Mars Escape Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Winning
• Set Up
• How to Play
• On Your Turn
  • Phase One- Draw
  • Phase Two- Attack
• Weapon Cards
• Item Cards
  • Examples
• Alien Cards
• Item Card Glossary
  • Freeze Ray
  • Confusion Ray
  • Cache Chest
  • Force Field
  • Scavenger
  • Steal
  • Alien Tracker
  • 3-D Printer
  • Sleight Of Hand
  • Broken Time Machine

Winning

The first player to have a total of 4 ship parts in their stockpile is the winner. If all 11 aliens are defeated and no one has 4 ship parts, the game ends in a tie and everyone dies from lack of supplies.

Set Up

Begin by shuffling the deck and deal 4 cards to each player. If any player has an alien card in their hand at this time, they are to show it to the other players, place the alien back into the main deck, and take another card. Repeat this until no players have an alien card in their hand and every player has 4 cards. Reshuffle the deck and place it in the center of the gaming area.

[Setup diagram: the gaming area shows three marked spaces, labelled Discard Pile, the Mars Escape deck, and Active Alien Pile.]

How to Play

Once setup is finished, the game can begin. The youngest player goes first, play proceeds clockwise. Item cards can be played at any point in time, regardless of who's current turn it is or what phase it is. There is no maximum number of cards a player can hold at one time. You do not get to draw a card when you use a card, cards can only be drawn during the draw phase or using Cache Chest. When a card is discarded, it is laid on the opposite side of the deck as the alien pile, face up. These cards are not active, and are not able to be used by item cards requiring active cards.

On Your Turn

Phase One- Draw

At the beginning of their turn, the player draws a card from the deck. If you draw an alien card during this phase it counts as your draw, place the alien and proceed to phase two. If there are no cards in the deck, shuffle the discard pile twice, place that deck in the center, and draw. If you are frozen while drawing a card, and you have already touched the deck, you may finish drawing the card before ending your turn.

Phase Two- Attack

If an alien is active the player may now attack. Players can only attempt to defeat one alien per turn. After an alien has been defeated, or it has been established that the player is not capable of defeating an alien, and all possible item cards have been resolved, the player is to discard all active weapon cards and end their turn. Extra damage does not carry over to the next alien, only one alien is able to be fought each turn. Active weapon cards are still discarded if the player fails at defeating the alien. The alien's health resets if a player fails to defeat it.

Weapon Cards

Weapon cards are cards with a red background, showing a weapon item, and the amount of damage a weapon does.

The printed weapon cards are: Screwdriver (2 Damage), P.G.T (3 Damage), Machete (4 Damage), and Ray Gun (10 Damage).

Weapon cards can only be played during that player's attack phase. A player can play as many weapon cards as they want on their turn, but can only attack once per turn. In order to defeat an alien, the damage numbers on the weapon cards must add up to or exceed the amount of health the alien has. If a weapon card is canceled using an item card, more weapon cards can be played by the player if they have them. Weapon cards are placed next to the active alien the player is attacking, laid out so that all other players can see the amount of damage being dealt by each card. These cards are active. Weapon cards are inactive if canceled by an item card and that item card is resolved, or after the attack phase has ended. Once the attack phase has ended, even if the player was not able to defeat the alien, the alien's health resets, and all active weapon cards are discarded. Active cards are not allowed to be switched or removed after being placed. More weapon cards can be played at any point during the attack phase.

Item Cards

Item cards are cards with a blue background, showing an item with an ability, and a brief description. See the item card glossary for more information.

Item cards can be played at any point in time regardless of which player's turn it is (with exception to resolving Broken Time Machine, see glossary). There is no limit for how many item cards can be played at once. An item card is active until it is resolved. An item card is resolved once its ability has finished being carried out, or after it has been canceled by another player's item card, and that player's item card has been resolved. Once an item card is resolved or canceled, it is no longer active and is to be placed in the discard pile. Active item cards are to be placed according to the action taking place.

Examples

A Freeze Ray card is placed in front of the player whose turn is being skipped, opposite of that player's stockpile, that card is active. Once that player's turn is reached, the Freeze Ray card can be discarded in place of that player's turn, resolving the card.

A Confusion Ray card is placed on top of the card the player wishes to cancel, the card is active until it is decided that no player can or wishes to contest the card. It is then resolved and the Confusion Ray is discarded along with the card that it canceled.

[Manual illustrations: a Confusion Ray card canceling a weapon; and a Confusion Ray card canceling a cancel, captioned "You can cancel a cancel!".]

Alien Cards

Alien cards are cards showing an alien, its name, its HP and how many ship parts it has.

The manual's example aliens are: The Little Green Man (8 HP, 1 ship part), The Host (6 HP, 1 ship part), The Eyes (10 HP, 2 ship parts), and The Mantis (8 HP, 1 ship part).

Alien cards are never to be kept in a player's hand, as soon as an alien card is drawn it must be placed. (with exception during setup) If an alien is drawn it is to be laid to the right of the deck, face up so everyone can see. This counts as the players draw, they do not get to draw again. That alien is now active and can be attacked during the attack phase.

This pile can always be looked through as long as the order is not compromised. If more than one alien is drawn, the most recent alien is placed on top of the previous alien, that alien now becomes the active alien. The active alien can only be changed through the use of item cards or by defeating the currently active alien. Once the current alien is defeated, if there is another alien in the stack, that alien now becomes active. Through the use of item cards, the active alien can be changed at any time, including during the attack phase of any player.

Once an alien is defeated, it is to be placed to the left, in front of the player who defeated it, this is the astronaut's stockpile. Alien cards in the stockpile are not able to be attacked and are now ship parts. Only one alien can be defeated per turn, extra damage does not carry over to the next alien. Any failed attempts at defeating an alien result in the aliens health being reset for the next attack phase.

Item Card Glossary

Freeze Ray

Skip a player's turn. Place this card in front of the player you wish to freeze. They can still use item cards, but they will not be able to draw or attack during their next turn. This card is resolved once the player whose turn was skipped discards it in place of taking their turn.

Freeze Ray can be played during a player's turn as long as it is before the player plays a weapon card. If Freeze Ray is done during a player's turn, but they have already touched the deck/drawn a card from the deck, the player who is being skipped still gets the card they drew/were drawing and ends their turn, resolving the card and discarding it.

Confusion Ray

Cancel any item or weapon with the exception of Force Field. Place this card on top of the card you wish to cancel in order for it to be active. Confusion Ray is active until it is either canceled or deemed uncontested. If it is uncontested, the card it is canceling and itself is then discarded. It is active until placed in the discard pile.

Cache Chest

Allows the player to draw 2 cards from the deck. This card must be placed in front of the deck while drawing to be active. Cache Chest is resolved after you have drawn 2 cards and placed them in your hand. Once resolved, discard this card. If an alien was drawn this way, that alien counts as one of the 2 cards and must be placed in the active alien pile.

Force Field

This card grants immunity to item cards. This card cannot be canceled. Force Field is active after the player places the card in front of them, and the card can only be used by that player. Force Field cannot be placed in front of other players, and can only be given to other players through use of Sleight of Hand before the card is played.

Any cards currently being played against the player using this card are canceled. Any cards played against the player using the card while it is active are immediately canceled. Force Field is only active until the current player's turn ends, it is then resolved and is discarded.

Scavenger

Search the discard pile for a card. Place this card in front of the discard pile in order for it to be active. If uncontested, you may pick up the discard pile and search for any card of you choosing and place it in your hand. Place the discard pile back in its spot when finished, this resolves the card and it can now be discarded.

Steal

Steal a ship part from another player's stockpile. Place this card on top of the ship part you want to steal in order for it to be active. Steal can be used to steal The Eyes, and does give the player 2 ship parts from doing so. If uncontested, place that ship part in your stockpile, this resolves the card and it can now be discarded.

Alien Tracker

Allows a player to search for any alien in the deck or active alien pile, and place it at the top of the active alien pile.

Place this card next to the alien pile in order for it to be active. If the deck is searched, shuffle the deck twice afterwards. Do not shuffle the active alien pile, this pile can always be looked through as long as the order is not compromised. Once you have begun searching, you must finish resolving the card unless it is canceled. The card is resolved once the new alien is placed on top of the active alien pile.

This card can be used during any player's attack phase, and the active weapon cards are transferred to the new alien. Once resolved, discard the card. Alien Tracker does NOT work on aliens in the players stockpiles, as these are ship parts.

3-D Printer

Duplicate any active weapon or item card. Place this card on top of the card you wish to duplicate in order for this card to be active. Once this card is active, the ability of the duplicated card must be immediately used. This resolves the card and it can now be discarded.

Sleight Of Hand

Steal a random card from someone's hand. Place this card in front of the player you wish to steal from in order for it to be active. Once Sleight of Hand is active, unless canceling Sleight of Hand, the player being targeted cannot use their item cards until Sleight of Hand is resolved. If uncontested, blindly pick a card from that player's hand and place it in your hand. This resolves the card and it can now be discarded.

Broken Time Machine

All of the cards in each player's hand, discard pile, and deck are gathered together, shuffled twice, and redealt, the same way it was done during set up.

This card must be placed into the center of the table to be active. Once placed, the only cards that can be played are Confusion Ray and Force Field. If Force Field is played, that player is not affected, Force Field resolves as normal. If otherwise uncontested, all cards that are not active, not in the player's stockpiles or the active alien deck are reset, including this one.

Once this is finished, if the player whose turn it was when this card was played had not yet resolved their turn, they continue. Since active cards are not canceled, all unresolved active cards can now also be resolved.