Bad Medicine
Party game
3-8 players
30 minutes
On Kickstarter now – Staff Pick!
You and your opponents are pharmaceutical companies, and you must come up with new drugs to treat an array of disorders in this hilarious new party game!
Every card has three things on it: a bit of a drug name (“PLEX”, “CEN”, and so on), a bit of advertising copy (“reduces swelling”, “now in chewable tablets”, and so on), and a side effect (“genital warts”, “teeth grow outside mouth”, “spontaneous combustion”, and so on).
At the start of the game, every player gets 7 cards, and then you’ll reveal the top card of the deck. Its side effect will be the malady to treat this turn. Everybody simultaneously chooses 3 cards to be their drug name and 2 cards for their drug’s ad copy.
Then in player order, everybody pitches their drug. Make an ad for it. Try to get us to buy your drug, or at least ask our doctors about it!
As a player is pitching, every one else will play one of their cards. All these cards are possible side effects. The pitching player will choose one of these cards as the drug’s side effect. The player who submitted the side effect gets a point.
Once everyone has pitched, everyone votes for their favorite drug (and no, you can’t vote for yourself). All players get 2 points per vote received. Then the current round’s malady gets discarded, and the winning player’s (or players’) side effects go to the middle of the table. Each player gets new cards, and now must cure the side effects caused by the most popular medication from the previous round.
The player with the most points after 4 rounds wins.
Look for this game on Kickstarter, beginning February 12!
[…] Gil Hova, designer of Prolix, Battle Merchants, and (upcoming) Bad Medicine. […]
On the Kickstarter website, I can see that I can ‘pre-order’ the game after the kickstarter campaign is over (since it appears it ran back in 2015 it should be well over, and congratulations on the amazing support of your fans! – you totally smashed your kickstarter target!), but how do I BUY a few copies of this game now that the kickstarter date is so long ago?
*I can’t see a ‘purchase’ or ‘buy’ button anywhere? Do I just buy it by trying to do a ‘pre-order? – if so, that’s confusing and please change it so myself and others are able to buy it easily and without the hassle of clicking on multiple websites to search for a ‘buy’ button, or worry about looking silly doing a ‘pre-order’ which is definitely not ‘pre-‘ anymore).
And how would I (if possible) buy a copy with some of the cool features of the pre-order promos?
The game I’m referring to in my previous comment is of course, Bad Medicine.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for pointing out the outdated text on the Bad Medicine Kickstarter page! I’ve updated it to be clearer.
Bad Medicine is out of print at the moment. I tried to Kickstart a reprint with the expansion last year, but I didn’t meet its target. I’m hoping to mount another Kickstarter to reboot the product line early next year.
Thanks for that, Mr. Hova. That sounds really cool and I am looking forward to supporting you in that. It sucks that your game is out of print currently though.
All the best with the reboot! 🙂
PS: I have been raving about this game and have several friends interested in a copy, so I really hope it comes out soon – we can’t wait to try it! I want to even use it if I can with my English students (a slightly more child-friendly version eg. Sadly no genital odours as a side-effect lol). The game teaches them the skills of public speaking, creative writing, critical thinking, persuasive techniques and teamwork! Drama students could also benefit from practicing staying in-character and having fun with characterised voices.
Have you considered making a student friendly version and marketing to schools?
– The game looks like an entertainment and educational masterpiece to me!