There are many different game ‘themes’ available including many centered around particular professions. I have been a builder, a firefighter, a seagull acting as a waiter…but one theme that will always catch my eye is when a game is centred around something medical. This is particularly the case if I spot one that is pharmacy themed as, as well as being a blogger I am also a GPhC registered pharmacist and have worked in various healthcare related jobs my entire adult life.
Playing these games, I can’t help but notice where things are more inspired by or where the designers have gone out their way to put pinpoint-accuracy ‘easter eggs’ in that stand out to the right person. Before we get into any discussions: I will say that all the games below have been ones I have thoroughly enjoyed and have in my own collection.
Apothebakery
In this 2-4 player game, medicine meets baking and alchemy. The entire premise involves foraging for ingredients so that you can cure the patients walking into your apothecary with magic cakes. Yes I said it, magic cakes. I wish all medicines came in such a tasty package.
The maladies that your patients face in the game are more humorous than realistic, and the game is incredibly endearing. It’s also beautifully illustrated, along with being well thought out in terms of it’s gameplay. The medical realisim…well…not so much, although the general theme of compounding a cure is there.
Accuracy rating: 2/10
Side Effects
This was a game I initially encountered at my first UK Games Expo, and was lucky enough to purchase directly from the makers, which does mean that they are aware just how much it pleased me as a medic.
Side Effects is one of the only truly pharmacy-themed games I have ever come across, and boy, does it deliver. The game itself is likely to be a love it or hate it situation due to the tongue-in-cheek nature of giving people different mental health conditions and neurological disorders, then attempting to cure them with various drugs only to open oneself up to the side effects of said drugs. Likewise there is the attack card titled ‘you’re having an episode’ which causes the person’s mental health to worsen, whilst the therapy card has the positive effect of treating a condition in most cases.
For me personally, I feel that this toes the line in being dark humour thanks to itself unfailing accuracy. Indeed something that truly delighted me is that the correct named drugs are actually used with the correct conditions - sildenafil (viagra) is used to treat impotence, fluoxetine treats depression, pramipexole treats tremors etc. If you also obtain the ‘booster shot’ expansion, then there are also action cards such as a placebo which acts as a treatment or nullifies an ill effect being played, as well as Munchausen by Proxy which inflicts a disorder onto another player. As realism goes, this is definitely one of the most accurate medical games out there in my opinion.
Accuracy rating: 10/10
Pandemic
Arguably the best known game on this list, Pandemic is a co-operative game for 2-4 players. The aim is to contain the 4 diseases and cure them before they spread too far. This is made extra challenging by the constant outbreaks that result in new infections, seemingly out of nowhere.
The 5 original roles consist of the dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher and operations expert, with each carrying their own special skills to help fight the ever spreading diseases in play. It feels essential to always have the dispatcher in play to move you where you need to go whilst the medic is useful for clearing these plagues quickly.
Speaking to accuracy, we get a fairly realistic spread pattern with disease spreading mostly across neighbouring areas and outbreaks in seemingly unrelated areas. This mirrors real life, as seen with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, however to me this is the extent of which there is medical content here. It’s a surface level theme rather than a detailed, gritty look at medicine - and that’s completely ok for a board game that delivers on both challenge and enjoyment.
Accuracy rating: 6/10
Organ Attack!
Created by Awkward Yeti of the Heart and Brain webcomics, it’s going to be no surprise that this game is full of tongue-in-cheek humour and gorgeous comic-style artwork. This was the first game I purchased just for being medical themed right back during my degree years, and is still a firm favourite today.
The premise of the game is simple: defend your organs against disease attacks from your opponents whilst attacking them in turn. The base game is suitable for over 8s, and plays at anything from 2 to 6 players. Personally, I feel 3-4 is the optimal, but it does play well at all player counts in this range.
In terms of accuracy, this one is definitely up there The organ cards give a light hearted description of how the organ functions, providing real learning for anybody who is interested, whilst the conditions directly target the primary organ they would affect in real life and their flavour text gives context on what the condition actually is albeit very brief and doesn’t necessarily fully explain the condition. All in all though, a great medical game.
Accuracy rating: 8/10
Holding On: The Troubled Life Of Billy Kerr
A change now to a game where the narrative is definitely the defining factor. Holding On is a campaign-style game where players take on the role of nurses caring for a dying Billy Kerr. Through this, they explore his memories and help him try to reconnect with those he cared for most before he passes away. Each day, it is vital to balance all the ward demands whilst providing direct care to Billy to help uncover his story.
The strongest part of this game is by far the story with its twists and turns, and I was certainly eager to play the next stage each time to learn more about this character. It also does a great job of showing the Troubles in Ireland with a human voice that is blunt yet compassionate - Billy is no saint, but you do at least see why he took the actions he did.
The actual board game element, however, is fairly weak in my opinion as is the medical aspect. Balancing the nursing staff doesn’t become gradually more difficult - it’s simple, simple then drastically much harder in a way that breaks the game, which is unfortunate because had this been beta-ed more in development then this would have been fantastic.
Likewise, I quickly noticed that the makers definitely do not understand how nursing works which is a shame when this is a big feature in the game. By the piece colouring, I could quickly tell it was an attempt to follow NHS nursing…however, as someone who has worked extensively on NHS wards, it would never be a nurse who gets to spend this much time learning about the patient. That would be your health care assistants or carers - lower down the chain, doing direct routine care. So whilst a lovely game when focusing on the story, I can’t rate this highly for actual gameplay nor for it’s medical accuracy. That said, for a good story this is still very worth checking out.
Accuracy score: 3/10
Honourable Mention: Bohemians
Whilst not strictly a medical themed game, I feel that this one deserves a mention for just how well they managed to incorporate conditions into the gameplay. I will hold my hands up now to say I am a huge fan of Bohemians anyway - the storytelling element is immersive, open for a lot of silliness and it is a very cohesive game overall. But their mention today is regarding the hardships.
One particular ‘hardship’ that can be acquired in the game is syphilis. What caught my attention here is that when you redraw your syphilis card, there’s no immediate punishment…instead…you give someone else syphilis instead, and there are enough copies to make sure that eventually your entire playing group will have caught it. Given how infectious the real venereal disease is, all I can say here is well played sir!
Other conditions such as insomnia and mania are also very logical in how they play out, so for a game that isn’t particularly focused on medicine as a theme, there’s a lot of accuracy here.
