your next Part costs 1 less, and you draw 1. You discard Overclock and gain +1 action.
3. Part. You spend that action on Boiler. Its Cost of 1 drops to 0. Its Input ⚡ matches Dynamo Coil’s Output, so it attaches. When played: you draw 1. Your chain now ends in ♨️.
4. Bonus Upgrade. You play Lubrication System, discarding 1 card to pay its Cost, and tuck it under Boiler.
5. Patent. You played a Part, an Upgrade, and a Calibration this turn, so you claim Precision Combo (3 VP).

Patents work like milestones: everyone races for the same goals.

• Claiming. On your turn, as soon as you meet an unclaimed Patent’s condition, announce it and take the card. If the condition is already true at the start of your turn, you may claim it at any point during that turn. You can never claim a Patent outside your turn.
• Multiple claims. You may claim several Patents in the same turn.
• Licenses (second place, 3–4 players). After a Patent is claimed, one other player can still earn a License for it. On your turn, if you meet the condition of a Patent another player owns, take the top card of the Workshop deck face-down as your License, and turn that Patent sideways to show its License is taken. Each License is worth 2 VP. Each player may hold only one claim per Patent. Licenses are not used in 2-player games.
• Patents are not refilled.

• The game ends after the last round, so every player has the same number of turns.
• Score VP from your Parts, Upgrades, Core, Patents, Licenses, and End game effects.
• Winner: most VP. Tie-break: longest chain. Still tied → shared win.

Timing & Priority

• Resolve each effect fully before continuing. When played effects trigger after the card has legally entered play.
• Ongoing effects apply whenever their condition is true.
• If several of your effects trigger at the same time, you choose the order.

Costs & Requirements

• If you can’t pay a Cost, you can’t play the card.
• Requirements must already be true when you start playing the card; a card’s own effects can’t complete them.
• Cost reductions can’t go below 0. Several reductions stack unless a card says otherwise.
• Order of reductions. Apply every flat reduction first (“costs –1”, “–2”, and so on), down to a minimum of 0. Then check effects that depend on the Cost, such as Efficiency Manifold (“a Cost of 2 or more”), against the reduced Cost.

Connections

Four connection types, from common to rare:

• Mechanical ⚙️ — very common (~40%) · Gears, cams, belts; reliable chainers.
• Electricity ⚡ — common (~30%) · Coils, relays, regulators; tempo and triggers.
• Steam ♨️ — uncommon (~20%) · Boilers, exchangers; conversion and bursts.
• Magnetic 🧲 — rare (~10%) · Bearings, clutches, separators; precision and control.

A Part’s type is its Output: a Steam Part is a Part whose Output is Steam, an Electricity Part one whose Output is Electricity, and so on. Its Input doesn’t change its type.

An Input listed as “A or B” matches either type.

Edge Cases

• Deck runs out. Shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
• Several Research actions? Yes, if you have extra actions; each Research draws 3.
• Play a Part in the middle of my chain? No; Parts always attach to the right end unless a card says otherwise.
• Second Calibration with an extra action? No; the limit is 1 Calibration per turn no matter how many actions you have.

Variants

• Quick game. Play 2 fewer rounds.
• Travel mode (no Row). Skip the Workshop Row; all draws come from the deck. Remove Row Organizer from the Cores.