Innovation: Figures in the Sand, an expansion for Carl Chudyk's Innovation, breaks from the format of the original game by providing players with recognizable figures from history (instead of new inventions or concepts) with those figures appearing on your table to help you — or maybe your opponent — win the game. Historical figures can be somewhat fickle.

Figures in the Sand includes 105 figure cards, with the cards being similar to Innovation cards in that they're divided into ten ages with five colors of cards in each age. Instead of a dogma power that players can use on their turn, every card in Figures has a karma that changes the game in some way. Karmas could take effect when you meld a card, when you're counting icons to determine whether you can share an action, or when you take some other action in the game. For example, instead of melding a card, you might score it, or instead of giving cards to opponents who demand from you, you might return cards to the age decks.

Innovation: Figures in the Sand comes with five Decree cards, one for each color. Decrees are a special type of achievement, but unlike all the other achievements Decrees are not safe and can be stolen.

Players can have only one Figure in play after any action in the game; any additional Figures Fade from play, going to your score pile.

Innovation: Figures in the Sand can be played with just the base game alone or combined with the Innovation: Echoes of the Past expansion.