TERRAFORMING URANUS
RULEBOOK
Summary:
Starting as a type 0 civilization, players all race from their end of the solar system to the most important resourceful planet known to all races….Uranus, to be the first to terraform the planet. First player to make it to Uranus and terraform it wins the game, but it’s easier said than done. Not only do players need to evolve to a type 3 civilization in order to have the tech to terraform, but they must enhance their immunity to Uranus’s toxic atmosphere to even approach the planet.
Players use movement cards from their hand to play with the goal to move their ship closer to Uranus, while avoiding asteroids, satellites, comets, and other obstacles that can cause damage to their ship and slow them down. But the catch is, when you move, all other players make that same movement, causing a tug of war type of game where players struggle to stay on course while trying to negate and work around other player’s control over them. Players will be upgrading their ship, and their tableaus to better their chances of survival and to make it to the end goal…Uranus.
Mechanics:
-Tug of War
-Grid Movement
-Hand Management
-Variable Player Powers
-Production/Engine Builder
-Race to End
2-4 player game (but more geared for 3-4, 2 might be too little)
30-60 minute game? Not sure yet
10+ Age
PHASES & TURN ORDER:
Round Starts
-Marketplace Phase: Players place and take 3 Production Dice on the marketplace board for resources and such.
-Roll to place asteroids on the main board to start the round. (Roll the “Letter Die” but divert attention to the small “asteroid” symbols on the bottom of each die face to determine how many asteroids are summoned on each player side of the board. Then each player rolls the Letter Die again and a D6 for each asteroid summoning to determine the position of the asteroids.
Player 1: Turn 1
Phase 1
-Play Movement Cards and Loot cards
-Activate any Ship Augment Cards
-Move Ship on board due to Movement Cards, using any active Ship Augment to aid in movement.
-Activate any Blue or Red Gates (can happen during any part of Phase 1)
Phase 2
-Repair ship if needed
-Production (move any Production Dice over to the production side of tableau and gain or convert resources, increase knowledge, Civ Type, etc.)
-Activate all gates including Green Gate (using Hyperdrive ends the turn here)
-Loot any asteroid, moon or comet if landed on one (using Extractor Civ Tech)
Phase 3
-Uranus Step if on Uranus
-Draw “X” cards to fill up your hand back up to starting amount
End Turn
In-Between Turns:
-Every player moves the asteroids on their own grid to the next grid over to them counter clockwise following the same letter grid orbit.
-Every player with satellites moves them to the next grid over counter clockwise as well.
-Roll for Comets to spawn (Everyone summons 1 comet on their side/grid that then orbits throughout all grids going counter-clockwise. Players roll a “Letter Die” to see where their comet’s orbit is. Comets make a complete orbit all within this turn and any player in the way takes damage).
-Marketplace Phase: Player’s place and take 3 Production Dice on the marketplace board for resources and such.)
Player 2’s Turn
(same 3 phases)
In-Between Turns
(same)
Player 3’s Turn
(same)
In-Between Turns
(same)
Player 4’s Turn
(same)
Round Ends
-Roll for Cosmic Storm to form that is output by Uranus.
1. Spawn Rare resources within the Toxic Rings, unless there are already resources there that have not been picked up by players. This doesn’t start happening until at least one player enters into the A orbit.
2. Roll for orbital storm. A Letter Dice roll determines where the storm is. (Any player, asteroid or satellite caught in this storm gets pushed within the orbit in the direction of counter-clockwise to the grid next to them. This resolves immediately).
3. Uranus tries to push any player off of it during it’s planetary storm, (if any players are on it). Players will need movement to counter the push to stay on Uranus. (More info below)
New Round Starts (repeat process of rolling for asteroids, marketplace, and then player 1 going again)
SET UP GAME:
1. Each player receives 4 D6 dice to start with, a Purple die, White die, Black die and a Letter Die. (More info below). One player shuffles the Communal Draw Pile of cards and places the deck face down on the Main Board. Each player then draws 5 cards from the Communal Draw Pile to start with, and they set their Purple die and Black die to 1 and place it on their tableau on their appropriate slots.
Purple Die: this tracks how many cards a player can draw during their end step. They can increase this throughout the game by spending Uranium resource so they can draw more cards and therefore play more cards from hand per turn.
White Die: this is a regular die that players use to simply roll with for comets, asteroids, etc.
Letter Die: this die is particularly used only for rolling to spawn comets, asteroids, and Cosmic Storms.
Black Die: this is to track the amount of Conversion Actions a player can do per turn. It is increased by spending Knowledge.
2. Have a player place 2 of each colored “Production Dice” (Red, Blue and Green) on the empty gold outlined dice slots on the Marketplace Board in any order. Shuffle the Augment Ship cards and place 4 face up on the Marketplace Board and the rest on the Deck slot. Then shuffle and place 4 Cosmic Power cards on the board and the deck on the specific deck slot. Last, take the “Drafts” and separate them by color, and then shuffle each colored pile and place 10 of them in each stack, making 2 stacks.
3. Each player takes their colored Ship miniature and places it on their starting Base on their side of the Main Board. Then place the Uranus miniature in the middle of the board. Take a colored cube and place it on Uranus’s Toxicity Meter at level 1.
4. Each player sets their Civ Type to level 0, and each player gains “2” fuel, “2” scraps and “2” cosmic dust to start the game with.
5. One player shuffles the Loot Deck and places it face down on Main Board.
Can now start the game: But remember to roll first to place the starting asteroids for the first round.
The Main Board:
The Main Board is the central part of the game that players play on. It’s the solar system that focuses closely on Uranus which sits in the middle of the board. It’s a grid-based board for movement that can only be moved within the cardinal directions. The board is made up of multiple sectors.
Sectors:
“Sectors” is the term for the individual square grids that make up the Main Board. There are a total of 4 player sectors color coated Blue, Red, Green and Yellow. And then there are 4 corner sectors called Deep Space which is the far off depths of space. And then there’s the middle sector that Uranus sits in the middle of, called the Uranus Sector. Sectors have a grid layout that ships travel on and they are letter and number based. 1-7 and A-G. The “D” column is called the “Dead Zone” where the Radiation Belt exists on and Comets and Cosmic Storms cannot spawn/pass on this grid column. The letter “D” is not on the Letter Dice and cannot be rolled. Ships move slower in the Dead Zone.
On each player’s grid on A4, is where a player’s home operation Base is located and it’s also their Starting Location. Other players can visit these bases to make contact with another race to gain “knowledge” but cannot interact or harm these bases.
Deep Space:
Deep Space is the far depths of space lingering in between each player sector of the Main Board. The Deep Space sectors connect each player sector within the letter grid system; however they have no number grid. Comets, asteroids and satellites pass through the Deep Space upon orbit, as well as the Cosmic Storm that forms but asteroids won’t spawn in these zones. Within the 4 Deep Space sectors, there is a floating Moon that can be harvested for resources and Loot Cards. These moons will not only offer a Loot card upon excavation but also offer special loot in the form of either Ore or Uranium depending on the type of Moon. There are two ore producing moons and two uranium producing moons, symmetrically placed on the board so it’s fair for all players. Lastly, player ships move slower within the Deep Space. To move 1 space for example will require 2 movement to be performed.
Radiation Belt: (Dead Zone)
The Radiation Belt which is located on the letter “D” part of the Grid that runs through every player’s sector is a radiated section that will inflict 1 point of damage to your ship upon passing through it once. Any tech will get scrambled and become inoperable while inside the Radiation Belt as well as player ship’s movements will become sluggish thus requiring 2 movement just to move 1 space. The Radiation Belt runs even through the Deep Space sectors which already cause slower ship movement, so slower movement here is tripled. To move one space while in the Radiation Belt or passing through the Radiation Belt while in the Deep Space will require 3 movement. A player will take 1 point of damage for every movement made inside the Radiation Belt.
Marketplace:
The Marketplace is a common place where players operate on in between turns. This is where players purchase resources, Tech, Cosmic Power cards, and Drafts. In the beginning of every round, players take 2 of each production dice color, roll them and place them in each Gold slot on the marketplace. Players during the Marketplace Phase take turns placing one of their Production Dice on the board, and then removing one to place on one of their Gates. This happens until all players have 3 new Production Dice on their Gates. Players cannot take the same dice they had just placed on the board. Players receive resources, cards and or drafts from the Marketplace depending on what they went for.
The Marketplace has multiple different market shops to purchase different types of resources. Below is the breakdown of each shop:
Fuel Depot: place your die here to mainly get fuel. Can also get 1 scrap possibly.
Scrap Yard: place your die here to mainly get scraps. Can also get 1 fuel possibly.
Cosmic Power Cards: place your die here to purchase Cosmic Power Cards. From right to left, cards start more expensive at 4 cosmic dust and get cheaper all the way to 2 cosmic dust. Once a player buys a card, other cards shift down, and a new card from the deck replaces the right most slot. Every turn cards shift down, and cards in the 2 costing slot fall into the waste pile. Cards here can still be claimed, but it’s 1 cosmic dust per card you have to dig through. So the deeper a card is in this pile, costs more, however if you wait for a card to immediately fall into the waste pile, you can grab it for the cheapest rate at just 1 cosmic dust. Players can also gamble and purchase a face down card from the deck for the average cost of 3 cosmic dust. Players can also get a variety of resources here depending on the die number.
Hangar (Ship Augment Cards): place your die here to purchase Ship Augment Cards. From left to right, cards start more expensive at 4 scraps and get cheaper all the way to 2 scraps. Once a player buys a card, other cards shift down, and a new card from the deck replaces the left most slot. Every turn cards shift down, and cards in the 2 costing slot fall into the waste pile. Cards here can still be claimed, but it’s 1 scrap per card you have to dig through. So the deeper a card is in this pile, costs more, however if you wait for a card to immediately fall into the waste pile, you can grab it for the cheapest rate at just 1 scrap. Players can also gamble and purchase a face down card from the deck for the average cost of 3 scraps. Players can also get a variety of resources here depending on the die number.
Cosmic Dust: place your die here to mainly get cosmic dust. Can also get 1 ore possibly.
Uranium/Ore: Must be a Type 2 Civ to unlock. Can place a die here on either a 1 or a 6 to grab either 1 Uranium or 1 Ore.
Production Drafts: place your die here if you want to purchase any of the 3 types of Drafts for your Gates. Mandates cost 2 fuel, Satellites cost 2 scraps and Civ Tech costs 2 cosmic dust. Players can also get a variety of resources here depending on the die number.
Toxic Rings:
There are 3 layers of Toxic Rings that circle around Uranus which are very harmful to player ships. Layer 1 being the weakest and layer 3 which is the closest to Uranus being the deadliest. Players will need to increase their toxicity immunity throughout the game to be able to make their way through each of these toxic rings. Each ring does 2 damage right away and repairing doesn’t work because once the ship is repaired and still inside the rings, it will take immediate damage again. If the player ends their turn inside one of the rings taking damage their ship will be destroyed. The only way for a player to avoid this is to increase their Antitoxin levels to handle those layers. Once a player reaches the specific “colored bar” on their meter, they have gained enough antitoxin protection to handle that certain layer. Three levels are needed to clear a layer. Players start with 1 antitoxin level.
Ship Being Destroyed: A player’s Ship has a health bar of 2 hearts. If they take 2 points of damage and cannot repair themselves by the time their turn ends, they are destroyed. They will start back at their Starting Base and must discard all of their ship upgrade cards, their cosmic power cards and draw a new starting hand of movement cards. (This is subject to change)
RESOURCES:
FUEL: common resource used to spend on movement cards to move a player’s ship or a player’s satellite. Fuel is also needed to power up certain ship augment cards and to purchase Mandates (Red Drafts). Fuel can be used along with Scraps to produce Ore.
SCRAPS: common resource used to purchase Tech (Augment Cards) and Satellites (Blue Drafts) as well as to repair a player’s ship or satellite. Scraps can be used along with Fuel to produce Ore.
COSMIC DUST: uncommon resource used to purchase Cosmic Power Cards and Civ Tech (Green Drafts) as well as to increase a player’s “Civilization Knowledge”. Cosmic Dust along with Knowledge can be used to produce Uranium.
KNOWLEDGE: uncommon resource (more info below) used to increase Civ Type level, help produce Uranium as well as increase the number of conversion actions.
URANIUM: rare resource used to increase the number of cards a player can draw at the end of their turn. Uranium can be used along with Ore to produce Fusion.
ORE: rare resource used to activate certain Civ Tech. Ore can be used along with Uranium to produce Fusion.
FUSION: highly rare resource used to create Antitoxin which is what boosts a player’s immunity to survive the Toxic Rings. Can also be used along with Cosmic Dust to make Production Dice.
Combining/Exchanging Resources
-Fuel and Scraps can be combined/exchanged to create Ore.
-Cosmic Dust and Knowledge can be combined/exchanged to create Uranium.
-Uranium and Ore can be combined/exchanged to create Fusion.
-Cosmic Dust and Fusion can be combined/exchanged to create Production Dice
Cost of Movement: 1 movement costs 1 fuel. 2 movement costs 2 fuel. It’s that simple.
Forging is the term for purchasing tech or drafts or cosmic powers.
Directional & Color Movement: Direction in this game is fixed, meaning, if a cards says to move forward one, to any player, moving forward is just moving forward for them. Its universal. However, Color in this game changes based on a player’s position. If a card says to move one towards Blue, for player 1, this may mean they have to move left once if Blue is on their left. But for player 2 it means to move forward once if Blue is in front of them.
TYPES OF CARDS:
Movement Cards
-Single Movement Cards: are either Directional (shows which direction to move once towards) or Color (shows which color to move once towards)
-Double Movement Cards: are either Directional (shows which direction to move twice towards) or Color (shows which color to move twice towards)
-Split Cards: are either Directional (shows 2 different directions you can choose to move once towards) or Color (shows 2 different colors you can choose to move once towards)
-Wild Cards: Rolling the “Multi-Colored Die” will dictate which color players will move towards. It’s random.
Cosmic Power Cards
-These cards are powerful cosmic abilities that stay passively active on a player’s bench under their tableau. Once purchased, a player places it on the bench, with only up to 8 out in play at a time. Once placed, it then takes effect and will trigger passively when prompted. They require Cosmic Dust to forge (purchase) from the Marketplace as well as the Forger Civ Tech draft. These cards can also be discarded to gain 1 knowledge per 1 card discarded this way. If played smart, a player can buy a cheap C.P. card for 1 cosmic dust to trade for 1 knowledge. Lastly Cosmic Power Cards help aid a player in the end game of terraforming Uranus. They help speed up the process of gaining terraform points. Some cards even steal points from other players, or lessen the amount of points an opponent player will earn.
Ship Augment Cards (Technology)
-These cards are forged (purchased) from the Marketplace by spending “Scraps” on them. Ship Augment Cards are a form of Tech. When something effects “tech” Ship Augment cards will be affected. These cards when forged, get placed onto the one of the card slots on a player’s Ship Blueprint side of their tableau, signifying that part of the ship is upgraded thus granting that player the abilities of that part of the ship. Without these augments, player’s ships don’t have access to any of these abilities listed below. Players can level up each augment card two to three times depending on the type of augment card. To level up, “x” amount of scraps is required. Players cannot have more than 1 of any type of augment card attached to their ship.
Different Types of Ship Augments:
-Fuel Pack: Offers a large amount of fuel to spend on movement and ship augments. Place a D6 die on this to track fuel levels on the Fuel Pack. Upon purchasing, spend “x” fuel to start the fuel pack. This is the most the fuel pack can store at a time. Refills 1 pip per turn.
Level 1: Provides “x” amount of fuel to only spend on Ship Augments.
Level 2: The Fuel Pack can now provide fuel to aid in ship movement.
-Force Field: Protects the ship against incoming player attack damage, comets, satellite weapons and crashing into an asteroid. The force field will take the damage points, but will need to regenerate slowly to use again. Requires “Fuel” to regenerate. Place a D6 die on this card to track the regeneration time.
Level 1: Absorbs 1 point of damage from any of the aforementioned sources.
Level 2: Absorbs 2 points of damage from any of the aforementioned sources.
-Thrusters: Increases the ship’s movement speed. It’s a multiplier for moving. It can also help a ship moving around the Deep Space and the Radiation Belt easier as well as any Gravity fields. Requires to discard a card in hand to activate.
Level 1: Doubles a card’s movement for same fuel cost. This only applies to the player with this augment, other players will still move the normal amount that the card says.
Level 2: Not affected by Deep Space. Gain +1 movement if in your own color sector.
-Maneuver: Alters the movement a player may want to move in as well as helps reduce fuel usage for movement. If thrusters give you more movement, maneuver gives you movement for less fuel and more control over your movement.
Level 1: Can alter one movement on a played card per turn. No other player moves that new direction, they still move the old direction.
Level 2: Discarding a colored movement card, will allow that player to move for 0 fuel cost when they play another card sharing the same color as discarded card.
-Absorber: The Absorber upgrade will help absorb toxicity being emitted from the Toxic Rings. Move 1 level up on the antitoxin tracker for every Level upgraded on the Absorber.
Level 1: Absorbs 1 level of toxicity from the Toxic Rings.
Level 2: Absorbs 2 levels of toxicity from the Toxic Rings.
Level 3: Absorbs 3 levels of toxicity from the Toxic Rings.
-Ray Reflector: This will negate any radiation dealt by the Radiation Belt, and will make a ship immune to Cosmic Storms. Ray Reflector when leveled up will also negate opponent player’s tech aimed at them.
Level 1: Negates any radiation from Radiation Belt, and immune to being pushed by Cosmic Storms.
Level 2: Negate any Tech Scrambler, Gravity Pull or Cosmic Power that may affect you.
-Landing Gear: Stops from crashing into asteroids, comets or moons. You will safely land on them. Landing Gear is required to land on Uranus. (last part subject to change)
Level 1: Normal landing gear to land on comets, asteroids and moons.
Level 2: Can now land on Uranus’s gaseous surface.
-Weapons System: Players can roll a D6 to see how far range their ship’s weapon can fire and reach to hit a possible enemy ship for 1-2 damage.
Level 1: Roll 1 D6 to determine range but can add a +1 to that die for every fuel spent. Does 1 point of damage to an opponent’s ship.
Level 2: Can now roll 2 D6 dice for chances of a farther range of attack and can add a +1 to those dice for every fuel spent.. Does 2 points of damage now to an opponent.
-Gravity Shot: A player’s ship can increase it’s own gravity to bring itself closer to a moon/asteroid or controlling another player’s ship.
Level 1: Increase own ship’s gravity to either bring it closer to an asteroid, moon or even Uranus or bringing another player’s ship closer to them within the range of 4 spaces.
Level 2: Increase own ship’s gravity to either bring it closer to an asteroid, moon or even Uranus or bringing another player’s ship closer to them within the range of 8 spaces.
-Fortify: Not shields but grants a higher level of life to your ship. Instead of becoming destroyed with 2 hits of damage, it now can handle 3 hits of damage. Theres no leveling up this augment.
Loot Cards:
Loot cards are a one time use ability that grants a nice perk that can be played mostly any time of your turn and even on other player turns. They are viewed as an “instant” similar to MTG.
Loot cards are representations of the loot that a player harvests from either an asteroid, comet or a moon. An “Excavator” Civ Tech is needed to harvest loot from these floating rocks. Loot cards can be stored on the bench facedown or off on a player’s side somewhere hidden so other players don’t know what they may have.
There are two different types of Loot cards. Natural Loot which grants resources. And Remnants which have lingering traces of cosmic power and offer a variety of goods they can grant such as negation of movement or oncoming attacks, more movement granted, increased immunity or hyperdrive jump, lowering cost of things, etc.
Loot cards will override another player’s movement card if played on the stack. If player 1 is making all players move two spaces to the left, player 2 can cast a Loot card to either negate that movement altogether that’s only affecting them or override it with another movement card of their own. Loot cards when negating doesn’t affect the other players, just the caster of the loot card.
GATES:
There are 3 colored Gates on a player’s tableau to the left. In order to “open” a gate, a player must retrieve that specific colored Production die from the Marketplace and place it onto that matching colored gate. Once the gate is opened, that player during Phase 1 or Phase 2 of their turn can activate any of their Drafts. Drafts usually come with a cost, but each Gate does come with a free 1st slot ability.
Gates stay open throughout the whole round from when the player opened them. This allows for players to spend resources to activate any of their gates on other player turns.
Red Drafts- MANDATES (place red dice here)
1st Slot is Free: Exchange) Discard 1 card for 2 Fuel
2nd to 4th Slots are empty for placing newly purchased Mandates.
Mandates are normal “directives” that a player can carry out by paying a price in “fuel” to execute to get a benefit. Contracts are mandates that need to be completed to gain rewards. They do not cost any resource to activate. These can be completed over and over again even in same turn, if the player keeps meeting the right conditions. All Mandates cost fuel to forge/purchase from the Marketplace initially.
Blue Drafts- SATELLITES (place blue dice here)
1st Slot is Free: Exchange) Discard 1 card for 2 Scraps
2nd to 4th Slots are empty for placing newly purchased Satellites.
Satellites are a form of Tech that gets placed in orbit around Uranus in any of the 4 player sectors. Players roll a Multi-Color Die, then a Letter Die and then a regular D6 to figure out the placement of a satellite. These satellites stay in play and can affect other players if they get within the particular range of the satellites. Every satellite has a different range/circumference of reach. Satellites can take damage, be repaired with scraps and can be destroyed. Satellites require “scraps” to forge/purchase from Marketplace, and more scraps to then summon them to the Main Board. (subject to change) Every satellite comes with a “call to player” feature that moves the satellite into that player’s sector that summoned it as well as a “change orbit” feature that will move the satellite’s orbit 1 space closer to or further from Uranus. Satellites may need fuel to forcefully move to a player. Otherwise, they move over one player sector at the end of every turn in the same orbit for free.
Green Drafts- CIV TECH (place green dice here)
1st Slot is Free: Unlock when become Civ 1) Antitoxin Manufacturing (Fusion can be created)
2nd to 4th Slots are empty for placing newly purchased Civ Tech.
Civ Tech is a high-level form of Tech that’s invented and created by that player’s Civilization. It requires “x” amount of “cosmic dust” to forge Civ Tech (purchase from Marketplace and to place on tableau). Some Civ Tech modifies a player’s ship even more but they’re not augment cards nor do they get placed on a player’s ship tableau. Once on a player’s tableau, in order to construct the tech and activate it’s ability to use it will then require “cosmic dust” to do so.
Mandates: (10x unique Contracts, 2x of each normal Mandate) (20x)
-Manufacturer: any 1 of the colored dice from the 3 Gates when placed on the Production side, can be altered to any number side of choice.
-God’s Hand: alter any 1 dice roll.
-Devil’s Hand: alter any 1 movement card. If colored, pick which color. If directional, pick which direction.
-Greedy Display: play one additional card this turn outside of the number of cards allowed to play.
-Recast: can replay any one card that was played this turn by you. (loot, or movement)
-No Free Will: (contract) must move “x” directions and times. Reward: gain all the fuel back that was used to make these movements.
-Four Horseman: (contract) must play 1 of each color movement on your turn, Reward: 1 Scrap, 1 Fuel, 1 Cosmic Dust, 1 Ore
-Armageddon: (contract) excavate an asteroid or moon or comet this turn. Reward: gain 2 loot cards instead of one as well as 1 resource of your choice except for fusion.
-Full Assault: (contract) inflict damage to another player’s ship at least once this turn. Reward: 2 scraps, 2 fuel and steal a card from their hand.
-Loaded to Win: (contract) play all 5 cards in your hand this turn. Reward: draw +3 cards during end phase.
-Enlightenment: (contract) increase your antitoxin level, your knowledge level and your Civ Type at least once each all during your turn. Reward: gain an extra production die to use at the marketplace and your production with until end of turn.
-Collect To Kill: (contract) gain 1 of each resource this turn, including fusion. Reward: Roll colored die, the player sitting on that colored side takes 1 point of damage.
-Forging Rarities: (contract) forged at least “x” amount of Uranium and Ore this turn. Reward: Alter 2 of any dice that’s been rolled.
-Frugal Spender: (contract) spend only 1 fuel or less on playing at least 3 movement cards. Reward: 4 fuel
-Controlled Assault: (contract) cause another player to crash their ship into an asteroid or moon from one of your movement cards. Reward: steal a card or two from their hand, they discard the rest. Or maybe they also lose 1-2 scrap.
Satellites: (10x unique Satellites, 2x of each) (20x)
-Drone Harvester: harvests asteroids and comets for loot without the player making contact with their ship.
-Tech Scrambler: makes other player’s tech inoperable when in nearby reach.
-Weapons LASER: attacks opponent player’s causing damage.
-Gravity Pull: if an opponent ship is within reach, this satellite will pull in that ship and hold them there until they use enough movement or thrusters to escape.
-Scouter: makes contact with other player’s bases gaining knowledge. Can detect weather anomalies from Uranus showing what the next storm is going to cause as far as damage goes for that player on Uranus, as well as what orbit is going to get affected by the cosmic storm. *This happens on a players turn so they have time to prepare, and move before Uranus goes during player turns.
-Refueler: player’s ship can collect fuel from it. Place a D6 on it to track the amount of fuel. It regenerates fuel on it’s own slowly, gaining 2 new fuel per round. Any player can collect from this so the summoner must be careful to keep it close to them at all times.
-Resupply Depot: deploys scraps to a player’s ship upon receiving damage immediately repairing it.
-Hauler: can help haul a player’s ship if stuck and have no movement. Within the Deep Space, it will allow a player to move quicker through it.
-Interceptor: active opponent player’s movement or Cosmic Power Cards do not affect you if they are in the same grid as this satellite.
-Jammer: any opponent player ship operating within the same grid as this satellite, has their movement reversed when played. Scrap to purchase from marketplace but it actually costs 1 Ore to activate this.
-Piratellite: Place a D6 starting at 1 pip. This is level 1. Level 1-2 can only steal 1 common loot. Levels 3-4 can now steal up to two common loot. Level 5 can choose to do what you’ve been stealing or can now steal 1 uncommon loot (cosmic dust), and level 6, same thing but can now steal 1 rare loot. It costs 2 scraps to level up the die.
Civ Tech: (6x unique Civ Techs: 4x Excavators, 4x Forgers, 4x Factory Ramps, 2x of everything else) (20x)
-Hyperdrive: allows a player to jump a large amount of space quickly. Ore is needed to increase the hyperdrives warp ability. Ore increases the die pips on the D6 that is placed in the hyperdrive slot. The higher dice number the further a player can move in one go, with a max of 6 spaces. A player cannot hyperdrive onto Uranus. Using hyperdrive not only ends a players turn but they will be in hyperdrive mode the whole round so they will not be affected by other player’s movements. Jumping burns through your dice, and will need to be replenished to jump again. When the round ends, players first roll for comets to be summoned before any player in hyperdrive mode comes out of it. During hyperdrive if a comet were to be summoned in the path of that player, they crash and end the hyperdrive jumping and take 2 points of damage instead of 1.
-Excavator: allows a player to harvest asteroids, comets and moons for loot.
-Warship: it can redeploy a brand new ship if ship gets destroyed, keeping that player in the game with all of their stuff.
-Cosmic Capsule: it slowly captures cosmic dust within the solar system and stores it to use. One player who summoned this can collect it and they can only collect it once it reaches max capacity.
-Forger: allows a player to forge cosmic dust into cosmic power cards. (able to now purchase cosmic power cards from Marketplace)
-Codex: allows for cosmic dust to be converted into knowledge.
-Factory Ramp: grants a player an additional Production Die to use during the marketplace and their production. It expires at the end of their turn. Must pay 2 Ore to gain another new die.
Knowledge:
Knowledge is the representation of the accumulation of a player’s Civilization status. A higher level of knowledge means that player’s civilization is more advance and therefore can create more advanced Civ Tech (antitoxin, terraforming). Knowledge mainly increases a player’s Civilization Type level by one. Players all start out as a Type 0 Civilization and must advance to a Type 1, then Type 2 and lastly Type 3 in order to have the technology of “terraforming” in order to terraform Uranus and win the game. It’s one of the main components need to win the game.
-Knowledge is needed to increase a player’s Civilization Type level.
-Knowledge is used to increase a player’s number of conversion actions.
-Knowledge is needed to maintain antitoxin manufacturing. (at least 1 Knowledge is needed to have in order to create Fusion/antitoxin at all times.)
Knowledge is gained in many ways in this game. Such as:
-Players can eventually unlock the “Codex” Civ Tech which allows them to convert cosmic dust into knowledge.
-Discarding 1 Cosmic Power Card for 1 knowledge.
-Upgrading your entire ship filling up all 6 augment card slots earns “3” knowledge.
-Building 3 satellites grants 1 knowledge.
-completing 3 unique contract Mandates grants 1 knowledge.
-Some Loot Cards grant knowledge.
-Making contact with another player’s base grants knowledge. Can use a satellite to do this as well. Gain 6 knowledge max this way. 2 knowledge per player visited.
-Increasing Civ Type level. Small incremental jumps may gain knowledge.
-Completing a layer of Antitoxin immunity gains knowledge.
Scouting/Making Contact:
Players can either make their way over to another player’s base (starting point) with their ship or use a Scouter satellite to head over and make contact. Making contact really just means “surveying” or “scouting”. (Thematically a player is observing another civilization exist which gains them knowledge of how others live and create).
A player can only scout a certain player once to gain knowledge. They cannot revisit the same player’s base to gain knowledge. In theory each player can gain a max of 6 knowledge if visiting everyone (2 per player visit).
Civilization Type:
Type 0 > Type 1 > Type 2 > Type 3 (able to terraform Uranus)
Each player starts out as a Type 0 Civilization. They must spend knowledge to increase their civilization type level. There is 1 moveable space in between Type 0 and Type 1, 2 spaces in between Type 1 to Type 2 and 3 spaces in between Type 2 to Type 3. Each of these small incremental jumps will grant that player gifts such as Knowledge, Ore and Uranium and becoming a new civ type will grant the player a large gift. A player needs to increase their Civilization Rank a total of 9 times to become a Type 3 civilization.
Type 1:
Upon advancing to a Type 1 Civ players will unlock the ability to start manufacturing antitoxin so they can finally start venturing into the middle of the board to get closer to Uranus. Fusion needs to be crafted to increase the antitoxin levels. 1 Fusion = 1 Antitoxin Level increase.
Type 2:
Upon advancing to a Type 2 Civ players will be able to purchase straight Ore or Uranium from the special slot on the Marketplace Board as well as unlocking a 4th column of draft slots for their gates.
Type 3:
Upon advancing to a Type 3 Civ players will finally have the technology to “terraform” which will allow them to terraform Uranus if they are able to make it there and land. A Terraform Civ Tech Card which sits somewhere near a player’s tableau to show they have the tech to be able to do the action of terraforming will be given to them.
PRODUCTION:
This part of a player’s turn is all about combining/exchanging resources to forge another resource or gaining new resources with their dice picks.
Conversion Chart:
2 Fuel + 2 Scraps = 1 Ore
1 Knowledge + 2 Cosmic Dust = 1 Uranium
1 Uranium + 1 Ore = 1 Fusion
1 Fusion = 1 Antitoxin Level increase
After players take 3 colored Production dice and place them onto their Gates, and activate any gates during their turn, during Phase 2 they then enter into “Production”. During Production they can choose to move any of the 3 Production dice from their gates over to the right side of their tableau where production begins. They can place their dice on any of the empty dice slots matching the dice number to the dice number printed on the board. They gain whatever benefit listed under that number.
To recap: Players pick a Production die from the Marketplace and place it onto one of their 3 Gates using just the “color” of the dice to unlock that gate. Then when bringing the same dice over to the production side, they go off of the die’s number to match the numbers listed under each section.
Section 1 allows players to gain either 2 fuel and 1 scrap or 2 scraps and 1 fuel when placing a dice in that spot.
Section 2 allows players to gain either 2 cosmic dust or 1 card draw and the ability for one turn to lower their fuel conversion rate by 1 or 1 card draw and the ability for one turn to lower their scrap conversion rate by 1.
Section 3 requires players to have the “Codex” Civ Tech to unlock this section. Once unlocked players can convert “x” cosmic dust into 1 knowledge. Placing a lower dice pip is more beneficial in this section so it costs less cosmic dust to pay for 1 knowledge. (subject to change: maybe its x cosmic dust for x knowledge instead, so higher die pip means more cosmic dust can be converted into more knowledge)
Section 4 is the resource conversion area. The number on the die placed in this slot tells the player how many conversion actions they can do, so if a player wants to convert a lot of stuff, they want to aim to place a high dice pip onto this section. Players can convert fuel, scraps and cosmic dust into ore and uranium or uranium and ore into fusion.
Section 5 is not technically apart of production, just the results of production at times. The dice that determines how many cards a player can play during their turn can be increased by Uranium, so by making Uranium a player is increasing that ability. A player’s knowledge tracker is in this section which gets increased by a number of ways and lastly a player’s antitoxin level is listed in this section which gets increased when fusion is made.
Types of Dice:
White Dice- are regular D6 dice that are used to roll to determine what column something is spawned in, as well as to roll for outcomes.
Purple Dice- tracks how many cards within a turn a player can play from their hand.
Production Dice- (Red, Green and Blue dice) These dice are used to purchase resources on the Marketplace Board using their numbered pips, and then used for their color to unlock Gates on a player tableau, and then lastly used again for their numbers for production.
Letter Dice- These dice are rolled to determine what orbit something like asteroids or comets will be spawned in.
Multi-Colored Dice: These dice are used to roll for Wild Card Movement to determine which color a player will move towards.
Storm Dice: These dice are rolled to see how much damage a player will receive when they’re on a specific numbered slot on Uranus. There is 3 different Storm Dice. S1, S2 and S3 level dice. These dice have a higher percent chance of rolling storm damage the higher level they are. A S1 die has a 2/6 chance of causing storm damage, where as a S3 die has a 4/6 chance.
Landing on Uranus and Uranus Terraform Board
Once a player lands on Uranus, they place their ship onto this card to signal they are indeed on Uranus and not floating around it on the grid board. They place their ship on the first slot square and then can move back and forth to the other slots 2-4 listed on the board. To move around will cost Movement cards however. If another players ship is on the 1st slot, they will get bumped to the next slot. Player ships will be bumped forward when new player ships land on Uranus. This can lead to a player getting kicked off Uranus from the 4th slot. Players can try to counter this by playing “x” amount of Movement Cards to stay put.
The goal for players to win during this phase is to complete as many “terraforming actions” listed on the Uranus Card to receive “Terra Points” because the first player to accumulate 20 points wins. Terraforming Actions are certain challenges that require players to either spend “x” amount of resources, or movement cards, or to roll a certain set of numbers just to name a few. When a player obtains points, they move their terra tracker on the bottom of their tableau to the right however many spaces. When the terra tracker passes over a green outlined square, that means they unlock that power up which works with their Cosmic Power Cards on the bench below. Cosmic Power Cards all have “Terra Tech” which are unlockable powers that help a player on Uranus either weather the cosmic storms, handle other player’s attacks towards them, move around easier and lastly help earn terra points easier and faster. But the challenging thing for players is being on the right numbered slot/space on Uranus because even though they may have a power up unlocked from accumulating enough terra points, every slot a Cosmic Power Card gets placed on has a number requirement which means a player has to be on that specific numbered space in order for that card’s Terra Tech to become activated.
Uranus will have it’s turn as well where ruthless cosmic storms brew and can sweep away player ships by moving them around the slots on the Uranus Board, and if a player is on the 4th slot and a storm happens, they will be knocked off Uranus. Players can once again try to counter this by playing “x” amount of Movement cards to stay put but not only do player ships get moved around and possibly knocked off, they also take damage depending on the numbered slot they’re on. Players will roll a certain Storm Die depending on the numbered slot they’re on to determine how much damage they will take if they take any at all. This goes on until one player accumulates 20 terra points and wins.
If a player gets knocked off of Uranus, they will be placed back onto the main board within the numbered 3 orbit ring and must roll a Multi-Colored Die to determine which grid sector they end up on and then they can pick any one spot to place their ship on.