Mechanisms is a game of moving tiles and scoring points. Players compete to add points to their own towers and keep points away from their opponents. Each turn, players use 1-3 action cards to move tiles and cards around the play space. In addition to the actions they take on their own turn, players may place Chain tokens on cards they have previously played to take additional actions during opponent turns. Finally, players gain access to various upgrades, including deckbuilding, whenever someone draws a tile from the top of their tower. Each round players must weigh whether to take an early upgrade or wait for a larger draw and, thus, a better upgrade. —description from the designer