Exoworld Survival Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Components
• Setup
  • 1. Choose Scenario
  • 2. Set up the Resources Board
  • 3. Place the Tokens
  • 4. Prepare the Player Deck
  • 5. Deploy the Home Base
  • 6. Prepare the Event Deck
  • 7. Define the Characters
  • 8. Place the Pawns
  • 9. Initial Cards
  • 10. First Player
• Scenarios
  • Ambient Conditions
  • Scenario Board - Stats and Lore
  • Scenario Board - Game Rules
    • Initial Setup
    • Scenario Events
• Player Cards
  • Player Cards and Discard Pile
  • Module Cards
  • Hand Limit
  • Item and Protocol Cards
• Game Sequence
• 1. Actions
  • Actions
    • Draw a Card
    • Recycle Revealed Cards
    • Transfer a Card
    • Deploy a Module
    • Shut Down
    • Move
    • Produce Supplies
    • Repair
    • Special Skill
  • Example of a Turn
  • More About Player's Actions
• 2. Events
  • Leak and Emergency Tokens
  • Health Issues
• 3. Resource Update
  • Production Level
  • Leak Tokens
  • Resource Depletion and Emergency Supply
• Joining or Leaving Mid-Game
• Rule Hierarchy
• Game End
• Variants
  • Critical Mode
  • Incommunication Variant
  • Solo Mode

Game Overview

Exoworld Survival is a cooperative survival game where you and your team have to settle a self-sustaining base on a planet far away from the Solar System before your vital resources are depleted.

You arrive to the planet with a full supply of oxygen, water, food and energy, but these resources are consumed turn after turn, according to their respective production levels.

Players win if they get all four Production levels to 0 or a higher value, which means the colony is self-sustainable. This is achieved by deploying different modules around your Home Base, forming a grid-based board.

Players lose if the Emergency supply token reaches 0, which can happen because of resource depletion.

Including the TRAPPIST-1 expansion, there are 12 Scenarios you can play, each with a different exoplanet to colonize, with a specific set of ambient conditions and events.

Also, each player has a unique character with a set of traits and a special skill that can help you increase your chances of survival.

Components

• 1 Resources Board
• 12 Double-Sided Scenario Boards
• 4 Production Tokens
• 5 Supply Tokens
• 4 Shutdown Tokens
• 12 Leak and 3 Emergency Tokens
• 4 Reversible Action Tokens
• 46 Player Cards (30 Modules, 4 Items, 12 Protocols)
• 50 Event Cards (35 Normal Events, 15 Critical Events)
• 1 Home Base Card
• 12 Character Cards
• 5 Reference Cards
• 5 Player Pawns
• 4 Fatigue, 4 Landslide and 4 Frozen tokens

Setup

1. Choose Scenario

First, choose the Scenario that you will play.

Each Scenario corresponds to a distinct exoplanet with specific conditions and events. If this is your first time playing Exoworld Survival, we recommend you start with Proxima Centauri b.

2. Set up the Resources Board

a. Place the Resource board where all players can see it. b. Place the 4 Production level tokens in the position indicated in the chosen Scenario. c. Place the 4 Resource supply cubes in the position indicated in the chosen Scenario. d. Place the Emergency supply cube on the top space of its track.

3. Place the Tokens

Take all the game tokens and place them near the Resource board.

4. Prepare the Player Deck

a. Remove all Protocol cards from the Player Deck. Shuffle all Protocol cards and randomly select a number of Protocol cards to add back to the deck as indicated in the Scenario (Protocol cards in the Player Deck). Return unused cards to the box. b. Then, shuffle the Player Deck and place it face down, within the reach of all players. c. Finally, reveal as many cards as indicated in the chosen Scenario (Face-up cards always available), and place them face up next to the Player Deck.

5. Deploy the Home Base

Place the Home Base card face up in the middle of the table, with plenty of space around.

The colony will be built around this card by deploying module cards and creating a grid-based board.

6. Prepare the Event Deck

a. Separate the Critical Event cards from the Normal Event cards and shuffle each deck independently. b. Place 5 random Critical Event cards face down, side by side. Put the remaining cards away, without looking at them. c. Place 4 random Normal Event cards on top of each Critical Event card. Put the remaining cards away, without looking at them. d. Shuffle each of these 5 piles separately, and finally stack them on top of each other, forming the Event deck.

This deck should never be shuffled.

7. Define the Characters

Each player takes 2 random Characters and chooses 1 of them.

You can discuss which character to choose.

8. Place the Pawns

Each player takes one Reference card and places the corresponding colored pawn on the Home Base.

9. Initial Cards

Each player draws 2 cards from the Player Deck to form their initial hand.

Player cards can be displayed on the table.

10. First Player

The first player is the player who has last looked at the night sky. Give them 4 action tokens.

Scenarios

Ambient Conditions

This game comes with 12 different Scenarios to play, each with a different initial configuration, as well as specific ambient conditions and Scenario events that you have to consider when planning your strategy to survive.

Each planet has a set of four specific ambient conditions:

• Radiation
• Atmospheric pressure
• CO2 (Carbon dioxide concentration)
• Humidity

Each of these conditions has a value (from 0 to 2) which affects how efficient some of your modules will be when deployed on this specific planet.

Scenario Board - Stats and Lore

The upper part of each Scenario board shows the stats of the host star (name, constellation, distance to Earth, spectral type, mass, radius, surface temperature), the planet info (mass, radius, radiation flux, average temperature, surface gravity, atmospheric pressure, ESI) and the orbital data (semi-major axis, eccentricity, orbital period, rotation period, solar day, axis tilt, moons), followed by a Landing Report describing the planet.

Scenario Board - Game Rules

Each Scenario board also shows its Difficulty, the Special Rules for Setup, the Initial Production Levels and Supplies, the Ambient Conditions, and the Scenario events.

Initial Setup

Each Scenario has a unique setup that defines the number of Protocol cards you will play with, and how many cards will be available to draw face-up. It also specifies how many supplies of each resource you start with, as well as their initial Production level.

Scenario Events

These are events that are specific to each Scenario, and define what effect will occur when you draw a "Normal Scenario Event" or a "Critical Scenario Event". They may happen more than once per game, or not at all.

Example (Kapteyn b board): Normal Scenario Event "Glacial Cryoseism": Place a Shutdown token on a working module adjacent to your pawn, if there are any. In addition, recycle the face-up cards. Critical Scenario Event "Temperature Drop": Place a Shutdown token on every working module that consumes water. You can reduce the Energy supply by 2 to prevent each module from turning off.

Player Cards

Each player has a hand of cards, which can be seen by the other players during the game.

Player Cards and Discard Pile

During the game you will be able to draw cards from the Player Deck and from the face-up cards next to it to use them for different actions.

Used cards go to the Discard Pile, which is formed next to the Player Deck. Players are free to check the Discard Pile at any time.

When the Player Deck runs out of cards, the Discard Pile must be immediately shuffled and placed face down, forming the new Player Deck.

The Player Deck includes 3 types of cards: Modules, Items and Protocol cards.

Module Cards

Modules can be deployed around the Home Base, expanding the colony, and creating a grid-based board, where players will be able to move around.

A Module card shows: card name, card type, resource type and color, deploying cost, effect on Production Levels when deployed, and a description.

Deploying a module immediately modifies the Production levels according to the information displayed on each card. The supplies of each resource are not adjusted until the Resource Update step.

To deploy a module, you must discard cards from your hand that match the resource types shown on the Deploying Cost. Your character must also be adjacent to the empty location where you are deploying the module. Diagonals are not considered adjacent.

Deploying modules and keeping the right ones active are necessary to win the game, as this is the only way to increase the production levels to get to a self-sustaining base.

Hand Limit

Each player has a hand limit indicated in their character's card. If you exceed this number at the end of any player's turn, you must discard a number of cards in order to get back to your hand limit.

Note: Only Player cards count towards your hand limit. Your Character, Reference and other cards are not part of your hand.

Item and Protocol Cards

Every Item and Protocol card has a unique effect, which can be used by discarding the card.

An Item or Protocol card shows: resource or wild card icon, card name, card type, rule reminder and effect description.

Item cards can only be played during your turn, while Protocol cards can be played during any player's turn.

In addition, Protocol cards are wild cards, so they can be used as cards of any color you need instead of their printed effect.

Game Sequence

Players take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the first player. Each player resolves their whole turn before play continues with the player to their left.

Each turn is divided into 3 steps:

1. Actions: Perform up to 4 actions.
2. Event: Reveal an Event card and apply its effects.
3. Resource Update: Update the resource supply.

There is a reminder of these steps on the Home Base card.

Note: The Event and Resource update steps must be performed on EACH player's turn, and not only after all players have had their turn.

1. Actions

On your turn you may perform up to 4 actions. You may select any combination of the actions listed below and in any order. You may do the same action multiple times, but each time counts as 1 action.

Note: When the effect includes the icon for radiation, atmospheric pressure, humidity or CO2 concentration, refer to the current Scenario to know its value.

Note: To keep track of the number of actions you have left, you can take the 4 Action tokens and flip them as you spend your actions.

Actions

Draw a Card

Either draw one of the face-up cards or the top card from the Player Deck and add it to your hand. If you draw one of the face-up cards, replace it with the top card of the Player Deck.

Recycle Revealed Cards

Discard all the face-up cards and replace them with the same number of cards from the Player Deck.

Transfer a Card

Either give a card to a player OR receive a card from a player. Both players must be in the same module to perform this action, and both must agree to do it. Each card transferred costs one action.

Deploy a Module

Deploy a module from your hand in an empty space adjacent to your pawn (not diagonal), by paying its deployment cost. Immediately increase and/or decrease the resource production levels as indicated on the card.

The deployment cost indicates which kind of cards you must discard from your own hand to deploy that module. If you don't have the required cards, you can't perform this action.

Example: to deploy a "Moisture Vaporator" module, you will need to discard a red and a yellow card from your hand and place the module in a free space adjacent to your pawn. With that, increase the water production level according to the current planet's humidity, and decrease the energy production level by 1. By doing this you have spent one action.

Shut Down

Place a Shutdown token on the module you are in to turn it off. Shutting down a module cancels its production, which means the production levels must be modified back as if it was not deployed.

Note: Modules are always on (working) when first deployed, but in some cases, it is convenient to shut a module down, for example if it consumes a resource that is scarce.

Note: Do not remove Leak or Emergency tokens from a module when shutting it down. Those effects continue.

Move

Move your pawn from one module to another up to the number of spaces indicated on your character's speed trait. Movement between modules can only be orthogonal (up, down, left, or right), not diagonal, and each module counts as one space. You may not move through empty spaces, you must move through deployed modules.

Produce Supplies

Increase by 1 the supply of the resource corresponding to the module you are in (but not in the Home Base).

Example: If your pawn is on a food module (such as a Hydroponic Farm), you can spend actions to increase the food supply by 1 per each action spent.

Repair

Remove one Leak token, Emergency token, Shutdown token or any other token from your current location, cancelling any effects it may produce. Only one token is removed when taking the repair action.

Note: This action cannot be used on the Home Base, as it is not related to any resource. The Emergency supply cannot be increased this way.

Note: Some of these tokens can appear because of Event Cards (See page 12).

Special Skill

Some characters have unique actions that can be used during their turn. Refer to the Character card to determine if their ability uses an action.

Example of a Turn

Eve plays with the Commander and begins her turn at the Home Base with a blue card in hand. As her first action she draws a Hydroponic Farm from the face-up cards, replacing it with the top card of the Player Deck. She needs two blue cards to deploy the Hydroponic Farm, so she uses his second action to request one from William, as both are on the same module. She spends her third action deploying the Hydroponic Farm on an empty space next to her, discarding the two blue cards and modifying the corresponding levels of Oxygen, Food, and Energy production as indicated in the module. She then uses the Special Skill of the Commander to move for free to a module up to 3 spaces away, and spends her last action removing an Oxygen Leak token from there. Finally, she reveals and resolves an Event card, and updates the resource supply according to the new production levels.

More About Player's Actions

During the game, players can talk and advise each other; however, it is the current player who decides what to do with their actions. Players can see each other's cards anytime unless an Event card says otherwise.

You may NOT perform an action if, as a result, the production level of a resource would fall below -5 or increase above +3.

If your character has free actions, you may perform them after your fourth normal action, before revealing the Event card.

2. Events

After performing all your actions, you must draw and read the top card of the Event Deck, applying its effects. The Event Deck contains Normal Events, which usually have minor effects, and Critical Events, which produce much more adverse effects you and your team must be prepared to face. After resolving an event, put the card in a discard pile for those cards only.

Note: If you must draw an Event card and there are no more left, you must reduce the Emergency supply by 2 spaces instead.

Note: If all 3 Leak tokens of one resource are placed on the base, no more of that type can be added due to any kind of event. This is valid for any token.

Some type of effects that may appear on these cards are explained below.

Leak and Emergency Tokens

Some events tell you to place one or more Leak tokens or Emergency tokens somewhere on the base (for instance: "Place an Oxygen Leak token on a green module of your choice, if there are any."). Leak tokens cause the corresponding resource supply to drain, losing 1 of the corresponding resource during each "Resource Update" phase. They can be removed one at a time by performing the Repair action while in the same module (see page 10). Emergency tokens reduce the Emergency supply directly, so it is critical to repair these issues quickly!

Example: An event indicates that a Water Leak token must be placed in an unoccupied module of your choice in case there is one. While nobody repairs the damage, the Water supply will decrease by 1 additional space each turn during the Resource Update phase.

Please note: The color of the module a Leak token is over is irrelevant, as the token does not directly affect the module's production. For instance, an Energy Leak token could be placed over a Food module (green), but only the Energy supply would be affected, not Food.

Health Issues

Some Event cards contain a Health Issue, which corresponds to a negative effect that affects your character indefinitely. To recover from a Health Issue, you have to meet the requirement stated on the card, which consists of 3 cards of a specific color you must have in your hand. You don't have to discard these 3 cards, just have them in your hand, even if it's not during your turn. For this purpose, Protocol cards count as any color you need. Alternatively, you can recover by using the "First Aid Kit" item or with the Medic character's special ability (see those cards for details).

Note: Health Issue cards don't count against your hand limit.

3. Resource Update

Before passing the turn to the next player, the Resource Update step takes place.

Production Level

In this step, the supply of each resource is increased or decreased according to its current production level.

This means that the cubes from the supply are moved up or down the number of spaces indicated by their Production level.

Leak Tokens

After the step previously described, each Leak or Emergency token present on the base decreases by 1 the supply of the corresponding resource.

Resource Depletion and Emergency Supply

Whenever the supply of any resource goes down to 0, you start consuming your Emergency supply. For each supply that cannot be consumed from their respective resource, you have to move down the purple cube the corresponding number of spaces. If the Emergency supply reaches 0, the game ends immediately in defeat for the players. The Emergency supply cannot be increased by any means (other than certain Protocol cards). If you increase the supply of a resource that was previously depleted, the Emergency supply does not change.

Example: The current production levels show that the Oxygen will decrease from 9 to 8, Food will stay at 7, and Energy would increase by 2, but the storage systems max at 20 so the excess Energy is wasted. Water needs to go down by 3, but since there is only 1 left, the Water will go to 0 and the Emergency Supply will drop from 7 to 5. Then the Oxygen Leak will drop the Oxygen from 8 to 7.

The current level of Water loss means the players will lose in 2 turns, so some Modules need to be Shut Down or Deployed to fix the production levels immediately!

Joining or Leaving Mid-Game

In Exoworld Survival, a player can step in or out of the game between turns, provided the number of players stays between 2 and 5. If a player wants to join, they have to take a random Character card, a reference card and place the corresponding pawn on the Home Base, and take 2 cards from the top of the Player Deck.

If a player needs to exit the game, they just need to remove their pawn from the base and discard all their cards.

Rule Hierarchy

When different cards affect the same aspect of the game, the following list indicates the order in which it has to be resolved, where the top items are the ones who have the higher hierarchy:

1. Event cards (including Health issues).
2. Protocol cards.
3. Item cards.
4. Character skills.
5. This rulebook.

Game End

The game ends in victory for the players immediately when they accomplish their mission: to get all four Production levels simultaneously to 0 or above.

It doesn't matter if there still are Leak or Emergency tokens on the base, or if a resource is depleted. All that matters is that no Production level is below 0.

The game immediately ends in defeat for the players if their Emergency supply goes down to 0.

Variants

Critical Mode

What a disaster! The landing went very badly, causing the loss and damage of some parts and supplies crucial to our survival. We will have to be very efficient if we are to have any chance.

If you want a more challenging experience, you can try to play a Scenario starting with the Emergency supply at 5 instead of 10, and with one less face-up card available. No room for error!

Incommunication Variant

Bzzz... *static noises* Can you hear me? Since we got here, we've been experiencing strange behavior from our electronic and communication devices. It must be something related to strong magnetic activity, either from this planet, or perhaps - let's hope not - from our new host star. We will have to adapt to the circumstances as best as we can.

This is a variant you can apply for a different and challenging experience. In this mode, players cannot show their cards, or talk about which cards they have or need; but they can refer to their color.

Of course, you can see when another player draws a face-up card, but after that you will have to remember that information. Additionally, Event cards should be read only by the current player, who has to make all the decisions related to its effect without asking anyone else (like where to place Leak tokens).

Solo Mode

You can also play Exoworld Survival in a solo mode. Before setup, remove the Event cards from the Communication Blackout pack. Then, set up the game normally until step 7. After that, do the following:

a. Take 4 characters at random and place them in front of you, face-up and side by side. b. Choose 3 of them and discard the other one. c. Place a Reference card underneath each character with the pawn color showing. Place the 3 corresponding pawns on the Home Base. d. Draw 2 cards from the Player Deck.

In this mode you will control 3 characters, but only use one per turn, starting with the one to your left.

Each turn you will have to use the pawn, skill, speed, and hand-limit of your current character, but you have only one hand of cards for all of them.

After the Resource Update, continue with the next character from left to right, repeating this sequence.

You can't use the Transfer action, as there are no more players to transfer cards with. Also, for each Event or Protocol card that refers to transferring cards, the face-up cards will be considered as cards from another player.

In this mode, the special skill of the Crew Coordinator changes so that, once per turn, you can draw the top card from the Player Deck for free.