Dice Colony Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview and Objective
• Components
• Iconography
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • Round Sequence
  • Ending the Round
• The Black Die
• Energy
• Development
  • Forming Groups
  • Forming Colonies
  • Completing Objectives
• End of the Game
• Variant Rules: Solo Game
• Variant Rules: B Side
• Clarifications

Overview and Objective

The main objective in Dice Colony is to develop your planet to make it as similar to Earth as possible by finding water sources and planting forests while exploring its mineral resources. If you plan it well, you will create new life sources, making your planet suitable for colonization and transforming it into humanity's new home.

The player who best terraforms their planet and accumulates the most points at the end of 5 years (rounds) of development will be the winner.

Components

Colored Dice (3 green, 3 red, 3 blue and 1 black)

Its values represent the coordinates of the terrains that will be developed. Its colors represent the type of element to be explored on your planet. Green dice represent vegetation. Red dice represent ores. Blue dice represent water sources. The black die represents the barren and uninhabitable regions of the planet.

Cloth Dice Bag (1 bag)

The bag is used to store the dice that will be drawn each turn. It prevents any player from identifying which dice will be drawn.

Starting Cards (4 cards)

They represent where your first sources of water, vegetation and ores are located once you land and form your first colony on the new planet. Whoever has the lowest numbered card will be the first player of the first turn.

Objective Cards (20 cards)

They represent the orders sent from Earth to all the explorers. They show the objectives of the game and the structures that you need to build in order to get additional points. All cards have a higher score (given to the player who completes the objective first) and a lower score (given to the player who completes the objective later).

Objective cards are divided into 3 types:

• A. Form a group: The objective is accomplished by the player who forms a group respecting the exact shape regardless of the type of icon used in the group. The shape can be rotated or mirrored, but it must respect the design shown on the card.
• B. Group size: The objective is accomplished by the player who forms a group respecting the exact amount (or higher) of the icon shown on the card, regardless of the group shape.
• C. Accumulate element: The objective is accomplished by the player who accumulates the exact amount (or higher) of elements, colonies or energy as shown on the card, regardless of whether they are grouped or not.

First Player Card

Use the back of one of the Starting Cards as a First Player marker.

Planet Sheets (1 block)

Each player starts the game with one of these sheets. It represents the map of your planet, with the regions to be developed along with a control panel containing all the information you will need to play and score points. The B side of the Planet Sheet has a map to be used with the rule variant described on p.15.

1. Starting colony
2. Energy zone
3. Planet name
4. Final score
5. Round tracker
6. Points scored from groups and colonies
7. Energy tracker
8. Points scored from objective cards
9. Positions diagram
10. Dice colors guide
11. Points for group size
12. Life generated for group size
13. Negative points for barren regions
14. Colony scoring guide

Pencil (4 units)

For players to make notes and drawings on their Planet sheets.

This rulebook

If you are reading this, you have surely identified the rulebook.

Iconography

Dice Colony is a roll-and-write game in which you will draw different icons. Each element is represented by a specific icon. Whenever you are going to represent one of these elements on your planet's sheet, try to draw it clearly to make strategizing and scoring easier.

• Vegetation
• Colony
• Water sources
• Energy
• Ores
• Life
• Barren regions

Game Setup

First, separate the components and prepare the game according to the following guidelines.

1. Put all the dice inside the dice bag and place it at the center of the game table, within easy reach of all players.
2. Give each player a planet sheet and a pencil. Each player must name their planet in the "Planet" space of their sheet, on the A side (the B side of the sheet is only used in the rule variant described on p.15).
3. Randomly distribute a Starting card to each player. Each player must draw on their planet sheet the same configuration shown on the card, respecting the distance between each element and its location in relation to the central starting colony. After that, return them to the box.
4. Shuffle all the Objective cards and take 3. Place these 3 cards on the table, in plain view. Objective Cards always start the game with their highest value face up.
5. Use the back of one of the Starting cards discarded in Step 3 to identify the first player, who will be the one with the lowest Starting card value.

Gameplay

Dice Colony is played in 5 rounds of 5 turns each. At the end of the 5th and final round, the points are scored and the player with the highest score wins.

Round Sequence

1. Roll the dice

At the start of each turn, the starting player picks up the bag with all the dice and (without looking inside the bag) draws and rolls three random dice on the center of the table.

2. Draw

Simultaneously, each player chooses one of the dice, without picking it up, and draws on an empty space on their planet the icon that corresponds to the color of the chosen dice. The dice value indicates the adjacent position (see the Positions Diagram for reference) in which the new icon should be drawn in relation to the player's starting colony or any other space previously filled by the player. The new icon can be of a different type than the adjacent space already filled.

Example: Paula chooses the blue dice (water) with a value of 2. She draws in a space adjacent to another space already drawn with water (although it does not have to be water), in the direction determined by 2, according to the Positions Diagram.

As the game progresses, it is possible that a space chosen to be filled corresponds to distinct positions of different reference points, without this being a problem. For the play to be valid, it is enough that the empty space is in the correct position according to the filled space chosen as the reference.

Example: The highlighted position can be a 5, 6, or 1 depending on whether you take A, B or C as the reference point.

Players can choose to draw the same die as another player without restrictions.

3. Remove a die

When each player has drawn their dice on their planet sheet, the starting player chooses one of the three dice played this turn to remove. This die must be set aside and not returned to the bag until the end of the current round. The other two dice return to the bag.

ATTENTION! The black die CANNOT be eliminated and must always be returned to the bag.

4. End of turn

The starting player passes the First Player Card to the player on their left and the turn ends. Start a new turn following these same 4 steps. When the fifth and final turn of the round is complete, move on to Ending the Round.

Ending the Round

When 5 turns have been completed (or when 5 dice have been eliminated), the current round ends. All dice set aside return to the dice bag and all players mark the end of the round on their planet sheets.

The Black Die

The black die represents a barren region on your planet. Whenever a player rolls a black die, all players must resolve it before choosing a colored die. To resolve it, they must draw a barren region on their planet sheet, respecting the value of the black die to determine its position, as it would be done with a colored dice. Afterwards, the turn continues as usual.

If a player does not have a valid space to mark a barren region based on the value indicated by the black die, he must draw it on any empty space on his map.

If possible, try to prevent barren regions from being adjacent to each other. At the end of the game, you lose 2 points for each barren region adjacent to another. Remember: the black die cannot be eliminated and always goes back in the bag at the end of the turn.

Example: Diego cannot prevent his barren region to be next to another already drawn on his planet sheet. This means that Diego will lose 4 points at the end of the game.

Energy

Whenever a player draws on top of an energy space (except when drawing a barren region), that player is able to extract that energy to use it at a later turn or round.

As you draw this energy, mark a circle in an empty space on your Energy Tracker. This way, you will remember that you have energy available to spend.

Energy allows you to modify a blue, red or green die before drawing it on your sheet. You cannot spend it to change the value of a black die.

When you spend energy, you can make one of the following changes:

1. Change the value of a green, red or blue dice by +1 or -1. A value of 1 can be modified to become a 6 and a 6 can be modified to become a 1.
2. Change the color of a green, red or blue dice to another color (except black). When doing so, it is not possible to modify its value as well.

Whenever you use one of the energies to modify a die, cross that energy off your Energy Tracker. You can only use a single energy to modify a single die per turn. These effects are only applied to you.

Development

In Dice Colony you play to obtain the greatest possible development of your planet. For this, we need to accumulate Development Points that can be obtained in three ways:

1. Forming Groups of Vegetation, Water, Ores or Life;
2. Forming Colonies;
3. Completing Objectives.

Forming Groups

On each turn, immediately after drawing the chosen icon on your planet sheet, you may decide to form a group. This group must contain the last icon drawn and is formed exclusively by 3 or more icons of the same type (other than barren regions) that make up a continuous chain and that have not been previously closed in another group.

Remember: to form a group, the group must include the icon you just drew.

To form a group, draw a solid line around it, indicating that it is enclosed (see the example below). Once this is done, it is no longer possible for the group to be modified.

Once a group is closed, two things happen: you gain a number of points corresponding to the size of the group formed (the points are not scored now, but at the end of the game) and a certain amount of life sources appear (except for life groups which do not generate more life). You can find the generated value in the table below (and also in your sheet):

Group size	Points	Life
3	4 points	1 life
4	6 points	2 lives
5	8 points	3 lives
6	10 points	3 lives

The lives must be drawn on your planet sheet in empty spaces adjacent to the group responsible for their creation (these lives do not need to be adjacent to each other). You can draw a life source as long as there is space available for it.

Note that lives can also be enclosed to form new groups, and thus obtain more Development Points.

Example: After drawing her 4th adjacent water icon, Paula decides to form a group, gaining 6 Development Points. Paula immediately draws two life icons around the group she has just formed.

Forming Colonies

Colonies are formed immediately when a single empty space is completely surrounded by 6 other icons. When that happens, you must form and draw a colony icon in this empty space.

This colony will score 2 points at the end of the game for each different icon type (Vegetation, Water, Ores or Life) that is surrounding it, regardless of whether this icon is part of a group or not.

Barren regions also count towards forming a colony, but are not taken into account when scoring the points awarded by that colony.

Example: After drawing a 3rd water icon, Nicolas decides to close a group, drawing a life icon and creating an area for a colony to form. Nicolas immediately draws a colony icon in this empty surrounded space. At the end of the game, this colony will score 8 points (2 for vegetation, 2 for water, 2 for ores and 2 for life) but will not score points for the barren region.

Completing Objectives

At the end of each turn, players can complete objectives if they meet the requirements shown on the cards available at the table.

When this occurs, players must record the points scored on their planet sheet and then, if the card is face-up, turn it over to show the side with the lower value. In the next turns, and until the end of the game, this will be the new score available for completing this objective.

It is possible and allowed for multiple players to score for the same objective in the same turn, and it is also possible for a player to score for more than one objective at the same time. Each card can only be scored once per player.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the 5th round. All players must calculate their score to determine the development of their planets.

1. Score points for groups of each type (Vegetation, Water, Ores, and Life) as well as colonies. Record the points obtained in each category in their respective space on the planet sheet.
2. Add the points obtained by Objective cards to this total.
3. Finally, the negative points received by the barren regions adjacent to each other are subtracted.

The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, the player who scored the most points for their colonies wins. If the tie remains, the tied players share the victory.

Variant Rules: Solo Game

In this solo mode, you must defeat LU-287, the computer created to select the explorers that will be sent to found new colonies. To beat it, you will have to generate a greater diversity of groups and colonies, as LU-287 will score points for everything you fail to achieve.

The solo mode of the game is played in the same way as the regular mode, but with the following changes:

• Objectives: LU-287 will complete different Objective cards at the end of certain rounds: in the 2nd round, the card on the left; in the 3rd, the middle card; and in the 4th, the one on the right. When LU-287 completes an objective, turn it over to the side with the lowest points as usual. Important: LU-287 will not score these Objective cards, it will only turn them over so you don't score the highest points (if you have not done that already).
• Groups: At the end of the game, you score group points as usual, but LU-287 will score for the groups you failed to complete.

Example: In the table below, you managed to form a group with 5 Vegetation icons (8 points); three groups of 3, 4 and 5 Ore icons (18 points in total); a group of 4 and another of 5 Water icons (14 points in total); and three groups of 3, 4 and 6 Lives (20 points in total), which gives you a total of 60 points for all these groups.

	YOU	LU-287
Vegetation	5 (8 points)	3, 4 and 6 (20 points)
Ores	3, 4 and 5 (18 points)	6 (10 points)
Water	4 and 5 (14 points)	3 and 6 (20 points)*
Life	3, 4 and 6 (20 points)	5 (8 points)
TOTAL	60	58

*Printed value as shown in the rulebook's example table. The group point table above gives 4 + 10 = 14 points for groups of 3 and 6, which would make LU-287's total 52 rather than 58. The source document prints 20 here; it is transcribed as printed.

LU-287 will score precisely for the groups you did not complete. As you only completed the group of 5 Vegetations, LU-287 will score points for the groups of 3, 4 and 6 Vegetations. As you did not complete the group of 6 Ores, LU-287 will score the corresponding points for this group, as well as the points for the groups of 3 and 6 Waters and for the group of 5 Lives, as shown in the table on the previous page.

• Colonies: Subtract the number of colonies you formed from the number 10. The result is the number of colonies that LU-287 formed. If you formed 6 colonies, LU-287 scores 4 colonies. LU-287 colonies always score 5 points each.

In the end, add up all the points gained by you and by LU-287. If you beat it, congratulations! You are ready to join the Space Colonization Program!

Variant Rules: B Side

This variant uses the map on the B side of the Planet Sheet and has some modifications in relation to the base game.

On this side, the players do not draw the initial symbols determined by the Starting cards (although they continue to use them to determine who will be the first player in the game). The development of the planet must start from the starting colony in the center.

Whenever the players draw an icon (including a barren region) over a space marked with a star, they must immediately draw the same icon on one of the spaces adjacent to the star. If there is no other empty space around the star, the player will not be able to draw the second icon, losing this benefit.

Clarifications

• Once an Objective card is flipped, it will grant its new value until the end of the game, even when different players complete it on different turns.
• Life sources are drawn one by one until there are no more valid spaces available. For example, if you have to draw 3, but you only have room for 2, you will only draw 2.
• A colony must be drawn as soon as an empty space is enclosed by 6 icons. Once you have done that, continue drawing if you still have icons to draw.