Frontier Stations Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Goal
• Setup
• Card Anatomy
  • Resource Symbols
• Resources
• Cards
• Sequence of Play
  • Roll Dice
  • Activate Threats
  • Activate Systems
  • Purchase Improvements
    • Installing Systems
    • Upgrading Systems
    • Destroying Threats
  • Draw New Threat
    • Reinforcements
  • End Turn
• Captain
• Distress Beacons
• Converting Resources
• Optional Rules
  • Adjusting Difficulty
• Card Clarifications

Game Components

• 1 - Rules Booklet
• 1 - Game Mat
• 2 - Six Sided Dice
• 125 - Cards
  • 74 System Cards (9 Double Sided Nexus Systems and 65 Green Standard Systems)
  • 1 Captain Card
  • 50 Threat Cards (25 Orange Early Threats and 25 Red Late Threats)
• 215 Counters
  • 6 Recent Threats
  • 3 Distress Beacons
  • 176 Resources (48 Energy and 32 each of Engineering, Medical, Security, & Shields)
  • 30 Upgrade Markers (7 x4/x5 and 23 x2/x3)

Goal

Frontier Stations is a cooperative game; all the players work as a team and win or lose together. To win, you must survive until the threat decks run out, while supplying your stations with the resources needed to weather the various threats facing them. If at any point the players lack the resources to pay for a threat, the game ends in a loss.

Setup

Players sit in a circle. The play area is divided into several regions:

• Each player designates an area in front of them to represent their station; this area holds cards representing their key systems.
• Between each pair of adjacent players, set aside a threat area where threat cards will be played. The number of threat areas will equal the number of players, with every player next to two threat areas and every threat area next to two players.
• In the center of the table is the space for holding unused counters and cards, this is called the stock. Place all the game tokens in the stock; the Game Mat will help you organize them.

(Figure not reproduced: setup diagram for a 4 player game, showing each player's station, the threat areas between them, the stock and the shop.)

Separate the cards into four sets according to their backs/borders: Nexus cards, standard systems (green), early threats (orange), and late threats (red).

Each player takes a Nexus card and puts it in his station, then takes one shield, one security, one medical, and one engineering token and places them on his Nexus card. Choose one player to go first; that player also takes the Captain card and two distress beacon tokens. Put the rest of the Nexus cards away; you will not need them this game.

Shuffle the systems deck (green cards) and place them on the draw space of the game mat. Create the shop by drawing cards and setting them face-up in the shop spaces until you have cards equal to the number of players plus one.

Shuffle the early threats (orange cards); remove five cards and return them to the box, without looking at them, and place the remaining 20 cards in a face-down stack. Do the same with the late threats (red cards), creating another face-down stack of 20 cards.

Card Anatomy

(Figure not reproduced: labelled System Card and Threat Card.)

• System Card: Purchase Cost, Title, Image, Activation Number(s), Activation Result, Activation Probability, Activation Type, Special Ability, Storage.
• Threat Card: Title, Image, Activation Number(s), Activation Probability, Activation Type, Activation Result, Destruction Cost, Additional Destruction Cost.

Resource Symbols

Energy, Medical, Shields, Engineering, Security, and Any (Acts as any resources).

How the Symbols work: For each symbol, the player produces (or sacrifices) a resource. In the example (an Energy symbol, an Engineering symbol and a Medical symbol), the player produces one Energy resource, one Engineering resource, and one Medical resource.

Storage symbols: a symbol shown in the storage area means the card Stores that resource (Energy, Security, Engineering, Shields, Medical, or Any Resource).

How the Slash (/) works: Each slash is read as "or". In the example (Energy / Engineering / Medical), the player can choose to select one Energy resource, or one Engineering resource, or one Medical resource.

Resources

Shield, security, medical, engineering, and energy tokens are all resources that you can generate with and store on your station's system cards. These resources are consumed to deal with threats.

Each resource must be stored on a specific system card. You cannot move resources between cards unless instructed to do so.

Unless otherwise noted, your resources can only be spent within your own station or in adjacent threat areas; you cannot spend them on other players' stations or non-adjacent threats.

Cards

System cards and Nexus cards are systems on your space stations, and represent your capabilities. Systems can be activated by certain die rolls, triggering some beneficial effect (usually producing resources). A dash indicates a range of numbers (e.g. "3-5" means 3, 4, or 5), while a slash indicates disjoint numbers (e.g. "3/5" means only on a roll of 3 or 5, not 4). Some cards have two effects that activate on different die results.

Systems can also store a limited amount of resources, as indicated by the icons at the bottom of the card. If a card accumulates more resources than it can store, you must discard resources of your choice until the remaining resources can fit.

The dots in the middle of the card depict the probability (out of 36) that the card will activate on a roll of 2 dice; these are only for your reference and have no direct impact on the game.

Orange cards and red cards are threats. They activate based on die rolls in the same way as systems, but they generally take away resources instead of producing them.

Sequence of Play

Players take turns in clockwise order. Each turn consists of 5 steps:

1. Roll dice
2. Activate threats
3. Activate systems
4. Purchase improvements
5. Draw a new threat

Roll Dice

The current player rolls one of the included dice. The result of this roll is used several times in the following steps.

After the early threat deck (orange cards) is empty, players roll two dice in this step. The values of the two dice are always added together when activating cards but may be considered separately when purchasing improvements.

Activate Threats

Identify all of the threat cards currently in play that match the number rolled, and activate each of them, in any order (there will be no threat cards in play on the first turn, as they are drawn at the end of each turn). When activated, threat cards force the players to discard resources as indicated in the consume section on the card. These resources can come from any card(s) in the two stations adjacent to the threat; the players controlling those stations choose how to divide the cost among them.

Threat Activation Example: On your turn, you roll a 5, forcing you to activate the Boarding Party and Artillery Fire cards to your left. You discard a shield counter from your Nexus to handle the Artillery Fire, and the player to your left discards a security counter from her Barracks to stop the Boarding Party. The other players could not have helped with these particular threat cards, since they are not adjacent to them. (Figure not reproduced.)

Note that all threat cards currently in play can be activated, no matter whose turn it is; threats near you might be activated by a roll made by a distant player.

If the players do not have enough resources to pay for all activated threats, they lose. If the players survive this step and both threat decks are empty, they win.

Activate Systems

Identify all the system cards and starting cards (green or Nexus) in play that match the number rolled, and activate each of them, following the instructions on the card corresponding to that number. Most systems produce resources when activated, but some may transfer resources between cards or have other effects.

Note that all system cards currently in play can be activated, no matter whose turn it is; another player's roll can activate your cards.

If the order of activation matters, players may choose the order of systems.

Purchase Improvements

The player taking their turn may make an improvement to their station or the nearby area.

Each improvement has a credit cost. The player may make one improvement whose cost is less than or equal to the value of the current turn's die roll. If the player wants to make an improvement with a higher cost, they must discard energy equal to the difference.

If the player rolled two dice on the current turn, they may purchase a separate improvement with each die (and may spend energy to enhance either or both purchases), OR may add the dice together to make a single expensive purchase.

The player may never make more than one purchase per die; a die's value cannot be split, nor can the player purchase an improvement entirely with energy without using a die. Thus, each player makes at most one purchase each turn during the first half of the game, and at most two purchases per turn during the second half (after the early threat deck is empty).

Purchase Improvement Example: You want to make an improvement that costs 5 credits, but you only rolled a 3. You discard one energy token from your Nexus and another from your Solar Cell, then purchase the improvement. (3 + 1 energy + 1 energy = 5.)

There are three kinds of improvements the player can choose to make:

• Install a new system from the shop
• Upgrade an existing system
• Destroy a nearby threat

Installing Systems

To install a system, the player selects a system card from the shop and moves it to his station; thereafter, it can be activated in response to future die rolls. The purchase cost is shown on the upper left-hand corner of the card.

Upgrading Systems

To upgrade a system, the player selects a card in his station and places an "x2" upgrade marker on it (if the card already has an upgrade marker, increase it by one increment; x2 becomes x3, x3 becomes x4, etc.) The cost to upgrade a system is the same as the cost to install it.

Upgrading a card is essentially like adding another copy of the card; cards with an upgrade marker activate the indicated number of times when their numbers are rolled, and also have their storage capacity multiplied by the shown amount.

Example: Your Physics Lab has an "x2" upgrade counter on it when another player rolls a 6. You can choose to produce 2 medical, 2 engineering, or 1 of each on your Physics Lab, and it can store up to 6 medical and 4 engineering total.

Destroying Threats

A player can destroy a threat card in an adjacent threat area. If the threat card has an upgrade marker on it, reduce it by one increment; otherwise, flip the card face down to show it can no longer activate (face-down threats can safely be removed from play unless they have a recent threat marker on them; see Reinforcements).

The cost to destroy a threat is shown on the bottom of the card. Unlike systems, threats usually have a resource cost (in addition to their credit cost) that must also be paid to destroy them. When destroying a threat, the other player adjacent to the threat can aid you by paying some or all of the necessary resources (both the resources shown on the threat card and any energy necessary to cover its credit cost).

Destroying Threats Example: In order for the player(s) to destroy the Killer Robots threat, they have to pay 5 credits and one Medical resource. Threat cards that have an upgrade marker on them must be destroyed multiple times. Each time a threat card's destruction cost is paid, reduce the upgrade marker by one increment. (Figure not reproduced.)

Draw New Threat

After purchasing improvements, the player draws a new threat card and places it face up in the threat area to his left. Draw from the early threat deck until it runs out, then draw from the late threat deck.

Reinforcements

Some threat cards say "Reinforcements". These cards do not represent new threats, but instead indicate that a previous threat has become more severe.

When you draw a Reinforcements card, upgrade the most-recently-added threat card in the threat area to the player's left. This works just like upgrading a system (see Upgrading Systems), causing the threat to be activated multiple times when its number is rolled.

To ensure you always know which threat to reinforce, place a recent threat marker on the most recent card in each threat area. Note that the same card can be reinforced multiple times, resulting in multiple upgrades.

If the most recent threat in that area has already been destroyed (turned face down), a Reinforcements card brings it back (but only at its original strength).

If Reinforcements is the very first threat card drawn for a particular threat area, put it at the bottom of the corresponding threat deck and draw a different card instead.

End Turn

After the current player completes all of the above steps, the next player in clockwise order begins a new turn.

Captain

The first player starts with the Captain card, and keeps it for a round plus a turn before passing it to the next player.

Example: In a 3-player game, player 1 takes the Captain card. Player 1 takes a turn, then player 2 takes a turn, then player 3 takes a turn, then player 1 takes another turn before passing the Captain card to player 2.

Each time the Captain card changes hands, refresh the shop by placing all cards currently in the shop on the bottom of the draw pile, then drawing one card per player, plus one, from the system deck and placing them in the shop (this means that if one new system is installed every turn, there will be no cards left in the shop when it is time to refresh it).

The current Captain has the deciding vote any time that the players cannot agree on how to proceed. Additionally, the Captain holds the distress beacons and may choose when to use them.

Distress Beacons

A distress beacon may be used at any point to nullify one activation of one threat card. Used distress beacons are returned to the box.

There are only two distress beacons available for the entire game (regardless of the number of players). Once used, you cannot get them back.

Converting Resources

Some cards have a special effect that lets you spend one kind of resource as another kind of resource. These effects operate at the player level - you can use them to convert any resources you spend, no matter which card(s) they come from or where you are spending them, but cannot convert resources coming from other players.

These effects only work when you are spending the resources in question - you can never use them to change a resource's type and then store the new type; you can only use them when you are immediately spending the converted resources.

These effects do not combine - for example, if you have a card that lets you spend security as shield, and another that lets you spend shield as medical, you cannot combine those to spend security as medical.

Converting Example: You roll a 3 and activate the Plague threat to your left, requiring you to discard a medical resource. Unfortunately, neither you nor the player to your left have any medical resources right now. You have a Stasis Pod that you could use to spend 2 energy as 1 medical, but you only have 1 energy right now, and you cannot convert energy contributed by your ally. You also have a Recycler that lets you spend any resource as energy, but the Stasis Pod cannot convert an already-converted resource. Reluctantly, you use a distress beacon to avoid losing the game. (Figure not reproduced.)

Optional Rules

Adjusting Difficulty

Each player may choose to make the game easier or harder by starting with a different Nexus card: Starting with a Heavy Nexus will make the game easier than playing with a Nexus, while starting with a Light Nexus will make the game harder.

To further modify the difficulty, a player may choose to adjust the prices of improvements; for instance, to make the game harder, the player acts as if all improvements are 1 credit more expensive than shown on the cards.

Note that price adjustments have a larger impact on difficulty than choice of Nexus; playing with +1 to prices and a Heavy Nexus is harder than playing with regular prices and a Light Nexus.

Finally, the group may choose to start with more or fewer distress beacons to increase or decrease their margin for error.

Card Clarifications

• The Any Resource symbol in the consume area of the Politics cards allows the player to choose what resource(s) they must sacrifice when attacked.
• The special text on the Recycler card allows the player to spend any resource as if it were an Energy resource.
• The special text on the Mass Converter card allows the player to spend three Energy resources as one of any other resource.
• Force Field, Focusing Lens, Supercomputer, and Stasis Pod each allow the player to spend two Energy as one other resource (Two Energy as one Shield, two Energy as one Security, two Energy as one Engineering, and two Energy as one Medical respectively).
• Unlike other Production type cards, Salvage Ship production does not produce off of a dice roll.
• The Nexus allows the player to produce one of any resource and store up to one of each type of resource.
• The Heavy Nexus allows the player to produce one of any resource and store up to two of each type of resource.
• The Light Nexus allows the player to produce one of any resource and store any four resources.