Observatory
Observatory Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Large Constellation cards × 65
- Small Constellation cards × 59
- Pad of Observatory sheets
- Standard dice (blue) × 3
- Shooting Star die (orange)
- Night boards × 3
- Current Night marker
- First Player marker
- Pencils × 5
- Rulebook
Setup
-
Find the Night board matching the number of players (the boards are double-sided) and place it in the middle of the table with the Current Night marker on space 1.
-
Give each player an Observatory sheet and a pencil.
-
Shuffle the Large Constellation cards and place them face-down to form a deck. Repeat the process with the Small Constellation cards.
-
Deal three Large Constellation cards and three Small Constellation cards to each player.
FIRST GAME: If this is your first game, deal only one Large Constellation card to each player.
-
Each player must choose four of their six cards to keep, and return the other two cards to the bottom of the corresponding deck.
FIRST GAME: If this is your first game, simply keep all four cards you are dealt.
Players place their chosen cards face-up in front of them as their goals.
Tip: Aim to choose a mix of different-sized Constellations. It can be difficult to plot only Large Constellations, but if you only plot Small Constellations, you'll miss out on valuable points.
-
Reveal the top three cards from the Large Constellation deck and place them face-up in a row beside the deck. Repeat the process with the Small Constellation deck. These six revealed cards form the Night Sky.
-
Choose a first player — the person who most recently saw a shooting star, or using any other method you like — and give them all of the dice and the First Player marker.
Objective
Your goal is to observe your chosen Constellations by plotting each star to recreate the correct patterns somewhere on the Star Map of your Observatory sheet.
Over the course of several Nights, roll the dice and use their values as coordinates to locate stars you wish to plot, while also Researching better equipment to improve your star-finding capabilities.
Score points by completing your Constellations — the player with the most points wins!
Constellation Cards
Each Constellation card has a pattern of stars, connected by lines to form a shape.
Large Constellations require more stars and have more complex patterns that take up more space, making them more difficult to complete.
Small Constellations require fewer stars and have simpler patterns.
Each card shows a point value and a completion bonus (if any), along with its title, type, and a short description.
Some cards in the Small Constellation deck are Asterisms. (In astronomy, these are patterns of stars not considered to be an "official" constellation.)
Asterisms are marked with the Asterism symbol and instead of having a specific point value, they score according to how many Asterism cards you complete during the game.
How to Play
The game is played over several rounds, which astronomers call "Nights". The number of Nights played depends on the number of players.
Each Night, beginning with the First Player and proceeding clockwise, players take one turn each as the active player.
When you are the active player, roll all four dice (the three Standard dice plus the Shooting Star die). Show the results to all players and announce the values if needed.
Each player, including the active player and all other players, chooses two of the three Standard dice to use as a coordinate for PLOTTING A STAR, described below.
They use the remaining Standard die for RESEARCHING UPGRADES, described below.
Each player chooses for themselves how they use the dice — they are not required to use them in the same combination as other players.
A die showing a question mark has a value of 1, which is considered wild and each player may choose individually which value to use in its place.
EXAMPLE: If the active player rolled a 3, 4, and 6 on the Standard dice, Player A could use the 3 and 4 to plot a star and the 6 for their Research, while Player B could use the 3 and 6 to plot their star and the 4 for their Research.
SHOOTING STAR: When you are the active player, you may also use the Shooting Star die to plot a star in any space in a row or column that matches the Shooting Star die value. Other players cannot use the Shooting Star die on your turn.
If the Shooting Star die shows a question mark it has a value of 1, which is considered wild and may be plotted anywhere on your Star Map (any value, in any row or column).
During the process of plotting stars and researching, you might also complete a Constellation. You may plot stars, fill in Research spaces, and complete Constellations in any order you wish.
EXAMPLE: A player could fill in a Research space to finish their Lens upgrade track, allowing them to change the value of a die to help them plot a specific star.
Solo Variant
To play with just a single player, use the 1-player Night board to track your turns.
Since you will be the only player, you will roll the Shooting Star die every turn for a total of 12 turns.
Try to beat your high score!
Plotting a Star
Plotting a star means filling in an empty space by drawing a star on your Star Map. Normally, you use the two Standard dice of your choice as coordinates to select the space where you can draw a new star.
EXAMPLE: Dice with values 3 and 4 can be used to plot a star in any one of the highlighted spaces.
You will also receive chances to plot a free star as a bonus, allowing you to plot a star in any empty space on your Star Map without being limited by dice values.
Completing Constellations
It is helpful to plan out where you intend to place your Constellations by lightly drawing a dot or an empty diamond in the center of the spaces where you need to plot stars. You can also lightly draw in the lines joining the stars, to ensure your Constellations fit in your Star Map without overlapping.
The Constellation pattern consists only of the stars and connecting lines — it does not include the spaces around the stars.
Constellations you plot must follow these placement rules:
A. A Constellation may not share stars with another Constellation.
B. You may rotate the Constellation pattern, but not mirror or flip it.
C. A Constellation's lines and stars may not touch any part of another Constellation.
Regardless of how a player chooses to draw a star on their Star Map, only the center dot of the square is considered to be the actual star when determining if Constellations are touching.
Players may complete their Constellation cards at any time by drawing solid lines between their plotted stars to match the pattern shown on the card. Extra stars in a Constellation's lines have no effect on that constellation and may still be considered unused stars for scoring purposes.
Once a Constellation has been completed, place it face-down beside your Observatory sheet and immediately use its completion bonus (if any), shown below the point value. These bonuses are:
SHOOTING STAR: Immediately plot a star in any space in a row OR column matching the value shown on the die in the Shooting Star symbol on that card. This is not considered a dice roll and therefore is not affected by the Lens or Drive research upgrades.
RESEARCH: Immediately fill in any empty Research space.
FREE STAR: Immediately plot a star anywhere on your Star Map.
Researching Upgrades
Fill in an empty space on one of your Research tracks that matches the value of the Standard die you chose to use for Research. Your Research tracks may be filled in any order.
Once you have filled in at least three spaces on the same Research track (except for the Funding track), you unlock its bonus, shown to the right of the track.
You can choose to use the bonus as one of two options: either a free star to plot anywhere on your Star Map OR to fill in any Research space. You cannot use both options on the same bonus.
You do not need to use the bonus immediately — circle the bonus when you unlock it, then cross it out when you choose which one of the two options to use. You can use a bonus to further fill in the same Research track that produced the bonus if you wish.
Once you have filled in all five spaces on a Research track (except for the Funding track), that Research upgrade is complete and you may begin to use its ability immediately.
The available Research upgrades are:
LENS — Magnify and focus your observation. Once per turn on anyone's turn, you may use any single die (either Standard or Shooting Star) as if its value is +/- 1. This does not change the die for the other players. If the new value matches your Drive, or a 2 becomes a 1 (shown as a question mark), you may use it as a wild as usual.
DRIVE — Keep your aim exact. Write a number (2-6) in the space provided. Each time this number is rolled on any die (both Standard and Shooting Star), you may use it as a wild.
FINDER — Locate stars more easily. Gain 4 free stars that may be used at any time by crossing them out to plot a star on any empty space on your Star Map. These do not need to be used all at once.
FILTER — Decrease light pollution. Each time you complete a Constellation card (including Asterisms) that grants a bonus, you may immediately gain that bonus a second time.
FUNDING — Sponsor your observatory. At the end of the game, score 1 point for each Funding space you have filled in. Unlike other upgrades, this Research track does not grant a bonus after filling in three spaces and does not need to be fully filled in to enable its ability.
End of Turn
The turn ends once all players have used the dice and plotted their stars, researched their upgrades, completed any Constellations, and applied any bonuses.
In turn order, starting with the active player, any player who completed any Constellations this turn must draw new cards to replace them, so they always have four goal Constellations.
Replacement cards may be taken from any of the face-up cards in the Night Sky or drawn from the top of either deck. As soon as a face-up card is taken, replace it with a card from the matching deck so there is always a row of three face-up cards for each deck.
If a deck runs out, no new cards of that type are available for the remainder of the game.
Once all players have four Constellation cards in their goals, pass the dice to the next player in turn order and begin a new turn with them as the active player.
Tip: During each Night, you will plot as many stars as there are players plus one extra. For example, in a 4-player game, you will plot 5 stars each Night (not including bonus stars). You can use this if you want to know how many chances to plot a star are left in the game.
End of Round
Once the dice are passed back to the player who has the First Player token, the Night ends. Begin the next Night by advancing the Current Night marker on the Night board.
If the Night board shows a star/research icon for the new Night, before the first roll, each player may immediately choose to either plot a free star anywhere on their Star Map OR fill in a Research space anywhere on their Research tracks. Any Constellations completed at this time are considered to be part of the new turn.
Note: The First Player marker doesn't change position during the game.
End of Game
At the end of the final Night, the game ends immediately. Total your points as follows:
COMPLETED CONSTELLATIONS: Score the point value in the top left corner of each completed Constellation card. There is no penalty for incomplete cards.
COMPLETED ASTERISMS: Score points for your completed Asterisms as shown (1 completed = 1 point, 2 = 3, 3 = 6, 4 = 10, 5 = 15, 6+ = 21). You do not score any extra points for completing more than six Asterisms.
RESEARCH FUNDING: Score 1 point for each Funding space filled in.
UNUSED STARS: Score 1 point for every two unused stars on your Star Map. This includes any stars that were not required to be used when completing a Constellation.
Winner
The player with the most points is the winner!
If there is a tie, the tied player who has the fewest completed cards is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.