Nebular Colors
Nebular Colors Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
52 playing cards, 4 player aids, 7 star fragments.
Setup
Shuffle the deck. Deal each player 1 card. Then reveal 2 cards from the draw deck to form 2 discard piles, one on each side of the deck. During the game, you must keep every card in the discard pile visible by splaying it with the numbers in the corners showing. The first player is whoever last saw a shooting star, or else chosen randomly.
Alternate turns with your opponent until one of you has at least 5 points, then go to STOP OR NOVA. If the deck ever runs out of cards, immediately go to SCORING.
On Your Turn
Choose 1 option:
-
Draw 2 cards from the top of the draw deck, then you must discard 1 of those cards onto either discard pile. Then you may play melds, if you have any valid melds in your hand. If there is an empty discard pile, you must discard onto it first. Keep every card in the discard pile visible by splaying it with the numbers in the corners showing.
-
Draw all of the cards of one of the discard piles. Immediately use any of those cards to make melds, then take any remaining of those cards facedown as penalty cards. Penalty cards are worth -1 point for every 3 penalty cards you have.
*Note: To take this action, you must be able to make a Set using at least one card from that discard pile and at least one card from your hand.
Melds
Melds are made with cards in your hand and added to your scoring area. You can only ever add cards to your scoring area when they are played as a meld.
A valid meld may be either of the following:
- Set - 3 or 4 cards of matching numbers.
- Examples: 1 purple, 1 purple, 1 purple / 8 blue, 8 blue, 8 blue, 8 blue
- Run - 3, 4, or 5 cards of sequential numbers in the same suit.
- Examples: 10 yellow, 11 yellow, 12 yellow / 6 blue, 7 blue, 8 blue, 9 blue / 1 purple, 2 purple, 3 purple, 4 purple, 5 purple
Scoring Suits
Melds themselves don't score points alone. To score points, you must pass a suit's threshold. A threshold is passed once you have a number of cards in your personal scoring area of the same suit. Each suit has a different number of cards needed for its threshold to be passed.
Once a threshold has been passed, you score points. Each player can only score by passing the threshold of a suit once. However, passing a threshold does not prevent you from continuing to play melds of that suit. Each card you have beyond a suit's threshold is worth 1 bonus point.
| Suit | Card Threshold | Point | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Yellow | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Blue | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Purple | 6 | 1 | 1 |
Note: the printed rulebook shows the suits as icons only; they are identified here by colour.
Stop or Nova / Reaching 5+ Points
If you're the first player to reach 5+ points (after accounting for penalties), you must immediately choose to Stop or Nova.
- If you Stop, the round ends immediately, then go to SCORING.
- If you Nova, you bet you can get to 10+ points before your opponent can score their initial 5. Continue the round until either happens, or the deck is empty at the start of a turn, then go to SCORING.
Scoring / End of Hand
The hand may end in one of four ways:
- You Stop: Earn 1 star fragment.
- You Nova and succeed: Earn 2 star fragments.
- You Nova and fail, if your opponent scores 5+ points OR if the deck is empty at the start of a turn: Your opponent earns 1 star fragment.
- The deck is empty at the start of a turn, and no one has 5+ points: Compare current scores. The player with the most points earns 1 star fragment. In the case of a tie, the player who took the first turn in the round earns 1 star fragment.
Then shuffle the deck and set up a new hand in the same way described during SETUP, only with the loser of the previous hand going first.
End of Game
When either player has earned 4 or more star fragments, that player wins the game.
For a shorter game, you can play to 2 or more star fragments.