High Frontier (Third Edition)
High Frontier (Third Edition) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- A. Basic Game Overview
- B. Component Descriptions
- C. Basic Game Setup
- D. Basic Game Play-Sequence
- E. Hand & Stack Cards
- F. Rocket Movement Procedure
- G. Landing & Lift-Off Movement
- H. Basic Game Operations
- H1. Income Operation (Engineering, Science, or Finance)
- H2. Research Operation (Science)
- H3. Free Market Operation (Finance)
- H4. Boost Operation (Engineering)
- H5. Site Refuel Operations (Engineering)
- H6. Prospect Operation (Science)
- H7. Industrialize Operation (Engineering)
- H8. ET Production Operation (Engineering)
- H9. Example Mission to Luna and Back
- I. Ventures & Glory
- J. Basic Game End & Victory
- K. Colonization (Advanced Game)
- L. Colonization Setup
- M. Colonization Play Sequence
- N. Colonization Operations
- O. Support Module
- P. Freighter Module
- Q. Bernal Module
- R. Colonist Module
- S. GW Thruster Module
- T. Combat Module
- U. Colonization Endgame Module
- V. Solitaire and Advanced Game Variants
- V0. Common Solitaire Rules
- V1. Werner's Star Solitaire (Phil Eklund, all modules)
- V2. Hermes' Fall Solitaire (Phil Eklund, Support Module only)
- V3. Mars Flotilla Solitaire (by Andy Graham)
- V4. CEO Solitaire (by Victor Caminha)
- V5. Space Race – 2 to 5 Players (Phil Eklund)
- V6. Alien Invasion 3-Player (Phil Eklund)
- V7. Quick 2-Player (by Scott Muldoon)
- V8. The Red Giant (Phil Eklund)
- V9. The Grand Tour (Andy Graham)
- V10. Quest for Glory (Andrew Doull)
- V11. Alternate Colonization Start (Dave Hammond)
- V12. No Politics or Events (Andrew Doull)
- W. Exomigration Module (Andrew Doull)
- X. Simulation Modules
- Glossary
- Y. Interstellar Solitaire
- Needed to Play
- Interstellar Glossary
- Game Scale
- Y.1 Interstellar Setup
- Y.2 Interstellar Sequence of Play
- Y.3 Passenger Professions & Résumés
- Y.4 Interstellar Operations
- Y.5 Starship Move
- Y.6 Risks and Death
- Y.7 Interstellar Exploration and Victory
- Y.8 Interstellar Example Missions
- Volume II Endnotes
A. Basic Game Overview
Players, representing the space-faring factions of Earth, bid for patents (space technology cards) and boost them into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to be assembled into rockets and their cargos. Once fueled with water tanks (WTs), these rockets fly to promising industrial and science sites (planets, asteroids, etc.). If prospecting succeeds, a claim is made at the site. A claim can be upgraded to a factory to produce useful new technologies. Also on a site, water can be mined to refuel a rocket (WTs are both a currency and rocket propellant). The winner of the game is determined by the number of off-world claims and factories he holds, the resource value of his industrialized sites, and his exploration achievements (ventures and glories).
Important terms are listed in bold. Terms explained elsewhere in the rules are written in italics. Terms found in the glossary are underlined. Easily-missed rules are printed in white text on a black background.
Changes from the Second Edition. 34 new cards. These include new robonaut, thruster, refinery, reactor, generator, radiator, freighter, and gigawatt thruster cards, along with cards used to indicate ventures (I1) and glory (I2), as well as expanded-faction (C0.1) crew cards. The Rocket Diagram has been replaced by a Fuel Strip (E4) carrying fungible fuel tanks (K6) that can hold different fuel grades. The Lander Fuel Penalty has been replaced by lander burns (G4). Triangle burns have been removed. Water Theft has been replaced by the similar felony of Hijacking. Powersats and push factories can now only push thrusters that carry the push icon. The cost of performing multiple operations has changed (M1). Players may use and move colonists the same turn they enter play. Ending the game has changed (U5).
A1. Third Edition Components
- This rulebook, with an Operations List on the back page.
- Two maps (inner and outer solar system).
- One Solar System Chart.
- Five player mats with Fuel Strip.
- 80 clear blue disks (water tanks, busted mines and futures, and rocket dry mass and acceleration indicators; also used for the politics track, solar cycle, and 5 exploitation tracks).
- 15 clear red disks for Bernal dry mass and acceleration indicators (also used for water tank value 5).
- 45 faction-colored disks (5 colors) for claims.
- 20 faction-colored rings (5 colors) for outposts.
- 20 yellow disks for the isotope FFT.
- 20 black disks for the dirt FFT.
- 30 faction-colored cubes (5 colors) for factories and mobile factories.
- 5 large faction-colored cubes (5 colors) for freighters.
- 35 faction-colored domes (5 colors) for Space Colonies.
- 5 faction-colored rocket pieces (5 colors) plus 15 (3 colors) for rocket location and fuel.
- 5 faction-colored cylinders (5 colors) plus 15 (3 colors) for Bernal location and fuel.
- 120 cards representing patents, colonists, crew, and achievements.
- One six-sided die (1d6) for prospecting and hazard checks.
B. Component Descriptions
B1. Patent Cards
In the basic game, there are three types of patent cards: Thruster (used to move Rocket Stacks), Robonaut (used to prospect, refuel, and build factories), and Refinery (used to build factories).
The white side of a Patent Card shows a product built on Earth; the black side shows an improved product built in space. Until you build your first space factory, you will only be using the white side of the patent cards.
- Mass. The mass of a card for the basic game is shown in the white box located in the upper-left corner. All information in the red box (upper right corner of the card) is only used in the Colonization advanced game (O).
- ISRU. Some cards have an In Situ Resource Utilization rating, which is used to ISRU refuel (H5) and prospect (H6).
- Thrust Triangle. Cards capable of moving stacks have a thrust triangle (F1).
- Product Letter. The letter shown on the black side of a patent (C, D, M, S, V) indicates what type of factory can build them (H8).
- Refinery Ability. On their black sides, refinery cards list a special ability (in red font).
TIP: Patent cards represent unbuilt ideas (if held in your hand) or hardware in space (in locations marked by figures on the Map).
B2. Starting Card and Pieces
You start with the following:
- A starting card identifying your color and faction privilege.
TIP: The crew cards have a thrust triangle (F1), so they can be used as the thruster for your Rocket Stack. For instance, the PRC Taikonauts with 7 tanks of fuel can fly alone from LEO to an aerobrake landing on Mars!
- Nine disks of your color to mark claims and futures, plus two rings of your color to mark your outposts.
- Six cubes of your color to mark factories.
- Seven domes in your color to mark the locations of your space colonies.
- One big (10mm) cube of your color to mark the location of your freighter.
- One rocket figure in your color.
- One blue disk to mark your rocket's dry mass and one to mark your rocket's net thrust.
IMPORTANT: You are limited to this number of cubes, disks, and rockets. See Component Limitations (B6).
B3. Playmat and Solar System Charts
Each player starts with a playmat, used to store his cards and his WTs (water tanks stored in a WT depot in your home orbit, used for money and fueling). It contains a Fuel Strip and Acceleration Track (used to keep track of the fuel and net thrust of his Rocket Stack).
The Solar System Charts contain the five Exploitation Tracks (C, S, M, V, and D), one per resource/spectral type (Carbon, Stone, Metal, Vestoid, Dark). Each track marks the current VP value of that resource, starting at 10 VP and stepping down (10 VP → 8 VP → 6 VP → further steps) as the resource is extracted at factories; see H8 and K7. The other tables (Sunspot Cycle, Event Table, Futures Stars, and Space Government) are only used in the Colonization game (K).
B4. Solar System Map
The map shows the spaces (i.e. the orbits in the Solar System where a rocket can "halt"), and the routes between the spaces. Some of the most useful routes are colored and labeled with a signpost (e.g. "Earth-Mars"). The various kinds of spaces are described below:
- Sites. The black hexes are sites (i.e. planets, moons and asteroids) that can be landed on. Each site is characterized by a size (a number indicating the surface gravity — the larger the number the more likely prospecting will be successful and the more powerful your rocket has to be to take off and land there), spectral type (a letter — C, D, M, S, V — showing what can be mined there and thus the product letter of cards able to be factory-produced there), and hydration (a number of waterdrops indicating how easy it is to obtain water). A microscope icon indicates a science site or a TNO science site. A plant icon indicates an Astrobiology Site, and a blue icon indicates a Subsurface Ocean (both used for certain Glory Cards). See Map Anatomy.
- Intersections. The intersection between two routes is called a Hohmann if the two lines touch, and a Lagrange Point if it is marked by a hollow or filled circle. (If the lines don't touch, they just pass by each other without intersecting.) Turning requires a pivot in a Hohmann, but is free in a Lagrange Point. Each sharp turn (for instance, the zigzag routes in the outer solar system) also requires a pivot.
- Burns. The filled magenta spaces, called burns, cost fuel for a rocket to enter, and the number of burns a rocket can enter in a turn is limited by its net thrust. There are two types of burns: Lagrange Point (circular) and Lander (lander-shaped).
TIP: The majority of burns are either around planets or at the outer edge of each heliocentric zone. Closer to the sun, there are paths through the edges of heliocentric zones which don't have burns, representing the Interplanetary Travel Network. Use these to trade fuel consumption for time.
- Spaces can be marked with the hazard (F5), lander (G4), flyby (K1), or radiation (K2) icons.
- Aerobrake Routes. Routes along a dashed brown line have special landing rules (G2), and you cannot move along the route against the arrowhead.
- Buggy Roads. The dashed yellow lines are buggy roads, used only for buggy prospecting, not movement.
- Heliocentric Zones. These divide the solar system into concentric zones to mark the decreasing solar energy as you move further away from the sun. Each zone is named after a planet (from Mercury to Neptune). These zones modify the thrust of solar-powered rockets and sails, see F2. Solar-powered cards or functions do not work in the outermost zone.
NOTE: The small white triangles found in some burns on older-edition maps are not used in this edition.
B5. Water Tanks & Indicator Disks
Clear blue disks simulate 40-ton water tanks (WTs) stored in your home orbit and are used both as "money" and as rocket fuel. Each clear blue disk represents 1 WT. Your WTs are stored on your playmat, and unowned WTs are stored in a central pool.
- Clear blue disks are also used to mark busted sites where prospecting has failed and to track game information. They are also used to track rocket dry mass and net thrust.
B6. Component Limitations
Because of mission control limitations, you are limited to the claim disks, factory cubes, and colony domes you start with. If you need another disk, you may withdraw a claim disk (the vacated site must be reprospected to be claimed again). If you need another cube, you may withdraw your freighter's Big Cube (E5) or a mobile factory cube (P6). An industrialized site must first be abandoned (P6) before the factory cube may be withdrawn. You are also limited in how many stacks you may have on the game board (E2).
C. Basic Game Setup
- Choose factions. Each Crew Card has a "legacy" faction on one side, and a "radical" faction on the other. Decide jointly if the legacy or radical side will be used for this game. If playing with fewer than 5 players, legacy and radical factions may be mixed as long as no two players have the same faction privilege. Then each player chooses or is given a Crew Card and a playmat.
- Reserves. Each player places the 1 big cube, 1 rocket, 6 small cubes, 7 domes and 9 disks of their faction color anywhere on their playmat.
- Thrust and mass indicators. Each player puts clear blue dry mass indicator and net thrust disks and 3 rocket wet mass markers (blue, yellow and black) above the fuel strip on the playmat.
- Starting Water. Give each player 4 clear blue WT disks to put in the WT depot on the playmat.
- Patent decks. Separate the patent cards into decks by type (Thruster, Robonaut, and Refinery). Shuffle and place white-side up near the game board.
- Resource exploitation. Place five blue disks on the starting positions of the resource exploitation tracks.
- Determine the starting player by any means you choose.
- Place the 5 Glory Cards and the 4 Venture Cards yellow-side up near the game board.
C1. Optional Quick Start Variant (Basic and Colonization Games)
This variant starts the players with a hand of patent cards, selected during special turns called Idea Turns.
- Players start with 3 WT instead of 4.
- Idea Turns. The first few turns are used to build up each player's hand. Starting with the first player, each player in turn may pay 1 WT and take the top card off of one of the patent decks (including the colonist deck).
EXCEPTION: The first player pays 2 WT for his first card, to offset his advantage in drawing first.
- Ending Idea Turns. If for your turn you decide to perform a standard operation instead of an Idea Turn, you become the new first player for the rest of the game. No further Idea Turns can be played.
COLONIZATION: Start with 1 WT per patent deck available instead of 3 WT. During Idea Turns, there is no hand limit and the Sunspot Cycle is not active. The card drawn comes alone, without supports.
D. Basic Game Play-Sequence
On your turn, you may move each of your spacecraft (F, G), perform operations (H), and perform free actions (D1). In the Basic Game, you are allowed two spacecraft (your rocket and your freighter), one operation, and any number of free actions. The advanced game will make additional spacecraft and operations available (see P, Q, and R).
- Moves and operations can be taken in any order. For instance, you may move your rocket, take an operation, and then move your freighter.
- When your turn is complete, play passes to the next player in clockwise order.
D1. Free Actions
You may perform the following free actions without expending an operation. Free actions may be taken in any order, and as many as desired in a turn. The Jettison Cargo (D1.5) free action is permitted during movement, other free actions must be performed before the start or after the end of a move.
- Cargo Transfer. Form a stack per E4, E5, or E6 by transferring cargo from colocated stacks into the appropriate slot on your playmat. For instance, a Rocket Stack can be formed at LEO per E4 by transferring cards boosted to the LEO stack. Except for Freighter Stacks, a stack can have any number of cards. You can also transfer cargo between existing stacks this way, even between stacks of cooperating players. If you transfer cargo to or from a rocket or Bernal, perform a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2) on each affected stack. COLONIZATION: You cannot transfer or jettison (D1.5) dedicated cards.
- Home Orbit Refueling. In the Basic Game, the home orbit for all players is LEO, where you may transfer WTs to your rocket as fuel tanks. Each WT added to your rocket moves the fuel figure on your Fuel Strip one step to the right, following the dotted red line.
- Liquidate Fuel. If in your home orbit, you may convert one or more tanks of water or isotope fuel in your rocket or Bernal into the same number of WT disks. You can also do the reverse operation, converting WTs into fuel. Both free actions gain or lose one WT for every step the fuel figure moves on the Fuel Strip (E4), following the dashed red line. {Colonization} Fuel liquidation can occur away from your Home Orbit by turning fuel steps into FFTs (K6) instead of WTs.
- Jettison any amount of fuel from your rocket by simply moving the fuel figure to the left a desired number of steps along either the red or black line (E4). If this is done before you move your rocket, this may have the advantage of reducing your wet mass and improving your net thrust, see F2.
- Jettison any amount of cargo from your rocket or Bernal, which causes a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2). This can be done at any point in the move, but it only impacts your net thrust if done before you start moving, and the dry mass adjustment is delayed until the end of the move. The cargo can be left as an outpost (this is an exceptional case of stack formation during movement), or decommissioned.
NOTE: You need an operational thruster to move (for exceptions see F2) which means you will normally end the move if you jettison the activated thruster or its supports.
- Decommission cards or your freighter, which returns them to your hand for reuse. Cards you wish to decommission from your rocket or Bernal must be jettisoned first. If you decommission your freighter, form an outpost with the cargo it carries. You cannot voluntarily decommission your crew outside LEO except by building a space colony (D1.8) unless you are allowed to perform felonies (e.g. the PRC or Anonymous faction privilege). You cannot decommission your Bernal card.
NOTE: Decommissioning also occurs during free market, industrialization, hazards, flares, radiation belts, and combat.
- Discard cards from your hand to the bottom of the patent deck.
- Build or disband space colonies. To build a space colony, decommission your crew or a human colonist (R2) at your factory and place a dome at the location representing a space colony. Each factory can support one space colony. To disband a space colony, you must have your crew card in your hand. Replace the space colony dome with an outpost containing your crew card.
- Claim Glory (I1) or Ventures (I2).
- Withdraw an outpost or rocket stack, claim disk or mobile factory cube from the map. You can only withdraw an outpost or rocket stack if it contains no cards and the stack's fuel has been jettisoned (D1.4) or liquidated (K6). You withdraw claims and cubes per B6.
D2. Dry Mass Adjustment
If the rocket or Bernal takes on or jettisons cargo, you will need to perform a Dry Mass Adjustment after you complete your rocket's movement. Simply move the dry mass disk left or right along the dotted red line to the new dry mass. The fuel figure is also moved along its dotted red line the same number of steps and the same direction as the dry mass movement.
EXAMPLE: Your rocket has a dry mass disk on the "4" spot and a fuel figure on 4-1/3. You drop off cargo with a mass of 2. Move the dry mass disk two steps left to the number "2" spot. Move the fuel figure two steps left as well, to the 2-1/6 spot.
D3. Deal-Making
At any time, you may exchange WTs, FFTs, claims, factories, stack cards, or services or actions as terms of a deal. These services can include faction privileges such as use of the powersat or the cycler. If the promised service is to be provided on a subsequent turn, it is non-binding. Hand Cards can be swapped as part of a deal, as long as the number of hand cards for each trader remains unchanged (this rule is necessary to avoid abusing the hand card limits during research auctions). Crew or Bernal (Colonization) Cards can't be sold or traded.
- FFTs or cards colocated in space can be exchanged among players either to create new stacks or between colocated stacks. Transferred cards can't be further transferred until next turn. WT transfers can occur between home orbits.
- If colonists are traded, they may only perform their operation once per year.
E. Hand & Stack Cards
Cards enter your hand through trade (D3), research (H2), or decommission. They represent patents and potential products. Once played into a stack, they become tangible objects, either boosted from Earth (if played on their white side), or built in space (if played on their black side).
- Stacks can be created by Cargo Transfer (D1.1), Jettisons (D1.5), Boosting (H4), or Production (H8).
- Your stacks can have any number of cards, except your Freighter Stack is limited to one card when not using the Freighter Module (P).
- If a stack contains no cards or FFTs (K6), and the spacecraft it represents has jettisoned all its fuel (D1.4), you may remove the stack figure from the map to create a stack elsewhere (D1.10).
IMPORTANT: Your WTs, hand cards, and stacks are free for anyone to examine.
E1. Hand Cards
Hand cards are stored to the right of your playmat.
- Your hand is not a stack. Operations move cards from hand to a stack, decommission moves cards from a stack to hand.
- Limits: There is no Hand Limit, however there are drawbacks to having too many Hand Cards (H2). You can discard Hand Cards per D1.7.
E2. Stack Limits
To represent mission control and spacesuited human limitations, the number of stacks you are allowed at the end of your turn is strictly limited to the following seven stacks:
- Rocket Stack: this stack is represented on the map by your rocket figure.
- Freighter Stack: this stack is represented on the map by your big cube.
- LEO Stack: this stack is always at the space on the map marked LEO, and is not represented by a figure.
- and 5. Two Outpost Stacks: these stacks are represented by your two rings in your color. If the Bernal Module (Q) is being used, you may have two additional stacks (for a total of seven stacks):
- Bernal Stack: this stack is represented on the map by a cylinder figure of your faction color.
- Ersatz-Bernal Stack: this stack is always located at your home orbit and is represented by a cylinder of your faction color.
- Limits: You are allowed two outpost stacks, and one of every other type of stack. During your turn you may create as many outpost stacks as required over your limit, but by the end of your turn you must withdraw all but two of them.
E3. LEO Stack Creation and Definition
Your LEO Stack represents the game components located in Low Earth Orbit (marked LEO on the map). Unlike other stacks, this stack does not have its own figure. Any cargo in the stack is simply assumed to be in LEO. A LEO stack can be created through either of the following mechanisms.
- When using the boost operation (H4), if cards are boosted to LEO and your LEO stack does not yet exist, you can create your LEO stack and place the boosted cards into it.
- As a free action by transferring the contents of a stack (D1.1) located in LEO to your LEO stack.
NOTE: Once your rocket is underway, you can no longer use WTs at LEO for refueling. You also cannot use fuel carried by the rocket for currency (e.g. spending in auctions).
E4. Rocket Stack Creation and Definition
Designate a stack as a Rocket Stack by placing cards to the left of your playmat. It will usually include a thruster (F1) and perhaps crew, but neither are required. Indicate its location on the map using a rocket figure, and indicate its mass and fuel by placing a disk and rocket figure on your playmat's Fuel Strip per the following:
- Compute Dry Mass. Add up the mass of every card in the Rocket Stack [remember: use the top left red mass number for Basic Game and the top right white mass for the Advanced Game]. This is your dry mass. Place a translucent blue disk, called your dry mass disk, in the spot on your fuel strip with this number.
- Fueling Your Rocket. Place a rocket figure, called the fuel figure, on top of the dry mass disk. This indicates your tanks are empty. The color of the fuel figure depends on the fuel grade, see below.
- You may add fuel to your rocket by home orbit refueling (D1.2), site refuel (H5), or liquefying on-board FFTs (K6).
- Fuel Grades. The fuel figure must be black, blue, or (Colonization) yellow, representing loading dirt, water propellant, or (Colonization) isotope fuel, respectively. The fuel grade is important since only Dirt Rockets can use dirt propellant, and GW/TW rockets (S) can only use isotope fuel. When mixing fuels, the fuel grade becomes the same as the lowest grade fuel in the mix (where isotope is the highest and dirt the lowest). Indicate this grade by the color of the fuel figure.
EXAMPLE: A rocket has a Hall Effect thruster (mass 2), a crew (mass 1), plus a Kuck mosquito robonaut (mass 0) in cargo. Its dry mass is 3. Loaded up with one fuel tank, it has 4 steps of fuel, as shown.
WARNING: If your fuel figure ever reaches the fuel step where the dry mass disk is located, your rocket is out of fuel. The fuel figure can never be on the left side of the dry mass disk.
TIP: A rocket will often have a crew, but does not need one. It may also have more than one thruster, although it can only use one in any turn.
E5. Freighter Stack Creation, Movement, and Definition
A Freighter Stack can only be created by an ET Production Operation (H8), which creates both the freighter cube and the black card as its cargo at the same time. When the freighter stack is created, place your big cube in the space where it was produced (either next to the factory, or next to the dirtside factory's Bernal), and move the freshly built black card into the "Freighter Stack" slot.
- Committed Cargo. Your freighter can only carry the one card that was produced at the same time that it was. Once this card is jettisoned (D1.5) or decommissioned (D1.6), return the cube to your reserves.
- Movement. A freighter can move the turn it is produced. It moves one burn at a time (plus coasting per F6 and, in the advanced game, slingshots per K1 and push factories). Fuel expenditure is not tracked. It can land or lift-off per G1. Freighter movement is unchanged if using the Freighter Module (P).
E6. Outpost Stack Creation
At the beginning or end of your movement, you can convert a stack into Outpost #1 or Outpost #2 (e.g. for a Rocket Stack that has broken down or is out of fuel) by using the Cargo Transfer free action (D1.1). You can also drop off cards into outposts by jettisoning them during movement per D1.5. Either way, move the cards into the Outpost Stack location on the playmat, and mark their map position with a ring in your color so they can be retrieved later. The ET Production Operation (H8) can also create an outpost at the factory producing the card.
LIMIT: You can only have two outposts at the end of any turn. You must keep track of which Outpost Card Stack belongs to which yellow disk on the map. You may however, have more than two outposts at any given time provided you start and end your turn with no more than two.
NOTE: Crew stranded in space can either be rescued (by yourself or another player if you agree, which allows the card in his stack without passing ownership), or left as an outpost. If you choose the latter, you won't have crew available (since new volunteers are scarce if you are in the habit of abandoning them in space). Crew normally can't be voluntarily decommissioned.
EXAMPLE 1: A big Rocket Stack arrives at a site size 6 or smaller, too heavy to land for a powered landing, even by decommissioning its primary thruster and switching to an 8•8 afterburning crew. The refinery becomes outpost #1, allowing the crew and robonaut to land. On its next turn, the crew lifts off to pick up the refinery, and the robonaut remains as surface outpost #2. On their next turn, the crew and refinery may land and build a factory.
EXAMPLE 2 (Colonization Game): A solar flare knocks out the thruster card of your Rocket Stack. At the start of your turn, you choose to convert it into Outpost Stack #1 and move all the surviving cards to this slot on your playmat — this allows you to form a Rocket Stack elsewhere, potentially as a rescue mission. You have the option to convert tanks of fuel into FFT, which are put on top of the stack.
F. Rocket Movement Procedure
Overview. To move a rocket figure on the map, choose a thruster, calculate net thrust, and move up to this many burns on the map. For each burn entered, expend fuel steps on the Fuel Strip equal to the thruster's fuel consumption, following the solid black line.
- No Stacking Limits. You may freely pass and share a space with all other units, both yours and your opponents'.
F1. Activate Thruster
Choose one card with a thrust triangle to be the activated thruster, and place this card on top of your Rocket Stack.
- Base Thrust. The first number shows how many Thrust Movement Points (unmodified TMPs) the rocket has. It is modified per F2.
- Fuel Consumption. How many steps of fuel are consumed per burn entered.
EXAMPLE: The NASA crew has a (terrible) fuel consumption of 8, representing its SSME chemical engines. It must move its fuel figure 8 steps to enter each burn!
NOTE: Thrusters cannot be combined. Only one thruster can be used for a stack in a turn.
TIP: Thrusters can be divided into two broad types — high thrust (chemical, nuclear) or high fuel efficiency (sails, electric rockets). Often, it makes sense to equip a rocket with both types and use the best each turn.
- Afterburn. The flame icon shows steps of fuel expended to increase the net thrust (F2) by one.
- Solar-Powered. The solar icon indicates the thruster's net thrust is modified by the heliocentric zone (B4) that the rocket starts in.
- Fuel Grade. The color of the thrust triangle indicates its minimum grade — dirt (black), water (blue), or (Colonization) isotope (yellow). Dirt is the lowest grade, and isotope the highest. A thruster with a blue triangle can accept either water or isotope fuel, and a black-triangle Dirt Rocket can accept all three grades.
- Pushable. The pushable icon indicates that the spacecraft may receive a Beamed Power Modifier bonus to its thrust (F2).
You cannot activate a thruster if it requires a fuel grade higher than your fuel grade (indicated by the color of the fuel figure, see E4). Remember you may use free actions to change the fuel type in the rocket (K6). COLONIZATION: isotope fuel (S2) is used only for GW thrusters.
F2. Calculate Net Thrust
Before the rocket figure is moved, but after expending fuel for afterburning (G), compute the net thrust to see how many thrust movement points (TMPs) your rocket has, and how big a world it can land on. To compute net thrust, start with the thruster's base thrust (F1), then add or subtract the following modifiers:
- Wet Mass Modifier. This modifier is determined by which column of the Fuel Strip the fuel figure is on. There are five columns, corresponding to the five wet mass classes: Wisp (+2), Probe (+1), Scout (+0), Transport (-1), and Tug (-2).
- Solar Power Modifier. This modifier is listed on the map according to which heliocentric zone (B4) the rocket map figure starts in. It is only used if the activated thruster (or one or more of its supports if using Module O) has the solar icon on its triangle (F1).
- Beamed Power Modifier. If your spacecraft is pushable (F1), it gets either a +1 modifier with power from a Powersat faction privilege, or (Colonization) a +2 modifier from a Push Factory on Mercury, Venus, or Io. (This can be from your own factory or part of a deal, per D3).
- Afterburning. If the thruster has the flame icon and you decide to afterburn, reduce fuel the number of steps indicated for a +1 modifier. COLONIZATION: Afterburning increases cooling as well as boosting thrust, see Open Cycle Cooling.
NOTE: If using the Support Module (O2), see Thrust-Modifying Supports.
- Place a blue disk in the Acceleration Track on your playmat to mark your net thrust. Once set, this value remains constant for your entire move.
- Movement Requirements. To move, a rocket needs a thruster that is operational (O1) with a net thrust of at least 1. Exceptions: when moving between the site and an adjacent space using factory-assisted landings or liftoffs (G3), when moving along an aerobrake path to land (G2), or if you have any free burns remaining from a flyby (K1) (see "Mission to Callisto" Example Q8).
EXAMPLE: A rocket with a dry mass of 7 and a wet mass of 8½ is transport class (wet mass thrust modifier of -1). If its thruster has a base thrust of 1, its net thrust is 1 - 1 = 0. It can't move with zero thrust, so it jettisons one step of fuel to bring it to scout class (wet mass 8). This class has a wet mass modifier of 0, allowing it to move.
NOTE: Even if a rocket sheds mass (cards) during a turn, its net thrust depends on its state before it starts moving.
F3. Thrust Movement Points
Each rocket (including sails) has a number of Thrust Movement Points (TMPs) equal to its net thrust (F2). During a rocket's move, each burn and each pivot expends both TMPs and fuel (see next section).
- Freighters move with a thrust of 1 and do not expend fuel. [If using the Freighter Module, in order to move, a freighter's cargo is mass-limited by its load-limit (P4)].
- Outposts cannot move.
F4. Move Figure and Expend Fuel
A rocket figure moves from space to space along the routes (B4). It may choose to stop in any space it enters, unless in lander burn. It expends neither TMPs nor fuel to enter an intersection or space which is not a burn.
- Burn (magenta circle). For each burn entered, expend one TMP and move the fuel figure on your Fuel Strip to the left, following the solid black line, a number of fuel steps equal to the fuel consumption of the thruster. If using a thruster with fractional fuel consumption, you can use any fractional fuel remaining from a burn for subsequent burns during the same move, but round the fuel remaining at the end of the move to the left if a fuel step remains partially used. If your fuel figure ever reaches the fuel step where the dry mass disk is located, your rocket is out of fuel. The fuel figure may never move to the left of the dry mass indicator.
- Pivots. If in mid-move you turn on a Hohmann intersection, so as to move in a new direction, this is called a pivot. This maneuver costs 2 TMPs plus fuel equal to entering two burns. If you begin your move on a Hohmann, you may freely move in any direction, regardless of the direction moved last turn. Turning is free in Lagrange Points.
- No U-Turn. You can't reverse direction during your move. However, if you halt on a space, on your next turn, you may move in any direction.
- Jettisons. If you jettison cargo (D1.5) during your move, make a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2) upon completing the move.
- Landing. Moving into a site triggers a landing (G) and ends movement.
EXAMPLE: An ion drive thruster (output 2 • ½) expends half a step for each burn entered. If it enters one burn in a turn, half a step is expended, which is rounded up to one step to the left.
NOTE: You cannot pick up items in mid-move.
TIP: In the early game, water is scarce and largely spent on boosting tech into orbit or fueling ships. Later in the game, water becomes less valuable as boosting is replaced by ET production, and income is replaced by water obtained at sites.
F5. Hazards
As you move a stack, roll one die for each hazard space entered, both crash (the skull icon) and aerobrake (the parachute icon). If you roll a 1, the entire spacecraft stack is decommissioned!
- Failure is Not An Option. You may avoid this risk by paying 4 WT before rolling. (This simulates paying a tiger team of elite programmers back on Earth for a software upload.)
F6. Coast
After you have moved over the desired number of burns, you may coast (not entering any burns or making any pivots) until you either land or wish to stop.
- You must stop to land if you enter a Site.
- Dry Slingshot (Colonization). You may gain flyby bonuses while coasting, which you can use to enter further non-lander burns or make pivots (K1).
G. Landing & Lift-Off Movement
Entering a site hex requires landing on a world, and leaving a site hex requires a lift-off. For a rocket, there are three types of landings and lift-offs: powered, aerobrake, and factory-assist.
- Cards and figures that have already moved in a turn cannot move again (e.g. as cargo).
- You may not use an aerobrake path when lifting off.
- You may continue to move after lifting-off.
G1. Powered Landing or Lift-Off
A powered descent or ascent allows you to land or lift-off of any site if your net thrust (F2) is greater than the site size (B4). (This means your rocket's thrust must be greater than its weight on the surface). For the worlds without lander burns, this means you land on a site without expending any fuel (or expending an amount of fuel small enough to be neglected).
- Freighters. The freighter base thrust of 1 is too low to make a powered landing or lift-off on even a size 1 site, unless its thrust is boosted (e.g. with a Push Factory). A freighter can land using aerobrakes (G2), or land or lift-off using Factory Assist (G3) or being towed (P4).
- Aerodynamic Airship Exception. You may lift-off sites with Aerostats (Venus, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune) regardless of your net thrust (because with aerostat technology your rocket uses the dynamic and static lift of large low thrust Zeppelins to achieve orbital velocity).
EXAMPLE: A crewed rocket with a net thrust of 3 moves next to Nysa (size 3). Since its thrust is too low to land, it halts and on its next turn switches its thrusters to its crew card, obtaining a net thrust greater than three for a powered landing. On its next turn, it reduces its dry mass (by dropping off a refinery and the crew on Nysa), which increases its net thrust to 4. It can blast-off without burning fuel using a powered lift-off.
G2. Aerobrake Landing
Some sites have a path to the surface marked by a parachute. Following this path to land avoids needing a net thrust greater than the site size (G1), but you still expend fuel for any burns entered. You do not need an operational thruster to land via an aerobrake path if it does not encounter any burns. As soon as a spacecraft enters an aerobrake hazard space, roll 1d6 for an aerobrake hazard (F5).
G3. Factory-Assist Landing and Lift-Off
If the site is industrialized (i.e. contains a factory), your spacecraft may land or lift-off regardless of net thrust. However, this entails a risk equal to a crash hazard! (F5).
- You may use a foreign factory to land or lift-off, with permission.
- You do not need an operational thruster to land from an adjacent space or liftoff to an adjacent space when using a factory-assist.
- You are not allowed to make a factory-assist landing from a lander burn or a factory-assist lift-off to enter a lander burn (G4).
FREIGHTER MODULE: A mobile factory cube can use itself as the factory for factory-assisted lift-off or landing (P6).
G4. Lander Burns
Lander burns are burns shaped like a lander vehicle, and are found next to planets and large moons to represent the delta-v required to land or lift-off them. You are not allowed to halt on a lander burn, and you can't enter it if this causes you to spend more fuel or TMPs than you have, or causes you to make a powered landing with insufficient thrust.
- Half Burns. The lander burns shaped like half a lander vehicle are treated exactly like lander burns except it costs only half your fuel consumption to enter, rounding up.
EXAMPLE 1: You are moving to Ganymede (Uruk Sulcus) with a photon sail. Your sail is not allowed to enter the "geyser" lander burn because it has insufficient thrust for a soft landing. If you stop in the HEO immediately before this burn, and on your next turn activate an afterburning crew card with net thrust = 10, you may make a powered landing.
EXAMPLE 2: Your mission is to take a mass 3 refinery from LEO to Mercury. You use the Space X 10•8 thruster crew, a 1•0 sail card, and 5 tanks of water as lander fuel to make a rocket stack with a dry mass of 4 and a wet mass of 9. But this is transport class, so your sailing net thrust is 0 and you can't move. So you add 6 more tanks of water, bringing the wet mass to 15. During movement, first activate the 10•8 thruster to get through the first burn in the orange path. This lowers the fuel figure 8 steps to wet mass 9, and the rocket is now in the Venus heliocentric zone, which gives a +1 thrust to sails. Now you can switch your thruster to the sail, sail over the next 3 years to just outside the lander burn of Mercury. Finally switch to your crew thruster again, and expend 2 steps of fuel for an afterburning landing. The afterburn is necessary to bring the net thrust to 11, greater than Mercury's size of 10.
H. Basic Game Operations
In the basic game, you may choose and perform one operation on your turn.
H1. Income Operation (Engineering, Science, or Finance)
Take 2 WTs (water tanks) from the pool. (Represents boosting water into your home orbit from the Earth's surface.) COLONIZATION: The income operation can be performed by a crew or colonist of any specialization.
H2. Research Operation (Science)
Select one patent card from the top of one of the available decks to auction. All players can examine both sides of this card (and see the next card in the deck). Starting with the phasing player (i.e. the player whose turn it is), players bid WTs for this card. Bids can start at 0 WT and must raise or see any previous bid. Bids can be placed in any order.
- Hand Limit. A player with more than 3 hand cards (not counting Starting Cards) cannot bid in or initiate an auction. However, a player with the Skunkworks faction privilege can perform this operation regardless of his hand size.
- Ties. The phasing player wins ties if his bid is tied with another. If two or more non-phasing players are tied, the phasing player decides between them.
- The winner pays the phasing player the price, and takes this card into his hand. If the phasing player is the winner, he pays the pool and takes the card.
SUPPORT MODULE: The card chosen in an auction comes with supports (O3).
H3. Free Market Operation (Finance)
Sell a white card in your hand to the bottom of its patent deck for 5 WTs. Alternatively, you can decommission (D1) a black card in LEO for WTs equal to the current VPs of the card's product letter on the exploitation track.
NOTE: Your Starting Cards cannot be sold.
COLONIZATION: You can also sell black cards to a Bernal (Q9). Note that if you sell to your Bernal, the card is returned to the patent deck (i.e. you sold the idea), but if you sell to a foreign Bernal, the card is decommissioned (i.e. you sold a product).
H4. Boost Operation (Engineering)
Move one or more white cards (including crew) from your hand to your LEO Stack (or a stack in your home orbit) by paying water equal to its combined mass.
- You may move a card that was boosted earlier in the turn.
REMEMBER: The black side of cards can only be produced in space factories and can't be boosted from Earth.
H5. Site Refuel Operations (Engineering)
There are four Site Refuel ops: Factory, ISRU, Scooping, or Dirtside. All four extract fuel from a site and add it to your rocket or Bernal, moving the fuel figure on the Fuel Strip one step to the right (along the red dashed line) for each tank added. The maximum is a wet mass of 32.
- Factory Refuel Op. If the site is industrialized (and the factory owner is cooperating), each factory refuel op adds 20 dirt tanks, 8 water tanks, or {GW Thruster Module} one isotope tank. The isotope fuel obtained is the same as the spectral type of the factory.
EXAMPLE: Your blue fuel figure is on the 7-1/2 position, and you perform a factory refuel. This moves the fuel figure 8 steps to the right, ending on the "15" spot.
- ISRU Refuel Op. If not using factory refuel, you can still refuel using a unit with an ISRU rating. The number of water or isotope tanks obtained by this operation equals one plus the site's hydration (i.e. number of drops) minus the ISRU rating of the refueling unit. If refueling an operational rocket or Bernal with a black fuel figure (e.g. a Dirt Rocket), add up to 10 tanks of fuel, even if no ISRU unit is present. Alternatively, you may use an ISRU unit to load 10 black FFTs (dirt) into any spacecraft.
EXAMPLE: An unfueled Rocket Stack with an ISRU of 3 and a dry mass of 4 sits on Mercury (hydration = 3). By performing an ISRU refuel operation, it gains 1 + 3 – 3 = 1 water fuel tank, which lowers its net thrust by one. If a factory is present, it gains up to 8 tanks, lowering its net thrust by two.
- Atmospheric Scooping Op. Certain colonists and operational refineries may scoop and liquefy an atmosphere to use as a propellant. This op yields 8 WT of water. Unlike other site refueling ops, scooping must be performed in the same turn after the rocket or Bernal carrying the scoop has spent its entire move on any aerobrake hazard (other than aerobrakes in the Earth zone, due to environmental concerns).
- Dirtside Refuel Op (Requires the Bernal Module (Q)): Refueling at a Bernal with a dirtside is exactly like the Factory Refuel Op (above), except that if refueling with isotope fuel, the refueling rate is one tank per dirtside of the correct spectral type.
- Mixing Fuel Grades. Indicate the fuel grade loaded by the color of the fuel figure (E4). If you mix fuels in a rocket or Bernal, replace the fuel figure to a color equal to the lowest fuel grade used.
- You can also transfer fuel to your rocket as a Free Action, see D1 (first two bullets) and K6.
NOTE: Sites never run out of fuel or water.
IMPORTANT: Unless you are allowed hijacking, you cannot factory refuel without the owner's permission. You must instead ISRU refuel.
WARNING: Refueling often increases your wet mass class, resulting in a lower net thrust (F1).
H6. Prospect Operation (Science)
Attempt to make a claim at an unprospected site. To prospect, choose a card at the site (or adjacent to the site, in the case of raygun prospecting) that has an ISRU less than or equal to the site hydration (i.e. number of drops). Then, roll a die. If the result is less than or equal to the site size, then the prospect is successful; place a claim disk. If unsuccessful, place a blue "busted" disk showing no one may prospect there again. (But you can still perform the Site Refuel Operation (H5) there.) ISRU units with the "raygun" or "buggy" icons can perform special types of prospecting:
- Raygun Prospecting. Able to prospect at range, prospecting any number of adjacent non-atmospheric sites.
- Buggy Prospecting. If the unit fails a prospecting roll, you may re-roll the die one time. Alternately, buggy units are able to prospect multiple sites along a road (i.e. dashed yellow line).
NOTE: The prospect procedure can also be modified by Assaying Smelters.
NOTE: If you run out of blue disks, use substitutes. If you run out of claim disks, withdraw an existing claim disk (B6).
NOTE: If your card has multiple platforms (e.g. raygun and missile), choose the platform used before making the roll.
EXAMPLE: You land on the lunar polar rim with an ISRU = 1 buggy and prospect. Because the site size is 6 or higher, prospecting is automatically successful. The site is connected to another lunar site by a buggy road. Because this site is bone dry (hydration = 0), your buggy has insufficient ISRU to prospect or claim it.
H7. Industrialize Operation (Engineering)
Place a factory cube on top of your claim disk by decommissioning a robonaut and a refinery card at the prospected site. This lowers the exploitation track by one step in the column corresponding to the site's spectral type. This factory can produce the black side of patent cards with this spectral type.
IMPORTANT: Any robonaut or refinery card, regardless of its product letter, can be decommissioned to Industrialize the site. Its product letter is only used when it is produced at a factory.
NOTE: If you are out of cubes, withdraw an existing cube (B6).
EXAMPLE: The UN player decommissions a refinery and robonaut to build a factory on Luna (Crater Shackleton). He adds a purple cube and lowers the S Resource Exploitation disk.
SUPPORT MODULE: You must additionally decommission all supports other than radiators for both the robonaut and the refinery. If the supports are solar-powered, they cannot be used for industrializing in the Neptune heliocentric zone (or beyond).
H8. ET Production Operation (Engineering)
Produce extraterrestrial technology by choosing a patent card from your hand with a product letter (B1) matching the spectral type at your factory, and playing it black side up into an existing or new stack at the factory site.
The produced black card goes into a rocket stack (E4), Freighter Stack (E5), Outpost Stack (E6), or Bernal Stack (Q2). This stack must be colocated with the factory which is doing the ET production.
- Freighter Production, see (E5).
- A card or freighter produced at a factory can move the turn it is produced.
BERNAL MODULE: If you perform an ET Production using a dirtside factory, the product appears either at the factory or in the Bernal Stack, as desired.
EXAMPLE: The UN player from the previous example decides to build and ship his first lunar product. He plays his S black card into his Freighter Stack slot, and places a purple freighter cube next to his lunar claim disk. He can produce as many S cards as he wishes. Note that if playing with the Freighter Module, the card produced goes into an Outpost Stack and no freighter cube is produced.
H9. Example Mission to Luna and Back
The PRC (i.e. Player Red) has two mission objectives: to land a robonaut on Luna as a pedestal for a future factory, and to return the Taikonauts quickly.
Year 1: Launch of Lunar Mission. After years of research, the PRC pays 4 WT to boost his crew, a mirror steamer (output 3•4), and a cat fusion robonaut (ISRU = 2, mass = 3, assuming basic game masses). He puts a rocket figure in LEO, and a blue dry mass disk with a fuel figure on the number "4" spot. He spends 6 WT to add 6 tanks of fuel, moving the fuel figure to "10". It is now "Transport Class", with a net thrust of 2.
Year 1 (continued): Cis-Lunar Move. The Rocket Stack burns 4 steps of fuel to enter Earth HEO and coast to the Van Allen Belt (VAB radiation space). It is now wet mass 8.
Year 2: Lunar Landing. The PRC switches the active thruster to his crew (output 10•8) for the landing. He spends 8 fuel steps to enter the lunar lander burn, leaving him with 2/3 of a tank of fuel. His net thrust of 10 is greater than the size of Luna, so he makes a powered landing. During prospecting, the PRC robonaut claims Luna (prospecting is automatically successful since the most you can roll on 1d6 is "6").
Year 3: ISRU Refueling. The rocket does not have enough fuel for a lift-off. So the robonaut spends a year digging up regolith and squeezing out water drop by drop, moving the fuel figure one step to the right (to 5-2/3). The stack is divided into an Outpost stack with the robonaut and steamer, and the Rocket Stack with just the crew. The dry mass disk and the fuel figure are moved three steps to the left, to "1" and "2-1/2" respectively.
Year 4: Ticker Tape Return. The crew card (dry mass = 1, wet mass = 2-1/2) is a "Probe Class" rocket, with a plus one thrust bonus. This is more than enough for a powered take-off. Eight steps of fuel are expended to enter the lunar burn, leaving 2 steps of fuel remaining. This is insufficient to enter the HEO burn, so the crew takes the aerobraking "shortcut" to LEO. Assuming their parachute opens properly, the crew is decommissioned in LEO.
Year 5: The Next Mission. The PRC plans its next mission, flying a refinery to Luna. Together with the robonaut already there, an Industrialize Operation creates an S Factory in Crater Shackleton.
COLONIZATION: A Radiation Risk (K2) must be rolled in years 1 (using a net thrust of 2) and in year 4 (using a net thrust of 11, so no danger). It can avoid the first risk by not coasting in year 1, then using the crew thruster to move through the radiation hazard and land. In Colonization, prospecting Luna is not allowed (L).
I. Ventures & Glory
These achievements, if achieved before your opponents, give you Victory Points (VPs) at the end of the game. Use the orange side of the card if playing with the Endgame Module (U), and the yellow (basic) side otherwise. If you are the first to fulfill the stated conditions, claim the relevant card as a free action (D1.9) by placing it face-up near to you.
I1. Glory
There are five Glory Cards, each two-sided.
- You can claim multiple unclaimed cards with one action. For instance, bringing a human back from a moon of Neptune satisfies the conditions for both King of the Gods and Father Sky.
- Glory is awarded for a site even if it is busted (B5).
- If the card specifies returning humans to the Earth's surface, they must travel the entire distance by spacecraft (e.g. no decommissions), and be decommissioned in LEO.
I2. Ventures
There are four Venture Cards, each two-sided. Each confers 3 VP. The orange side of the card costs 5 WT to obtain, and confers a special ability as listed below:
- Space Pharmacy Venture. You are first to claim three S sites. If you perform a research operation in a turn, you gain 1 WT profit, taken at the end of your turn.
- Space 3D Printing Venture. You are the first to claim three M claims. Your ET Production and Digital Swap Ops each gain 1 WT profit, taken at the end of your turn.
- Space Elevator Venture. You are first to claim four C sites: you are able to consider as colocated the spaces connected by the "space elevator" between LEO and L2 or between Phobos and the Caves of Mars. Your stacks adjacent to one end of the elevator are considered adjacent to the other end.
EXAMPLE: Your Bernal on the burn between Phobos and Deimos has a combined hydration of 8 assuming you have the space elevator and dirtside factories on Phobos, Deimos, and the Arsia Mons Caves.
- Space Tourism Venture. You are first to claim three V sites. Gain 1 WT profit, taken at the end of each of your non-war or non-anarchy turns.
J. Basic Game End & Victory
J1. The Game Ends When…
After the specified number of Factories are built, the game ends at the end of the following year. So if the third player ends the game, the remaining players for the year get their turn, and then everyone gets one final turn the following year.
- The number of factories needed to end the game are four (if 2 players), six (if 3 players), or seven (if 4+ players).
J2. Victory Points
The player with the most victory points (VPs) at the end of the game is the winner. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most WTs is the winner. VPs are awarded for:
- Each claim, factory, Bernal, or freighter (including mobile factories) (i.e. each disk, cylinder, or cube of your color on the map): 1 VP. Each dome on the map of your color representing a space colony: 2 VP. If using the Endgame module, cylinders only count for VP if they are either an Ersatz-Bernal or promoted with a dirtside.
- Each factory: Extra VP as listed on the Exploitation Track (the exploitation disk should be adjusted to reflect the number of factories built for each spectral type — C, S, M, V, or D).
- Each factory at a Science Site (i.e. with a microscope icon): an extra 2 VP, or 4 VP if a TNO Science Site (i.e. if the site contains the yellow star-microscope icon).
- The VP listed on any Glory or Venture cards.
- (Colonization) If in power at the end of the game: 5 VP.
- (Colonization Endgame Module) Each claim disk on a Futures Star (U1): VP as indicated.
NOTE: VP conditions stack. A factory scores for the cube and for the factory value, a science site scores for the claim and the science.
ENDGAME EXAMPLE: The red player ends with claims on the V worlds of Mercury, Vesta, and one of its moonlets. He also has a factory on Mercury, which is worth 8 VP on the Exploitation Track. He has 3 disks and 1 cube on the map, plus the Space Tourism venture (3 VP). His total is 8 + 3 + 1 + 3 = 15 VP.
K. Colonization (Advanced Game)
The Advanced Game, called Colonization, introduces optional modules and an endgame for an expanded experience.
Space colonies orbiting Earth now employ hundreds and provide services such as antimatter manufacture, beamed solar energy, cycler satellites, space pharming, maglev bus service on launch loops, and of course, the local tax office. New Bernal, Colonist, Freighter, and GW Thruster modules allow you to move your base of operations further afield in the High Frontier. The promoted side of many of these cards includes new paths to victory called Futures.
K1. Slingshots and Moon Boosts
A spacecraft that enters a flyby space can perform a slingshot maneuver, giving it a number of free burns up to the planet's slingshot rating. These are used during the remainder of its move. You can use this bonus to continue to move even if the thruster is shut down, for instance by radiation.
- As listed on the map, the Venus flyby bonus may only be used during the blue sector of the Sunspot Cycle.
- Moon Boost. A space marked with the crescent moon icon is a special type of flyby called a Moon Boost. Entering it gives you one free burn for no fuel or TMP cost.
EXAMPLE: You have a solar-powered Bernal which ceases to operate in the Ceres zone, yet wish to get to the Jupiter flyby. Your Bernal enters the Venus flyby, getting a bonus of two burns. On your way to Jupiter, you pass four burns on the green route, and spend fuel for the first two. You save your two free burns for the last two, since the final one is in the Ceres zone where your thruster is shut down. Upon entering the Jupiter flyby, you may now enter four more burns (or a combination of burns and pivots), again without expending TMPs or fuel.
K2. Radiation Hazard
Radiation Hazards surround five worlds (Sol, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus). When entering one of these spaces, find its radiation level by rolling 1d6 and subtracting the spacecraft net thrust (F2). All cards in the stack with a rad-hardness lower than this modified roll are decommissioned. If the thruster is thereby shut down, the spacecraft halts on the spot.
EXAMPLE: The green route to Enceladus passes through 8 radiation belts.
- Solar Active Year. If the Sunspot Disk (L) is in the red sector, add 2 to the radiation levels of all Radiation Hazards.
- UN Cycler. If he has a Bernal in his home orbit, Player Purple may designate a spacecraft as immune to the Radiation Hazards surrounding Earth (the Van Allen Belts).
EXAMPLE: A rocket with a net thrust of 2 moves from LEO to GEO, crossing the Van Allen Belt. A 4 is rolled, so the radiation level is 4 – 2 = 2. The rocket's solar panels (rad-hard = 1) are decommissioned, and without power, its electric thrusters stop working. Having failed to reach GEO, the stack may be left as an outpost, or else entirely decommissioned.
K3. Colonization Space Government
A disk on the Sol Space Government Diagram, called the Politics, indicates who is in power, and which policies (K4) are in effect.
- Polity. The seven spots on the Space Government diagram with a faction color are called polities. If the Politics is on a Polity, that faction is in power. The Polities are:
- Centrist. Purple in power; no policies.
- Libertarian Work Ethic. Orange in power; Policy: Capitalism.
- Right Wing Family Values. White in power; Policies: Paleoconservatism or Nationalism.
- Authoritarian Command Structure. Red in power; Policy: Press Gangs.
- Left Wing Equality. Green in power; Policies: Egalitarianism or AntiNuke.
K4. Colonization Policies
Policies are special rules enforced depending on the position of the Politics. The policies are:
- Anarchy. All players are allowed to commit felonies, and all players lose their faction privileges. The War Declaration faction privilege of Player Red allows him to move the Politics from anarchy into an adjacent war spot as a free action at the beginning of his turn. Per Q3, he must have a Bernal figure in his home orbit to perform a War Declaration.
- War. All players are allowed felonies and combat. All players lose their faction privileges. During elections, colonists vote for their employer (N6).
- Press Gangs. Player Red may hostile recruit (N5) any colonist, regardless of loyalty.
- Egalitarianism. During an income operation (H1), you may take 2 WTs from a player who has more WTs than you, instead of from the pool. Blue and yellow FFTs (K6) count as WTs if in your home orbit.
- Anti-nuke. You may not Boost or Free Market reactor cards or cards with on-board nuclear power (P5). You may discard them per D1.7.
- Nationalism. Only Player White may perform the income operation (H1).
- Paleoconservatism. Except Player White, Research Ops (H2) only permitted at a Lab.
- Capitalism. During an income operation (H1), a player receives as many WTs as the number of factories he owns.
K5. Colonization Free Market
The Politics indicates how many WTs each player receives when selling a hand card in a Free Market Operation. Superseding the basic game rule H3, whereby hand cards are always sold for 5 WTs, cards can be sold for a free market value ranging from 2 WTs to 6 WTs. A boosted white or purple card cannot be sold (unless, of course, it is first decommissioned).
- Free Market Sales of Black Cards. A black card in LEO, including freighters and GW thrusters, can be sold for the price as specified on the exploitation track. It goes to the bottom of its patent deck (since you are selling the license to manufacture the product). A black card can also be sold to a promoted Bernal per Q9, in which case the sold card goes into your hand.
EXCEPTION: Cards with the legend "Free Market sale as hand card only" cannot be sold in LEO or at Bernals.
EXAMPLE: A player has built a black card. He can move it to LEO or a Bernal and sell it for 6 to 10 WTs, or he can decommission it and sell it from his hand for 2 to 6 WTs.
K6. Colonization Fungible Fuel Tank
WTs stored in a WT depot in your home orbit are treated as "cash on hand." But once moved into a stack, they are called fungible fuel tanks (FFTs). These are carried or stored as clear blue disks as part of a stack. This represents tanks of water or blocks of ice carried as cargo. Once it leaves your home orbit, an FFT cannot be used as cash (e.g. spent during auctions).
- Each FFT is treated as a card with a mass of one and a rad-hardness of 8. It can be carried as cargo, jettisoned (D1.5) to an outpost stack (E5), decommissioned, or used to fuel a rocket as outlined below. If carried by a rocket or Bernal, each one adds 1 to the dry mass.
- Fuel Grade FFT. Use different color disks to represent different fuel grades: black = dirt, blue = water, and yellow = isotope. Isotope fuel is of a particular spectral type (S2).
- Each blue or yellow FFT in your home orbit is additionally treated as a WT for all purposes.
- FFT Liquidation. An FFT on a rocket or Bernal can be converted to fuel steps by discarding its disk and moving the dry mass disk to the left one step on the Fuel Strip, following the dashed red line. If the fuel added is lower grade, swap the fuel figure with one of the new fuel grade.
- Reverse-Liquidation. Fuel steps can be converted into FFT. This moves the dry mass disk to the right, following the dashed red line on the Fuel Strip for a desired number of FFTs, but not past the wet mass figure (which should be left unmoved). Add one FFT to the rocket or Bernal stack for each step moved. It should match the color of the fuel figure.
- Transfer of FFTs between colocated stacks, and liquidation of FFTs into fuel steps or vice versa, are free actions (D1.1).
K7. Summary of Colonization Modules
Colonization provides seven modules, i.e. sets of rules and cards that can be added or omitted to the advanced game.
- Support Module. This starts three new patent decks: Generators, Reactors, and Radiators. This module is required for any of the other modules.
- Freighter Module. This starts a new freighter patent deck. You are now required to have a freighter card to produce a freighter. If promoted, it allows all your factories to move independently.
- Bernal Module. This gives each player a starting card and a cylinder figure representing an orbiting Bernal Sphere space station, plus three fuel colored cylinders to track the Bernal wet mass. This gives you a higher home orbit that upgrades your boost capacity. If moved to another world, it allows additional colonists to be boosted.
- Colonist Module. This patent deck allows you to recruit and boost hardy pioneers giving you additional abilities, votes, glitch protection, and specialized operations.
- Gigawatt Thruster Module. This patent deck allows you to research GW Thrusters allowing rapid transport of colonists or Bernals to sites as distant as the TNO's (Trans-Neptunian Objects).
- Combat Module. During War, players may attack each other using humans, robots, robonauts, and factories.
- Endgame Module. The game ends when a specified number of Futures (U1) are accomplished by any player. Futures are listed on the promoted side of Freighters, TW Thrusters, and some Colonists. Each grants VP depending on who is the first, second, third, or fourth to accomplish one of them.
L. Colonization Setup
Colonization sets up per (C), plus these extra rules, depending on which modules are in play:
- Place the Politics and Sunspot Disks. On the Solar System Charts, start one blue disk on the "Start" dot (center) in the Space Government, and another on the "Start" dot (uppermost) in the Sunspot Cycle.
- Moon Treaty. Place a blue "busted" disk on both Luna sites (indicating they may not be prospected). Mine Revival is not permitted on these sites.
- (Support Module): Start with three extra patent decks: Generators, Reactors, and Radiators.
- (Bernal Module): Your hand starts empty, but your crew and Bernal cards start in a Bernal Stack (Q2). You also start with the cylindrical figure of your color in its home orbit (Q1).
- (Support, GW-Thruster, Freighter, and Colonist Modules): Decks for these card types bring the number of patent decks up to as much as nine. Stack the three support decks black side down, and the others purple-side down.
- (Endgame Module): Place the 5 Glory Cards and the 4 Venture Cards orange-side up instead of yellow-side up in a public area.
M. Colonization Play Sequence
The turns begin with the first player and proceed clockwise. When the last player has taken his turn, he advances the disk on the Sunspot Cycle clockwise one spot. This round of turns, called a year, has ended.
- As in the basic game, during your turn you take your operations, and move any or all of your spacecraft on the map in any order.
- Location. To perform an operation, a colonist can be anywhere in space. Unless its ISRU ability is used, it does not have to be at the location where the operation is performed (remote-control operations are assumed).
EXAMPLE: Player Purple holds two engineers and a scientist in his Rocket Stack. He may perform his crew operation (free), one engineering operation (1 WT), a science operation (1 WT), and a second engineering operation (2 WT).
M1. Multiple Operations
Your crew card can perform any single operation, regardless of whether it is in your hand or in space. You cannot lose or trade your crew, so you are guaranteed one operation in your turn. In addition to your crew's operation, each of your boosted colonist cards enables you to perform one additional operation on your turn.
- Extra Operations Using a Colonist. As soon as he is boosted, each colonist can perform one operation matching the specialization icon on the colonist card. If the card has more than one such icon, choose one for the turn. If it has none, it allows no extra operations.
- Extra Operations Costs. On your turn, your first operation for each specialization (not counting your free crew operation) costs 1 WT, and each additional operation of that specialization costs an additional 1 WT (e.g. the second op of that specialization costs 2 WTs, the third 3 WTs, and so on).
- Order of Operations. You can perform operations in any order before, after, or between your moves. You may perform the same operation multiple times using different crew or colonists. This includes operations using robonauts.
EXCEPTION: You are only allowed one card auction (Research or Recruit) per turn.
- A robonaut (and other cards with ISRU ratings) can ISRU refuel (H5.2) in the same turn if tele-operated by both your crew and an engineering colonist. A robonaut can also prospect (H6) twice in the same turn if tele-operated by both your crew and a science colonist (for example, if it has moved after the first prospect and before the second prospect).
M2. Multiple Spacecraft Moves
Depending on the modules used, your spacecraft can include your rocket figure, your big cube, your Bernal (Q8), and (if you have promoted your Freighter Card, see P6) all of your small cubes (corresponding to your rocket, freighter, Bernal stacks and mobile factories respectively). Each of these figures may take their movement once per turn only.
- You may move a card the same turn it is boosted, digitally swapped, or ET Produced.
- No card can be moved or digitally swapped twice in a turn.
- A card returned to a player's hand or patent deck counts as a new card when it re-enters play.
EXAMPLE: Player Red can perform 3 operations in his turn. He moves his freighter to land at a factory. Its cargo, a robonaut, performs an ISRU refuel for a GW Thruster that is also there, which can then lift-off. The factory produces a generator, which the refueled GW rocket can bring along.
M3. Colonization Event Roll
Roll one die on the Sol Event Table (M4) whenever the sunspot disk bypasses an event threshold (it's labeled "event" on the Sunspot Cycle). Thus, an event is rolled every other year.
M4. Sol Event Table
When called for by a threshold (M3) on the Sunspot Cycle, roll one die on the table. Each event potentially impacts all players.
1–2. Inspiration. Put the topmost card of each patent deck (including the colonist deck) on the bottom. 3. Glitch. Each player decommissions his heaviest card not colocated with one of his humans (including Bernals) or cubes (big or small). If multiple cards are equally heavy, choose one. 4. Pad Explosion/Space Debris. Each player decommissions his heaviest non-Bernal card in either LEO or in stacks colocated with his unpromoted Bernal. If multiple cards are equally heavy, choose one. 5–6. Election Year, Budget Cuts, or Solar Flare. The event depends on what color sector the sunspot disk is in; see the Sunspot Cycle.
- Blue Sector – Election Year. This event generates an Election Auction (N6).
- Yellow Sector – Budget Cuts. Each player discards a hand card (if he has any) to the bottom of its corresponding deck. You can't discard Starting Cards.
- Red Sector – Solar Flare/Coronal Mass Ejection. Roll 1d6 for radiation level, which impacts all stacks on the map. The radiation level is locally modified by adding the heliocentric zone modifier (B4), and the result is compared to the rad-hardness of all cards in each stack. Any cards that have a rad-hardness less than the modified roll are decommissioned.
EXCEPTION: Units in LEO, HEO (near Earth), or any Radiation Hazard are immune to solar flares (they are shielded by the magnetic field). Units on sites are also immune (they can quickly bury themselves).
N. Colonization Operations
These operations are additional to those in (H).
N1. Digital Swap Operation (Engineering)
This operation allows you to decommission one or more white or black cards from a stack and then replace the card(s) with one black-side card from your hand (which can also be any one of the cards just decommissioned). This operation may only be used with the Freighter Module (P).
- 3D Printers. Any card being swapped must be colocated with your big cube or mobile factory (P6).
- Product Letter. The cards being swapped must have the same product letter — C, M, S, V, or D — as the spectral type of your Freighter Card.
- Limits. You cannot digital swap using the Hiiper Beam-Rider Freighter (P3). You cannot digital swap your Freighter Card itself.
- Conservation of Mass. The stack must not end up with more mass than before (i.e. the combined mass of the decommissioned stack card(s) must be greater than or equal to the mass of the black-side card replacing it).
- Dry Mass. If the stack ends up with less mass (e.g. if it carries a mobile factory and swaps with a lighter card), make a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2).
- Like all production, a card produced by a digital swap can be moved and used the turn it is produced.
- Because consciousness is not fungible, neither humans nor emancipated robots can be digitally swapped.
EXAMPLE: Player Red has a Fission GCR Freighter ("M" type freighter) carrying the Flux-Pinned Superthermal Radiator ("M" type, mass 1). He performs a digital swap operation, decommissioning the radiator, and replacing it with the Electrophoretic Sandworm ("M" type, mass 1) from his hand.
N2. Promote Operation (Science)
Besides a white side (i.e. boosted from Earth), or a black side (i.e. built in space), some cards have a purple side. A card is turned to its advanced purple side only by promotion. Promotion has no effect on a card without a purple side.
- In order to promote a Bernal Card to its purple side, see Q6.
- In order to promote a Freighter, Colonist, or GW Thruster Card to its purple side, you must bring it to a Lab and perform a Promote Operation. This flips the card over. The spectral type of the Lab does not matter.
NOTE: You can promote at an opponent's Lab with his permission, or as a felony if it is undefended by humans.
EXAMPLE: Player White sends Refugee Colonists to his factory on Huya (a TNO Science Site). He then uses his crew operation to promote them.
N3. Suffrage Operation (Science)
To perform this operation, you must be in power, and at least one robot colonist must be in play (by any player). If so, roll 1d6. If the result is less than the number of cards in play on their purple side (including Freighters, Bernals, Colonists, and GW Thrusters), you become the robot emancipator. No other player can become the Emancipator for the rest of the game.
- Emancipation Effects. If emancipated, robots are treated exactly as humans, except that they still do not count against your Maximum Human Colonists in Space (R4). They prevent glitches and, in peacetime, have loyalty to the Emancipator. Also see Peace Loyalty (N5).
N4. Recruit Operation (Finance)
If your hand size is not more than 3 cards (not counting Starting Cards), this operation allows you to remove the top three cards from the Colonist Deck (revealing the fourth), and select one of the three. The other two are returned to the bottom of the deck. The chosen card is then auctioned (H2).
- A player with the Skunkworks faction privilege can perform this operation regardless of his hand size.
N5. Hostile Recruit Operation (Finance)
This operation allows you to woo colonists owned by other players during peacetime. The targeted colonist is moved to a colocated stack of yours containing at least one card.
- Max Colonists. You must have enough dirtside hydration (Q5) to support the targeted colonist (R4).
- Colocation. The target is an opponent's boosted colonist that is colocated with one of your stacks.
- No hostile recruiting is allowed during War.
- Peace Loyalty. The targeted colonist must have loyalty to you. However, any colonist held by the Robot Emancipator (N3) can be hostile recruited, regardless of loyalty, as long as it is not loyal to the Robot Emancipator. For instance, if Player Green is the Emancipator, all of his colonists are vulnerable to hostile recruiting, except robots and those with green election ballot icons.
EXAMPLE: Player Purple moves his freighter to Player White's Bernal containing the Vatican Observers (owned by White but loyal to Purple). Purple pays 1 WT to perform a hostile recruit with one of his financier colonists (who can be anywhere in space), stealing the Observers, who are transferred to his freighter.
N6. Activism and Elections (Finance)
If the Sunspot Cycle is in the blue sector, use this operation to initiate an election auction. This is held per H2, except the auction is blind, all bids are paid to the pool regardless of outcome, and ties are decided by the faction in power.
- Blind Auction. To perform a blind auction, players make an outstretched fist containing their secret bid of WTs, and simultaneously reveal their bid. Each WT = 1 vote.
- Maximum Ballot Stuffing. Your secret bid cannot be greater than 10 WTs.
- Votes (War). During war, each of your colonists you control in play gives you one vote per ballot box icon (R3). Robots cannot vote unless emancipated.
- Votes (Peace). Except during war, colonists in space with an election button of your faction color add to your election bid, regardless of ownership of the Colonist Card. Robots vote for the Emancipator (N3), if any.
- Ties. If two or more winning bids are tied, the player in power decides. If nobody is in power during an election tie, then the Politics remains unchanged.
- The player with the most votes may move the Politics by one spot.
EXAMPLE: An election occurs in peacetime, and both players reveal their bids. Player Orange spends 1 WT for one vote, and Player Red spends nothing but receives one vote from the Juiced Cosmonauts owned by Player Orange (who vote for Red because they have a red election button with one ballot box). The tied vote is decided by the player in power, and if no one is in power, Orange's bid would be lost.
N7. Anti-Trust Operation (Finance)
To perform this operation, you must be in power, and must have a victim with two or more hand cards of the same category (thruster, GW thruster, robonaut, refinery, generator, radiator, reactor, freighter, colonist). If so, your victim must choose one of his hand cards in any of the exceeded categories to surrender to your hand. It does not matter how many cards are in your hand.
EXAMPLE: Player White is in power and performs an Anti-Trust Operation on Player Red, who has two radiator cards in his hand. Player Red chooses a radiator to surrender to Player White's hand.
O. Support Module
Summary. This module is required for all of the other modules. It adds three new patent decks: generators, reactors, and radiators. These three new card types are collectively called support cards.
- Advanced Game Mass. When using the support module, use the mass and other data in the top upper right corner of all patent cards (in the red field) rather than the Basic Game Mass in the top left corner (B1).
O1. Supports
If a card lists a support card in its red data field (upper right corner), that card is non-operational unless the listed support is included in the stack. The support cards themselves also will often need supports. If you have multiple cards that can act as a support, only one can be chosen.
- Non-Operational. A card without its operational supports cannot be used for movement, prospecting, refueling, etc.
- Industrialization. To build a factory, you need to decommission a robonaut and refinery, along with their supports (and supports of those supports). You need only decommission one of each kind of support (e.g. if both the robonaut and the refinery need a generator, decommissioning just one will power the resulting factory). Exception: You do not need any radiators during industrialization (because the nightside of the world provides all the cooling you need).
EXAMPLE: A Rocket Stack contains a refinery, the generator needed by the refinery, and a robonaut that requires a radiator. The site is industrialized by decommissioning the refinery, robonaut, and generator, even though no radiators are present.
- Sharing Supports. Reactors and generators can service any number of systems in a stack. Radiators can similarly be shared, up to the number of therms it provides (O5). However, radiator therms used during movement (e.g. cooling thrusters) can only be shared with those used for operations (e.g. robonaut prospecting).
O2. Support Types
In order to be used as a support, the support card must be the type specified:
- Generator Types. Electric (e) or pulsed (//).
- Reactor Types. Neutron (n), burst (@), or exotic (x).
- Radiators. 1–6 therms (!), see O5.
- Thrust Modifying, and Fuel Economy Supports. These are cumulative and modify a spacecraft's TMPs or fuel consumption, if they are needed to support its thruster. However, GW Thrusters (S) are not affected by these supports (see next bullet).
- Solar-powered modifiers. These modify a spacecraft's TMPs per (F2), but unlike other thrust-modifying cards, they do not stack and do not modify the thrust of GW thrusters that use them. Solar powered cards cannot be used in the Neptune zone, except to promote the Solar Power Satellite and the People's Bernal.
O3. Supports During Research
During Research (H2) with the support module, if an auctioned card lists supports, the winner is also awarded the top card from each category deck (generator, reactor, or radiator) listed as a support. These extra cards are free.
EXAMPLE: The bid for Player Purple wins the cermet NERVA thruster in an auction. This card lists a support: a reactor n. Player Purple takes the top reactor card. Unfortunately, this is a reactor x, which doesn't support the cermet NERVA. So he sells the reactor on the free market.
O4. Special Supports
- Heavy or Light Radiators. Each radiator card lists one mass on one end of the card, and a heavier mass on the opposite end. During Boosting (H4) or ET Production (H8), choose one of these two orientations to play the card to your playmat. Once boosted, a heavy radiator can be freely reoriented into its light version, but not vice versa. Reorientation causes a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2). If a heavy radiator is involuntarily decommissioned, re-orient it into its light version instead.
- Marx Capacitor Bank Generator. This "pulse" generator requires an "electric" generator as a support. If researched, remember to draw the generator card beneath it as well (O3).
- Magnetocaloric Refrigerator Radiator. This radiator also needs an "electric" generator, and as noted, it can cool its own supports. If these supports are used by the Magnetocaloric Refrigerator only, and not by the thruster, they cannot be used as a Thrust-Modifying Support.
O5. Overheating
Some cards indicate a number of therms (the "thermometer" icon) of radiator cooling required to keep from overheating. For instance, if the thruster card and its supports in a Rocket Stack together need 3 therms of cooling, you will need one or more radiators that add up to at least 3 therms.
- Open-Cycle Cooling. You can use afterburning to satisfy 1 therm of cooling for any component in your thruster chain during a move or operation.
IMPORTANT: Heat rejection is necessary only if the card is in use. If a thruster system does not move, or a robonaut system does no prospecting or refueling, then it does not need radiators that turn.
EXAMPLE: The Free Electron Laser robonaut needs the two supports shown. For its generator, it carries the In-Core Thermionic, which itself needs a reactor (either @ or n), plus another 3 therms of radiators. The Pebble Bed Fission reactor is added to the stack, plus a heavy Ti/K heat pipe, and a heavy bubble membrane (each able to reject two therms of heat). The complete robonaut stack has these five cards: 1 robonaut, 1 generator, 1 reactor, and 2 radiators. Its dry mass is 8.
ENGINEERING NOTE: Open-Cycle Cooling, i.e. dumping water coolant into your nozzle, has three advantages: (1) It increases thermal efficiency, which increases the percentage of power available for thrust. This is because the coolant captures power that would have been lost as waste heat. (2) Not only is thrust power increased, but the additional mass flow also increases the thrust. Doubling the kg/sec out the nozzle doubles the thrust (+1 thrust in High Frontier scale). (3) Less waste heat means fewer radiators are needed to cool the rocket. The downside is that your specific impulse goes way down, a fancy way of saying that instead of expelling a white-hot trickle, you are shoveling out a lukewarm waterfall. Since mass is far more precious to a rocket than energy, you don't want to do this often. Furthermore, water coolant just can't intercept the types of energy emitted by some reactions. For a matter-antimatter reaction for instance, you need tungsten coolant instead of water.
P. Freighter Module
Summary. When using this module, the freighter stack requires a dedicated freighter card which is ET produced separately from its freighter cargo. Freighters form their own patent deck, and must be researched before being built with an ET Production Operation according to their product letter.
- Producing a Freighter Card generates a Freighter Stack represented on the map by your big (10mm) cube. Just as in the basic game, freighters do not track fuel and move 1 burn per turn. The freighter can carry card(s) of any type up to a mass equal to its listed load limit.
- Promotion. Promoting your Freighter Card allows all of your cubes to also be freighters, henceforth called mobile factories, and gives you access to Futures VP. A promoted Freighter Card cannot be decommissioned while you have any factories remaining.
P1. Freighter Card Setup
Freighter Cards are black on one side, and purple on the other. They form their own patent deck — the Freighter Deck — and are researched and ET produced (on their black side) like any black support card.
P2. Freighter Rules Compared to Basic
If not using this module, then freighters are exactly as in the basic game. If using the Freighter Module, these rules completely replace the Basic Game rules:
- Freighter Deck. Freighters are researched from the Freighter Deck.
- ET Production. If using this module, you must make a separate ET Production Operation (H8) to build the Freighter Card. (If not using this module, freighters are produced per E5.)
- Production Limit. You may only have one Freighter Card built at a time, and only one Freighter Stack containing this card.
- Additional Glitch Protection. A stack colocated with the big cube freighter or a mobile factory (P6) is immune to the Glitch Event (M4.3). (Thematically, a Smelter-3D printer recycles old parts into new ones.)
- Cargo Transfer and Jettison. Freighters can exist without their cargo and can jettison and transfer cargo without requiring a Dry Mass Adjustment. Cargo can be transferred to the freighter as long as its Load Limit is respected and the Factory Loading Only rules are followed (P4). The freighter card is a dedicated card and cannot be transferred or jettisoned from the freighter stack.
- Decommission. See P7.
P3. Building a Freighter
Freighter Big Cube. Use the ET Production Operation (H8) to build a Freighter Card and place the big cube of your color on the factory site. This is a freighter of the mass, rad-hardness, and load limit as specified on the Freighter Card.
- Product Letter. The product letter of the Freighter Card must match the spectral type of the factory site where it is built.
- The product letter of your Freighter Card determines the type of Digital Swap (N1) it can facilitate.
- The Hiiper Beam-Rider Freighter (and its promoted side) has no product letter and can only be built at a Push Factory. As noted, the Hiiper can be sold on the Free Market only as a hand card, not after it is built.
- As the final step, move the Freighter Card from your hand to the slot for your Freighter Stack (E5).
P4. Freighter Movement and Load Limit
Fuel is not burned or tracked on freighters, but otherwise it moves as a rocket with a base thrust of one.
- Pushed Freighters. If the freighter has the push icon, add 2 to your freighter's net thrust for a Push Factory, or one to net thrust for the Powersat faction privilege. These are not cumulative.
- Load Limit. The Freighter Card specifies a load limit, indicating how much mass the freighter can carry, not counting the mass of the freighter card itself.
- Factory Loading Only. A freighter with the Cargo Ship icon (labeled "Factory Loading Only") is not allowed to add any cargo anywhere except at a factory or a promoted Bernal (but can drop off cargo anywhere). Furthermore, it is never allowed to add cargo in LEO.
- Cruiser Bonus. Some freighters (e.g. Z-pinch, fission fragment and HIIPER beam-rider) receive a number of pivots as a free movement bonus, as specified in the Cruiser icon on the card.
- Towing Freighters. If a Rocket or Bernal Stack carries a cube (either the big cube or a mobile factory cube), its mass (including cargo if any) adds to the dry mass of the rocket or Bernal. The Freighter Stack cannot itself move while being towed, instead moving with the stack towing it. For purposes of supports and combat only, both it and the stack towing it are treated as one stack.
EXAMPLE: The magnetic mirror freighter gets a bonus of +3 free pivots. Its Freighter Stack is at the termination shock point en route to Sedna. It moves through the next 3 Hohmanns for free, then coasts past the heliopause (and the Voyager Easter Egg) to stop at the fourth pivot just beyond.
P5. On-Board Nuclear Reactors and Generators
Certain Freighter and Colonist Cards contain the "On-board Nuclear Reactor" ability and/or the "On-board Nuclear Generator." The former signifies the card can be used as a reactor card, either neutronic (n), burst plasma (@), or exotic (x), as specified. The latter signifies that the card can be used as a generator, either pulsed (//) or electric (e), as specified.
- A card with both an on-board generator and reactor (e.g. the Rotary Dirt Launcher) can be used as both types and can simultaneously support two pieces of hardware.
P6. Freighter Promote and Mobile Factories
To flip a built Freighter Card to its purple side, bring it to a Lab and perform a Promote Operation. Promotion is normally permanent (see P7 for exceptions). Once promoted, your Freighter Card converts all of your cubes (big and small) into mobile factories. Beginning with the turn they are promoted, each may move as a freighter using the specifications on your Freighter Card.
- Abilities. Your small cubes now have all the characteristics listed in the thruster triangle and the red field in the upper right corner of the freighter card, including mass (relevant if the cube is being carried as cargo), rad-hard, and free pivots. Your small cubes are not allowed to carry cargo or use any other characteristics of the big cube (on-board generators, futures, starship weapons, etc.).
- Mobile Factory Landing and Lift-Off. To land or lift off a claim without a factory, a mobile factory cube may use Factory-Assist (G3), using itself as the factory. When landing a mobile factory on a site with an unindustrialized claim, place its cube on top of the claim disk. When landing your mobile factory at an industrialized site or a foreign claim, place it next to the claim disk to indicate that it is not part of the current claim.
- Factory Establish or Abandon. Your mobile factory is a factory only if it sits on top of your claim disk. Moving a cube on or off of your own unindustrialized claim immediately establishes or abandons a factory, adjusting the relevant Exploitation Track a step (to a maximum of 10 VP or a minimum of 6 VP). You may land your mobile factory next to but not on top of an opponent's claim.
- Space Colonies. Mobile factories are not allowed to lift off or abandon a claim or be decommissioned if they are on a claim disk that has a Space Colony.
- Mass. All of your cubes have a mass equal to your Freighter Card Mass. This is relevant if the cube is taken as cargo in a rocket or freighter.
- Small Cube Creation. You may create a mobile factory cube by performing an Industrialize Operation and decommissioning an operational robonaut and refinery. Mobile factory creation is the same as factory industrialization (e.g. it must be created on one of your claims, does not need radiators, etc). If it is created on an industrialized site, place it adjacent to the claim disk to show it is not part of the claim. Unlike industrialization of static factories, you may industrialize mobile factories in your promoted Bernal at a dirtside or in its home orbit.
P7. Freighter Decommission
If a small cube is decommissioned (e.g. by combat, radiation, flares, landings, or lift-offs), return it to your reserves (you can build a new one per P6). If your big cube is decommissioned, convert any surviving cargo into an Outpost Stack. As a dedicated card, your big cube is decommissioned any time your freighter card would be decommissioned. Once promoted, you can voluntarily decommission your mobile factories.
- Promoted. If your Freighter Card is promoted, and you have any mobile factories (small cubes) remaining, replace one of them with the big cube. The freighter card remains in the freighter stack.
- Unpromoted. If the card is not yet promoted, or if it is promoted but you have no remaining mobile factories in play, return the big cube to your reserves and return the Freighter Card to your Hand (it can be rebuilt per P3).
NOTE: A promoted Freighter Card is never returned to your Hand, either voluntarily or involuntarily, unless your big cube is decommissioned and you have no remaining mobile factories.
P8. Freighter Big Cube Swap
As a free action (i.e. one not requiring an operation), when your freighter is not carrying any cards you can swap its Big Cube with any mobile factory that has not moved this turn. Your Big Cube can then take its movement as part of the Big Cube Swap free action.
TECHNICAL NOTE: During a Big Cube Swap, your mobile factory uses its 3D printer to add a cargo hold to its chassis.
Q. Bernal Module
"Oh give me a locus where the gravitons focus, where the 3-body problem is solved, where microwaves play down at three degrees K, and the cold virus never evolved." — Home on Lagrange (The L5 Song), Higgins and Gehm.
Summary. Your faction's Crew Card and Bernal Card start boosted in your Bernal Stack, and your Bernal figure starts in a home orbit at a faction-specific Lagrange point. Your boost operations are upgraded so you can boost directly to your Bernal for the cost of boosting to LEO. Your WTs are stored at your Bernal if it's still in its home orbit. If it leaves, your WTs are stored either in LEO or an Ersatz-Bernal. Promote your Bernal using an operational support that meets the requirements listed on the Bernal card (either generator, solar powered generator or reactor). This protects the cards from space debris, gives you an extra privilege, and allows the Bernal to self-propel as a dirt rocket. Moving it to a space adjacent to one or more factories allows boosting additional human colonists at a card limit equal to half the combined hydration of those factories.
NOTE: Using this module adds two more stacks to the basic five allowed in the base game E: your Bernal Stack (Q2) and your Ersatz-Bernal Stack (Q4).
Q1. Setup of Bernal Stack and Figure
Bernal Cards are white on one side and purple on the other. They are marked in the five faction colors, and one is given to each player along with his starting crew card.
- Bernal Stack. Your Bernal Card and crew card start boosted in a special stack called the Bernal Stack (Q2). Note that both these Starting Cards are Human.
- Bernal Figure. Place a Bernal figure of your color into your home orbit on the map. This cylinder represents an O'Neill-style orbiting colony used to support your colonists in space.
Q2. Bernal Stack
The stack of cards with the Bernal Card (supports, visiting colonists, etc.) is your Bernal Stack. Your Bernal figure indicates its map location.
- Event Vulnerability. A Bernal Card is indestructible, has no rad-hardness, and cannot be decommissioned. Furthermore, if your Bernal is promoted (Q6), all colocated cards except radiators in active use are immune to Radiation Hazards, events, and solar flares.
- Hazards and Combat. A Bernal Card cannot be decommissioned or captured. If it would be destroyed (by a crash hazard, epic hazard, factory-assisted lift-off, etc.), the other cards in the Bernal Stack are decommissioned, but the Bernal Card remains in the accident spot (but if promoted it unpromotes). In combat, the other cards in a Bernal Stack can attack and be attacked as if in a Rocket Stack.
- Boost Enhancement. If you have a Bernal figure in your home orbit, your boost capacities are enhanced, so that a Boost Operation (H4) gives you the option of boosting any white card or cards to either your home orbit or LEO. You can even boost partly to LEO, and partly to your Bernal in a single operation.
- Van Allen Belts. If a boost goes through a Radiation Hazard around Earth (i.e. the Van Allen Belts), the net thrust is considered to be three. This cannot be modified.
EXAMPLE: Player Orange boosts three cards to his Bernal in L2. He rolls a 6 for his radiation roll going through the VAB. The Sunspot Cycle is in the red sector, so two is added to this roll. With a net thrust of three, the radiation level is 6 + 2 - 3 = 5. One of the cards boosted has a radiation level of four, and is returned to his hand.
- Bernal WT Storage. If you have a Bernal figure in your home orbit, your WTs are stored there. Otherwise, they are stored in LEO.
Q3. Moving Your Bernal
Your Bernal Stack can be moved per Q8. If so, it has the following consequences:
- Moving To A Dirtside. As soon as your Bernal moves into a new orbit with at least one dirtside, this enables dirtside refueling (H5.4), increased VP (J2), increased humans in space (R4), and Bernal Free Market (Q9).
- Privilege Loss. Moving your Bernal out of your home orbit shuts down your faction privilege, Boost Enhancement (Q2), and Bernal WT Storage (Q2), but not your Bernal Privilege (Q7).
EXAMPLE: Player White uses his GW rocket to move his white Bernal figure to Ganymede. He stops collecting launch fees and must boost to LEO instead of L5.
Q4. Ersatz-Bernal
If your home orbit has no Bernal figure, as a Boost Operation (H4) you can pay 10 WTs and boost a replacement Bernal there. Indicate this replacement, called an Ersatz-Bernal, using a Bernal figure of your faction color in your home orbit.
- The Ersatz-Bernal is always promoted, regardless of the status of your first Bernal. It functions as the original one did (except it can't be moved and needs no supports). It restores your faction privileges, you can boost to its location, and you store your WTs there.
- Ersatz-Bernal Stack. Assuming they survive the VAB Radiation Hazard, cards boosted at the same time or after your Ersatz-Bernal is boosted go into the Ersatz-Bernal stack on your playmat.
Q5. Bernal Dirtside Hydration
The sum of the waterdrops in all the dirtsides (adjacent factories) of a Bernal is called its dirtside hydration. You can have half as many Human Colonist Cards in space (R4) as your dirtside hydration (round down).
EXAMPLE: Your Bernal in Mars LMO has a dirtside hydration = 7 if you have industrialized both the buried glaciers and the caves of Mars, allowing you 3 human colonists.
- Bernal Products and Water. If you perform an ET Production Operation (H8) using a dirtside factory, the product appears either at the factory or in the Bernal Stack, as desired. See Dirtside Refueling (H5.4) for refueling at Bernals with dirtsides.
- Hazards. During ET Production, ignore Crash Hazards between the Bernal and its dirtside, and Radiation Hazards on the Bernal location.
SCIENCE NOTE: There are four reasons for locating a Bernal in a Lagrange point of one or more dirtside factories: (1) Rawstuffs and water can readily be electromagnetically catapulted from the surface to the Bernal for processing and assembly by humans in shirtsleeve conditions. (2) The freighter traffic between the LaGrange and cislunar space can be conducted with low thrust rockets. (3) Humans can control dirtside robonauts without the problematic time lag that teleoperation from earth would entail. (4) Production of the final space product can be performed at zero-gee, allowing unique materials and processes not possible dirtside (or back at Earth). A Bernal at L5 has been the goal of the L5 Society, of which I have been a member since its founding.
Q6. Promoting a Bernal Card
If your Bernal Stack contains an operational generator and is at its home orbit or has a dirtside, you may flip your Bernal Card to its purple side by performing a Promote Operation (N2). For the Orange Bernal, you need a reactor (any type) instead of a generator.
TECHNICAL NOTE: The unpromoted Bernal is a dumbbell-shaped colony with a capacity of 2000 souls (if supplied by a dirtside) or 50 (traveling). It has two spheres, 67m in diameter, separated by a 334m connection. The dumbbell rotates at 1.9 rpm for 0.85 gees of artificial gravity. Assuming ½ atmospheric pressure, the structural mass is 10 mass points. Upon reaching its destination, the dumbbell Bernal replenishes its air (mass = 5) and its radiation shield (dirt and water in a honeycomb of nanofibers, mass = 3500), using local ISRU materials. Once promoted, a Bernal metamorphoses from a dumbbell into a 250m sphere with a capacity of 10,000 souls. The structure is 453 mass points, the atmosphere is 250 mass points, and the shield is 2320 mass points. It rotates at 3-rpm for 0.7 gees.
- Demotion. A Bernal remains promoted even if it moves away from its home orbit or dirtside. However, if a Bernal loses its supports (e.g. its radiators are decommissioned by an event or moved to a different stack), it becomes unpromoted. Flip the card back to its white side.
- Solar-Powered Bernals. Solar-powered supports for a promoted Bernal do not work in the Ceres zone or beyond, forcing the Bernal to unpromote. If you (or a cooperating player) have a Push Factory, then your Bernal with solar-powered supports unpromotes in the Uranus zone or beyond.
Q7. Bernal Privileges
For as long as it remains promoted, a Bernal gives you the following Bernal privileges.
- Extra Colonists (all factions). A promoted Bernal allows you additional human colonists in space (R4).
- Event Protection (all factions). All cards in the promoted Bernal Stack, except radiators in active use, are immune to events and solar flares.
- NASA Think Tank. Any of your human colonists in the promoted Bernal can perform a Research Operation. You are still limited to one Research per turn per M1.
- Shimizu Marketplace. Any of your human colonists in the promoted Bernal can perform a Free Market Operation.
- ESA Collimator. The promoted People's Bernal is allowed to have functioning solar-powered supports all the way to the Neptune zone, as an exception to Q6.
- PRC Antimatter Production. The promoted Military Bernal gives Player Red the additional privilege to have one free pivot (P4) for each of his rockets and freighters that begins its move on the Military Bernal.
- U.N. Diplomatic Immunity. The promoted Political Bernal allows Player Purple to ignore the effects of an opponent's Policy (K4).
NOTE: NASA, Shimizu, and PRC can use both Bernals for their bonus operations, while the ESA cannot use its privilege on the Ersatz Bernal as it cannot move from its home orbit.
EXAMPLE: The current polity is Egalitarianism. As long as Player Purple has a promoted Bernal, no matter how rich he is, players may not draw income from him.
Q8. Rocket-Propelled Bernals
A Bernal can fuel and move as a rocket, and follows all rocket rules, including movement (F), refueling, solar-power, thrust-modifying supports, beamed power modifiers, etc. When moving on the map, it uses a Bernal figure of your faction color. On the fuel strip, the Bernal uses a red dry mass disk, and a cylindrical fuel figure, color coded as follows: black = dirt, blue = water, and yellow = isotope. When promoted, the Bernal card includes a thruster.
- Landing and Lift-off. A Bernal follows all rocket rules for landing and lift-off, except they are prohibited from entering Lander Burns (G4) or the Kreutz-Sungrazer.
- Refueling. Bernals refuel using all of the rocket rules (H5). Note that all players except Player Orange have a promoted Bernal thruster that follows the Dirt Rocket rules. (Thematically, they sacrifice their own shielding as propellant. This shielding, made of regolith, is hundreds of times more massive than the hull and can be replaced when the Bernal arrives at a dirtside.)
EXAMPLE: Player White has a Bernal Stack (dry mass 15) in its home orbit and 8 WTs. As a free Home Orbit Refuel (D1), he loads all 8 WTs into the Bernal as fuel. He places a clear red disk, acting as the dry mass indicator, on 15 and a blue hemisphere, acting as a fuel figure, on the wet mass of 23. He uses a blue fuel figure instead of black even though this is a dirt Bernal. By indicating the higher grade fuel with a blue figure, he preserves the option to convert some of it back into water FFTs later.
- Thruster Activation. Like a rocket, a Bernal can activate (F1) a thruster that is part of the Bernal stack. This new thruster follows the rules for a rocket, using the Bernal dry mass disk and the Bernal fuel figure. Of course, it cannot use fuel loaded into the Bernal unless it is the correct grade (E4). Note that a Bernal Stack cannot be "towed" by another spacecraft.
EXAMPLE MISSION TO MARS: Player Red has a nuclear-powered Bernal stack in its home orbit with a dry mass of 15 and its maximum wet mass of 32. He wishes to go to LMO (low Mars orbit) to obtain a Mars dirtside. His first move follows the yellow route and stops near L5. On the next turn, his net thrust of 1 allows his dirt-propelled Bernal to travel from L3 to Sol-Mars Lagrange L2 (next to Deimos) in one turn, expending 3 steps for the burn. The black fuel figure drops 3 steps from 32 to 26. On his next turn, he expends 3 more steps of fuel for the burn and coasts to LMO, ending with a wet mass of 22.
EXAMPLE MISSION TO CALLISTO: Player Red has a promoted Bernal at his L3 home orbit with an in-core thermionic generator supported by a Fast-Neutron Fission reactor and a heavy microtube radiator. Together with his taikonauts, the dry mass = 15. Without any fuel, it has a net thrust of 3 - 1 + 1 = 3. (The +1 modifier comes from its dual-mode fission). Initially traveling along route yellow, the dirt-propelled Bernal travels through the Sol-Earth L3 and stops at the Hohmann pivot near Khufu. On its next turn it lands on the small asteroid Mjolnir. Because it meets the movement requirements of F2, both moves are made without any fuel on-board. At Mjolnir, the taikonauts dirt-refuel once (8 tanks), moving the fuel figure to 23 (Tug Class) with a net thrust of 2. Blasting-off of Mjolnir, the Bernal goes through Sol-Earth L3 and Sol-Mars L4, taking route purple to land on the small asteroid Gaspra. Six tanks were emptied going through two burns, so the taikonauts break out their shovels again. From Gaspra, the Bernal takes the green route for a near-suicidal flyby of Jupiter. Trying to aerobrake to reach Callisto, the Bernal is struck by a superbolt of lightning, vaporizing everything except the Bernal shell. However, the demoted Bernal takes its four free burns from the flyby to reach its destination orbit, a highly eccentric orbit around Callisto. Mission accomplished, and Player Red will replace its lost heroes and equipment later.
Q9. Free Market at a Bernal
If you bring a black card to a Bernal, you may sell it for the same price that it would be sold in LEO (i.e. perform a Free Market Operation, per H3, to receive WTs equal to the VP value of the card's product letter, as shown on the Exploitation Track). The Bernal must be promoted and either with a dirtside or in its home orbit. It can be yours or an opponent's, if he agrees.
- Market Saturation. If you sell to your own Bernal (including at its home orbit), the card sold must be returned to the bottom of the deck (i.e. the same as selling to LEO, per K5). If you sell to an opponent's Bernal, the card sold goes to your hand, but you must pay the owner of the Bernal the amount of WT he requests.
- The Product Letter of the card being sold cannot be the same as the spectral types of any of the Bernal's dirtsides.
EXAMPLE: Player Green has a factory on Laocoon, the only "D" type factory in this particular game. Player Green performs an ET production operation to produce the Rotary Dirt Launcher (a "D" type freighter), launches it with factory-assist, and moves it to Player White's Bernal in Mars LMO. Because this Bernal has only C dirtsides, Player Green may sell the D Freighter Card, which is decommissioned. Player Green receives 9 WTs, and Player White receives 1 WT, per their agreement.
R. Colonist Module
Summary. Colonists are researched or recruited from their own deck. The main advantages of a colonist are the extra operation it confers (M1) and its special ability. Some have thrusters, on-board reactors, ISRU, and Futures. There are two types: human and robot.
R1. Colonist Card Setup
Colonist Cards are either white or black on one side, and purple on the other. They form their own patent deck, the Colonist Deck.
R2. Human and Robot Colonists
Human colonists are white and purple; robot colonists are black and purple. Both are taken into your hand by a Research (H2) or Recruit (N4) operation. Humans are then boosted (H4), while robots are produced by ET Production (H8).
- Human colonists are limited to one in space per player at the start. However, if playing with the Bernal Module, you can boost additional human colonists (R4). Human colonists vote according to their ideology, except during war when they vote for their employer (N6). Their presence provides protection against the glitch event and prevents felonies.
- Robot colonists can only be built at factories and cannot be boosted from Earth. They don't count against your Max Human Colonists in Space (R4), even if emancipated. Robot Colonists do not prevent glitches unless emancipated (N3).
NOTE: Your crew is human, but not a Human Colonist.
R3. Colonist Card Anatomy
If in space, a Colonist Card has one or more of the following attributes.
- Specialization.
- Election Button of a faction color, and containing one or more ballot box icons.
- Platform and ISRU Rating.
- Thrust Triangle (F1).
- Human on Board Placard. Shows if a colonist is human.
- Special Abilities. As listed in the white field on the card. If the ability says "In Bernal", then the colonist must be in a Bernal Stack (including Ersatz-Bernal) to perform this ability. If in green text, the ability is used in Interstellar (Y) as well as in Colonization.
- On-Board Nuclear Reactor. Colonists with this capacity can act as a reactor card (P5) and can act as the reactor card support when establishing a space colony factory (R6). They are affected by the Antinuke Policy (K4).
- Interstellar. The icons in the green border (right side of the card) are only used with the Interstellar Solitaire Game (Y).
R4. Maximum Human Colonists in Space
You are always allowed one human colonist card in space (plus your crew). If playing with the Bernal Module, additional human colonists may be boosted into space if your Bernal is promoted (Q6). If so, the maximum number of human colonists allowed in space is equal to half the dirtside hydration (Q5) of your Bernal (rounding fractions down, but always allowing at least one). For instance, if you have industrialized the entire Pluto system (4 x 4 = 16 drops), a Bernal there can support 8 human colonists in space.
- Robots (both emancipated and unemancipated) and your crew do NOT count against this limit.
- Falling Limits. If at your maximum, and your dirtside hydration falls for some reason (e.g. your Bernal moves away from the dirtsides), then you do not have to decommission colonists to reach your lower limit. Instead, you simply cannot boost new human colonists until your limit rises again.
EXAMPLE: Player White moves his Bernal with one colonist to LMO, where he has industrialized two Martian sites. Since his dirtside hydration is 7, he is free to boost a second and third colonist.
R5. Colonist Card Promotion
To flip a boosted Colonist Card to its purple side, bring it to a Lab and perform a Promote Operation (N2).
- If promoted, the abilities on the facedown side are then lost.
NOTE: Your crew card cannot be promoted and goes into your hand if decommissioned.
EXAMPLE: Player Orange sends a robonaut and refinery to Hi'iaka (a TNO science site), succeeds in his prospect roll, and subsequently industrializes the site, forming a TNO lab. After sending the Islamic Refugee colonists to Hi'iaka, he may perform a promote operation to flip them to their purple side.
R6. Colonist Card Decommission
It is a felony to decommission humans, except for obtaining glory or establishing space colonies (see Decommission). Decommissioned human colonists go to the bottom of the colonist deck instead of your hand. (Colonists have no loyalty to their former employer if decommissioned).
EXCEPTION: Certain colonists have special decommissioning rules, as stated on the card. For instance, the Svalbard Caretakers allow all decommissioned humans, including the Caretakers themselves, to go to your hand.
S. GW Thruster Module
Summary. A Gigawatt (GW) Thruster cannot fuel using WTs; it may only fuel at a spectral site matching its fuel isotope or with your yellow FFTs. If used to afterburn, spend one fuel step to gain one therm of cooling plus the thrust addition listed in the afterburn icon. Otherwise, they move and burn fuel as the MW rockets in the basic game.
Modifiers. A rocket using a GW thruster ignores thrust and fuel consumption modifying supports other than solar-power modifiers (O2) when calculating net thrust and fuel consumption.
S1. Gigawatt Thruster Deck Setup
Gigawatt thrusters are black on one side and purple on the other. They form their own deck, the GW Thruster Deck, and are researched and power Rocket Stacks like the megawatt thrusters of the basic game. They are produced on their black side by an ET Production Operation (H8).
- You may only have one GW Thruster Card produced at a time.
S2. Gigawatt Thruster Fuel
A Gigawatt Thruster can only fuel at sites of the spectral type specified on its card, or with your yellow FFTs. This includes ISRU or factory refueling (H5.1). It can also factory refuel at a promoted Bernal if it has a dirtside of the specified spectral type.
- Isotope Fuel Site Refueling. During factory and Dirtside refueling, the refueling rate for isotope fuel is limited to 1 WT per factory (H5.1, H5.2, and H5.4).
TIP: For GW thrusters, ISRU refueling is sometimes faster than factory refueling! This is because isotope fuel purified from huge amounts of ore is required.
EXAMPLE: A GW Dense Plasma Focus rocket sits on a factory at Hydra, a D spectra moonlet of Pluto. A "blue goo" science colonist with ISRU 1 is also there. Since Hydra is a wet world (appropriate given its name!), by performing an ISRU refuel the colonists extract 1 + 4 - 1 = 4 tanks of fuel. This is 4x faster than if instead a factory refuel is performed. Note that if the player has an engineer in space (and thus has an extra engineering operation), he could spend 1 WT and perform 2 ISRU refuels, gaining 8 tanks altogether.
- Isotope Fuel. A GW Thruster always uses the yellow fuel figure to show that it runs on pure fuel isotopes and cannot use lower grade fuels such as water (E4). Additionally, a GW rocket can only use fuel obtained from a site matching its "fuel isotope" spectral type.
- Storing Isotope Fuel as FFTs (F4): You can create yellow FFTs without the presence of a GW thruster.
EXAMPLE: Player Green builds a Spheromak GW thruster on Memphis Facula of Ganymede (type S). The dry mass of the rocket is 12 (including its supports), and during factory or ISRU refueling the rocket is loaded with 7 tanks of S isotope fuel (helium-3). The rocket is now tug class, so even with afterburning, the Spheromak net thrust (11 - 2 = 9) is insufficient to lift-off Ganymede (size 9). Therefore the rocket uses factory-assist to lift-off.
- Specifying Isotope Fuel Spectral Type. You are allowed to have only one GW rocket produced at a time, and the spectral type of this card specifies the spectral type of all the isotope fuel you carry and have stored as FFTs. If this card changes to a new spectral type, all of your isotope fuel is converted to water. You are not allowed to have or store more than one type of isotope fuel. If you do not have a GW thruster, you must specify the isotope fuel you have by putting a claim disk above the exploitation track of the spectral type matching the fuel. To change this, you must first convert all your existing isotope fuel to water. This claim disk counts towards your logistic limits.
S3. Gigawatt Enhanced Afterburning
If you afterburn (F2) using a GW thruster, you expend one step of fuel and increase the net thrust by the value shown in the flame icon. This provides one therm of Open-Cycle Cooling.
EXAMPLE: A Spheromak GW thruster has a 6 • 1/10 thrust triangle with an afterburning modifier of +5. It is transport class, so the wet mass modifier is -1. By expending the minimum one step of fuel, it may move up to its net thrust (5 burns) and land on a world of size 4 or smaller. If it afterburns a second step of fuel, it may move up to 10 burns and land on a world of size 9 or smaller.
S4. Terawatt Thrusters
To flip a built GW Thruster Card to its purple side, bring it to a Lab and perform a Promote Operation (N2). The promoted GW Thruster, called a TW (terawatt) Thruster, follows all the rules for GW thrusters.
- A GW thruster may be promoted at any lab, regardless of the lab's spectral type.
- Starship Thrusters. Some thruster and freighter cards have a small green thrust triangle alongside the standard thrust triangle. Rockets with these cards active are called starships. The numerical values in these triangles are only used in the Interstellar Solitaire Game (Y).
- Synodic Sites. A starship can enter a Synodic Comet Site during any sector.
- Colliding FRC Fusion Thruster. This TW thruster requires a generator, plus two reactors as supports (because its initiator energy requirements are so high due to low Q).
- If decommissioned, the card reverts to a GW thruster in your hand.
EXAMPLE: A Rocket Stack contains an 8•0 thruster, with a "thrust +5" afterburn. If the net thrust is 8, this starship can expend zero fuel and move 8 burns or one step and move 13 burns.
SCIENCE NOTE: In order to achieve their remarkable Isp performance, GW thrusters burn pure nuclear fuel with no added propellant or open-cycle coolant. Thus, the burned fuel becomes the propellant (in this they are like chemical rockets). The fusion or fission fuels are rare isotopes, which must be purified by isotope separation. The game makes the following assumptions on where to find these rare isotopes: The fission fuel curium-245 on M worlds, lead antimatter thermalizer is also found on M worlds, the fusion fuel lithium-6 on V worlds, the fusion fuel boron-11 on D worlds, and the fusion fuel helium-3 on S worlds. S worlds also have tritium for the Vista drive and uranium-235 for the Zubrin drive.
T. Combat Module
When the Politics is in War (K4), combat is possible between players with colocated stacks. You can initiate combat in two ways:
- Attack. After all of your spacecraft have completed movement in your turn, you may pick a space where your stacks or cubes are located and declare that you are attacking the colocated stacks or cubes of another player. You are the attacker; that player is the defender.
- Interception. During another player's turn, you may declare you are intercepting the colocated spacecraft of another player as it is exiting a space where you have stacks or cubes. This interrupts the move until combat is resolved, with you as the defender and the other player as the attacker.
- Multiple combats can be declared during your turn, but in each space on the board, combat can only occur once during each player's turn. Exception: if multiple players wish to intercept a third party in a space, the combats are separated and resolved in player turn order.
- LEO security zone. No combat is allowed in LEO.
T1. Combat Sequence
When combat occurs in a space, every factory or space colony (T5) in the space, and each operational card with an ISRU rating, or operational thruster or freighter with a Jon's Law (T2) in a stack in the space is capable of making an attack roll according to the combat sequence below. Every card, cube, or space colony in the space is a potential target of each attack.
- The defender may attack with each of his rayguns (T2).
- Attacker may attack each of his rayguns (T2).
- Defender may attack with any or all of his missiles (T3).
- Attacker may attack with any or all of his missiles (T3).
- The player with the higher net thrust (if any) may attack with any or all of his buggies (T4).
- Cube or Dome Combat. Any cube on a claim disk is a factory which attacks and defends (T5). Cubes not on a claim disk (including freighters and mobile factories) attack and defend with their cargo. Exception: Buggy capture (T4). A dome on a claim disk is a space colony, which attacks and defends like a factory and can also be captured by buggies.
- Entrenchment. The cards in a stack that spent the entire phasing player's turn on a site have increased defense against rayguns and missiles. Their rad-hardness is increased by two. Entrenchment does not apply to cubes and domes.
- Supports. During combat, supports can be shared for the purpose of determining whether a card is operational (O1), and open-cycle cooling can be used to satisfy the cooling requirements of a missile robonaut or thruster. If an attacking unit becomes non-operational due to support loss, it can't make its attack.
- The combat modifier listed on some cards is applied for that card only.
- Cards with multiple ISRU platforms may make an attack with each platform.
T2. Raygun Attack
Choose a single card, cube, or dome as the target, and roll 1d6. If the result is greater than its rad-hardness, it is decommissioned.
- Jon's Law. During combat, the mass driver, MPD T-Wave, neutral beam, or non-freighter starship (S4) thrusters may attack as robonaut rayguns rolling 2d6 instead of 1d6.
- During combat, promoted Bernals attack as robonaut rayguns.
T3. Missile Attack
Choose a single stack as the target. Roll 2d6 and apply the sum against each card in the stack, as well as against each cube and dome present (T5). A sum greater than its rad-hardness will decommission the card, cube, or dome. The missile card used to perform the attack and all of its supports are decommissioned!
- Kamikazes. When declaring a missile attack, a non-Bernal spacecraft can end its movement on a site without needing a net thrust higher than the site size, and may ignore fuel for lander burns. The entire stack is decommissioned after missile attacks are resolved.
- Orion. A Rocket Stack in space carrying the operational Project Orion reactor or the n-6Li microfission thruster is immune from missiles if not on a site (it can launch fission bombs toward anything that approaches, and it has a shield designed to survive nuclear blasts).
EXAMPLE: A Rocket Stack containing just the Squid Turing robots attacks a Bernal stack. The Bernal attacks first with a raygun that is aboard and rolls a "4," not quite enough to destroy the Turing. The missile then strikes and rolls a "7." This is enough to decommission all the cards in the stack, except the Bernal Card itself, which is indestructible.
T4. Buggy Attack
A buggy may not attack unless the net thrust of its stack is greater than the net thrust of the target stack. To determine this, both players recalculate their thrust as if they were beginning their move. They may use afterburners or jettisons to improve net thrust. An outpost stack or factory has a net thrust of 4 minus its ISRU if it contains an operational buggy on a site. Otherwise, its thrust is 0.
For each buggy capable of attacking, pick a card in an opponent's stack as the target. If there are no cards, pick the cube as the target. Roll 2d6. The buggy attack's success depends on what units the opposing player has present:
- If the opposing player has a human present (including space colonies), the attack succeeds if the roll is greater than 8.
- Otherwise, the attack succeeds if the roll is greater than 6.
If the attack is successful and the target was a card, decommission the card. If the target was a cube on a claimed site, see T5. If the target was a cube not on a claimed site (e.g. freighter or mobile factory), it is destroyed unless you have a promoted freighter, whereupon it is captured and replaced by a small cube of your color. If the target is an FFT (K6), it is stolen. Captured freighters or FFTs require a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2) in both stacks.
T5. Factory Combat
Each factory and space colony on a claim attacks and defends as a robonaut raygun with a rad-hardness of 8. (See Example 2 below and T4 for an exception for unmanned factories defending against buggies.)
- Factory Capture. If you make a successful buggy attack (T4) and chose to target your opponent's factory cube and he has no space colonies present, capture it. Swap the cube and claim disk with ones of your color.
- Space Colony Capture. If the site location of the successful buggy attack contains both a factory and space colonies, you must destroy or capture the space colony before capturing the factory. Replace the opponent's space colony dome with one of your own on a successful buggy attack (T4) instead of the factory cube.
- Space Colony Support. If as a result of a raygun or buggy attack, a space colony ends up at a site without a factory controlled by the same faction, the space colony will be destroyed at the end of the next turn of the player controlling it (simulating abandoning of the colony as economically unviable).
- Factory Destruction. If there are no longer any factories on a claim site, the appropriate exploitation track goes up one step (P6).
EXAMPLE 1: Project Orion lands on a space colony at an M site. The cube and the colony each fire first, targeting Orion's missiles. But, one missile survives, rolling a 9, which removes everything but the claim. The M resource Exploitation Track is increased one step toward "START."
EXAMPLE 2: You successfully attack an enemy colony with your buggy beating a roll of 8 due to the human presence. This captures the colony. On the next turn, your buggy attacks again. If the roll is 6 or higher, you capture both the factory and the claim.
U. Colonization Endgame Module
This optional module adds perhaps an hour per player to the game. If not using it, ending and winning the game follows the main base game rules (J).
U1. Futures
Certain promoted Freighter, Colonist, and GW Thruster Cards list a Future with conditional victory points (VP) indicated by the white star icon. This icon means "if this card is promoted and operational, and if you control the card and meet all the listed requirements, place a disk of your color on the Futures Star icon on the end page." You may not use another player's cards, Bernal or factories to meet future requirements, even with the owner's permission. Exception: The Group Mind Immortalist's Epic Hazard Op ability requires another player's colonist be colocated with this card.
EXAMPLE: You promote your HIIPER freighter, move a mobile factory cube to one of the two sunlens points, and industrialize Quaoar and Io, thus accomplishing the Star Future. As the first player to complete a Future, place your disk in the leftmost (12 VP) star on the end page (upper right corner).
- You are limited to one Freighter Future, one Colonist Future, and one GW Thruster Future.
NOTE: Only one disk per future, and once placed, it can be removed only if stated on the card.
Futures Stars component chart. If you accomplish a Future, place a claim disk in one of the stars on the chart below. If you fail an epic hazard, bust the star using a clear blue disk. The stars are worth, in order filled: 1st Future 12 VP, 2nd Future 9 VP, 3rd Future 7 VP, and every later Future 5 VP. Once the first Future disk is placed, the game ends two more event thresholds later (see U5).
U2. Freighter Futures
- Antimatter Creation Future. If you control a factory and the Antiproton Sail Harvester on a Science Site, you may perform two Epic Hazard Ops using a promoted engineer at the site. Place disk on a Futures Star if both are successful.
- Beanstalk Future. If you control factories on Pluto and Charon, and have successfully claimed the Space Elevator or Space Tourism venture (I2), place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Beehive Ark Future. If you have the KESTS Dirt Hoop launcher on a D site factory, you may perform an Epic Hazard Op at that location using an emancipated robot to place a disk on a Futures Star and then decommission the factory.
- Climate Mirror Terraform Future. Perform an Epic Hazard Op at a promoted Bernal manned with at least two humans with the Archimedes PalmerLens present and an atmospheric dirtside to place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Planet Hunt Future. If you control an industrialized site in Sedna (upper left corner of the map), place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Spacefaring Future. If you have ten or more dirtside hydration (Q5), place a disk on a Futures Star.
TIP: Orbits with a potential dirtside hydration of 10 or more include the Gefion family, Saturn Norse Moonlets, Saturn dusty ring, Uranus Portia Group, Pluto, and Haumea.
- Star Wisp Future. If you have a freighter cube or mobile factory cube in either the EM or the neutrino sunlens spaces on the map, plus a Push Factory and a TNO Lab, place a disk on a Futures Star.
U3. Colonist Card Futures
- Artificial Consciousness Future. Perform an Epic Hazard Op at a TNO Lab using the Renaissance Man to attempt to claim a busted Futures Star. If successful, replace the "busted" disk with one of your own. If you fail, decommission all humans controlled by all players.
NOTE: This decommissioning affects space colonies (which are human) but not Bernal cards or ersatz Bernal cylinders (which may not be decommissioned).
- Footfall Future. If you control a factory at a synodic comet site under your control, you may decommission a TW Thruster (S4) with its supports at that location to announce your intention to crash the comet into Earth, causing an apocalyptic impact winter. This announcement moves the Politics to the "war" position of your choice. If the factory remains under your control and on the comet at the beginning of your 12th subsequent turn, destroy the comet site (place a black disk to indicate this) and place a disk on a Futures Star. If the factory is captured (T5) or leaves the site, another attempt will take the full 12 years.
- NEO Mines Future. If you have claims on 3 sites of size 1 in the Mars, Earth, or Venus heliocentric zones, place a disk on a Futures Star.
- New Venus Future. If you control a factory at a synodic comet, you may decommission a TW Thruster (S4) with its supports at that location to announce your intention to crash the comet into Venus, bringing enough water to create a new Earth. This announcement moves the Politics to the "war" position of your choice. If the factory remains under your control and on the comet at the beginning of your 12th subsequent turn, destroy the comet site (place a black disk to indicate this) and claim a Futures Star. Destroy all units at the "Venus AerostatXity" site and replace them with your claim disk and factory from the comet.
- Pan-Sapiens Future. Use the Epic Hazard Op ability of the Group Mind Immortalists to Hostile Recruit (N5) two colonists. Place a disk on a Futures Star after the second successful recruitment.
- Revolution Future. If you have at least three human colonists in space, and the Politics is in "War", you may perform an Epic Hazard Op with the New Attica Secessionists to place a disk on a Futures Star.
- SETI Future. If you control an industrialized site on at least one asteroid in the Jovian Trojans (Trojan Camp), i.e. Patroclus, Glaukos, Menoetius, Antenor, Laocoon, Äenaes, or Tithonus; and another on at least one asteroid in the Jovian Trojans (Greek Camp), i.e. Agamemnon and moonlet, Icarion, Philoctetes, Nestor, Telamon, Achilles, Hektor, or the Hektor moonlet, place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Supreme Cult Leader Future. If you win an election in peacetime (N6) and there are more ballot box icons voting for you than there are for anyone else, place a disk on a Futures Star. Count robotic votes only if you own them and you are the Robot Emancipator. If the Cult Leader Colonist is later decommissioned, bust the Future Star (replacing your disk with a busted marker).
- Time Vault Future. You may perform an Epic Hazard Op with the Cryo Librarians at your Bernal with a dirtside in the Ψ zone to place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Uplift Future. If you are the Robot Emancipator you may perform an Epic Hazard Op using a scientist at a Lab with the Creeper Neogen present to place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Von Neumann Future. If you have at least two emancipated robots at a factory, you may perform an Epic Hazard Op with one of them to place a disk on a Futures Star.
U4. Terawatt Thruster Futures
- Daedalus Future. If you control industrialized claims on the sites labeled "Saturn aerostat", "Uranus aerostat", and a TNO Lab, place a disk on a Futures Star. (Thematically, the Daedalus starship needs 1350 tanks of 3He-D, wrested by aerostat-mining from the atmospheres of gas giants.)
- Enzmann Starship. If your operational rocket contains the Colliding FRC thruster with at least 8 fuel tanks and three colonists, one of each specialization, you may fly them to exit Sol (Jupiter-Sol-Jupiter exit, Sol Exit Neptune, or Sol Exit Oort) and roll for a Crash Hazard not modifiable by Failure Is Not An Option (F5). Regardless of success, decommission the Rocket Stack (colonists are returned to your hand). This is not a felony. If you succeed at the crash hazard, place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Fusion Candle Future. If you control the operational Zubrin-GDM in the Uranus or Neptune aerostat, and have Space Colonies in two of that planet's moons or aerostats, you may perform an epic hazard op to decommission the Zubrin-GDM and place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Lithiated Ammonia Starship. If your operational rocket contains the Solem Medusa thruster with at least 8 fuel tanks and three colonists, one of each specialization, you may fly them to exit Sol (Jupiter-Sol-Jupiter exit, Sol Exit Neptune, or Sol Exit Oort) and roll for a Crash Hazard not modifiable by Failure Is Not An Option (F5). Regardless of success, decommission the Rocket Stack (colonists are returned to your hand). This is not a felony. If you succeed at the crash hazard, place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Mass Beam Future. If you have factories on Mercury, Venus, and Io (i.e. the three push-factory sites), place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Mini-Black Hole Creation Future. If you control a factory on a size 1 type S site containing a promoted scientist, you may perform an Epic Hazard Op at that location to place a disk on a Futures Star.
- Protium Fusion Future. Perform an Epic Hazard Op at a site with 4 promoted cards, including a promoted colonist with the scientist specialization to place a disk on a Futures Star.
U5. Ending the Game
The game ends two event thresholds (M3) after either of the following occurs:
- If the number of Futures occupied by disks is one less than the number of players. For instance, in a 2-player game the game ends two event thresholds after the first future disk is placed. (But either player can take additional Futures before the game ends.)
- Twelve years (one solar cycle) after a Footfall is announced (U3).
U6. Endgame Election
At the end of the game, perform an Election Auction per N6, and count VP per J2.
Endnotes
- Factory-assisted liftoffs use a fast monorail car as the launch vehicle. The rail provides traction as the car reaches orbital velocity and releases its payload into space. This follows the aerospace principle that if you have a choice to use a rocket or something else, always use something else.
- The Hostile Recruit operation represents persuading an employee of a rival firm to work for you. In space, where manpower is at a premium, the space workers will be able to name their own price. It is a common viewpoint that an employer has some sort of advantage over an employee. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both parties are individuals who are transacting entirely voluntarily, either for personal gain or whatever life goals each holds. Both can walk away if they no longer see an advantage. But, the employer has far more to lose, because he is invested in the enterprise. Usually heavily invested, up to his eyeballs in debt, using all his life savings, allowing that space infrastructure is expensive. If the transaction fails, the employee goes somewhere else, while the employer loses his life's work (and he has but one lifetime).
- It takes 9.5 km/sec to get to LEO, and another 3.4 km/sec to get to any of the Earth-Luna Lagrange points. The solar system escape velocity is 42 km/sec, but since you are already going 30 km/sec (the Earth's orbital speed), this leaves 12 km/sec to travel to the stars. Cheerfully neglecting the Oberth effect here, to give the general idea behind Heinlein's famous statement: "Once you are in low Earth orbit you're halfway to anywhere". The first half of your trip to anywhere is in a steep gravity field, where you need high thrust engines, launch loops, or space elevators to get your Bernals built. The second half will be with high specific impulse interplanetary engines.
- Although your colonists can be working anywhere in space, it is assumed that their families and supplies reside back home in the Bernal. Without such human factors, space cannot be colonized.
- The reactors represented in the game usually generate a few hundred megawatts of thermal power, enough to power a MW rocket. For GW and TW thrusters, however, these reactors are used not as power sources but as initiators for the primary nuclear power chain (often fusion). The ratio of nuclear power to initiator power is called the Q factor.
- Theories on what D worlds are range from primordial bits of the galaxy to aggregates of ices clustered around CUDOS (Compact UltraDense Objects).
- A swarm of robotic mirrors at a world's L1 point (i.e. the Lagrange between that world and Sol) changes its albedo, and thus its climate.
- Industrializing Sedna establishes a telescope at the EM Sunlens spot, 550 AU from the Earth. This planet-hunting telescope uses Sol itself as a gravitational lens, It enjoys an optical gain of 113dB, enough to zoom-in on a landing site as far out as Epsilon Indi.
- Star wisps are tiny robotic interstellar probes riding on microwave energy beamed from a push factory. A giant collimator in the outer solar system, here represented by a TNO factory, focuses the beam.
- Protium fusion is the fusion of hydrogen, such as that believed to be occurring in Sol. In a game of celestial billiards, two asteroids can be bashed together at relativistic speeds, in hopes of creating protium fusion and possibly a mini black hole.
- The ill-advised 1979 U.N. Moon Treaty prohibits ownership of lunar resources because "the use of the moon shall be the province of all mankind."
- A push factory on Io obtains its energy from Jupiter (using an electrodynamic tether) rather than from Sol.
- "The only known method of long-term, high-power dissipation in space is thermal radiation. ...The dramatic sixth-power decrease of mass with radiator temperature is a strong motivation to run at very high temperatures. The crew and cargo spaces...will have to be refrigerated, but the rest of the ship will run hot. At the low acceleration values we will be using, the ship can be of extremely flimsy construction for highest performance, we want a ship made of 'incandescent tissue paper'." — John Trenholme, 2003.
V. Solitaire and Advanced Game Variants
V0. Common Solitaire Rules
All the solitaire variants (V1 to V4) have these rules in common:
- V0a. No hostile recruit, activism, anti-trust operations. Ignore these ops, since there are no other factions in play. Individual cards that involve such operations are discussed below.
- V0b. Research auctions. Pay 2 WT plus 2 WT for each support to research a card normally (comes with supports, per O3), or 1 WT to buy one unseen off of the bottom (does not come with supports). Ignore bid limits (H2).
- V0c. Ignore elections. Instead of elections, change the blue special event to "World Science Symposium." Choose three decks and put the top card of each deck at its bottom. The new top cards represent the hottest topics at the Symposium.
- V0d. Static politics. The politics disk remains on start which fixes the free market value at 5 WT. No faction, not even UN, is awarded VPs for exoglobal politics. No faction is considered to be "in power" (individual cards that state this need are discussed below). No felonies are allowed, unless you are Red Player or have a card (e.g. Botany Bay convicts) stating otherwise.
- V0e. Suffrage. Instead of the "in power" requirement, in order to execute this operation the player must have at least one promoted robot and pay 10 WTs to attempt the emancipation roll (1d6, needs to be lower than the total of purple cards in play). Thematically, the WTs represent the expenditure of money needed to lobby for the robotic emancipation. A failed roll may be attempted again in a new suffrage operation, but the cost of 10 WTs must be paid every time.
V1. Werner's Star Solitaire (Phil Eklund, all modules)
Little Werner dreams of becoming an astronaut (or cosmonaut, taikonaut, etc.) and traveling to another star. Can this dream come true? Werner is represented by your crew card, and he wins if he attains a TW thruster future before he dies of old age. Play with all modules and events. It should take 2 hours.
In this variant, each Human Colonist has a number of white disks on them showing its age. (White = 1, Red = 5, and Blue = 10 disks). Each Age Disk is 12-years. Every time the Sunspot Disk passes the Senility Threshold (12:00 position in the Sunspot Cycle), add one Age Disk to all Human Colonists in space, and then for each colonist roll a 1d6 Cancer Risk.
- Cancer Risk. If a Human Colonist needs to make a Cancer Risk check, roll 1d6. Remove the card from the game if the roll is less than the colonist's Age (i.e. number of Age Disks). Werner is cancer-free, and never needs to make a Cancer Risk check.
- Starting Age. Werner starts in your Bernal with two Age Disks. All Human Colonists acquire two Age Disks when boosted. You lose if Werner is decommissioned.
- Hazardous Duty Wages. Performing an operation with a Human costs a number of WTs equal to the colonist's age (instead of 1 WT). Your crew continue to enjoy a free operation, and self-promotion (next bullet) and robot ops continue to cost 1 WT.
- Self-Promotion. A Human Colonist can spend 1 WT to perform his own Promote operation and roll 1d6 to attempt to flip his own card to its purple side. This operation is successful if the roll is less than his age. Since this represents the maturation of the original humans, self-promotion preserves their Age Disks.
- Auctions. If you pay Hazardous Wages, you obtain cards during Research or Recruit at no extra cost.
- Irradiation. If a Crew or Human Colonist fails a radiation roll (e.g. from flares or radiation hazards), then instead of being decommissioned it gains one Age Disk and then rolls a Cancer Risk.
- Parenthood. If you have enough dirtside hydration to support an additional human colonist, your Crew or Human Colonist in a Bernal may attempt to become a parent by performing (and paying for) a Parent operation and rolling 1d6. If the result is greater than the parent's age, then draw a random Human from the Colonist Deck into your Bernal Stack, making a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2). This is the next generation. It starts with zero Age Disks, and cannot be moved from the Bernal Stack nor perform any operations until it receives its first Age Disk.
NOTE: Emancipated robots are unable to be Parents but are immune to cancer.
- Werner's Star Victory. Win if you attain a TW Thruster Future (U4) before Werner becomes 60 years old (i.e. before he attains his 5th Age Disk).
- Interstellar Victory. If you have the Interstellar map (Y), send Werner off as a passenger in a starship. You win if his son reaches a habitable or living planet.
V2. Hermes' Fall Solitaire (Phil Eklund, Support Module only)
Earth is threatened by the binary asteroid Hermes, which has been calculated to impact in 23 turns. You need to achieve the "Saving The Earth" colonization glory before the sunspot disk passes the senility threshold for the second time. (The refineries represent mass drivers that gradually deflect the path of the twin asteroids away from Earth. Prospecting is unnecessary.)
NOTE: Travel is always possible from Hermes a to Hermes b, and vice versa, regardless of the Synodic Comet rule.
Revised Sequence of Play. Setup per Section C as any faction. Use only the Support Module (O).
- Move your rocket.
- Pick one operation. For research, see V0.b.
- Make an event roll, and then advance the sunspot disk one step. See V0.c.
- New Privileges. The UN privilege is to start with 10 WT. He also has his cyclers faction privilege. The PRC starts with six extra hand cards, drawn at random from each patent deck. The other three faction privileges are unchanged.
V3. Mars Flotilla Solitaire (by Andy Graham)
This is a solo game to pass the time between playing High Frontier or to practice building rockets.
Objective. Make as many valid prospecting rockets as possible using just the High Frontier thruster, robonaut and support decks. To be considered a valid prospector, a rocket must be able to travel to Deimos — a moon of Mars — and be able to prospect that site, which needs an operational robonaut with an ISRU of 3. This requires two burns worth of fuel and a minimum thrust of 2 to land on the size 1 site. Assume that all rockets are successfully boosted and fueled in LEO, and that they travel through the radiation belt safely. Likewise, do not consider the success or failure of the prospecting roll.
All of the normal High Frontier rules for making a functional rocket apply. So, support cards of the correct type and quantity must be in place. In most cases, the validity of a prospector will be self-evident, but for some, you may have to check the map.
Setup. Sort the thruster, robonaut, reactor, generator, radiator into their stacks. Shuffle each stack leaving them white face up.
Procedure. Draw the cards one at a time, choosing from any of the five stacks. Place the chosen card white-side up onto any existing Rocket Stack or start a new Rocket Stack. Once placed, the card cannot be moved.
Victory. Win if you get all of your ISRU 3 or lower robonauts to Mars. For a more challenging game, add the requirement to transport a functional refinery in addition to all of the above requirements.
V4. CEO Solitaire (by Victor Caminha)
A. Starting WTs. 10 (but no idea turns).
B. Busted site. Luna.
C. No epic hazard roll without TNO. All futures which require an Epic Hazard Op may only be attempted if a factory has been built on a TNO site. The roll is successful on 1–5 in 1d6.
D. Directory Meeting Round. At the end of a round which is marked with the "Senility" sign on the solar cycle, there is a high-level executive meeting, concerning whether the space program of the faction should continue or not. Unless the player keeps making significant achievements, the board will eventually decide to disband the program, causing the game to end.
In order to keep playing, a player must score a minimum number of victory points at the end of a directory meeting round. Whenever the solar cycle disk passes through the "senility" sign, put a blue disk at the center of the solar activity cycle, which represents 10 victory points. At the end of the actions phase of the next directory meeting round, the accumulated disks represent the minimum VPs a player must have accrued to avoid the termination of the space program.
So when the solar cycle disk passes through the senility sign for the first time, the first directory meeting takes place, which demands no minimum VP requirement (but see "loss of crew," below), but sets the standard for 10 VPs for the next directory round, twelve rounds later. At the end of the second directory meeting round, the player must have accumulated at least 10 VPs or it is game over. Otherwise, the minimum VP requirement will be raised to 20, checked at the end of the third directory round, and so on. Eventually, the space program will be canceled unless the player successfully creates a future, which ends the game with victory, silencing the most skeptic members of the board.
E. Loss of crew. Every time a human crew card is decommissioned, add a black disk to temporarily raise the minimum VP requirement by 3 for the next directory meeting, unless when building a colony, achieving glory or successfully creating a future. This means the loss of human life reflects badly on the space program, and there will be need for an extra effort to convince the board to maintain it. Note, a player might need to score at the end of the first directory board if he loses crew due to pad explosions, hazards, etc. After the directory meeting, remove all the black disks from the center of the solar cycle. This means the loss of a human crew won't affect the next meeting twelve years later, as public attention is diverted elsewhere. However, the loss of a robot colonist won't earn a black disk, even if emancipated.
F. Winning the solo game. The game ends if the player's faction successfully creates a future. If you fail a future, put a blue disk on it, like normal. If all of the future's spots are failed, the space program is doomed, and the game ends.
G. The following colonists have been altered on this variant:
- New Attica Secessionists (Revolutionary Future). Instead of the requirement of setting the Politics to "War," pay 10 WTs to the supply, representing the military investment needed by the revolutionaries to fulfill their future. The other requirements are unchanged.
- Group Mind Immortalists (Pan-Sapiens Future). Instead of hostile recruiting, make recruit operations instead. Fulfill this future by successfully making two epic hazard rolls when this card is colocated in a stack along with at least two other Human colonists.
- Wet Nano Ecologists/Eugenic Pilgrims (New Venus Future/Footfall Future). These futures are unchanged, but they only happen 12 years later, which means a directory meeting round will occur in the meantime, and thus, the minimum VP requirement will be higher by the time waiting period comes to an end. The victory points for this future are not awarded to the player until the waiting period comes to an end, so it is possible that the space program might be canceled before the directory board sees its fruits.
- Josephsen Implants. You are considered to have met the requirements for this card's future if you control at least 10 electoral boxes worth of colonists, not counting this card.
- Vatican Observers. This card halves the cost of Suffrage to 5 WT.
- Cryolibrarians. Decommissioning humans does not earn a black disk, which would normally affect the minimum VP requirement.
- Rock Rats Miner's Union. Instead of hostile recruit, this card raises the minimum number of colonists in space to 2. However, the colonist may only execute its op if it is in the same stack as the Rock Miner's Union. Also, this ability is superseded by the Bernal dirtside if its total hydration is 4 or more.
H. Measuring the faction's space program success at the end of the game. After successfully creating a future, deduct the minimum VP requirements measured by the blue disks on the solar cycle from the total victory points accumulated by the player's faction. This difference represents the net success the faction has scored.
I. Scale of Success (Total VP – Minimum VP Requirement).
- -1 or lower: Controversial
- 0–11: Fair
- 12–16: Good
- 17–20: Very Good
- 21+: Excellent
V5. Space Race – 2 to 5 Players (Phil Eklund)
The winner is the first to land a crew on Titan and return them to LEO.
V6. Alien Invasion 3-Player (Phil Eklund)
Player Red is an alien race based on Titan. The two human players must find a way to cooperate against the vastly superior aliens.
- Titans. The Titan player uses the Radical Green Crew Card (Anonymous P2P Radicals).
- Research. Research auctions are conducted like Election Auctions (N6), with the winning bid always going into the pool. The Titans must use the black side of its cards researched.
- Titan Water Tank WT Depot. Titan boost operations (black side of the card) and WT start in the Titan HEO (Highly Eccentric Orbit) space instead of LEO.
- War. All players can attack and perform felonies.
- Factories. No factories are allowed on D worlds or any of Saturn's moons. Factories built by the Titan player do not lower the Exploitation Table. Black cards can be sold by the Titan player in LEO for 8 WTs each.
- End of Game. The game ends if the Titan rocket enters LEO, or if an Earth rocket enters a site hex on Titan.
- Victory Conditions. Each player gets 1 VP for each S factory (military base) and 5 VP for an outpost with at least one operational robonaut in the Rabbithole L3 point in the Mercury zone.
V7. Quick 2-Player (by Scott Muldoon)
Quick Start. Each player draws one thruster card at random into his hand during setup.
Downtime. You may forgo your entire Move Phase to collect 1 WT. This means you may not move any spacecraft.
Research and Recruit Operations. Use the solitaire bidding rules (V0b).
V8. The Red Giant (Phil Eklund)
After a long (!) dark age period, Earth-based astronomers of our future species discover that Sol is about to flash into a Red Giant. This will engulf the planets out to Mars and make the inner solar system uninhabitable. To survive this crisis, the factions prepare to colonize the outer solar system, which will then become habitable.
Our sun will expand into a red giant 5 billion years from now.
A. Bright Future Sun. Counterintuitively, as Sol burns up its nuclear fuel, it becomes brighter. Therefore add +2 to the solar thrust modifier of each heliocentric zone (including Neptune). Cards limited to given heliocentric zones can make it 2 zones further away.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN: This additional flux is more than enough to boil away the oceans and turn Earth into another Venus. The future species will have had to deal with this.
B. Desiccation. All sites out to Saturn are one less in hydration due to solar heating.
C. Victory Conditions. VP are not awarded for any Glory, Claims, or Factories, except at sites in the Uranus zone or beyond. VP are also not awarded for Space Ventures. Space government VP is unchanged.
D. The New Earth. Each colony is worth 3 VP, but only if it is the Uranus zone or beyond.
V9. The Grand Tour (Andy Graham)
This is an era of space exploration during which space budgets are driven by Discoveries and Glory. The game proceeds as normal with the following changes:
A. End Of Game. The game ends when there is at least one claim in each heliocentric zone and the requisite number of claims on TNO Science Sites:
- Two in a two-player game.
- Three claims in three- or four-player game.
- Four claims a five-player game.
Space Ventures and Factories have their normal effects, but don't count towards End of Game conditions.
B. Victory Points. When calculating victory points, only consider Glory, Claims, Colonies, Space Ventures, Science Sites and TNO Science Sites. Each claim is worth 1 VP, plus the absolute value of the Heliocentric thrust modifier. So, more distant claims are worth more.
- You may receive VP for only one claim per Heliocentric Zone. Science Sites, TNO Science Sites, and Astrobiology Sites are exempt from this limit.
- Factories can be built as usual and have the normal in-game effects, but they don't count for Victory Points.
- Rules for Glory and Politics are unaffected.
EXAMPLE: A Claim at Mercury North Pole results in 1VP+2VP=3VP whereas a Claim at a moon of Uranus would earn you 1VP+5VP=6VP.
V10. Quest for Glory (Andrew Doull)
This scenario has a harder set of victory conditions than the basic game, without the complexity of the futures module.
End of Game Glories. Modify the end game conditions and glory achievements so that:
- Each player must claim a glory by meeting the prerequisites to the basic game side of the card. If they then fulfill the requirements on the colonization side of the glory they have claimed, they win the game immediately (no VP is used for this scenario). Victory also occurs for the player holding the glory if no sites are left available to check for the Search for Life and Submersible Prospecting glories.
- The Heroism glory can be claimed by any player as a free action at any time — there is no need to meet the requirements on the card.
- Each player may only claim one glory card. Once all players have a glory claimed, any player can abandon an already claimed glory as a free action.
V11. Alternate Colonization Start (Dave Hammond)
This set of variant quick start rules is meant to be played prior to beginning a game of Colonization with all modules. It is intended to simulate starting the game having completed a Basic game + support cards, and then introducing the additional Colonization components. At the resolution of this quick start, proceed with the normal rules of High Frontier, with the next player being "Player 1."
- Each player begins with 25 WT, a faction card, and their Bernal card. Set out the 6 white/black card patent decks — the three decks from the basic game (Thrusters, Robonauts and Refineries), and three additional support decks (Generators, Reactors and Radiators).
- Each player blind bids for the first turn. Each player secretly selects an amount of water, and all players reveal simultaneously. In the case of a tie, the tied players re-bid, adding zero or more WT to their original bid. In the case that two or more tied players bid equally on the re-bid, the tiebreaker is decided by die rolls until a winner is found. All WT used in the bid are sent to the pool — even for players who lose the bidding. Play begins with whoever wins the bid, and proceeds clockwise.
On their turn, a player executes one of two operations.
- Research Legacy Operation. The phasing player examines all available patent cards, chooses one, and puts it in their hand. The player pays 1 WT to the pool. A player may not choose the Research Legacy Operation if they have 4 or more patents in their hand (including Shimizu).
- Industrial Legacy Operation. The phasing player chooses a non-Synodic Comet site in the Ceres zone or closer, and makes a free prospect roll. If the roll fails, the site is busted and the player's turn is over. If the prospect roll succeeds, an auction takes place, initiated by the phasing player. Whoever wins the auction pays the pool their bid and places a claim disk and ET factory cube on the prospected site.
The pre-game immediately ends when there are a number of factories on the board equal to the victory condition in the legacy game for the number of players currently playing. All players retain all cards, WT, and claims that were acquired in the pre-game phase, and the remaining decks (Colonists, GW Thrusters and Freighters) are added to the game.
V12. No Politics or Events (Andrew Doull)
The game starts with the politics token on a space on the political diagram that all players agree to. Roll 1d6 if players cannot agree: 1-Capitalism, 2-Paleoconservatism, 3-Nationalism, 4-Press Gangs, 5-Egalitarianism, 6-AntiNuke. The faction matching the chosen politics is not considered in-power.
The following policies are modified: Paleoconservatism: Your research operations do not come with support cards. Nationalism: Income ops only give 1 WT.
NOTE: In both these instances, player White is affected by the policy.
Play otherwise proceeds normally except do not roll for events, and the Activism operation is not permitted. Hold an election at the end of the game to determine which player receives 5 VP, moving the election token directly to a policy of the winner's color.
W. Exomigration Module (Andrew Doull)
Summary. The experimental Exomigration Modules W1 to W6 increase the scope and detail of the political side of the game by making space politics a dynamic system that can evolve over time independently of the players. This allows politics to be used in solitaire game while making political choices in the multiplayer game more interesting. The experimental Exploration Modules W7 to W10 are for those who wish a more exploratory approach. All ten modules are independent of each other.
- If you decommission a colonist to build a colony, you may move your claim disk from the colony to the Interplanetary Council (W1), where each claim disk gives you 2 votes in every election and 2 VP. Independent colonies still act as a claim for factories, require another human present to decommission them as a felony, and your colonies become independent during War if you control the New Attica Secessionists.
- All five players are included in the election auction even if they are not otherwise present in the game (W2). Elections won by absent players or by players who don't reach the political threshold (W5) move the counter randomly towards the faction's political position. This allows the Politics to change in ways that may not benefit players playing the game.
- An election should always occur every time the sunspot disk transitions through the blue sector on the Sunspot Cycle (W3) unless the Politics is Authoritarian — this is enforced immediately before entering the yellow sector.
- The face up colonist on the Colonist Deck votes in elections (W4), with a chance equal to the Suffrage op chance of the votes coming from the promoted side of the card.
- The political threshold (W5) accrues one counter every time the game exits the blue sector (after the mandatory election, if any). This is the minimum number of votes an election winner must win by to be able to choose where the politics token moves — otherwise it moves according to the political struggle (W2), if that rule is used.
- Once a colonist future has been achieved, the faction the colonist is loyal to always gets their votes, and the special ability text on the promoted colonist required for this future is applied to all factions (W6) and persists even if the colonist is demoted, decommissioned or removed from the game. "This card" applies to all promoted colonists; "this stack" applies to all stacks.
- Exploration Module. Both sides of glory cards can be claimed (W7a & b). They have additional requirements to meet and they confer rewards as well as victory points to the explorer. There are 4 new ventures (W7c).
- Endgame conditions are modified to be dependent on the total amount of achieved glories, ventures, starshots and futures (W8). Therefore the game is faster than when playing just the Endgame Module (however it is still recommended).
- Mercenary crews can be hired for a price. They can be used for a better net thrust or a buggy/missile ISRU ratings which either makes access to larger sites easier or prospect of sites better and faster (W9).
- New Exploration Tokens for additional VP for TNO Science, astrobiological, and subsurface ocean sites (W10).
W1. Interplanetary Council
If you decommission a colonist to make a colony you may choose to make the colony independent. Remove your claim disk from the site and place it in the Interplanetary Council. Your claim disks on the Interplanetary council each give you 2 votes in every election and are worth 2 VP (instead of 1 VP as a claim). You can continue to use your small cubes as factories at your independent colonies as if you had a claim there (and your big cube if you have a promoted freighter) and the colony gives you 2 VP at the end of the game as normal.
- Decommission. If your independent colony is decommissioned, you must withdraw one of your claim disks (if any) and place it at the site of the colony claim. You must have another human present if you decommission independent colonies as a felony, and the colony must be decommissioned before withdrawing or moving your factory at the same site.
- Revolution. The player controlling the New Attica Secessionists makes all their colonies independent if the politics is or changes to War.
W2. Political Struggle
If playing with the Colonist module (R), when conducting the election auction, all five factions are considered part of the auction, even if they are not otherwise present in the game.
Each faction accrues votes from the electoral buttons of boosted colonists, if the Politics is not at War (K4), and from all exomigrant colonists (W4) regardless of whether the policy is at War. However, only factions with players present in the game can add votes through the blind bid process and those votes can only be added to the players' own faction.
If the faction who wins an election is either missing from the game or did not win by enough votes to reach the political threshold (W5), the Politics disk moves one step towards the policy or policies of their color, taking either the north or west (1-3) or south or east (4-6) path if there is a choice available.
Flipping. If the winner is player Green or White and they are already in power, they switch policy half the time (1-3) to the other policy of the same color if they are missing from the game or did not reach the political threshold.
W3. Mandatory Elections (Democracy)
An election must occur at least once each time the sunspot disk moves through the blue sector of the Sunspot Cycle (Democracy) — counting elections initiated from the Sol Event Table (M3) and from the Activism operation (N6) — regardless of who initiated it. If an election has not happened in the time through the blue sector, by the time the sunspot disk exits the blue sector of the Sunspot Cycle, it occurs automatically (and at no action or operation cost) before the counter is moved into the yellow section of the Sunspot Cycle.
EXCEPTION: An election is not required when exiting the blue sector if the current political status is Authoritarian at the time and it will not be triggered by the exit when this policy applies.
POLITICS NOTE: While uncommon in presidential elections, there is a tradition in parliamentary democracies of allowing the election date to be chosen by the in power party in order to maximize their reelection chances. It is also possible for an opposition party to force an election to be held if it is able to win a vote of no confidence or block the passage of legislation critical to the ongoing governing of the country, such as a budget or supply bill.
W4. Exomigration
If playing with the Colonist Module (R), the face up colonist on the Colonist deck, if human, will influence the Election Auction by adding their votes to the auction total. To determine how the votes are cast, before the blind auction, roll 1d6. If the number rolled is less than the number of cards in play on their purple side (including Freighters, Bernals, Colonists and GW Thrusters), the colonist will contribute the votes from their promoted side (turn the card over for the duration of the election auction), otherwise they will contribute votes from their unpromoted side. Because they have no employer, their allegiance does not change while politics is at War (K5).
W5. Political Threshold
When you enter the yellow sector, place one clear blue counter (after conducting any mandatory election) next to the end of the blue sector. The number of clear blue counters here represents the political threshold. This is the minimum number of votes (electoral boxes and WT) that an election winner must win by in order to be able to choose where to move the politics token. If this threshold is not met, the politics token moves according to the political struggle.
W6. Colonist Futures
Once a colonist future has been achieved, the colonist's electoral boxes always contribute votes to their faction (instead of being affected by war loyalty) and the special ability text on the promoted colonist required for this future is applied as if all factions control the card. This represents a permanent change to the human society and persists even if the colonist is demoted, decommissioned or otherwise removed from play. The following specific modifications also occur:
- Text referring to "this card" applies to all promoted colonist cards.
- Text referring to "this card's stack" or "colocated stacks" applies to all stacks.
NOTE: The text on the Creeper Neogen referring to the black side limits this specific ability to promoted robots only.
EXAMPLE: The Supreme Cult Leader future is achieved. Now, no robonaut or robot controlled by any player can perform an op without getting permission of all other players unless a human is present, and all other players get 1 WT each any time anyone performs a FINAO. Player White gets the 2 votes from the Josephson Implants, regardless of whether it is peace or war time or the card is not in play.
W7. Double-Sided Glories & Ventures
Players can claim both sides of Glory and Venture cards. Whoever claims one side of the card has an exclusive right to claim its reverse side. Victory points from both sides are cumulative.
Handling of multiple Glory subconditions. If the humans are killed on the way to Earth's surface or a lab, visit the requested sites again. The condition of being first means being first to collectively fulfill all subconditions together. Different humans can visit different bodies, provided all of them return to Earth's surface, each fulfilling the given subcondition. The phrase "yet-unvisited" means that the player cannot use this body for the glory if another player has visited it first with humans or it has been already used for another glory, however if there are no such sites left, the phrase is ignored. All "random" site characteristic additions are performed immediately after fulfillment of the glory.
A. Basic Side of Glory Cards
- Messenger of the Gods/Pushing the Boundary. First to land humans on Mercury and another yet-unvisited Push Factory body and return safely to Earth's surface. Reward: You can consider Mercury North Pole to be a subsurface ocean site with a 3d6 roll instead of 2d6.
- God of War/Vision for Space Exploration. First to land humans on Mars and another yet-unvisited atmospheric body and return safely to Earth's surface. Reward: You can consider a random Mars site to be an astrobiology site.
- Doomsayer of the Gods/One Big Leap for Science. First to land humans on a science site and another such site of yet-unvisited 5+ size body and return safely to Earth's surface. Reward: You can consider a random Chiron/Methone site to be a TNO science site.
- King of the Gods/HOPE: Human Outer Planet Exploration. First to land humans on a site in the Jupiter zone or beyond and another such site of yet-unvisited 5+ size body and return safely to Earth's surface. Reward: You can consider a random Ganymede/Callisto non-submersible-prospectable site to be submersible-prospectable.
- Father Sky/Following Voyager. First to land humans on a site in the Uranus zone or beyond and another such site of yet-unvisited 5+ size body. Reward: You can consider a random Triton site to be a TNO science site.
- Heroism/The New Space Race. First to land humans on sites in three different heliocentric zones one of them being a 5+ size site of a yet-unvisited body. Reward: You can consider a random Io site to be an astrobiology site.
B. Endgame Module Side of Glory Cards
- Golden Apples of the Sun. First to decommission a refinery plus supports on the Kreutz Sungrazer and a working raygun robonaut in the Rabbithole. Reward: have +1 rad hardness during Solar Flares/CME rolls and for radiation belts during the red sector.
- Search for Alien Life. First to discover ET life. Additionally must land humans on Titan. To search for life, have a human spend a Science Op. in an astrobiology site. Roll 1d6 to explore; a '1' or '2' = success. Each site may be explored once. Reward: Your industrialized (for Halley: claimed) sites with alien life are "living labs" and each one lets you add 2 to your Epic Hazard Op Roll.
- Submersible Prospectors. First to subsurface prospect and return the humans to the Earth or a lab. Additionally must land humans on Europa. To prospect, make a special 2d6 buggy prospecting roll at one of your claimed subsurface ocean sites. Roll for each site; only one attempt per site. Succeed if 2d6 ≤ size. Human presence at the site is required when special-prospecting. Reward: Your special-prospected sites have increased hydration by 1. Possession of at least 2 such industrialized sites (anywhere) lets your dirtside hydration be rounded up, not down.
- Search for CUDOs. First to land humans on your claimed TNO science site and return safely to Earth's surface. Additionally must land humans on Triton. Reward: When industrializing any TNO site, you may change its spectral type to S (for Helium Scarcity: H). Only one such change is allowed per game.
- Saving the Earth. First to decommission a refinery plus non-radiator supports on both Hermes A and B and unless it is done in the first 24 turns, also decommission an operational refinery in each of the Jovian aerobrakes. (They will watch for impacting comets.) Reward: You can access synodic comets 1 year before or after its solar period.
- Outer Diaspora. First to simultaneously have a space colony in 5 heliocentric zones with at least one of them on an aerostat site. Reward: Each of your colonies on an explored site adds two additional votes.
C. Venture Card Changes
Ignore the yellow basic side of Venture cards and use the texts below instead:
- Reverse of Space 3D Printing: Rare materials (4VP). Each financial op profits 1WT at the end of your turn. First to have 3 D site claims and pay 5WT.
- Reverse of Space Pharmacy: Helium Infrastructure (4VP). You can factory-refuel 2 more tanks of fuel of any grade. First to claim 2 aerostat sites and pay 5WT.
- Reverse of Space Tourism Venture: Mass beaming (4VP). Your push factory pushes +3. First to claim 2 push factory sites and pay 5WT.
- Reverse of Space Elevator Venture: Extraterrestrial Agriculture (4VP). You can ET produce 'C' products at astrobiology sites. ET production at 'C' astrobiology sites profits 1WT at the end of your turn. First to claim 3 astrobiology sites and pay 5WT.
W8. Endgame Conditions
The game ends 2 events after the required amount of achievements (glories, ventures, starshots, futures) is reached: 2 players = 9, 3 players = 15, 4 players = 20, 5 players = 22. The game ends also 12 turns after the Footfall future is announced or when all players have performed a Starshot (Y1).
- Futures are worth 3 achievements each and they are no longer necessary to end the game.
- Starshots (Y1) are worth 2 achievements each and 3VP.
- Each side of Glory and Venture is worth 1 achievement.
- When the game ends, execute an endgame election.
UNRESTRICTED AMOUNT OF FUTURES: It is possible to score any amount of futures. All 5th+ futures are worth 4VP.
W9. Mercenaries
If your crew is unboosted, you can boost a mercenary crew from its reverse side. They are helpful for landing on glory-rich heavy gravity sites (high thrust) or for better prospect operations (buggy, raygun).
- Faction Privileges do not change.
- If mercenaries are decommissioned due to anything other than a ticker tape parade or a colony, then you are no longer allowed to boost mercenaries.
Fees. 1WT fee should be paid whenever:
- Using a mercenaries' thrusters for landing or lift-off or a Hazardous Flyby (X5),
- Using a mercenaries' ISRU ratings for prospecting or combat,
- Establishing a colony with a mercenary.
W10. Exploration Tokens
Place Exploration (clear red disks) Tokens at the beginning of the game on each site which can be explored to achieve the Search for Cudos (TNO science), Search for Alien Life (astrobiological) or Submersible Prospecting glories. Take the exploration token when you attempt the operation described on the card to achieve glory — this requires humans to be present (and a buggy for Submersible Prospecting). This exploration token is worth 1 VP regardless of the success or failure of the roll for glory. You may continue to acquire exploration tokens in the same manner even after the appropriate glories have been achieved.
Whenever a site becomes relevant for the token placement due to certain glory rewards (e.g. new astrobiology site on Mars), place additional tokens then (even if there are already such).
X. Simulation Modules
The following experimental modules are independent of each other:
- Bernals start "on the ground" instead of boosted (X1).
- Certain generators have open cycle cooling which gives them a +1 thrust modifier and 1 therm of cooling if expending 1 fuel step of fuel (X2).
- For lift-off, landing and avoiding Radiation Hazards, GW/TW thrusters only increase their net thrust by 1 if they afterburn instead of the increased afterburn value shown on the card, and sails regard their first pivot as 1 burn instead of 2 (X3).
- Alternate solar flux values for Ceres zone and beyond (X4) apply to solar-powered rockets to more realistically model available solar power at these ranges.
- The ability to declare a flyby to be a hazardous burn (X5) to improve the free burns it provides if you meet a minimum thrust requirement and spend fuel to get through the burn.
- A new spectral class H (X6) replaces the spectral class listed for the gas giant aerostats and the Lunar Astrachus Plateau site. Cards which use Helium-3 become H spectral class.
- Factories at Astrobiological and Subsurface ocean sites add +2 WT when performing a Site Refuel of water or isotope fuel.
X1. Bernals Start on the Ground (Phil Eklund)
This module starts the player factions on the ground, with no space presence. It adds about 15 minutes per player to the game.
- Setup. Players start with their Bernal Card in their hand, not in space. It must be boosted like any other white card (into LEO at a cost of 10 WT).
- Privilege. You start with your Faction Privilege deactivated, but it becomes permanently activated as soon as you boost your mass 10 Bernal into LEO.
- Humans In Space. You can boost crew, but you cannot boost any human colonists until you boost your Bernal. A colonist in a Bernal at LEO is safe from the Pad Explosions/Space Debris event.
- Home Orbit. As soon as you move your Bernal to its home orbit (see Q3), you can boost cards directly to your home orbit, and store your WTs there (Q). This also activates your Bernal Privilege (Q7).
- Hazard. It is possible to destroy the unpromoted Bernal with a Hazard roll or an Epic Hazard Op. Then it starts again on the ground. Combat cannot destroy it.
- Lunar Treaty. Luna is not busted at start. Reactors and cards with onboard reactors are not allowed to be ET produced there. Each operation involving a Lunar site other than ISRU refueling costs a 5 WT fee.
- Ersatz. You cannot boost an Ersatz-Bernal (Q4) until your Bernal is moved to a dirtside.
X2. Open Cycle Generators
The Cascade Thermoacoustic, MHD open cycle, Z-pinch Microfission, and Granular Rainbow Corral generators have open cycle cooling which gives them a +1 thrust modifier and 1 therm of cooling for expending 1 fuel step of water or isotope fuel. This is cumulative with a thruster's afterburn, if the afterburn fuel cost is expended, and can also be used to cool generator powered robonauts and other supported cards which afterburn may not be able to cool.
NOTE: GW thrusters are not modified by supports other than solar power so the +1 thrust modifier does not apply to them, but they can benefit from the 1 therm additional cooling.
X3. Torch Ships and Sails
In order to model a wide range of different thrusters, the game made some approximations for continuous thrust rockets such as GW thrusters and sails. These rules are more realistic:
- GW and TW thrusters typically have a low thrust but high fuel efficiency which allows them to expel propellant for the entire duration of the journey (torch ships), which is modeled using their high afterburn bonus. To more correctly simulate these thrusters, their increased afterburn bonus should only apply for increasing their thrust movement points (TMP) used to calculate how many burns and pivots they can enter in a turn. For all other uses of thrust — e.g. lift-off, landing and avoiding rad-hazards — consider the GW/TW thruster's net thrust to be only increased by 1 if the thruster afterburns.
- Sails are capable of a greater delta V per year than their thrust would suggest. To reflect this, the first pivot moved through each turn by a sail costs 1 burn instead of two burns. This also applies to the Calypso 2 Seed-Sail/Wet Nano Seed-Sail colonist thruster.
X4. Modified Solar Flux (Dr. Noah Vale)
The following solar flux values for Ceres zone and beyond apply to solar-powered thrusters (and thrusters with solar-powered supports) to more realistically model available solar power at these ranges.
| Zone | New Flux |
|---|---|
| Ceres | -3 thrust |
| Jupiter | -5 thrust |
| Saturn | -7 thrust |
| Uranus | No solar power |
EXCEPTION: The Electric Sail uses solar wind instead of solar power, so use the existing on map thrust modifiers (as do Solar Flare/CME events). Green Bernal's Collimator makes the genuine Bernal's thrust immune to the above solar flux modifications.
X5. Hazardous Flybys (Dr. Noah Vale)
You can elect to make a hazardous flyby in order to increase the free burns that you receive from the flyby space, as follows:
- The flyby or moon boost space becomes a hazardous burn when you attempt a hazardous flyby (spend a burn to enter, and roll for a hazard or FINAO). You cannot use free burns from another flyby to traverse this burn — you must spend fuel.
- A hazardous flyby gives additional free burns (beyond those from the flyby) equal to the flyby bonus plus one. e.g. A hazardous Venus flyby gives 5 free burns (2 + 2 + 1).
- Net thrust must be ≥ 9 for a moon-boost and gives 3 free burns (net 2).
- Net thrust must be ≥ 8 for a slingshot of 1 and gives 3 free burns (net 2).
- Net thrust must be ≥ 7 for a slingshot of 2 and gives 5 free burns (net 4).
- Net thrust must be ≥ 6 for a slingshot of 4 (Jupiter) and gives 9 free burns (net 8).
- The Solar Oberth is modeled using its own hazardous burn rules.
- The same slingshot can only be used once during a move. Only one hazardous flyby (including Oberth) is allowed per move.
EXAMPLE: The player performs an Oberth over Venus (+2) with his NERVA 7•4 rocket. He performs a burn over the Venus Flyby, using 4 steps. He safety rolls a 3 on his hazard roll. He now has 3 free burns (for a net of 2, since he used a burn over the Flyby L-space) in addition to the 2 from the Venus flyby for a total of 5 free burns (net of 4). He uses it to reach Psyche.
X6. Helium Scarcity
Helium-3 is a rare isotope used in the clean 3He-D fusion reaction (clean aneutronic reactions are necessary to reduce the need for heat rejection). In our solar system, helium-3 is found only in gas giants or on Luna. Therefore, the three gas giant aerostats (Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and the Lunar Astrachus Plateau (0 hydration formerly M site) become H spectral class sites (a new class) replacing their existing spectral type, and use an H spectral class exploitation track for VP determination and black card values.
The following 6 cards become H spectral class cards, as either H Isotope refueling, digital swap H, flip-side H or H products:
- Project Orion/Project Valkyrie reactors
- Penning Trap/3He-D Fusion Mirror Cell reactors
- D-T Fusion Tokamak/Antimatter Bottle reactors
- D-T Vista/Daedalus 3He-D Inertial Fusion GW thrusters
- Spheromak 3He-D Magnetic Fusion/Colliding FRC 3He-D Fusion GW thrusters
- Z-Pinch D-T/6Li Fusion/Z-Pinch 3He-D Target Fusion freighters
When using the Exploration Module, the Helium Infrastructure venture requires 2 H claims (instead of 2 aerostat claims).
X7. Astrobiology and Subsurface Ocean Factories
When refueling at a factory at an astrobiology or subsurface ocean site, add two WT to each Site Refuel operation (H5) when refueling with water or isotope fuel.
Glossary
Terms underlined in the rules are defined here. These include the game's core terms.
Adjacent – A spacecraft is adjacent to a position if it is in the next space, where each intersection, burn, and site counts as a space. However, for this purpose, crash hazards (including burns containing crash hazards) and lander burns (G4) do not count towards adjacency. Also, sites connected by buggy roads (B4) are not adjacent (because line of sight is blocked by the horizon).
- Any space adjacent to one end of a Space Elevator (I2) is also adjacent to the space on the other end.
Aerobrake Hazard – A space marked with the parachute icon (F5). When entering an aerobrake hazard, roll the die. A "1" = spacecraft decommissioned.
Assaying Smelters – Certain refineries (as listed on the card) improve the ISRU rating or prospecting roll, if at the site being prospected (Exception: Superlens ability affects colocated lasers).
Atmospheric Site – If the map image of the site is encircled by a blue halo, the site is atmospheric. This includes Venus, Mars, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. This is relevant in Raygun Prospecting (H6), Atmosphere Scooping (H5), climate mirrors (U2), refineries which grant powersat (F2), abilities, and some futures.
Bernal (Bernal module) – A type of space station that can move like a rocket, and follows all rocket rules. It forms its own stack, and has its own cylindrical map and fuel figures. You can boost a second (stationary) Bernal called an Ersatz-Bernal (Q4). Your WTs are stored in the Bernal or Ersatz-Bernal parked in your home orbit.
Bernal Privilege (Bernal module) – You gain this privilege, as listed on your Bernal card, upon promoting your Bernal. The privilege is active as long as your Bernal remains promoted.
Buggy Prospecting – Using a buggy allows for two attempts at a successful prospecting roll with one prospect operation. Alternately, if prospecting a site linked to others by a dashed yellow line (indicating a Buggy Road), you may prospect all the linked sites with one Prospect Operation (H6), assuming the buggy has the necessary ISRU for those sites.
EXAMPLE: A buggy prospects Dresda. The roll is a 3, which fails because Dresda is size 2. But a second roll of 2 succeeds and places a claim disk.
Burn – A magenta-colored circular or lander-shaped space. It costs 1 TMP and (for rockets) fuel to enter a burn. You may not halt on a Lander Burn (G4).
Cargo – The cards in a stack. Fuel is not cargo, but FFTs are (K6). If using the Freighter Module, cubes may be carried as cargo per P4.
Claim Disk – A disk of a player's color showing that he has successfully prospected and has mines and claims at a site. Each claim is worth 1 VP.
Claim Jump – If you are allowed to commit felonies, you may land on the unindustrialized claim of another player, and immediately replace the claim disk with one of your color. You must have a human at the site, and the site must be undefended by humans.
- It is not a felony to merely land or ISRU refuel (H5.2) on another player's claim or factory. You need the owner's permission (D3) to factory refuel.
EXAMPLE: Both NASA and PRC have rockets on Encke's comet. NASA prospects successfully, placing a white claim disk. On his turn, the manned PRC rocket feloniously claims the site, replacing the NASA disk with a red disk.
Colocated – Occupying the same space.
Crash Hazard – A space marked with the skull icon. When entering a crash hazard, roll the die. A 1 = spacecraft decommissioned (F5). Making a factory-assisted landing or lift-off (G3) also suffers this risk.
EXAMPLE: Both NASA and PRC have rockets on Encke's comet. NASA prospects successfully, placing a white claim disk. On his turn, the manned PRC rocket feloniously claims the site replacing the NASA disk with a red disk.
Decommission – Scrap a card from one of your stacks to your hand, so that it can be rebuilt anew (either by boosting or by ET production). This is a free action at any point in your turn (D1.6). If part of your Rocket Stack is decommissioned, see Dry Mass Adjustment (D2).
- Freighter Cube. You are allowed to decommission a freighter or mobile factory cube, which goes into your reserves.
- Radiators. If a radiator is "heavy" (O4), a decommission other than a hazard (F5) or epic hazard decommission rotates it to its "light" orientation.
- Decommissioned robots (unless emancipated) and crew go into your hand, but decommissioned human colonists go into the bottom of the colonist deck. (Colonists retain no allegiance to their former employer if decommissioned).
- Your humans can only be decommissioned if you are allowed felonies, or per the next two bullets. The Botany Bay Convicts can self-decommission, because they are allowed to commit felonies (this represents them going AWOL).
- Ticker Tape Parade. Humans can be decommissioned in LEO (e.g. for obtaining a glory card per I1).
- Space Colony. Humans can be decommissioned at a factory to start a Space Colony. If they have an on-board nuclear reactor (R3), they can act as a support for the factory. They can also decommission at an existing colony (which absorbs the crew without benefit).
- Involuntary Decommission. If a stack is destroyed or loses its last card by a Hazard roll, Epic Hazard Op, event, radiation, combat, etc., return all of its cargo cards to your hand and remove its map and fuel figures. Note that the Bernal Card is invulnerable (Q2).
TIP: Should a rocket end up in a bad situation (e.g. out of fuel), either decommission its patent cards, or mount a rescue mission (e.g. convert the rocket to an outpost, assemble a new rocket, and send it to rescue the old one).
Dedicated Card (Colonization) – The Bernal and Freighter cards are dedicated. The Bernal cannot be removed from the Bernal Stack, and the Freighter Card can be removed from the Freighter Stack only by decommissioning. Although dedicated cards cannot be part of your rocket stack, you may tow freighters (P4), and move Bernals with thruster cards (Q8). You cannot convert a stack to an outpost (E6) if it has a dedicated card.
Dirt Rocket – A card with a black thrust triangle that is allowed to use regolith (space dirt) as propellant. When fueled partially or wholly with dirt, use the black fuel figure. All of the promoted Bernals, except for Player Orange, are dirt-rockets (Q8).
- Phileas Fogg Refueling. A rocket or Bernal with a black fuel figure can decommission its cards as fuel (the machinery is ground up and fed into the engine hopper). Each mass point so decommissioned lowers the dry mass disk one step, following the dashed red line. This is a free action before you move.
Dirtside (Bernal Module) – Each of your factories on sites colocated or adjacent to your Bernal figure is called a dirtside. See Example Q5.
- You cannot use an opponent's factory as a dirtside.
- A Bernal must land on a Synodic Comet to use it as a dirtside.
Dry Mass – The mass of a rocket, not counting its fuel. Find the dry mass by adding the masses of all the cargo (i.e. cards, cubes, and FFT) in the Rocket or Bernal Stack. The dry mass is tracked with a disk on the Fuel Strip. If it changes, see D2.
- The minimum dry mass of a rocket is one. If the mass of the cards is less than one, treat it as one. The maximum dry mass allowed is 23.
Emancipated (Colonist Module) – Robots are emancipated using the Suffrage Operation (N3). If emancipated, robots are treated exactly as humans except they still do not count against your Maximum Human Colonists in Space (R4). They prevent glitches and in peacetime have loyalty to the Emancipator (N3). Because consciousness is not fungible, neither humans nor emancipated robots can be digitally swapped (N1).
Epic Hazard Op. (Colonization) – Certain Futures (U1) call for an operation marked with a skull icon. This operation is called an Epic Hazard Op. An epic hazard op can be performed by a colonist of any specialization (unless stated that it requires a scientist or engineer), but the requirements stated on the future must be met and both the colonist performing the op and the promoted card with the future must be present at the site, meeting the epic hazard op requirements.
- Epic Hazard Roll. Make a 1d6 roll, which cannot be modified by Failure Is Not An Option (F5). If you have at least one of the following you fail if the roll is a "1": a TNO Lab, factories on sites of at least four different Spectral Types, or claims on at least two Synodic Comets with one having your Bernal Lab. If you don't have one of these, you fail if the roll is anything but a 6.
- Failure Effects. If you fail the roll, all cards and cubes colocated with the performing colonist are decommissioned (except Bernals). If on a site, the site itself is destroyed (place a blue disk to indicate this). Bust the Futures Star (U1) with a clear blue disk stacked on your claim disk, indicating that although the future was not met, the game is one step closer to ending.
Exoglobalization – The elimination of government-enforced restrictions on exchanges across the Earth and extended to extraterrestrial resources and facilities, creating an interglobal marketplace.
Faction – Each player is a distinct "basal societal unit" (BSU): global regulation (purple), national government (white), socialist regime (red), worker union (green), or private entrepreneur (orange).
Faction Privileges – Each faction has a special privilege, depending on which side of the crew card (legacy or radical) you are playing. Except for "War Declaration," this privilege is lost during Anarchy or War (K4). If playing with the Bernal module, it is also lost per Q3.
- Launch Fees (Legacy White or Radical Orange). Receive a 1 WT bonus from the pool after any player (including yourself) boosts one or more cards.
- Skunkworks (Legacy Orange or Radical Purple). You may participate in a Research Operation (H2) or a Recruit Operation (N4) regardless of your hand size.
- Powersat (Legacy Green or Radical White). You may add one thrust to any spacecraft marked by the Push Icon, during any player turn (unless it is already being pushed; e.g. by a Push Factory).
- Territoriality/Extralegal Activism (Legacy Red or Radical Green). As free actions during your turn, you may perform Felonies: including Claim Jumping, Human Decommission, and Hijacking.
- War Declaration (Legacy Red, Colonization). As a free action during the start of your turn, you are allowed to move the Politics from anarchy to war per K4.
- Taxes/Protection Fees (Legacy Purple or Radical Red). Receive a 1 WT bonus from the pool for each Claim Disk (H6) or Factory (H7) established by any player (including yourself). No tax bonus for Claim Jumping.
- Cycler (Legacy Purple, Colonization). You may grant passage of any spacecraft through the Radiation Hazards surrounding Earth without risk.
Factory – A Claim Disk topped with a cube of the same color (large or small) is called a Factory. Sites with factories are said to be industrialized. There are three special types of factories: Dirtside, Lab, and Push. Only one cube can be on a claim (plus a dome, if it's a Space Colony).
Felonies – Free actions that are allowed only to Player Red, Radical Green, or during Anarchy or War. You may perform them only with humans. If another player's humans are present, the other player may choose to prevent the felony (except human decommissions can't be prevented). They include Claim Jumping, Hijacking, and human Decommission.
Flyby (Colonization) – A space representing a close pass to a planet, allowing Slingshots (K1). It follows the rules for Lagrange Points. A Moon Boost (K1) is a type of flyby. Another flyby is the Solar Oberth, which gives you a Slingshot Rating equal to the rocket's Base Thrust (F1), plus one if afterburning. You must spend fuel for this burn before using the slingshot, and each spacecraft can use the Oberth only once per move.
Fuel Economy Reactors (Support Module) – Some space-built reactors have a triangle that halves or quarters your fuel expenditure, if used in support of a thruster (O1).
Hazard – See Aerobrake Hazard, Crash Hazard, Epic Hazard Op, or Radiation Hazard.
Hijacking – It is a felony to perform an operation using a foreign installation for Refueling (H5) or Promotion (N2) without the owner's permission.
Hohmann – An intersection of two routes, unmarked by a circle. Changing direction mid-move in a Hohmann requires a Pivot maneuver.
- If routes cross without touching, pivots are not allowed.
Home Orbit – Your home orbit is LEO (Low Earth Orbit). However, if using the Bernal module, your home orbit is instead the orbit where your Bernal starts, if you have a Bernal figure there, and LEO otherwise. The Bernal of Player White starts in Earth-Luna L5. Player Orange starts in Earth-Luna L2. Player Green starts in GEO. Player Red starts in Earth-Luna L3. Player Purple starts in HEO. These home orbits are shown on the map by a seven-pointed star. Cards boosted from Earth go to your home orbit.
Human – A crew card, Bernal card or ersatz-Bernal, Colonist Card (if emancipated), or Human Colonist Card. A Space Colony is also human. Humans can't be decommissioned outside LEO except as a felony or to build a space colony, and they protect against felonies and glitches. The maximum number of Human Colonists in space (but not humans, so not including crew) is limited per R4.
Hydration – The availability of water on a site. This will be between zero and four, and is denoted by the number of waterdrops on a site hex. This is used for Refueling (H5) and Prospecting (H6), as well as the optional Colonist Module (R4).
In Power (Colonization) – The seven spots on the Space Government that are colored with a faction color. You are in power if the Politics is on a polity of your faction color.
ISRU – Units able to prospect or dig for water have an "In Situ Resource Utilization" rating, ranging from zero (the best) to four (the worst). In order for a unit to be able to Prospect or ISRU Refuel at a site, it must have an ISRU number less than, or equal to, the site's hydration.
Lab – There are two kinds of Labs. A factory at a TNO Science Site (the yellow star-microscope icon) is called a TNO Lab. A promoted Bernal with at least one dirtside on a Science Site is a Bernal Lab.
- Either kind of Lab is required to promote a Colonist, Freighter, or GW Thruster (N2).
Lagrange Point – Any intersection marked with a circle, either filled (i.e. a burn) or unfilled, indicates a junction where you can turn for no movement or fuel cost. (Course corrections are easy in these areas because the heliocentric-dominated gravity is partially nullified by the presence of planets or large moons. In physics, these are where the gravitational pulls of two massive bodies provide the centripetal force required to orbit both of them.) Note that there are many circular spaces not on an intersection that are not technically Lagrange Points. These places (which include LEO, radiation spaces, and spaces on zone boundaries) nevertheless follow the rules for a Lagrange Point.
Loyalty (Colonist Module) – When not at War (K4), the loyalty of a colonist is indicated by the faction color of its Election Button (R3). A gear-shaped button indicates the colonist is robotic with loyalty to the Robot Emancipator (N3), if one exists. Loyalty is used during Hostile Recruiting (N5) and peacetime Elections (N6).
- Loyalty (wartime). During War, all colonists have loyalty to the holder of their card (i.e. their employer).
Map Anatomy – See the map legend for site/route symbols (Sites, Intersections, Burns, etc. per B4).
Maximum Mass – In order to move, your Rocket and Bernal Stacks are limited to a dry mass of 23 and a wet mass of 32.
Open-Cycle Cooling (Colonization) – If you afterburn at any point in a move, in addition to adding to your thrust, you can also satisfy one therm of cooling. (This simulates dumping coolant into the exhaust to increase thrust and get rid of heat.) Afterburners can be used to cool missile robonauts during prospecting or site-refuel, if they have expended the afterburning fuel that turn.
EXAMPLE [Support Module]: A rocket uses a vortex-confined thruster (1 therm) and a D-T Tokamak as a support (2 more therms). This rocket has but a single 2-therm radiator, however, and thus must use open-cycle cooling every move the thruster is used, to keep from melting down. This increases the thrust (from 6 to 7), at a cost of an extra fuel step.
- Expenditure of afterburning fuel also counts as cooling during combat, for combat-capable thrusters or missile robonauts.
- GW Thrusters have Enhanced Afterburning (S3).
Order of Decision-Making (Colonization) – Rarely, an Event (M3) or Combat (T) requires an order-significant decision from multiple players simultaneously. If so, the first player makes his decisions first, then go clockwise around the table.
EXAMPLE: A Pad Explosion is rolled. The first player has two mass 5 cards in his LEO Stack and chooses one to decommission. Then, the next player in clockwise order chooses.
Pivot – A maneuver whereby a spacecraft changes direction on a Hohmann. A pivot costs 2 TMPs and fuel equivalent to making two burns. Certain freighters, Bernal Privileges, and colonists affect pivots.
Politics (Colonization) – The transparent blue disk on the Space Government Diagram, indicating the faction in power, the policies (K4) enforced, and the endgame VP.
Push Factory (Colonization) – A factory on Mercury, Venus, or Io is called a Push Factory. These sites are marked on the map with a push icon. A push factory adds two thrust to any spacecraft marked by the push icon, or to legacy freighters (E5), during any player's turn (unless it is already being pushed by a powersat or another Push Factory). It also lets a Bernal use solar-powered supports as far out as Saturn (Q6).
Radiation-Hardness (Colonization) – A number measuring how robust a card is to radiation damage, abbreviated "rad-hard" or "rad-hardness." First determine a radiation level (during flares, combat, or Radiation Hazards), then decommission any card with a radiation-hardness less than this level.
Radiation Hazard (Colonization) – A space marked with the radiation icon. Upon entering, a spacecraft rolls a die and subtracts its net thrust (F2) from the roll to obtain a radiation level. All cards and cubes in the stack with a rad-hardness less than this level are decommissioned.
- Freighters have a net thrust equal to their TMPs for this purpose. This is usually 1 but can be higher (e.g. Push Factories, antiproton sails).
Raygun Prospecting – If you are prospecting with a raygun, you may also prospect any number of adjacent site hexes (where each intersection, non-lander burn, and site counts as a space). However, ignore crash hazard spaces, as they are not considered spaces when determining adjacency.
- You can't fire into an atmospheric site.
EXAMPLE 1: A raygun (ISRU = 0) on the HEO for the Koronis Family may prospect ten asteroids in one operation! This includes the asteroids in the Karin Cluster. Roll separately for each prospect.
EXAMPLE 2: A raygun (ISRU = 1) on the surface of Kleopatra can prospect Kleopatra and both of its moonlets in one operation, since they are joined by a crash hazard space.
Sails – Four cards are sails (heliogyro/electric, photon kite/mag, fission fragment/antiproton, and the Calypso/wet nano sails). Physically, they are huge gossamer films usually propelled by the sun (solar photons, solar wind, or solar magnetic field). Although they are technically not rockets, they move as rockets with a fuel consumption of zero.
- Sails are decommissioned immediately upon entering an Aerobrake Hazard.
- The Mag Sail receives a +1 moon boost for each Radiation Hazard it enters in a move. However, each radiation hazard can boost a sail only once per turn, in the case where a sail circles and re-enters the same point.
EXAMPLE 1: A sail with a mass of 1 takes on cargo with a mass of 6. The total dry mass is thus 1 + 6 = 7. Place the fuel figure in the empty position of the "7 dry" row (it's flying without any fuel). If it has a thrust of 1, it would be fully loaded, since it cannot take on any more mass or fuel without going into transport class, which modifies its thrust to less than 1.
EXAMPLE 2: A sail spends its 1 burn to enter the Mars HEO (highly eccentric orbit). It then coasts to the aerobrake hazard. The sail card is decommissioned, but the rest of the stack parachutes onto the Hellas Basin.
Scale –
- Every round of player turns is one Earth year.
- Each mass point is a quadecaton (40-tonnes, or 40,000 kg).
- Every human mass point is an eight-man crew with life-support.
- Fuel consumption is inversely proportional to a rocket's specific impulse in seconds, as follows: 6 = 4.6 km/sec (460 sec Isp), 4 = 10 km/sec (1000 sec Isp), 2 = 20 km/sec (2000 sec Isp), 1 = 40 km/sec (4000 sec Isp), ½ = 80 km/sec (8000 sec Isp), ¼ = 160 km/sec (16,000 sec Isp), 0 ≥ 0.4% lightspeed (121,000 sec Isp).
- A thrust of one is 0.75 kN (750 Newtons — or 169 lbs. — the weight of the game designer on Earth). Each additional point doubles this.
- An acceleration (in the game this is called net thrust) of one is 0.38 milligees, or 0.38 cm/sec², and each step more doubles this.
- A size one world has a surface gravity of 0.75 milligees and each additional step doubles this. Size 1 worlds have the following diameters based upon density: comet nucleus 52 km (only Centaur comets approach this size), S-type asteroid 22 km, M-type asteroid 14 km.
- A site with hydration 4 is an icy or permafrost body. Hydration 3 has small amounts of surface or subsurface ice. The Sahara Desert is hydration 3. At hydration 2, trace amounts of water can be extracted from kilotons of regolith. At hydration 1, concrete would be considered a good source of water. At hydration 0, oxides and hydrides are the only alternatives. (Dr. Noah Vale.)
- Reactors produce from 650-2000 MWth of thermal energy, either in neutrons, pions, or plasma jets. From this, generators produce 60 MWe of electricity (subscript e = electricity, th = thermal).
- Beamed power from a GEO solar power satellite emits a 60 MW laser beam. A Push Factory emits a 1 GW laser or mass beam.
- Each radiator therm rejects 120 MWth of heat at 1200K when used to cool MW rockets, 240 MWth at 1427K when used to cool GW rockets, and 960 MWth at 2000K for TW rockets. The increasing temperature of rejection simulates increases in technology as each class of rocket is attained, and radiator technology remains the main limitation to increasing rocket power. Note that for a TW rocket, the entire rocket will glow white hot (perhaps with the exception of the thermally-insulated payload).
- Each burn or lander burn requires a delta-v (velocity change) of 2.5 km/sec. Each pivot (brachistochrone maneuver) is 5.0 km/sec and a distance of about 2 AU.
- A solar flare die roll of 1 is an M1 flare with an X-ray power density of 10⁻⁵ Watts/m². Each point more is 4 times this amount. Thus, a die roll of 6 is a X95 (Carrington-class) flare with a power density of 10⁻² Watts/m².
- Equipment with a rad-hardness of 1 can withstand a total ionizing dose of 4 × 10⁻⁷ krad (Si) without failing. Each point more is 4 times this amount. For example, equipment with a rad-hardness of 5 can survive a Mrad of dosage. This is the scale used by the industry.
- Solar insolation is 1.38 kW/m² at 1 AU (1 AU = Earth-Sol average distance). Maximum sailing thrust is 12.2 N/km² from photon pressure at 1 AU, or 0.002 N/km² (2 nPa) from solar wind dynamic pressure. These values are in the Earth zone. Each zone closer to Sol doubles them.
- Each water tank (WT) is a 40-tonne bag with a diameter of 4.25 meters. For rockets that use hydrogen as propellant, 40-tonnes of LH2 or slush hydrogen is held in a cryo-tank cylinder 7.5 meters in diameter and 16 meters long, including active refrigeration for zero boil-off (ZBO).
- The boost cost to LEO is $4 million/tonne to LEO using the Falcon 9 by SpaceX, or about $160 million/mass point.
Science Site – A site marked with the microscope icon. Science sites are useful for Glory (I1), and claims on science sites are worth extra VP (J2). Science sites with a yellow star are TNO Science Sites. In Colonization, science sites must be industrialized to claim the VPs, and some may be used as Labs.
- Eureka. The science site status of the Martian Trojan moon Eureka is questionable. If you are the first to land on Eureka, immediately roll 1d6. There is a 50% chance of it not being a science site.
Signposts – If taking the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet routes, a sign helpfully lists the number of burns to get to the destination. This number, multiplied by your Fuel Consumption (F1), equals the fuel steps you will need. The lander icon in a signpost lists the net thrust needed for a Powered Landing (G1).
- Gravity Assist. The numbers of burns in the basic and Colonization games may differ, due to the presence of slingshots in the latter. The signpost lists figures for both games, separated by a slash.
- The number of burns listed assumes a stop at every Hohmann, to avoid fuel costs for pivots.
EXAMPLE: A rocket with an output of 3 • 2 takes the orange route to Mercury. It will need 6 x 2 = 14 steps of fuel for the 6 impulses. Once it gets there, it will need another thruster for the landing, with a high enough thrust to obtain a net thrust of 11.
Solar-Powered – Cards with the solar icon. If a thruster or thruster support is solar-powered, the thrust is modified per F2. Solar-powered cards do not operate in the Neptune Heliocentric zone (labeled "NO SOLAR POWER") except when promoting the Solar Power Station or supporting the People's Bernal. A colonist card with solar-powered on-board equipment or sails can operate in this zone, but its thruster and on card abilities are disabled.
Space Colony – An industrialized Claim Disk topped with a dome is called a Space Colony. The dome is added by decommissioning a human there, with a maximum of one dome per factory.
- Colony Disbandment. If your crew is in your hand, you can convert a dome that began the turn as a space colony into a crew in another colocated stack (regardless which humans were used to found the colony to begin with).
Spectral Type – Each site has a letter indicating its resource type: C = carbon, S = stone, M = metal, V = vestoid, and D = dark.
Specialization (Colonist Module) – In order to perform an operation, a colonist must have an icon matching the operation's specialty: wrench icon = engineering operations, microscope icon = science operations, and handshake icon = finance operations.
Starting Card – You start the game with one Starting Card, a crew card indicating your faction color. If playing with the Bernal Module, you start with a second starting card, your Bernal. Starting cards are human, don't count towards your hand during research and recruiting, and cannot be sold or traded.
Sunspot Cycle (Colonization) – This diagram tracks the years, where each spot is one year, and the entire cycle is twelve years (about the solar sunspot cycle length). The Sunspot Cycle is divided into three sectors: red, blue, and yellow.
Synodic Comet (Colonization) – A site hex with a border color (red, blue, or yellow). It cannot be entered or Raygun Prospected at range unless the current sector of the Sunspot Cycle is in the same color. (This simulates synodic planetary alignment and launch windows.) It can be exited anytime.
Thrust Modifying Support (Support Module) – Some reactor and generator cards have a thrust modifier listed in a support triangle on the card. This modifies your net thrust (F2) only if your thruster (or one of its supports) needs the card as a support. Modifiers anywhere in the entire support chain are effective. Supports for the Refrigerator Radiator are an exception (O4). GW thrusters (S) and interstellar starships (Y5) are affected only by Solar-Power Modifiers (F2), not by support modifiers to thrust or fuel economy.
TMPs – Thrust Movement Points, equal to a rocket's net thrust (F2), determine how many burns it can move in a turn. (Physically, this corresponds to a rocket's acceleration, which is its Base Thrust divided by its mass. As it loses propellant mass throughout its journey, its acceleration increases.)
TNO Science Site – A site marked with the yellow star-microscope icon. TNO stands for Transneptunian Object, a world far enough out that it may contain the original condensate from the protostellar nebula. If so, it will have rare isotopes (such as helium-3) in relatively high "cosmic" abundances.
Wet Mass – The mass of a rocket including its fuel. The wet mass is the dry mass plus one for each fuel tank carried. The wet mass is indicated by the position of the fuel figure.
- The maximum wet mass allowed is 32.
WTs – Water Tanks, the transparent blue disks used as fuel and money in the game and normally stored in a WT depot in your home orbit. WTs are immune to combat or events until stored or transferred to a stack, where they become FFTs (F4).
Y. Interstellar Solitaire
"The Drake Equation, used to determine how many interstellar civilizations exist, indicates the determining factor in whether there are large or small numbers of civilizations in the universe is the civilization lifetime, or in other words, the ability of technological civilizations to avoid self-destruction."
To journey to the stars, you will need a good starship engine, the right team of humans and robot supports, and enough fuel tanks to speed up to cruising speed and then to slow to a dead stop at the destination. If you do not have enough fuel to stop, the dry mass should be reduced while underway, either by dust erosion of the Bernal's shielding, hull reconfiguration, or, as a last resort, jettisoning life support. Your pilots have the special ability to brake the starship without using fuel, by drogue braking at gas giants, heliopause bow shock surfing on the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC), using antimatter-fueled beam-core rockets, or using interplanetary magnetic fields. Your scientists dream up new ideas, which your engineers make into reality using 3D printers and nano-reconfiguration refineries. Your engineers also repair dust and radiation damage, while your entrepreneurs keep the passengers sane with products and services. Marriages help reduce stress and provide for the next generation. Raygun crew are able to beam-push ultralight probes, either to potential destinations or back to Earth for help. Spacewalking robots and robonauts fix punctured radiators and land on planets to explore them. However, the passengers both age and accumulate stress, and can mutiny if not aligned with the Politics. Radiation can interfere with reproduction and increase aging and cancer enough to turn your starship into a ghost ship.
Needed to Play
You will need to set out the Interstellar Map, which includes the Starship Government, Event Roll Table, and Interstellar Fuel Strip.
Interstellar Glossary
(Capitalized terms defined here.)
Age Track – Cards are placed in this track to indicate how old they are, see Y.1E.
Beehive – A Starship on a comet using a thruster with the Beehive thrust icon (Y.1B). Beehives always move one space each turn and do not track mass or fuel, and have a 50% chance of survival in a desperation braking maneuver through a star (Y.4D). Cards aboard a Beehive are handled differently in these respects: Colonist Cards are recycled to the bottom of the Colonist Deck when killed, and the drydock and bioengineering operations can be performed while underway to rebuild the hull and colonists respectively. Mutinies and gray goo outbreaks are more virulent in a Beehive resulting in Beehive Warfare (Y.6D) and Beehive Gray Goo War (Y.6C). Retiring a Passenger to the vats (Y.4I) is felonious in a Beehive, and moving a passenger to the Vats using any other means incites a Vats Mutiny.
Bernal Stack – The ship's passenger section, containing both dust shields and EM radiation shields. The more Bernals a ship carries, the more Humans can be on alert at the same time (Y.3B). The Bernals are stored as a stack on the Age Track, and when they reach the last Age slot, the dust shields have eroded away, and all Passengers age faster (Y.2D). If a ship flies through the LIC, its Bernals are demoted, indicating that its EM shields are shut down (Y.2B) and subsequently destroyed. The Bernals in the Bernal stack demote together, but are promoted one at a time. If a Bernal is discarded, it goes to the Graveyard.
Data Disk – Black claim disks placed on Breakthrough spots, representing data generated by high energy experiments or computational modelling contributing towards an eventual Breakthrough. The amount of data this represents exceeds the carrying capacity of an SOS Wisp, which cannot add Data Disks or take advantage of them.
Discontent – A Passenger whose ballot box does not match the current Politics.
Factory Cube – Factory Cubes represent stocks of nanites and metamaterials used for advanced reconfiguration of the Starship hull, rebuilding Bernals during dry dock, and building newly researched technologies and breakthroughs. When carried, they increase the chance that gray goo outbreaks will overwhelm the alert Passengers. Cubes on a Breakthrough or Hostile Goo are not factory cubes and cannot be used for factory cube actions. Factory cubes have a mass of 5.
Felonies – The following actions are felonious:
- Decommissioning Humans (including promoted Robots).
- Retiring passengers into the Vats on Beehive starship.
- Decommissioning a Bernal when this decreases the maximum number of alert Humans below the number of Humans currently alert, unless Beehive Braking.
To perform a felony, you must have an alert Passenger other than the passenger affected by the felony, and the Politics must be anarchy. Alternatively, you may (once per game) declare a desperation action when the politics is not Anarchy to permit a felony, which halves your final score and additionally allows a Passenger to commit a felony on themselves ("I'm going outside. I may be some time").
When you attempt a felony, the Passengers affected by the felony immediately mutiny even if content (Y.6D). In a Beehive Starship, resolve the mutiny as Beehive Warfare (Y.6D). If a desperation action, the mutineers are not assisted by any other Passengers. The felony is only permitted if the mutiny fails.
NOTE: Using Bioengineering in a Beehive is not a felony (or Parenthood when there is no space for the children). However, it triggers a Vats Mutiny.
Graveyard – Killed crew and non-robotic colonists go to the graveyard unless in a Beehive starship. Bernals are discarded to the graveyard if they are damaged by travelling through the LIC or cannibalized by hostile goo during a Gray Goo War (Y.6C) in a Beehive. Other decommissioned cards return to your hand. The graveyard represents genetic diversity and food which can be used for raising children as well as ship facilities available for housing new colonists.
Hand Cards – Black cards that are ideas in the ship's library and spare mass of the correct spectral type required to build them, including supports, Robots, and Robonauts. They may be built with a 3D Print operation. You may not have humans, either colonists or crew, as hand cards — these are decommissioned to the bottom of the deck in a Beehive, otherwise into the Graveyard.
Human – A Colonist or Crew with the "humans on board" placard (R3). Humans can become Domestics and suffer a stress from each operation performed, and can go into the vats for stress relief. In Interstellar, Bernals are not Human, and only promoted Robots are emancipated and act as Humans (compare with Robots, below).
Midwife – Any alert Human who can act to assist Passengers leaving the vats (Y4.I). Alert promoted Robots can act as Midwives only if they are Biotechs.
Passenger – Any card on the Age Track (except for the Bernal Cards), including crew, Colonists (both Human and Robotic), and Robonauts. All Passengers except Robonauts can have a maximum of two profession counters on them and can perform one operation per turn for each profession counter, but only promoted Human Passengers are permitted two profession counters of the same color. Robonauts are limited to a single profession counter. Humans suffer one stress for each operation performed or by fighting hostile goo (Y.6C); non-Humans suffer from stress only during Mutinies (Y.6D), or being 3D printed with an age 9+ Bernal or without a Bernal (Y.4A), if a Robot.
Patent Decks – The Patent decks do not represent an exclusive right to use a technology, as patents are unenforceable over Interstellar distances and long since expired. Instead, the topmost cards on the patent deck represent the technologies most readily adopted into the starship configuration, for which components which cannot be 3D printed (wiring, isotopes) are available or readily manufactured from existing materials.
Robot and Robonaut – Black cards that are stored on the Age Track or in the hand. Robots can get stress by attempting to mutiny (Y.6D), or being 3D printed in an Age 9+ Bernal (Y.4A) or starship missing a Bernal, or, if human (promoted robot), by fighting hostile goo (Y.6C). Robots are susceptible to Alzheimer's and Mutinies, but Robonauts are not. Both are vulnerable to accidents. If a Robot is promoted to its purple side for any reason, then treat it as a Human, except that it is sterile, cancer-immune, and does not count as alert against the Bernal Capacity (Y.3B). If killed, decommission it to your hand. Promoted robots can go to the vats and decant as if Human. Robonauts can instead be powered down (Y2.A).
Ship's Stack – Any card carried by the Starship not on the Age Track, including the thruster and support cards. The support cards are the black-side generators, reactors, and radiators needed for the Bernal and thruster.
Starship – Any spaceship with a thruster or freighter with a Starship Thrust Triangle (Y.1D).
Vats – Human Passengers who have been induced into a state of artificial hibernation. They do not age and are protected from cancer and accidents. Humans can end up in the vats either by Retirement (Y.2A) or if the number of alert humans permitted (Y3.B) falls below the number outside the vats (e.g. during Bernal destruction).
Vats Mutiny – In a Beehive, a Discontent Passenger who is forced into the vats (either by the Bioengineering operation or if the maximum number of alert humans per Y2.B is exceeded) immediately vat mutinies. Resolve the mutiny as Beehive Warfare (Y.6D), except the vats mutineer is unable to kill other Passengers or change the politics if he wins unless there are also alert mutineers to assist him. Cards sent to the vats as a result of a felony do not Vats Mutiny.
Game Scale
This is the same as in Colonization, except the turns are 12 years each and Bernals represent only 400 metric tonnes of habitat on Starships regardless of whether they are promoted. Each Colonist mass point equals about 15 colonists. Each fuel step on the Interstellar Rocket Diagram is 1.4%c (or 4170 km/sec, compare to 2.5 km/sec in Colonization). On this diagram, an exit velocity of 8% c (24,000 km/sec) corresponds to a fuel consumption of one. Changing speed by one step is about 0.4 milligees. For Beehives, the turns are 24-years, so that it travels at 1.3% c, and all masses are 25,000X, and each Colonist mass point is 10,000 people.
Y.1 Interstellar Setup
There are two ways to start a game of High Frontier Interstellar:
- Quick Start, i.e. starting a fresh one-player game: Choose a faction, and place a disk in the polity corresponding to this faction's color to indicate the starting Starship Government. Your starting Starship Stack is the crew card of this faction. For factions green or white, choose between the two available spots. Choose from one of two kinds of starship: a Starship (Y.1A) or a Beehive (Y.1B).
- Colonization Start, i.e. as a postscript to a High Frontier Colonization or Hermes Fall (V5) game, which can involve one or more players trying to get additional VP: To declare a Starshot and enter the Interstellar Map during or after a High Frontier Colonization game, move your rocket (using High Frontier rules) to one of the three Sol Exits (Y.1C) and convert it into a Starship (Y.1D). Any player successfully completing the Beehive Ark future can announce a starshot and become a Beehive Ark (Y.1B) using the Beehive Ark quick start rules. Any player with a Beehive Starship engine can create a Beehive Ark (Y1.B). Only one starshot is allowed per player. Your faction color is your starting starship government.
A. Starship Quick Start. Set up eight patent stacks. The stacks are: Robonaut, Reactor, Generator, Radiator, Human Colonists, Robot Colonists, GW Thrusters (with the two Beehive Thrusters removed (Y.1B), and Bernals. Notice that MW thrusters and refineries are not used, and the Colonist deck is divided into two: Human and Robotic. Starships cannot be solar-powered, so remove the generators that are solar powered on their black side from their respective patent decks. The freighter deck is also not used, but add the HIIPER Beam-Rider and Fission Fragment Sail into the TW Thruster Stack (purple side face-up).
- Quick Start Funding. Take 16 WTs. You can spend this on Exoplanet Searches, Inspiration and Idea Turns and convert the remaining WT into fuel.
- Exoplanet Search. Choose star sites with Living or Habitable planets in any order and make 2d6 Exploration Rolls (Y.7B). You must continue until you find a Living or Habitable planet or run out of sites to search. This represents finding the minimum justification required to launch such a mission. You may elect to make further exoplanet searches on any star site as required once you find a Living or Habitable planet at a cost of 1 WT per star site.
- Inspiration. For 1 WT, you may perform one Inspiration (M4.1) on any or all chosen stacks. For instance, if you do not like the TW Thruster showing, you may choose it to be moved to the bottom of the deck.
- Idea Turns. After completing the Exoplanet search and one Inspiration, perform Idea Turns (C1) with no first player advantage, except that you may move purchased cards to either your hand or to the Starship Stack. Cards are added to the Starship Stack on their black side, except that Colonists and Crew are added on their unpromoted sides, and Bernals are added on their promoted sides. You must put one Starship-Capable Card (Y.1D) into your Starship Stack, and it goes into the stack on its promoted (i.e. terawatt) side.
- If you begin with the Levitated Dipole 6Li-H Fusion GW Thruster, you can immediately promote it to the Dusty Plasma or choose to double your starting fuel. You may not promote the Levitated Dipole 6Li-H Fusion GW Thruster once the mission begins due to fuel compatibility issues.
- You must start with all the required supports for your Starship engine in the ship's stack or on the Age Track.
- Radiators go into the Starship Stack either on their heavy or light side, and are always 3D printed or patched to their light side. The Patch Radiator op (Y.4E) allows discarding a black card to flip a radiator to its heavy side.
- Because of fuel compatibility problems, a Starship may use only one starship engine in its voyage.
- Multiple Bernals. All five Bernals are identical in Interstellar. Each has a mass of 10 and needs electrical generator support to be promoted. Their privileges are inactive. A Starship can carry multiple Bernals, which increases the number of Human colonist cards it can carry on alert (Y.3B).
- Starting Dry Mass. When you decide you are finished with Idea Turns, decommission (into your hand) all the cards you do not want to start with. (Cards in your hand represent ideas stored in the ship's library, which can be produced later by 3D printing.) Discard unwanted Human colonists to the bottom of the Human colonist deck. Then figure out the dry mass of your Starship Stack by adding the masses of all its cards, which must include the Bernals (if any), colonists, thrusters, and thruster supports, and your hand cards (representing spare mass used for 3D printing). Place a clear blue dry mass disk into spot on the Interstellar Fuel Strip indicating this dry mass. If the dry mass number does not appear, move it to the next lower spot (e.g. If your dry mass is 34, place the dry mass disk in the "30" spot). Your Starship can start with any number of cards, as long as the total dry mass is 80 or less.
- Starting Tanks. Then convert all of your remaining WTs into tanks of fuel, where each ten tanks (decatank) costs 1 WT. Set up a yellow fuel figure on the Interstellar Fuel Strip in this wet mass amount. If the wet mass number does not appear, move it to the next lower spot (e.g. if your dry mass marker is on "8", and you buy 20 tanks of fuel, place the fuel figure on "25").
- Choose one of the three Sol Exits (Y.1C). This sets your starting speed.
NOTE: See Y.9 for suggestions on how to start a Starship.
B. Beehive Ark. A Beehive Ark is a starship that uses one of the two thrusters with the Beehive Thrust Icon (S4) next to the thrust triangle. These two thrusters are functionally identical in this game.
- Fuel and Speed. The fuel, dry mass, Sol exit, and speed of a beehive are not tracked. Therefore it uses no fuel figure and no speed disk. It always moves 1 space per turn, unless braked (Y.4D).
- Starting Position. Place a Map Rocket Figure on Sol.
- Converting a Rocket into a Beehive Ark. During a High Frontier Colonization game, if a player has a promoted Bernal stack with a supported thruster with the Beehive Thrust Icon, he may create a Beehive Ark by moving the stack to an industrialized Synodic Comet on the map, excluding generators which are solar powered on their black side. Crew, colonists, Robonauts and Robots move to the Age track. Other cards move to the starship stack. Set up the patent decks as for a Starship (Y.1A) excluding any cards already on the starship stack or Age Track.
- Beehive Quick Start. This is the same as for a Starship (Y.1A), except that the GW Thruster deck consists of only the two Beehive Thrusters (Y.1B), and you start with 8 WTs and all 5 Bernal cards instead of 16 WT.
NOTE: The combined dry mass of your starting Beehive cards is unlimited.
C. Sol Exit. A starship may choose one of three exits to enter the Interstellar Map. In all three cases, place your standing rocket map figure in the center of the Interstellar Map, in the space labeled "Sol start."
- Sol Exit Neptune. This exit, using a high-thrust periapsis burn at Neptune, is on the map edge between Neptune and Uranus. Place a clear red disk into the "dead stop" leftmost spot on the Speed Track (i.e. the row on the top of the Interstellar Fuel Strip); this is your speed disk. Although this exit starts the slowest, it does not suffer the risks and limitations of the other two.
- Sol Exit Oort. This exit is in the map corner near Sedna, and your speed disk starts where indicated on the Speed Track. If you take this exit during a Quick Start, you must make one Radiation Roll (Y.2B) and one Event Roll (Y.2C) before you start the first turn. (This represents the extra turn required get all the way out to the inner Oort Cloud.)
- Jupiter-Sol-Jupiter Exit (Jovian Flyby). This exit is at the Jupiter flyby spot, and your speed disk starts where indicated in the Speed Track. This exit represents a close pass to Jupiter, then Sol, and then Jupiter again. To represent the three close passes, before you start the first turn, roll 3d6 one dice at a time, and take the highest roll as the radiation level. Kill or decommission all cards in the ship's stack below this radiation level. Cards in the vats are immune. These radiation rolls still apply if you take the Jupiter-Sol-Jupiter exit from a Colonization start, although you can elect to make them on the Jupiter-Sol-Jupiter exit path on Colonization map, rolling as if your net thrust is 0.
NOTE: For both the Oort and Jupiter exits, if the starship engine shuts down due to the very first radiation roll or due to an event roll, it starts at a dead stop instead of the speed indicated. If you use any exit with a rocket containing a starship-capable card, but it is not operational (e.g. missing a required support), then it also starts at a dead stop instead of the speed indicated.
D. Converting Your Rocket into a Starship. If at the end of a High Frontier Colonization game, you have a Starship-capable rocket or freighter, you can gain extra victory points (Y.7D) by moving it (using High Frontier rules) to one of the three Sol Exit Locations (Y.1C) on the map. If the Starship uses Beehive thruster, convert all cards in the stack to a starship stack and use the Beehive Ark rules (Y1.B). Otherwise, choosing from both cards in your hand and in your stacks, add the crew, colonists, starship engines, Bernals, Robonauts and supports you think you will need for the trip to your Starship Stack, and save up a lot of WTs for your fuel. You cannot choose generators which are solar powered on their black side.
- Starship Engine. A thruster or freighter card is Starship-Capable if it has a Starship Thrust Triangle, i.e. a small thrust triangle to the right of the main thrust triangle. It is bordered in green (S4). A rocket with one of these thruster or freighter cards is called a Starship. You cannot use more than one Starship engine due to fuel compatibility issues — discard any others. The Starship engine starts in the Starship stack, on its purple side unless you are using the Levitated Dipole 6Li-H Fusion GW Thruster which remains on its black side for the game.
- Supports can be shared. For instance, the generator for the Starship Engine and a promoted Bernal. All cards except the starship engine and Passengers start in the Starship stack on their black side.
- Passengers. All Passengers from your hand start unpromoted in the Starship stack. Unless the Politics starts in the Center, all Robots must be demoted. Other Passengers start either promoted or demoted as they were in play.
- Patent Decks. Set up the patent decks using any cards you did not choose as described at the start of the Starship Quick Start section. (Y1.B)
- Interstellar Fuel Strip. For the starshot, move your fuel figure from the Rocket Diagram to the Interstellar Fuel Strip to the left of the Interstellar Map.
- Futures. For each Future (U1) you have completed, you may choose one Colonist Card from the unused deck to add to the Age Track. In addition, if you completed the Planet Hunt Future, choose a Star Site and make an Exploration Table Roll (Y.7B) before you start. If you completed the Star Wisp Future, make an Exploration Table Roll on a site up to 6 light years away. If the Colonization game ended because of the Footfall Future, SOS Wisps (Y.4F) may not perform Inspiration ops and you cannot recruit crew from Sol (Y.7A). If you completed the Protium Fusion Future, start with a Cube in the "Protium Fusion Breakthrough Disk" spot (Y.4B).
- Starting Position. Place a Map Rocket Figure on Sol.
- Dry Mass. You may also bring a Bernal Sphere, and if you have promoted a Freighter Card, you may also bring Mobile Factory Cubes (P6). Set a Dry Mass disk and Fuel Figure in the position indicated by summing all the masses of the cards and factory cubes in the Starship Stack. A Bernal Sphere is mass 10, and each factory cube is mass 5. Note that the Interstellar Fuel Strip allows a dry mass up to 80.
- Buy Starship Fuel. Pay 1 WT or 1 fuel tank for each ten tanks (decatank) of starship fuel.
EXAMPLE: Your Rocket Stack with a dry mass of 25 (including its TW thruster) exits the map using Sol Exit Neptune. Place its rocket figure on the Sol spot on the Interstellar Map. Place a Speed Disk on the "Sol Exit Neptune" spot. Suppose you paid for 80 tanks of fuel. This, added to your 25 dry mass, yields a wet mass of 105. Since this is between 110 and 100, place the fuel figure on the lower number: 100.
E. Age Track. Remove your Bernal Cards and your Passengers Cards from the Starship Stack, and place them into the Age Track, located along the bottom edge of the map. Each slot is one age, where each age = 12 years. Normally, each passenger card shifts one to the right each turn (although humans and robots age faster in high radiation, and not at all in the vats). Passengers reaching 120 years of age remain in the rightmost slot.
- Starting Age. All passengers and Bernals start in the Age Slot indicated on the map. Humans start Age = 2, if unpromoted; Age = 4, if promoted; and Age = 5, if crew. Bernals start at Age = 1, robots start at Age = 3, and Robonauts start Age = 6 (72 years).
NOTE: Older humans are more likely to achieve a breakthrough or promotion, and less likely to have children or to survive bailouts, cancer, and Alzheimer's.
NOTE: The rules make it possible to have "immortals" from either ESA or paired Domestics, or Creeper Neogens getting to age 7 plus.
F. Starting Profession Disk. For each passenger on the Age Track, place a yellow, white, orange, purple, red, green, or clear red disk to indicate its profession (Y.3A). The color of the disk must be something it is suited for. For each human in the vats, place a blue disk. The number of alert humans must not be more than two for each Bernal carried, plus one extra (Y.3B).
- Crew. Your starting crew can start either in the vats, or with up to two disks of any color profession.
G. Multiplayer Interstellar. Interstellar is designed as a single player game, but the brave can attempt to extend their Colonization game into a multiplayer Interstellar game. Each player controls one Interstellar Starship and plays with a complete set of patent cards (from another copy of High Frontier 3rd edition) rather than sharing patent cards.
- Starting the Multiplayer Game. The first player to attempt the star shot decommissions the cards in the Bernal, freighter, or rocket stack used to form the Starship to the bottom of the Colonization patent decks, along with all other cards from their hand and stacks in play, leaving their factories and claims on the board, concluding the player's involvement with the Colonization game. They then immediately form the Interstellar Starship (Y1.D) using their own patent decks and complete the Sol exit onto a shared Interstellar map. The player begins their first Interstellar operations at the start of the next yellow Sunspot cycle. Other Colonization players may not claim jump, attack or hijack the claims or factories of any player who leaves the game this way.
- Colonization VP. Record the player's Colonization VP at the point they leave the Colonization game. A player's final Colonization score is calculated by adding to their final Interstellar VP their recorded Colonization VP to determine their final Colonization VP total.
- Turn Order and Phases. Turn order is determined by the order starshots are attempted in and each player completes one of the four phases (Y.2A, Y.2B, Y.2C, Y2.D), with play then passing to the next player in turn order. Phases are interleaved with the Colonization game as follows:
- Start of Yellow Cycle = Operations, Quick Start exoplanet searches
- Start of Red Cycle = Move Starship, Quick Start patent deck formation and Inspiration
- Start of Blue Cycle = Starship Event roll — rolled separately for each player, Quick Start idea turns
- Start/Senility = Age Track, Quick Start Sol exit
- When the Colonization game is completed, any players remaining in the Colonization game can join the Interstellar game without sharing their victory points between games, by spending the entire next Interstellar turn beginning at the next start of the yellow Sunspot cycle completing a Quick Start using their crew. Operations phases continue to be tracked by the Sunspot cycle, but the counter can be moved directly to the next phase when all players have concluded the current phase.
- Beehives. Players with Beehives move at ½ speed such that cards advance on the age track and the Starship event roll only occurs at the end of every turn the beehive starship counter is upright. Passengers can only perform one operation each turn, can only add one profession counter per turn of school, and they cannot perform the same profession's operation in two consecutive turns unless they are promoted, indicated by leaving the last used profession counter at the top right of the card. The Scholastics school operation only occurs on a roll of 1-3 on a 1d6, moving the profession counters to the top right of the card until the end of the phase if this fails to indicate the operation is not available.
- Counters. All exploration rolls are shared and the faction colored claim disk is placed by the appropriate player. Breakthroughs are not shared but can be replicated using Ship-to-Ship communication (see below). Use faction colored cylinders to track starship dry mass, speed and government.
- Interstellar Interaction. Interaction is limited to Ship-to-Ship wisps, "No Midwife risk" avoidance, and allowing Spacewalker operations be performed on any cooperating Starship in the same space if both are at a dead stop. Spacewalkers may also perform the same player to player transfer of research and Breakthroughs permitted by Ship-to-Ship wisps as an operation, but only with both Starships dead stopped in the same space and if the other player has any alert Passengers.
- Ending the Multiplayer Game. Each player ends their own involvement with the game per Y.7D, but other players continue. You can choose to end the game at any point with all players' agreement or if no players are left in the game. Victory is determined by the player with the highest VPs.
Y.2 Interstellar Sequence of Play
For your turn, perform A through D, below. Then, go to the next turn; twelve years have elapsed.
A. Operation. In any order, each Passenger which started this turn on the Age Track chooses one of School, Work, or Retirement. Robonauts can additionally be Powered Down. If hostile goo is present, Passengers may fight it.
- School. Add profession disks onto the top right of the Passenger card up to a maximum of two (Y.3A). If coming out of the vats, this disk replaces the blue vats disk (Y.4I). Only promoted Passengers can have two profession disks of the same color and Robonauts may only have one profession disk. If the Scholastics Breakthrough is achieved, the Passenger may perform one operation after placing any profession disks, as Work below, at a cost of one stress if they are Human, but not a promoted Robot (Y.6D).
- Work. Passengers may perform one operation for each profession disk on the card ("Op" for short). If the Passenger is Human, place one stress for each operation performed unless the Passenger is a promoted Robot (Y.6D). If the Passenger is a non-human, then it doesn't suffer any stress from performing operations. All operations must be according to the color of a disk in the Passenger's résumé (Y.3C), as shown in the profession column (see far left side of the map). See also Y.4 for a list of operations. Operations may be performed in any order, including before or after Operations by other Passengers. Move the profession disks from the top left to the top right of the card to track which operations have been performed.
- Retirement into Vats (Humans and promoted Robots). Replace all profession disks with a single blue disk (Y.4I), placed at the top right of the card. This removes all stress from the card if the Neurological Breakthrough is discovered. Passengers forced into the vats from the loss of a Bernal do not get this benefit. Retirement into the Vats is a felony if attempted in a Beehive.
- Power down (Robonauts only). Remove all profession disks. Unsupported Robonauts must power down. Send the robonaut to school to power them back up. This protects the robonaut from accident risks while they are powered down. Note that robonauts must be given a profession disk when they are 3D printed, which represents burn-in and component testing with a consequent risk of failure from the Ship Event roll the turn they are added to the Age track, and as Passengers execute options in any order, an unsupported Robonaut can have its supports 3D printed before it is forced to power down.
- Fighting Hostile Goo. Each alert Human in a Beehive can elect to attack each hostile goo on the Age Track as outlined in Gray Goo War (Y.6C). This incurs one stress for each attack.
NOTE: Passengers placed onto the Age track this turn by Parenthood, Bioengineering or 3D printing cannot elect to take an operation other than fighting hostile goo, indicated by putting their Profession disks at the top right of the card. However, human colonists placed by Parenthood are assumed to be attending school and can perform one operation (at a cost of 1 stress) if the Scholastics breakthrough has a cube on it. Non-humans moved to Age = 1 by a Dry Dock or 3D Printing operation from elsewhere on the Age track or which had their Age changed by a Service operation may perform operations as normal, before or after being moved.
EXAMPLE: During an operations phase, you decant the Pantrophist out of the vats as a School Operation, giving him a White Scientist Profession. A robot biotechnician is on hand to act as a Midwife which does not use an operation. That same turn, that biotechnician can also attempt a Promote Op to promote him, but as a robot does not gain a stress from performing operations. The next turn the scientist attends school again and as a promoted Scientist is able to gain a second white scientist profession disk. The turn after is a working turn for the scientist, who performs two science operations: Promote and Breakthrough. One succeeds and the other fails, and he suffers two stress. The next turn is a school turn for him, and he earns a red disk as a spacewalker (since he has a buggy icon). After a couple more working turns, he retires into the vats.
At the end of the operations phase, move all the profession counters back to the top left of the Operations card. This allows you to track their usage during the next Operations phase.
B. Move Starship. Burn fuel, adjust speed, and move your Starship (Y5). If using a beehive, move one space.
- Local Interstellar Cloud. All the Bernal Cards are carried in a stack on the Age Track called the Bernal Stack. This stack ages and demotes as a group and Bernals in the stack are promoted individually. If the Starship enters any LIC spaces (i.e. the blue spaces) during its move, the Bernal Stack is demoted if all the Bernals in it are promoted (this indicates that the EM shields have been overloaded and are shut down). Entering additional LIC spaces during the same turn has no further effect.
- Dust Erosion. If the Starship enters any LIC spaces and the Bernal stack already contains demoted Bernals, discard one demoted Bernal Card to the Graveyard, and decrease the dry mass and wet mass by 10 (see Y.4A example). This may result in the EM shields restarting, if the remaining Bernals in the stack are all promoted.
- Radiation Roll (if no Bernal). If there is no Bernal, roll 1d6 to obtain a radiation level, then kill every card in the Starship Stack or on the Age Track (even in vats) that has a rad-hardness less than this level.
- Rebuilding the starship engine. If the starship engine is decommissioned by a radiation roll, it must be 3D printed to its black side to be rebuilt, which (as a special exception) requires that the supports are already present in the starship stack or Age track. The Levitated Dipole 6Li-H Fusion GW Thruster is then functional (and cannot be promoted). The Spheromak 3He-D Magnetic Fusion must be promoted to the Colliding FRC 3He-D Fusion in order to function.
C. Starship Event Roll. Make a 1d6 Event Roll, and consult the Profession Column, found on the left edge of the Interstellar Map. This column contains numbered "dice" icons specifying the risks associated with certain profession disks. For every profession affected by the roll, roll the indicated risk (Y.6) against all the Passengers with this color of profession. You must roll risks starting from the top and going down.
- Meteoroid. If the event roll is a 6, then additionally discard the heaviest radiator card (if any) from the game if it is on its light side or decommission it if it is on its heavy side. Choose at random if there are several equally heavy cards.
REMEMBER: Radiator cards are always 3D printed or patched to their light side.
- Stressed Robots. If your Robots have stress counters, on a Ship Event roll of 5 they may attempt to abort the planned mission and hijack the ship. If a roll of 1d6 is less than the number of stress counters, discard the Robot from the game and roll a 2nd Starship Event roll this turn. Multiple Robots failing this roll result in additional Starship Event rolls.
- Glitch. If the event roll is a 4, then additionally decommission the heaviest black card (if any) on the starship stack to your hand. Choose at random if there are several equally heavy cards.
EXAMPLE: A 1 is rolled. There is a red dice with the number 1 in the yellow "Engineering" Operations, superimposed on the "Alzheimer's" icon. This means that all your Passengers with an engineering résumé suffer an Alzheimer's Risk (Y.6B) by rolling 1d6 for each one. There is also a 1 in the orange "Business" Operations, this time on the Handgun icon, which means all business Passengers (i.e. Passengers with an orange disk) suffer a Mutiny risk. And finally, there is a 1 on the domestics, indicating that all domestics suffer a risk of accidental death (Y.6A).
D. Age Track.
- Vats. Remove one stress from each card with a blue disk (Y.4I). These cards do not age.
- Alert. Advance all other cards by one step on the Age Track (Y.1E), or two steps if using a beehive. Gray goo in a Beehive attempts to acquire factory cubes and ages all passengers in the vaults (Y.4C). If there is no Bernal, or if the Bernal Stack reaches or is at the last slot (120+ years old), then advance the alert cards a number of steps equal to one, plus the starship speed (rounded up), three steps if using a beehive. Robots 3D printed on these Starships get 2 stress.
EXAMPLE: The Bernal Stack is moved into the penultimate slot (at Age = 9). All of the other cards not in the vats are moved to the right by one step. But, on the next turn, the Bernal Stack moves into the final slot at Age = 10. Assuming the starship moves at speed = 2, now the other cards are moved to the right by three steps during Aging.
Y.3 Passenger Professions & Résumés
A. Profession Disks. When each Passenger is moved to the Age Track (either from parenthood, if Human; or from 3D printing, if non-human), you must choose one or two profession disks that it is suited for. Robonauts may only have one profession disk. The color-coding indicates the specialization as follows:
- Yellow Disk = Engineer (must have the wrench icon, Y.4A)
- White Disk = Scientist (must have the microscope icon, Y.4B)
- Orange Disk = Business (must have the handshake icon, Y.4C)
- Purple Disk = Pilot (must have one or more braking icons, Y.4D)
- Red Disk = Spacewalker (with buggy or missile platform icon, Y.4E) or Network (with raygun icon, Y.4F)
- Green Disk = Biotech (must have the terraform icon, Y.4G)
- Clear Red Disk = Domestic (must be human, Y.4H)
- Blue Disk = Vats (must be human, Y.4I). Passengers moved to the Age Track by the Bioengineering Op always enter the Vats.
NOTE: It is possible for a Passenger through demotion or promotion to have profession counters they are not normally permitted.
Each disk permits one operation per turn of the matching profession. Promoted Passengers are permitted two disks of the same color, which permits two operations per turn of this profession.
RISK MANAGEMENT: Having two profession disks increases the relative risk to the Passenger of most profession combinations, but having two disks of the same color incurs no additional risk for the second disk. There are also career combinations which will be killed by the first risk when the second risk is also deadly due to the Passenger's Age ("The cancer killed him before the Alzheimer's got to him") which means the overall risk to the Passenger is smaller than it initially appears.
B. Maximum Number of Alert Humans. Humans can be Alert or in the Vats (Y.4i). The maximum number of alert Humans is equal to one plus two more for each Bernal Card carried. Robots (both promoted and unpromoted), and Humans in vats do not count toward this limit. If the limit is exceeded, you must send the excess Humans immediately to the vats and they gain 2 stress from the process. This is a felony if you do this voluntarily except as a part of a Beehive Braking maneuver.
C. Résumé. By going to school (Y.2A), you may add one or more additional professions to a passenger for which it is suited for per Y.3A. The collection of all the professions of a Passenger is called its résumé. A Passenger's résumé can contain up to two disks if a Human or Robot, or only one disk if a Robonaut and may only have two matching Profession disks if they are promoted. After adding any profession disks at school, you may also complete an operation of one of the Passenger's professions if you have the Scholastic Breakthrough.
NOTE: Once placed, Professions cannot be removed except by being decommissioned or converted to hostile goo or going to the vats, or if a Robonaut, by powering down. Professions added by the Invent operation (Y.4C) are also removed if the Robonaut is decommissioned or has its Age reduced to 1 by a 3D printing or Dry Dock operations.
D. Stress. Stress is represented by black disks (optionally, cubes of any color, which handle easier) placed upon humans after they perform any operation. If you run out of tokens, use any other tokens to indicate stress.
NOTE: Think of stress as the mental baggage of sanity-sapping misfortunes accumulated throughout one's life. Stress increases the chance of suicide and accidents, and may be decreased by marriage, the service operation, or being in the vats. The stress Robots get from mutiny, fighting hostile goo or being 3D printed with no Bernal or an Age 9+ Bernal are especially dangerous as it can result in additional Ship Event rolls.
E. Abilities. The special ability that colonists have in Colonization is applicable to Interstellar if it is described in green font. Normally they are valid as long as the colonists are alive, even in the vats.
EXAMPLE: The Utility Fog Halbonaut card states (in green font) that all generators in the ship's stack have both electrical and pulsed capacities.
Y.4 Interstellar Operations
Operations are performed by Passengers, either human, robonaut, or robot. Passengers can only perform an operation if they have the correct profession disk: Engineer, Scientist, Business, Pilot, Spacewalker, Network, Biotech, Domestic, and Vats.
To help keep track of which operations have been performed, keep the Profession Disks on the top left of the card if it has yet to be performed, and slide each disk to the top right after the corresponding Op has been performed. Start Profession disks placed when a card is moved to the Age track by Parenthood, Bioengineering or 3D Printing on the top right to indicate these operations may not be performed this turn; move all Profession Disks to the top right if attending school — except keep one on the left if you have the Scholastics Breakthrough to be used for the operation that Breakthrough provides while at school. Reset all of the disks once the Operations Phase is past.
A. Engineer Operations (Yellow Profession Disk, Wrench Icon)
- 3D Print. Move a black card (in either your hand or on the Age Track) either to the ship's stack, or (if it's a Robot or Robonaut) to the Age = 1 position on the Age Track. Radiators are always 3D printed to their light side. If moved from the hand to the Age Track, place one or two Profession Disks on its card per Y.3A (but it cannot perform any operations until next turn); otherwise you can replace any existing Profession disks on its card with new ones per Y.3A. If the card had already performed operations this turn, the Profession Disks must be placed in the top right corner to indicate that no further operations may be made. 3D Printing with a missing Bernal or an Age 9+ Bernal stack is less effective: Robots which are 3D printed add 2 stress. 3D printing or a dry dock does not remove Robot stress — they must be decommissioned (which is a felony if promoted) or sent to the vats.
NOTE: A Robot with the engineering profession on the Age Track can rejuvenate itself to Age = 1 as a 3D Print Op.
- Cube Nanofacture. Discard out of the game a Robonaut or Robot card from the ship's Age Track, plus the supports it needs to be operational from the ship's stack, and replace them with a Factory Cube. If a Human or promoted Robot is used as a support for cube nanofacture, remove their onboard reactor but do not decommission them. Unpromoted Robots used as supports are decommissioned to the bottom of the deck.
NOTE: A Robot can sacrifice itself to perform a cube nanofacture only if it is unpromoted.
- Nano-Reconfigure Hull. By discarding 2 factory cubes or 1 Bernal Card from the ship's stack, decrease dry mass by 10, making a Dry Mass Adjustment (D2). If the engines are operational and you have achieved a Protium Breakthrough (Y.4B), this allows you to change the starship speed by one step. You can discard multiple factory cubes with one operation, decreasing dry mass by ten and increasing speed for every 2 discarded. You may not discard a Bernal if this results in the maximum number of alert Humans falling below the current number of alert Humans, except as a felony.
NOTE: With the exception of the nano-reconfigure hull operation, beam-core braking, or erosion of Bernal Cards (Y.2B) or restoration via dry dock, a starship's dry mass does not change once launched. New Colonists will never mass more than the resources used to feed them, so mass is always conserved.
NOTE 2: The minimum starship mass is six. If you reduce mass to less than six (by nano-reconfigure, erosion, etc.), the mass remains at six.
EXAMPLE: A starship with dry mass 35 and wet mass 50 undergoes a nano-reconfiguration. One of its factory cubes is discarded, the dry mass decreases to 25, and the wet mass decreases to 40. If the ship undergoes a second nano-reconfiguration, the dry mass goes to 15, and the wet mass to 30.
- Drydock. This restores the Bernal Stack and all other non-human cards of your choice on the Age Track to Age = 1, and/or rebuilds one Bernal from the Graveyard. For a Starship, you must be dead-stopped at a fuel planet and if you rebuild a Bernal, you must add 10 to the wet and dry mass. For a Beehive, you must discard 1 factory cube to perform the Dry Dock Op plus 2 factory cubes if you rebuild a Bernal.
B. Scientist Operations (White Profession Disk, Microscope Icon)
- Promote. To flip a card to its purple side, roll 1d6. Success if the result is less than the Age (Y.1D) of the scientist doing the promotion. Self-promotion is allowed. You cannot promote the Levitated Dipole 6Li-H Fusion GW Thruster.
NOTE: To promote a Bernal Card, it must also have an operational generator. But unlike in Colonization, it does not have to be at a dirtside to promote. You can promote Bernals without having to roll by using the EM Shield Repair op (Y.4E).
NOTE 2: Humans in the vats cannot be promoted. Robots cannot be promoted unless the politics is purple or as a result of mutinies (Y.6D).
- Research. Roll 1d6, if < Age, you must discard a Factory Cube to take 1, 2 or 3 black cards of up to 5 total mass from the top of the patent decks to your hand.
- Explore. If at a dead stop at a Star Site or LIC, make a 2d6 Exploration Roll (Y.7B).
- Eureka. Place two Data Disks on any of the six Breakthroughs then roll 3d6. If the roll is < Age + Data Disks on the Breakthrough, place a Factory Cube from the ship stack on the Breakthrough and remove any disks to indicate the Breakthrough has been achieved. If you do not have a Factory Cube in the ship's stack you only place the Data Disks.
- Endowment. Place a Data Disk on the Breakthrough associated with the current politics: white = cancer cure, red = neurology, green = ecological, purple = mathematics, scholastic = orange then roll 2d6. If the roll is < Age + Data Disks on the Breakthrough, place a Factory Cube from the ship's stack on the Breakthrough and remove any disks. If you do not have a Factory Cube in the ship stack you only place the Data Disk.
NOTE (Breakthroughs): Each breakthrough spot can contain a cube which awards an ability specific to the breakthrough. Cubes on breakthroughs are no longer factory cubes and cannot be used for Research or Nano-Reconfigure Hull operations. Beam-core braking does not affect gray goo risks.
If you have a Factory Cube on the Mathematics Breakthrough, then double the number of Data Disks placed by subsequent Eureka or Endowment operations on any Breakthrough. Protium Fusion (the energy of the stars) is used during Nano-Reconfigure operations (Y.4A) or when braking Beehives. The Cure for Cancer reduces the Cancer Risk (Y.6E). The Scholastics Breakthrough allows Passengers one operation while at School (Y.2A). The Ecological Breakthrough assists with Parenthood (Y.4H). The Neurological Breakthrough removes all stress from Passengers retiring into the vats, and makes use of the vats non-felonious in Beehives.
NOTE: If there is no Bernal, or if the Bernal Stack reaches or is at the last slot (120 years+ old), then add one die to the Breakthrough Rolls (e.g. roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 for Endowment and 4d6 instead of 3d6 for Eureka).
EXAMPLE: An alchemist scientist, aged 4 dozen years, attempts an Endowment. The politics is white and one Data Disk is placed on the Cure for Cancer breakthrough which had none previously. 2d6 is rolled for a total of 5 which is not lower than 4 + 1. This action places stress on the scientist. With no Data Disks, the scientist would have been better attempting a Eureka, with a less likely outcome, but a better result (two Data Disks) if the roll failed.
C. Business Operations (Orange Profession Disk, Handshake Icon)
- Service. Halve a Human's stress (round down) or Robonaut's Age (round up). This can be used on Passengers in the vats.
- Mentor. Add one permitted profession disk to any alert Human who does not have two profession disks. Promoted Passengers can have two disks of the same color. This allows the Human perform a second operation immediately if they are not in school.
- Activism. Move the Politics one spot. It cannot end up in the center, which is reserved for Robot Emancipation.
- Suffrage. Roll 1d6. If the result is less than or equal to the number of promoted (purple) cards on the Starship (including thruster, Bernals, and colonists both in and out of the vats), then move the Politics to the central (purple) position. This indicates that the Robot Promotion (Y.4B) is legal. Once promoted, Robots are treated as human (see Y.0B) and remain promoted even if the Politics shifts out of the center again.
- Invent. Roll 1d6. If < Age, discard a Robot from the game to change a Robonaut's profession to any except Business. This also changes the color of the profession counter on the Robonaut and a Pilot (purple) Robonaut gets Drogue brakes (Y.4D). The change to the Robonaut profession is lost if the card is powered down, decommissioned or 3D printed or its Age is changed by Dry Docking. The counter placed by the Invent Op is not removed by the Service Op.
D. Pilot Operations (Purple Profession Disk, Brake Icon)
Passengers with one or more brake icons on the interstellar segment of their card may acquire the Pilot Profession disk (purple). This allows them to perform Brake Ops. Braking slows down the speed disk on the Starship Speed Track or (for beehives) brings the ship to a stop. Braking does not require an operating starship engine.
There are five kinds of brake icons: mag-sail brake, surfer brake, drogue, drogue scoop, and beam core. Each kind can be used only once per turn, but all types can be used together in any chosen order.
- Braking Mass Limits. As shown on the Fuel Strip, starships with a wet mass of 30 or more cannot use braking. Remember that Beam-riders must use brakes to slow down, while the other starships can burn fuel to slow down.
- Braking Speed Limits. The Starship Speed Track shows at what speeds the different kinds of brakes are effective. (The Drogue/Scoop brakes for slow speeds, the Beam-Core brakes at all speeds, the others at high speeds).
- Mag-Sail Brakes. You may slow down a number of steps up to your current numeric speed.
NOTE: Because steps are not equal to speed, a mag-sail cannot be used to slow to a dead-stop. For instance, a starship moving at speed 4 can slow down 4 steps, which takes it to a speed of 2.
- Surfer Brakes. If on or adjacent to an LIC (blue space), you may slow down by one step. (This technology surfs on the energized plasma ribbon on the heliopause bow-shock.)
- Drogue Brakes. As noted on the Starship Speed Track, if you are at site hex containing a gas giant, you can slow down one step with a drogue brake. This is risky, as you must roll a Crash Hazard Risk (skull icon, see F5) and a Radiation Risk (indicated by the radiation icon) as noted on the passenger card. The Radiation Risk consists of rolling 1d6 for radiation level, and placing stress on all passengers and equipment that fail. Your speed does not affect this roll.
NOTE: Performing a drogue brake at an unexplored site makes an Exploration Roll (Y.7B). The braking fails if no gas giant is located.
- Scoop-Brake. This is identical to the Drogue Brake, except that if Scoop-Brake is used to come to a dead stop, gain one tank of S fuel. (This technology scoops and liquefies the gas giant atmosphere).
- Beam-Core Brakes. You can slow down by one step by discarding cards or factory cubes (worth mass 5) out of the game from either your hand, starship stack or Age track with a collective mass of at least 10, and reducing the wet and dry mass by 10 (see Y.4A example). This may entail an Antimatter Risk (Y.6F).
NOTE (Fargo Tactic): It is a Felony to brake by decommissioning Humans (jargon for tossing them into the antimatter hopper).
- Beehive Braking. Any brake operation will stop a beehive, but braking must discard five Bernals or ten factory cubes, or some combination where each Bernal is worth two factory cubes, or else the beehive does not stop. Furthermore, the beehive cannot stop unless the Protium Fusion Breakthrough (Y.4B) has been achieved. Once a beehive stops, it cannot be restarted again. Recalculate the maximum number of alert humans and force excess humans into the vats before bailing out or forming a colony after Beehive Braking or Desperation Star Dive Braking.
- Desperation Star Dive Brake. Even if you have no Pilots, any Passenger at a Star Site can brake at any speed by plummeting through the star itself. Make a Desperation Die roll where only a 6 will slow your starship one step, decommissioning all Bernals and cards in the ship's stack, and all other results will destroy the Starship and kill all the passengers. For beehives, a 4, 5 or 6 is a successful stop, and all others destroy the ship and passengers.
E. Spacewalker Operations (Red Profession Disk, Buggy or Missile Robonauts, Crew, or Colonists)
- EM Shield Repair. Promote the Bernal Stack if it has an operational generator.
- Patch Radiator. Move a black radiator from your hand to the stack on its light side. You can choose to also discard another black card from your hand to the bottom of the patent deck to then flip the radiator to its heavy side.
NOTE: Since black cards can be freely decommissioned, you can discard a black card on the Ship Stack or Age Track using this operation to flip the radiator to its heavy side.
- Explore. See Scientist Operations.
- Refuel. If at a dead stop at a fuel planet, gain fuel decatanks (10s of tanks) equal to five minus the ISRU value of the performing card.
NOTE: If you have a thruster requiring S fuel, you can refuel only at a gas giant.
F. Network Operations (Red Profession Disk, Raygun Robonauts, Crew, or Colonists). Launch an expendable wisp to a destination up to 12 spaces away. There are three types:
- Exploration Wisp. If the destination is an unexplored star site, make an Explore Roll (Y.7).
- SOS Wisp. If the destination is Sol, this allows you to perform an Inspiration Event (M4.1), inspiring one card on any or all patent decks because you receive the latest in technology, entertainment, news, and psychology from Earth), or a Science Op. The Science Op, which can be a promotion, explore, research, eureka or endowment operation is successfully performed if a 1d6 roll = 1 (ignoring any requirement for an age roll). However, Earth refuses to help if the Robots are emancipated (i.e. politics in the center). This additional Science op does not add further stress to the Human performing it. The science Explore op can be used on any star system, not just those within 6 light years.
NOTE: SOS Wisps do not accumulate Data Disks on breakthroughs and so the Eureka and Endowment operations from an SOS Wisp have an identical effect if a 1 is rolled: claim a breakthrough by placing a Factory Cube from the ship stack on any Breakthrough and removing the Data Disks on it (if any).
EXAMPLE: As a network operation, a raygun robot sends an exploration wisp to Sirius, which is 4 light years ahead. The exploration roll is 9, so there is nothing at Sirius. The robot sends an SOS to Earth, requesting an exploration of Procyon, which is 6 light years beyond Sirius. If a 1 is rolled, then a 2d6 exploration roll for Procyon is made.
- Ship-to-Ship Wisp. If the destination is another Starship (assuming a multiplayer game) with wisp capacity and neither ship is Red Polity, the exchange of information removes one stress from each card on both ships or can be used to replicate one known Breakthrough or three researched cards of up to 5 mass total from a destination ship who agrees to share this information. The Network operator must use a Factory Cube to claim the Breakthrough or discard a Factory Cube to add researched cards to their hand and draws the matching patent cards from their own patent decks, shuffling the patent deck other than the top card afterwards.
NOTE: The 6-lightyear range of the SOS Wisp is marked on the Interstellar Map.
- Cards discarded from the game cannot be acquired this way.
G. Biotech Operation (Green Profession Disk, Terraform Icon)
- Bioengineering. If in a Beehive or creating a colony (Y.7C), draw a random Colonist Card into the vats at Age = 1. In a Beehive immediately resolve a Vats Mutiny (Y.1B) unless you have the Neurological Breakthrough and politics is Red. The Colonist must stay in the vats for the remainder of the turn if he survives the mutiny. The Bioengineering operation may only be used on a non-Beehive Starship as a part of ending the game.
EXAMPLE: The Svalbaard Caretaker biotechs use the Bioengineering operation to draw the Microgravity Pantropists on a Left Wing Commune beehive without any alert Orange passengers and only one other badge on an alert Passenger. The Microgravity Pantropists immediately mutiny, rolling a 2 on 1d6 but because of their 1 vote they are overwhelmed and killed by the loyalists with 4 badges (no need to roll). If Siren Cybernetics had been drawn instead, no mutiny would occur because they are content to go into the vats. Drawing the Islamic Refugees with a roll of 2 would also result in the Islamic Refugees surviving in the vats, but with 5 White votes and an alert co-conspirator, the Svalbaard Caretakers will change the politics to White and begin killing the other passengers unless the loyalists can roll a 6.
- Wet Nano Lab. Discard a Graveyard card from the game to perform a Science or Engineer op.
- Promote. See Scientist Operations.
H. Domestic Operation (Clear Red Profession Disk, "Humans On Board" Icon)
- Marriage. Remove one stress each from any two alert Humans not in the vats. Promoted Robots can have stress removed this way only if the politics is Purple. You cannot perform the Marriage op if there is only one alert Human.
- Parenthood. An age 2+ domestic may attempt to become a parent by rolling 1d6. If the result is greater than the parent's Age (Y.6A), then draw a random Human colonist from the colonist deck, if any remain. It starts at Age = 1 and immediately attends School for the turn to get one or two profession disks. If the Maximum Number of Alert Humans (Y.3B) is exceeded, then send either the parent or child to the vats instead of school, resulting in a Vats Mutiny on a Beehive.
NOTE: If the Ecological Breakthrough has been attained, then the roll for Parenthood Success is 2d6 rather than 1d6.
NOTE: The Parent operation may only be used to replace dead crew and Human colonist cards unless in a Beehive Starship. Keep Humans killed out of the game in the Graveyard, and discard one card from the game from this stack if a child is born. Furthermore, on-board nuclear devices (P5) are inactive on cards born by parenthood (you can't give birth to nukes). In a Beehive, there is no requirement to discard a card from the Graveyard to perform the Parenthood operation.
- Self-Promote. Roll 1d6. If the result is less than the Human's Age (Y.1D), then flip its card to its purple side.
I. Vats Operation (Blue Profession Disk, Humans only)
Humans with a blue profession disk are in the vats, i.e. in a hibernation mode. Passengers in the vats lose all their other profession disks, cannot be promoted, do not age, and lose one stress per turn. If they have an on-board nuclear reactor (R3), it is usable while they are in the vats.
- Decant. Humans emerge from the vats by decanting. Replace the blue disk with one or more suitable Profession Disks (Y.3A). This is disallowed if the Max Number of Alert Humans (Y.3B) is exceeded.
- The "No Midwife" Risk. If a Human is decanted with no other alert Robotic biotechnician or Human on board or (in a multiplayer game) in the same space, then roll 1d6. The decanted Human dies if 1d6 is more than its rad-hardness. You can attempt a flyby of Earth by entering the Sol space to avoid this risk as Earthbound medical staff can provide remote operation of the necessary systems during the small window available.
- Legality. Using the vats is a felony in a Beehive if voluntary or results in a Vats Mutiny if involuntary, see Interstellar glossary.
Y.5 Starship Move
Except for beehives, starships burn fuel and move per Y.5A and Y.5B.
A. Interstellar Burn Fuel. The first number in the Starship Thrust Triangle (Y.1D) or the Beehive Thrust Icon (Y.1B) is the Starship Thrust. This is the maximum number of steps of speed adjustment you can make each turn. The second number is your fuel consumption. This is the number of steps of fuel consumed for each step of speed adjustment (rounding up, in the case of fractions). Follow these two steps:
- Adjust Speed Disk. The max number of steps of speed adjustment on the Speed Track = Thrust. This advances or retards your speed disk (Y.1C).
- Burn Fuel. For each step of speed adjustment, burn fuel steps = Fuel Economy.
- Ballistic Starship. If the Starship thruster or its supports are non-operational, you cannot burn fuel and can change speed only by braking. You may still choose turns at intersections.
B. Interstellar Move. The Speed Track is located in the top left corner of the map. The red Speed Disk on this track indicates how fast your starship travels, from a "dead stop" to 15% the speed of light. You must move it the number of spaces indicated, with no U-turns. At any intersection, choose which direction to go (but not back the way you came).
C. Half-Speed. If your Speed Disk is in a space labeled "1/2" on the Speed Track, each time your starship moves a space, lay its map figure on its side. For its next move, it stands up instead of moving one.
EXAMPLE: If you start your turn at ½ speed laid down, then on the next move you must stand up instead of moving (regardless if you have speeded up, slowed down, or stayed the same speed).
D. Hazard Spaces. Entering a space marked by a red hazard skull is a Crash Hazard. However, if the hazard is a flare star, and you previously successfully explored it without busting it (for instance, you sent a wisp and rolled a 2–6 in the Exploration Roll), then the flare star is inactive and safe to enter. (This security comes from having explored the system and knowing its flare cycle.)
NOTE: You cannot use "Failure is Not an Option" to avoid Interstellar Hazards.
Y.6 Risks and Death
If a risk is called for by the Profession Column, roll 1d6. Risks are always resolved starting at the top of the chart (engineer) and moving down!
A. Accident Risk (slipping human icon): If Human, the unit is killed if the 1d6 roll result is less than or equal to the stress. If non-human, the unit is decommissioned if the 1d6 roll result is less than or equal to its Age. If a stressed non-human, check the roll against both Age and stress.
B. Alzheimer's Risk (human head icon): Demote if the 1d6 roll result is less than the Passenger's Age. If the Passenger has two Profession disks of the same color, remove one.
- Time Separated Twinning (optional): This rule allows Humans (but not promoted Robots) one reroll for each failed Alzheimer's Roll. It assumes that radiation-induced dementia (the leading cause of death in a Starship) is reduced by a special medical procedure.
C. Gray Goo Risk (biohazard icon): Add one stress to every alert Human. The performer is killed if 1d6 > rad-hardness. Then, roll another 1d6 and add the number of Factory Cubes carried (if any, see Y.4A). If the result of the second roll is greater than the number of badges (combined for all alert colonists), discard one Factory Cube, and advance everything in the vats by one in Age (or kill it if in vats at Age = 10).
- Badge Icon. The badge icon indicates the discipline/loyalty level of the Passenger, useful during bailouts and beehive warfare, as well as gray goo outbreaks.
- If the Starship Government (Y.1) is in the Red Polity, then add one badge to each Human. If in the White Polity, add one to the rad-hardness of the scientist or biotechnician who caused the outbreak.
- Beehive Gray Goo War. If in a Beehive and gray goo occurs, choose the oldest Robonaut or Robot on the Age Track to convert into a hostile gray goo. (If there are none, then the gray goo has no effect). Remove any profession counters on the card. The goo is unaffected by risks other than radiation rolls but can be killed by colonists attacking it (see below).
- Aging the Goo. When each goo ages, it acquires one Factory Cube carried by the starship (oldest goos acquiring first) and advances the Age of all units in the vats by one (any Passengers that cannot be advanced because they are in the Age = 10 slot are killed). If there are no Factory Cubes to acquire, the goo cannibalizes the Bernal stack: either discarding a demoted Bernal to the Graveyard and converting it into 2 Factory Cubes, acquiring one, or demoting the Bernal stack if all Bernals are promoted. Do not make a mass adjustment due to Bernal loss this way and discard the goo to the bottom of the patent deck if it fails to acquire any Factory Cubes the turn it is converted. The cubes acquired by the goo should be placed on the goo card and cannot be used for any actions until the goo is killed; likewise the goo card cannot be used for any actions (such as discarding or decommissioning) while it remains on the Age Track.
- Fighting the Goo. Each alert Human can attack each goo once per operations phase (in addition to their normal operations), but this adds one stress for each attack. The attack kills the goo if 1d6 < than the goo's rad-hardness (low rad-hardness robonauts are converted into more dangerous goo) minus the number of cubes sitting on the goo, adding 1 to the goo rad-hardness if politics is White. If the roll is higher than the twice number of badges the Human has, they must check for an accident risk, adding one badge if the Politics is red. If the goo is killed, discard it to the bottom of the patent deck and return half the cubes (rounded up) to the starship stack as Factory Cubes — the remainder are discarded.
D. Mutiny Risk (revolver icon): A human is content if it has an election button with a color matching the Politics on the Starship Government (Y.1). Crew are content if the Politics matches their color (and they have no ballot box icons). Robots are content if the Politics is in the Centrist (purple) position. Include Passengers in the vats when determining mutiny outcomes but they are not affected by the resulting stress.
- Content. If the mutineer is content, nothing happens.
- Discontented majority. If discontent, and the ballot box icons (R3) of the contented are less than the discontented, move the Politics to the polity of the mutineer, and all alert Humans suffer stress equal to the number of steps the Politics moved. This includes the mutineer and promoted Robots (see Robotic Mutiny, below).
- Discontented minority. If the mutineer is discontent and the ballot box icons of the contented are greater than or equal to the discontented, then the Politics does not move and all the alert discontented suffer two stress.
- Suicide. If the mutineer is alone (the only Human out of the vats), he is killed if 1d6 is less than his stress unless the Politics is white. Promoted Robots can commit suicide. If he survives, and is discontented, then he moves the Politics and suffers stress per the above paragraph.
- Robotic Mutiny. If the mutineer is an unpromoted Robot, it is first promoted and then it mutinies as if Human. This represents what happens if a Robotic computer spontaneously becomes conscious.
- Robonauts and those in the vats do not suffer any effects from mutinies.
- Beehive Warfare. If in a Beehive and the mutineer is discontent, instead of the above, war breaks out. If there is only one alert Passenger, then they attempt Suicide, as above. Otherwise, the alert Passengers are divided into two camps: the mutineers (all alert Passengers aligned with the polity of the mutineer, along with the vats mutineer if a Vats Mutiny), and the loyalists (everyone else alert). The mutineers roll one dice and add their ballot box icons, and the loyalists roll one dice and add their badges. The high roller wins the war; ties have no effect. Kill off a number of losing Passengers equal to the winning die roll less the losing die roll, including the vats mutineer if a failed Vats Mutiny. You choose the victims. If the mutineers win, the Politics is changed to that of the mutineer, and all surviving alert humans suffer stress equal to the number of steps that the Politics changes; if they draw or lose the mutineers suffer two stress.
NOTE: If a mutiny shifts the Politics to purple, then the Robots are legally promotable (Y.4C). If a mutiny occurs during the Red Polity, then add one badge to each alert Human.
E. Cancer Risk (crab icon, humans only): Killed if the 1d6 roll result is less than Age, or if a 2d6 roll result is less than Age if a Cancer Cure Breakthrough cube is attained.
F. Antimatter Risk. Because Beam-Core Braking (Y.4D) uses stored antimatter to consume the braking mass, rapid braking could lead to an antimatter explosion. After the starship moves in a braking turn, roll 1d6. If the roll result is less than the number of steps decelerated that turn by beam-core braking, the ship is vaporized and passengers must bail out.
G. Bailout Risk. If the starship is dead-stopped at a world, or destroyed while drogue-braking or scoop-braking, each passenger may opt to bail out. (This simulates parachuting in high-gee liquid-immersion crash suits.) If the starship has no Spacewalkers, then a bailout is the only option to start a colony.
- Risk. If a passenger bails out, he is killed if the result of a 1d6 roll is less than his Age (Y.1D) minus the number of his badges (Y.5A). Roll for each passenger who bails.
EXAMPLE: An Age = 5 passenger with 2 badges bails out. He dies if the roll is 1 or 2.
- Vats. If a passenger in the vats bails out, he additionally makes a "No Midwife" risk to decant (Y.4I).
- Exploration. If the passenger survives a bailout into an unexplored system, make an Exploration Roll per Y.7B.
H. Killed. If a Human dies on a Starship, discard them to the Graveyard. If a Human dies aboard a Beehive, discard to the bottom of the Colonist Deck. If a black card (i.e. Robonaut or unpromoted Robot) or promoted Robot is killed, decommission to your hand, except a hostile goo is decommissioned to the bottom of the Patent deck and half the cubes (rounded up) are moved to the ship's stack as Factory Cubes, the remainder being discarded.
I. Demotion. Flip a promoted passenger or Bernal to its unpromoted side, or kill it if it is already unpromoted or is a crew.
- Passengers. Passengers are demoted by Alzheimer's (Y.6B), which afflicts both humans and robots, but not robonauts.
- Bernals. Bernals are demoted (as a stack) or killed (individually) if the starship flies into the LIC (Y.2B).
Y.7 Interstellar Exploration and Victory
A. Star Sites and Local Interstellar Clouds. The ovals on the map are called spaces. A red space indicates a Star Site. The blue space indicates a Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC). To explore either one, either send a wisp (at a range up to 12 spaces, per Y.4F) or come to a dead stop on its space.
NOTE: A Starship can return to a dead-stop at Sol to retry a Sol Exit, to refuel or drydock (as operations), or to replace all colonists and crew lost to the Graveyard by restoring these to the starship stack in the marked spaces on the Age track (Y.1E) as a Business operation called Recruit.
NOTE 2: A Starship can avoid the "No Midwife" risk if they are in the Sol space (regardless of the speed they are travelling at).
B. Exploration Table Roll. Each Star Site has an Exploration Table listed on the map. During a Wisp or Exploration Operation, roll 2d6 and place a Claim Disk of your color on the number rolled. Thus, the position of this disk indicates the planets discovered. A failure busts the entire site with a black disk.
- A gas giant is a gas giant or ice giant where S fuel isotope (e.g. helium-3) is available during a Refuel Operation; also drogue and scoop-braking may be performed.
- A fuel planet is a Super-Earth, hot Earth, gas giant moon, cometary halo or wandering comet where M, V, and D fuel isotopes are available during a Refuel Operation (Y.4E).
- A habitable planet is an aqueous world where a Human migration colony can be founded which ends the game (Y.7D). Each surviving Human (including in vats) at a colony at a habitable planet is worth 1 VP per mass point.
- A living planet means that the habitable planet is alive with ET lifeforms, which doubles your colonizing VP.
NOTE: As indicated by the brackets, some rolls indicate multiple planets are found.
EXAMPLE: A 3 is rolled while exploring Tau Ceti, so a Claim Disk at "2–3" is placed. As indicated by the bracket, a living planet, a habitable planet, a gas giant, and a fuel planet have been discovered.
Early Exit (optional): An Interstellar Quick Start may begin before the cataloging of all nearby exoplanets is complete, and therefore without knowing whether habitable planets exist at all. In this instance, any exoplanet search at the start of the game rolls the first dice roll of the 2d6 exploration roll and puts the dice face up next to the star site. The search stops when a roll = 1. The second dice is rolled only when the site is explored during the game (or when using a free exoplanet search provided by a future). Exploration rolls using an SOS Wisp are performed using gravitational lensing which provides much higher accuracy than the initial search — the SOS Wisp roll is to see whether the gravitational lens for a particular star site has come online.
C. Exploring LIC. Exploring in the LIC (Y.7A) is successful if a 2, 3, or 4 is rolled on 2 dice (2d6), indicating a fuel planet (Y.7B) is found (among the Oort and Nomad Bodies in the Local Interstellar Cloud). If successful, leave a claim disk on top of the LIC Site. A failure busts the targeted LIC space with a black disk.
D. Ending the Game. You can choose to end the game at any time, even part way through a turn. If you are dead-stopped at a Habitable or Living Planet, you may form a colony for victory points. To form a colony, you must "bail out" if you do not have any alert spacewalkers and may optionally perform a Bioengineering Op (Y.4G) with each of your biotechs and a Parenting Op with each of your domestics (Y.4H), then count the VPs from the resulting colony towards your victory point total. (The new Colonists created this way represent the first generation born on the New World.)
- The game also ends if you fly off the map, or cannot move any further.
Legacy Game. You can choose to start a new Quick Start game at a dead stop at any colony you found at a Habitable or Living planet instead of Sol, retaining all the star site exploration (but not LIC) and Breakthrough results from the previous game. You cannot found additional colonies in any site a colony is already present at and Sol Exits are only available at Sol.
E. Interstellar Victory Conditions. You receive Victory Points (VPs) for each Claim Disk (Y.7B), plus one VP for each Human mass point in a colony (Y.7D). If the system contains a living planet, score 2 VPs instead of 1 VP for each colony mass point. Note that Robots do not count unless promoted.
- 0–3 VPs = Major loss discouraging future attempts, leading to near-term human extinction.
- 4–6 VPs = Loss. Negative growth leading to eventual extinction.
- 7–12 VPs = ZPG. Colony birth rate equal to colony death rate.
- 13–24 VPs = Linear Victory with constant growth of human populations.
- 25+ VPs = Exponential victory with an unstoppable human presence in the galaxy.
Y.8 Interstellar Example Missions
A. Seed Starship Variant (Daniel Eliot Boese): Starting TW thruster: Antimatter sail with 20 tanks of fuel. Passengers: two or three humans and/or robots with a maximum mass of 7. Maximum dry mass, including thruster: 9 (any heavier and the ship will not have enough acceleration/deceleration to reach 6.5% light-speed).
- Mission Profile. Use the Jupiter flyby exit. Accelerate 3 steps to speed = 2; start decelerating before your destination (so that the sail has time to decelerate 5 steps to a full stop). Braking can also be used.
- Special Rules. Humans start in the vats as infants (Age = 1). Because this lightweight ship carries no Bernal, a radiation roll is made every turn in the LIC. However, roll separately for each human (exception to Y.2B).
- Risks. The ship has no radiators, and the humans in vats are too young to degrade from Alzheimer's. Therefore, if nobody is alert during the cruise, the only risk is radiation. There is the radiation roll for the Jupiter exit, the radiation roll each turn in the LIC (because there is no Bernal), and at the destination, there is a radiation roll for the first passenger to be awoken, since there is no midwife. Therefore, use only the most radiation-resistant passengers, and travel only to the closest destinations (e.g. Alpha Centauri). At rad-hardness = 6, the antimatter sail itself is radiation-proof.
- Robots. If a raygun passenger is kept alert, then exploration wisps can be sent (e.g. to Proxima Centauri). An engineering robot can keep all the robots rejuvenated. A biotech robot can act as a midwife, or (even if all the humans have died) use bioengineering to create new humans (presumably from stored gametes or even digitally-stored DNA).
- Complications. If there's no good planet at the destination, the passengers will need to refuel for another destination (assuming a fuel planet is present, otherwise they are marooned).
B. Example NASA Mission (Phil Eklund). No exoplanet search variant rule used aka "the Eklund end run". This allows a Quick start with 20 WT instead of 16.
Starting TW Thruster: Colliding FRC 3He-D Fusion (2•½). Supported by Ultracold & Fusor Reactors, Multiphase Generator, and Maragoni Radiator.
Starting Crew: Alert: NASA (science), Svalbard Caretakers (science), Babbage Halbonauts (engineers), Security (network), Ablative Laser (spacewalker), Nanobots (spacewalker), Lorentz Propelled Microprobes (network).
In Vats: Juiced Cosmonauts, Vatican Observers, Malcolm, Islamic Refugees.
Mass: 40 dry mass with 3 steps of fuel. Two Bernals are carried.
Starting Governance: Right Wing. Ending Governance: Right Wing. Starting Trajectory: Sol exit Neptune.
Mission Highlights:
Year 12 (1): The Ablative Laser is converted into a factory cube allowing the heavy science team to make a Math Breakthrough, and a Wisp busts Alpha Centauri. Tragically, the cosmonauts die in the vats from brain rot.
Year 36 (3): Two more breakthroughs have been accomplished: Cure for Cancer and Ecological, using the remaining robonauts, so the librarians are sent to the vats. The security system breaks down. A fuel planet is discovered at Barnard's, so the decision is made to head to 61 Cygni by way of Barnard's. Because of the small amount of fuel carried (30 tanks), the ship is at its maximum speed of 4% c (1/turn).
Year 48 (4): The NASA astronauts are dead at 100 years old. They served well, first as scientists, then as entrepreneurs. The caretakers deteriorate in the vats, and the decision is made to revive and promote them. A flurry of Robotic engineering activity as the ship flies through the LIC.
Year 72 (6): The Halbonauts have shut down which prevents the security system from being further repaired. Various mutinies defused because of the strength of the Right Wing voters. The caretakers and pilgrims marry, which proves to be a highly successful union.
Year 84 (7): Despite the ravages of Alzheimer's, the couple conceives baby Pantrophists. Gray goo is defeated by the 6 active badges, and the Robots are emancipated.
Year 96 (8): The pilgrims die of cancer, and their spouses the caretakers go into the vats at age 120. One Robot fails, so the ship is controlled by the emancipated Navigators, now downgraded to just a mechanical Security System.
Year 168 (14): The Starship passes the Barnard System on its way to 61 Cygni. The security system failed at turn 10, leaving nobody alert. The caretakers have gradually wasted away in the vats, dead by turn 13. Malcolm dies in the vats on this turn, leaving only two Humans left, both in the vats and nobody at the wheel.
Year 192 (16): Approaching LIC, the refugees are awakened. But they fail to survive the "no Midwife" risk. Only the pre-teen Pantrophists are left, and they (ironically) are scientists without any skills to 3D print the Robots needed to keep the EM shields operational. Earth is out of SOS range. So, the decision is made to leave the youngsters in the vats. Obviously, we should have stopped at Barnard's fuel planet to rebuild the hull and refuel.
Year 324 (27): The second and final Bernal is destroyed in the Bow Shock of 61 Cygni, lowering the dry mass to 20.
Year 372 (31): As the ship approaches 61 Cygni, the only systems that remain functional were the Pantrophists in the vats. The starship engine has lost all its supports due to glitches, and there are no engineers to 3D print replacements. Because of the midwife catastrophe, conditions at 61 Cygni are unknown. The desperate plan is to revive the pre-teens as biotechnicians, self-promote to Sybonts (this step is essential, because only the promoted side has the ability to for magnetic then drogue braking, assuming a gas giant is found), then train for piloting skills for the braking. In a Hollywood finish, the rapidly aging Sybonts barely survive gray goo and two accidents, as well as the drogue brake hazard and radiation. They discover both a gas giant and a habitable planet, using the easily-missed rule that a drogue brake attempt forces an exploration roll.
Year 384 (32): A second drogue brake allows the starship to come to a complete halt before it leaves the system (at ½ speed). The Sybonts survive the bailout risk that not having an alert spacewalker entails, and form a colony.
Loss, Negative Growth. One mass-3 Human landed at a habitable planet on 61 Cygni. Ending Score = Human Mass 3 + 2 claims = 5 VP.
C. Conservation of Mass and Spectral Type (Andrew Doull). One of the less obvious but significant improvements in the 3rd edition of High Frontier is that more attention has been paid to tracking mass correctly, by redesigning the fuel tracker to be a strip and changing card text, so that it is not possible to get mass for free by e.g. promoting cards in space. During the 3rd edition design process I was reasonably assured that I could persuade Phil to accept a suggestion if I included the phrase 'conservation of mass'.
High Frontier Interstellar is more forgiving about tracking mass, in order to simplify Parenthood and allow a "cube economy" to exist on the starship. Per the footnotes, it is possible to get free mass from nowhere by converting a low mass robot or robonaut into a mass 5 Factory Cube. However in making cubes a fungible commodity, a central tenant of High Frontier is lost — that of differing asteroid spectral types giving access to different technologies due to composition and isotope availability.
For players looking for more difficult Interstellar game, if there is such a player, it is possible to play a version of the game which is more careful about preserving conservation of mass, and (for want of a better term) conservation of spectral type. The following rule changes should be adopted:
- Factory cubes cannot be created by or used for operations. This prevents Cube Nanofacture, Eureka, Endowment and Research operations and only permits Bernals to be used for Nano-Reconfigure Hull operations. Hostile goo do not produce cubes when cannibalizing Bernals and rebuilding Bernals during a Dry Dock in a Beehive (as an exception) does not require cubes.
- Scientists get a new Research operation as follows: 'Discard a black card to draw a black card of matching spectral type from any patent deck. Draw a second card of matching spectral type if both have less mass than the discarded card.'
- (Optional) Parenthood and Research operations are only permitted when the discarded card is of greater than or equal mass to the newly drawn card.
- Challenge mode. Complete a 'mundane' Interstellar game, with the above rules, the optional rules in point 3 above, and where only the white side of colonists are permitted (and therefore no robots). You are not expected to win.
D. Generation Ship - A Multiplayer Single Ship Variant (Andrew Doull). The Generation ship is a Beehive Ark using the Beehive Quick Start rules with the following modifications:
- The ideas turns are resolved in player order with each player beginning with 5 WT. If a player acquires and places the starship engine or its supports in the starship stack, they may also place the crew card of their faction for free — the player who first does this is in power at the start of the game. Note: Players are free to keep non-colonist cards in their hand.
- When acquiring colonists using either ideas turns or Parenthood or Bioengineering operations, instead of picking a random colonist draw the top 3 cards on the colonist deck and choose one, returning the other two to the bottom of the deck in any order.
- Each player is responsible for choosing the operations of colonists loyal to their faction during the Operations phase, resolved in player turn order. Player Purple is also responsible for choosing promoted robot operations. The first player for the turn (Captain) and the role of the player responsible for choosing the operations of Robonauts (Executive Officer), unpromoted robots (Roboticist) and colonists (Councillor) without a loyal faction in the game rotates in a round-robin fashion at the end of the turn: these additional roles are assigned out at the start of the game clockwise from the left of the in power player, who begins as Captain. Exception: Any card or cube placed in the starship stack or age track is controlled by the player who placed it until the end of their turn.
- Any operation which affects a card or uses a cube which is not controlled by the acting player requires the permission of the controlling player for that turn — during Anarchy, cards decommissioned from the starship stack go to the Captain. If a crew card is decommissioned, flip it and put it on the bottom of the colonist deck.
- Victory Conditions. If the game concludes with 13+ VP achieved, the player with the highest mass of loyal humans is the winner.
Volume II Endnotes
i. The game starts with a Kardashev I civilization, when individuals have terawatts of energy available. (Today's global energy output is about 15 terawatts.) Operations are undertaken by reproducing machines, and products become cheap and plentiful. Due to the "tyranny" of the rocket equation, energy is cheap and mass expensive for interstellar travel. Therefore, a useful starship engine must transform an appreciable fraction of valuable mass into the kinetic energy of expelled propellant. (I do not believe in postulated "reactionless" drives; every vehicle in all of history has followed Newton's action-reaction principle.) Electric engines are hopeless because of very low specific power and low-thrust. Only nuclear annihilation drives, transforming mass to energy, have any chance for the stars. The fuel economy of these engines is proportional to the square root of the percentage of mass converted to energy. This percentage is theoretically 100% using antihydrogen fuel, about 1% for fusion fuels, and 0.1% for fission fuels. This assumes all the fuel mass is available for thrust generation, which is far from the case for real engines. Especially fission, where the energy liberated in the fission process appears as heat in the fuel rods. I do not include any fission starship engines: the Medusa has been converted to D-D fusion and even the Zubrin Drive has insufficient Isp. Starship engines in the game using antimatter are the antimatter sail and the H-B magnetic-inertial (this last is really a fusion engine initiated by antimatter). Antimatter drives have severe problems coupling the annihilation products to the propellant. Even using an extremely dense propellant, such as lead, most of the reaction energy is lost. Fusion fuels, even with two orders of magnitude less energy than antimatter, are ultimately superior for reasons of propellant coupling. Furthermore, fusion fuels can be mined, whereas antimatter normally must be made.
ii. The diamond electrodynamic tether generates electricity at the expense of a small amount of the starship's momentum as it is dragged through a changing electric field. How well it works depends upon how much the electric field alters between the stars. Part of the display of a comet may be due to the charge it accumulated in interstellar space and discharges as it enters heliocentric space.
iii. Solar powered Robonauts are instead beam-powered by base stations installed on the starship. Optionally, you can require that Robonauts with no support requirements instead have the support requirements of the white side of the card, except Nanobot which acts as a factory cube during gray goo risks and war.
iv. A beehive ark is of vastly greater mass than other starships. Each mass point is one million tons (instead of 40), and each colonist mass point is 10,000 people. So, imagine that each card and unit in a beehive stack is a large number of units. The beehive population supposedly lives in an underground colony on a comet propelled by expelling the mass of the comet itself. Practically, this has many problems. Suppose the comet has the mass of Halley's Comet, 200 billion tonnes, and uses a beehive engine with an exit velocity of 0.5% lightspeed. To accelerate it to 1 space per turn, or 1.3% lightspeed in the beehive scale, the rocket equation requires that 93% of the cometary mass be expelled (so that it ends up with only 14 billion tonnes). At this speed its kinetic energy is a breathtaking 10^26 newtons. It would require at least 33 Medusa engines to obtain the 55 giganewtons of thrust required to obtain this speed in a 24-year turn. To stop the beehive at its destination requires 93% of the remaining mass be expelled, ending up with less than a billion tonnes.
v. All three close passes use the Oberth effect to accelerate the Starship. A solar Oberth flyby is also useful, utilizing the 230km/sec orbital velocity of Sol around the center of the galaxy.
vi. In a beehive, the radiators additionally represent sulfur lamps used as the energy source for the lichens.
vii. The aging of the Bernal Stack represents the irreversible erosional loss of hull material from the impingement of dust at relativistic speeds. When the hull has suffered 120 years of erosion, the increased radiation causes the passengers to age faster. Only with a drydock can the hull be restored.
viii. As each cube is treated elsewhere as mass 5, the Cube Nanofacture operation seems to violate the law of conservation of mass by adding mass to the starship. To avoid this violation, I have assumed that building the cube also reduces the mass of the other components on the ship by a corresponding amount. Because the mass of each card is assumed to change mass with redesign during the voyage, the dry mass of the starship is equal to the mass of its cards only when it embarks.
ix. If the Politics is in the center position, this emancipates the robots (i.e. robotic promotion is legal). Just like Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, this does not actually change the status of any of the enslaved. It just allows scientists or biotechs to promote Robots to full consciousness. Robots can also self-promote during a mutiny. This is spontaneous, accidental, and (unless the Politics is in the center) illegal.
x. What role do businessmen perform? Technically, everyone with a product or a service is a businessman, at least in a non-slave starship. So doctors, engineers, scientists, pilots, biotechs, emancipated robots, spacewalkers, domestics, and networkers are all business entities. But the business profession is envisioned as facilitating all this, as well as keeping the crew sane with products, entertainment, and services. It also includes artists such as novelists, musicians, and holodeck painters. The business profession is something of a luxury when dealing with tiny starship crews, where every kilogram matters. They would be more useful in a Beehive. Nevertheless, even in a starship the business of keeping the crew sane and stress-free for decades and centuries is an important one. However, aesthetics and art appreciation might not be available for AI or emancipated robots because art and culture are quirks of the origins of consciousness, a theme investigated in my Neanderthal game. These quirks are not likely duplicated in the origins of AI consciousness. So the business class might be handicapped with AI crews.
xi. Because it uses the interstellar plasma as a gradual friction force, the mag-sail works best between the stars. Further, the slowing force varies with the square of the velocity, so the mag-sail is only effective at higher speeds. Mag-Sail Brake rules research courtesy David Harris.
xii. Stuff tossed into the antimatter hoppers is gone forever. This is not because the idea is lost, but because there are some things (special materials, wiring harnesses, etc.), which cannot be recovered by 3D Printing.
xiii. The Electromagnetic (EM) Shields deflect charged space hazards such as Corona Mass Ejections (CMEs) and other plasmas. A promoted Bernal means the shield is operational, while an unpromoted one means the shields are shut down. If the shields are down, and for neutral dust, the ship relies on physical shielding: layers of c-nanotube composite and aerogel. Aerogel is mostly gas, weighs next to nothing, and particles will vaporize upon contact like meteors. Some of the aerogel and C60 will vaporize also. The vaporized gaseous matter will be deflected by the protective magnetic field. Ionizing bow lasers and shield vehicles are also used.
xiv. Since each space on the Interstellar Map is half a light year, the speed of light is 24 spaces per 12-year turn. I cut this in half to allow for time spent for two-way communication between source and destination. A trade or SOS wisp can move at light-speed, because while in transit, it is not a physical thing, but only a code that can be translated into a message or product at the receiving end. Exploration wisps move slower (perhaps 50% light-speed).
xv. This represents the next generation, enabled by a terraformed ecosystem utilizing lichen dusted with miRNA for genetic modification. miRNA is small non-coding RNA ubiquitously expressed in unicellular to multicellular eukaryotes.
xvi. A beehive or half-speed starship travels about 1.3%c.
xvii. Alzheimer's and other complex diseases such as type 1 and 2 diabetes, autism, bipolar disorder, and allergies, show significantly higher concordance in monozygotic twins than in dizygotic twins or parent-child pairs. These diseases can be controlled through time-separated twinning, a strategy involving the collection and fertilization of human oocytes followed by several rounds of artificial twinning. If preimplantation genetic screening reports no aneuploidy or known Mendelian disorders, one of the monozygotic siblings would be implanted and the remaining embryos cryoconserved. Once the health of the adult monozygotic sibling is established, subsequent parenthood with the twins in the vats could substantially lower the incidence of hereditary disorders with Mendelian or complex etiology. (Dr. Alexander Churbanov)
xviii. The gray goo problem, originally formulated in macroscopic form by John von Neumann and in nano-form by Eric Drexler, describes a doomsday scenario of out of control self-replicating robots which have escaped from the lab. Self-replicating robots are essential for various operations, such as refining fuel isotopes and hull reconfiguration.
xix. I belong to the Julian Jaynes society and Dr. Jaynes postulates the origins of human consciousness as a breakdown of a former mode of authoritarian decision-making. This breakdown has led to "quests for authority", "the need for authorization", "the power of suggestion", and many other uniquely human tendencies. In this view, human politics tends toward the authoritarian corner of the Nolan Chart (the basis for the starship political diagram) as an artifact of how consciousness came to be. However, a conscious computer, having an entirely different origin of consciousness, would not share this purely biological ilk. Furthermore, if the machine happened to be immortal, the human basis for morality would be removed. Under these conditions, I speculate that a suddenly conscious machine would tend toward the center (or perhaps upper?) part of the Nolan in its dealing with other consciousnesses.
xx. Several thousand years ago Sol blundered into the "Local Interstellar Cloud" (LIC), one of several nearby clouds composed of warm, low density (~0.3 atoms/cm3) dust and hydrogen blowing at us from the direction of the Scorpius and Centaurus constellations. The difficulty with this cloud is that the material is electrically neutral and thus passes undeflected through the ship's primary EM Shield. Once safely outside the LIC, the starship enters the "local bubble", where the only material is ultra-low density hot plasma (<0.001 atoms/cm3).