Ada Lovelace: Legacy of the Analytical Engine (2nd Edition)

Ada Lovelace is the greatest mathematical detective the world has ever seen — and she's back to crack the case of the Analytical Engine!

Returning from her experiences in the solitaire puzzle games, Ada Lovelace: Consulting Mathematician and Ada Lovelace Saves Christmas, you can now guide our mathematical sleuth through 14 missions as part of a legacy campaign, making big choices that impact Ada's story and the fate of the world!

Ada Lovelace: Legacy of the Analytical Engine is a revision of the 2020 game by the same name. This new edition has updates and improvements across the whole project — new story elements, new character upgrades, new missions, puzzles to solve, ciphers to crack, and a completely redesigned end-game.

What do I get?

Ada Lovelace: Legacy of the Analytical Engine is delivered as a 34-page PDF file, which can be printed in full colour, or in low-ink black-and-white. There's no assembly required — just print the PDF, grab six dice, a pen, and play! 

After the first mission, you will also need some scissors and glue to update your character sheet, but it's nothing too taxing.

How do I Play?

If you want to get really specific, read the rulebook here. Or, just read this overview:

Each mission has unique rules and twists, but in general, they follow a similar pattern.

In each mission, you have a set amount of time, usually 4 or 5 rounds, to investigate the scene of a crime. The way you “investigate” is by searching the various rooms, collecting evidence, and then examining that evidence. And by doing those things, make the most out of combos, abilities, and synergies!

Each turn, roll 2 dice and decide what to do with them. The most common action is to use a die to search. To do this, take a shape from the appropriate spaces in the shape wheel — each die value lets you pick one of two shapes — flip and rotate as you like, and then place it anywhere you like in the map.

As soon as you have searched all the spaces around a piece of evidence, you have now “collected” that evidence and can examine it further to use its special ability. Examining evidence is straightforward — it usually requires dice of specific values — and allows you to pull off some cool moves, like placing bonus shapes, or getting bonus dice.

Each round has 3 turns and once all the rounds are finished, you score based on how well you investigated the scene! Your performance then determines how the story progresses, rewards you are offered, and more.

Between many missions, you are offered upgrades to apply to your character sheet — by the final mission, you'll have a set of skills and upgrades perfectly tailored to your individual play style!