Neptune
Neptune Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Battle with other players using planets, asteroids, black holes, and other cards to be the first player to score 50 points, or have the highest score after 5 rounds, and you will control the galaxy!
Components
10 Blue System Cards - 10 Green System Cards - 10 Red System Cards - 9 Special Cards - 4 Score Trackers - 8 Score Markers - Instructions.
Setup
Shuffle the 30 system cards together with six special cards of your choice and deal out all the cards evenly to each player in a clockwise manner. In a two player game you should remove six cards, at random, before dealing and place them facedown to the side.
Each player should receive one score tracker and two score markers of their preferred color. Players should place one marker on each of the spots marked with a zero on their score tracker. Using the score tracker is covered in detail in the "Scoring" section of this manual.
System Card Anatomy
Here is a picture of a system card. Let's take a closer look at it.
- Top-left corner: there is a large and a small circle. The number in the larger circle indicates the card power (CP) of that particular planet. The smaller circle has a symbol in it to identify which system the planet is part of.
- Bottom-left corner: a trump chart. It gives the player a quick reference as to the trump pattern used during the game.
- Bottom-right corner: another circle with a number in it. This number indicates the score value of the card. This value is used during scoring.
Playing the Game
Each game consists of rounds. Each round consists of turns equal to the number of cards in each player's hand. Each turn consists of each player playing one card from their hand into the center of the table.
After each round of play the player to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer.
Each round starts with the player to the left of the dealer playing a card faceup on the table. This player can play any card from his hand as long as it is not an asteroid.
Each player then plays one card, moving clockwise in direction, until each player has played one card. Players MUST try to follow suit. Example: if the starting-player plays a red system card, then every player for that turn must play a red system card if they have one. If a player cannot follow suit they can then play any card from their hand including an asteroid card.
Then players must determine the winner of the turn by referring to the rules in the WINNING A TRICK section. The winner of the turn gathers all the cards that were played and places the card that won the trick on top, and then places the stack in front of him for later calculating. This stack of cards is referred to as a TRICK.
The winner of the turn then begins the next turn by playing a new card onto the table from his hand. The round continues until all cards have been played. Then players must determine their score for the round by following the rules set forth in the SCORING section. Play continues until one player accumulates 50 points or until five rounds have been played, and then the player with the highest score wins!
Winning a Trick
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If all cards in play after a turn are of the same suit then the player that played the card with the highest Card Power (CP) wins the Trick.
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Each of the three suits can trump one of the other suits and in turn are vulnerable to being trumped from the third suit. It plays out very much like rock-paper-scissors. Red trumps Green, Green trumps Blue, and Blue trumps Red.
If a player cannot follow suit he may play another card. In this case the player may win the trick by playing a card that trumps the starting suit. Example: Bob starts the turn by playing a 4 Red. John then plays a 6 Red. Sue has no Red cards and decides to play a 1 Blue. Blue trumps Red so Sue wins the trick. Sue also scores a lot of points by playing a card with a low CP.
In some rare cases, typically at the end of a round, a situation may arise where three or more players may appear to have trumped each other. Example: Bob plays a 6 Red, John has no red cards and decides to play a 3 Blue, and Sue has no red or blue cards and is forced to play an 8 Green. Well all of these cards trump each other, so what are they to do? In this case John wins because he trumped the original suit. You CANNOT trump a trump.
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If a player cannot follow suit, he may also wish to play an asteroid card. In doing so he makes no claim at winning the trick, instead he will damage the trick. Whoever wins the trick must place the asteroid card on top of the trick instead of the winning card. Asteroid cards remove points during the scoring phase.
Asteroid cards can also be played at the start of a turn provided the player has no system cards. Other players must try to follow suit by playing asteroid cards of their own. If they have none they must play another card and risk winning the damaged trick. The first non-asteroid card played becomes the co-starting card. This means that if following players, in turn, do not have an asteroid card to play they must try to first play the co-starting card. If they cannot then they can play whatever they want. Example: Rick starts off with an asteroid, John has no asteroids so he plays a 5 Blue, Sue has no asteroids but does have a blue so she must play it, so Sue plays the 8 Blue, and finally Tom plays and he has asteroids or blue cards so he plays a 7 Red. Sue wins the trick and also must take the asteroid and put it on top of her trick. Had Tom played a green card he would have had won the trick because green trumps blue.
In addition, if more than one asteroid card is played, the one that deals the most damage is placed on top of the winning trick. If all cards in play are asteroids then the player who played the one with the most damage takes the trick.
Scoring
At the end of the round each player tallies up their points by adding up the scores on the cards on top of each trick they have won. Players ONLY add up the scores from the top card of each trick (the winning card or in some cases an asteroid or other special card). Asteroids reduce the player's total points meaning that it is possible for a player to end a round with a negative score. Players then adjust the markers on their score tracker to indicate their new score.
Adjusting your score on the score tracker is easy. The colored circles on the left that range from zero to five indicate the tenth place of a player's score, while the grey circles on the right that range from zero to nine indicate the ones place. Simply figure your score for the round and adjust the markers on the score card to reflect your new score!
Your score can never go below zero on the score tracker, but you may move backwards during later rounds.
Special Cards
The Black Hole. The Black Hole card can be played whenever a player so decides during the round, however if it is used during the final turn it loses its special ability. The Black Hole card trumps all cards including asteroid cards and is ALWAYS placed on top of the trick. The only time a Black Hole can lose is if the Stationfall card is played and if the Stationfall card is successful with its win condition. The player who used the Black Hole gains the special ability to choose to place the trick on top of one of his own previously gained tricks that has been damaged by asteroids. The Black Hole garners the player no points, but by covering a damaged trick it may be the difference between a win and a loss.
Stationfall. Stationfall has no card value and has four different point levels. What's the deal? Well, the only way to win a trick with the Stationfall is to play it on a trick that has all even or odd numbered cards in it. Also, the trick is worth progressively more points when more players are playing the game, as it becomes harder and harder for a trick to be created with all either even or odd card values. Example: In a 4 player game if all cards in the trick are even and a player plays Stationfall, he will gain 7 points. Stationfall can be played at any point during the turn but it is wise to wait to play it last. If there is a card in the trick that has no CP (asteroids, blackhole, etc) it should be ignored.
Editor's note: the printed rulebook gives only the 4-player example (7 points). The point values for the other player counts are not printed in this text.
Jump Gate. If you win a trick with the Jump Gate card you can use any card in that trick to put on top of the trick. Example: If you win a trick with the Jump Gate card that included a red 2 and a red 6, you would put the red 2 on top for nine points. The Jump Gate is also a wild card and can beat any card with a lower CP. However, you can ONLY play the Jump Gate card if you cannot follow suit. Additionally, if you win a trick containing an asteroid the asteroid will be placed on top and the damage will be doubled.
Space Bandit. If you cannot follow suit you may cut with the Space Bandit card. If you win the trick you may keep the trick for the five points, or you may swap the trick with any other trick that has been won during the round. You may not steal a trick that is protected by the Plasma Shield. In addition, if you win the trick with this card but are hit with asteroids you may not use the this cards ability.
Proximity Mines. BOOM! If you cannot follow suit you may cut with this card. If you win the trick the trick is destroyed and nobody scores any points. The trick is placed face down to the side for the remainder of the round.
Plasma Shield. If you cannot follow suit you may cut with this card. If you win the trick you may place the trick under any other previously won trick and double the score of that trick (place this trick under the trick, but allow the lower portion to show the X2). In addition, any trick with a plasma shield under it may not be stolen by Space Bandits.