Pocket Rockets Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Rocket Head Bonuses
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Variant: A Head in the Stars
• Bonus Cards

Components

• 54 Rocket cards: 15 bases, 24 body sections, 15 heads
• 6 Space Yard cards: 3 Construction Line cards (grey, yellow, red), 1 Conveyor card, 1 Launch Pad card, and 1 Recycling Depot card
• 4 Astronaut pawns
• 8 Fuel tokens, valued 1, 2, 3, and 4 (two tokens of each value)

Setup

• In the center of the table, arrange the 6 Space Yard cards in a circle, making sure to place the Launch Pad card and the Recycling Depot card opposite each other. The other 4 cards can be placed in any order around the circle.
• Place the Fuel tokens next to the Launch Pad card.
• Each player takes 1 rocket base card and places it in front of themselves.
• Shuffle the remaining Rocket cards and divide them into 4 face-up draw piles, placed next to the Construction Line cards (grey, yellow, red) and the Conveyor card.
• Each player chooses the color of their Astronaut pawn.

Playing the Game

Players take turns one after another in clockwise order. On their turn, each player has 4 action points, which they can spend as they wish among the following actions. A player may perform the same action more than once, within the limit of their 4 action points.

• Move: 1 action point moves your Astronaut pawn from one Space Yard card to an adjacent one, in the direction indicated by the Conveyor card.
• Draw: 1 action point lets you draw a Rocket card, if your Astronaut pawn is on one of the Construction Line cards (grey, yellow, red) or on the Conveyor card, from the draw pile next to that Space Yard card. Drawn cards are added to your hand. A player may hold a maximum of 3 cards in hand.
• Perform an action: 1 action point lets you carry out the action tied to the Space Yard card your Astronaut pawn is currently on:
  • Construction Line (grey, yellow, red): Play a card from your hand of the color matching the Construction Line your pawn is on. Rockets are single-colored; to be complete, a rocket must be made up of a base, at least one body section, and a head, built in that order. There is no limit to the number of body sections in a single rocket, and no limit to the number of rockets a player may have under construction at the same time.
  • Recycling Depot: Place a card from your hand onto one of the draw piles, then choose a card from any one of the other draw piles and add it to your hand. Afterward, shuffle the pile you placed your card onto and put it back in place.
  • Conveyor: Reverse the direction of movement around the Space Yard circle (the card is turned over to show the opposite direction).
  • Launch Pad: Take one of the still-available Fuel tokens and place it on one of your completed rockets. A rocket may receive a maximum of one Fuel token.

Rocket Head Bonuses

Some rocket head cards grant a bonus to the player who has placed them in front of themselves:

• +1: 1 additional victory point at the end of the game for that rocket. If several such heads are in play, their victory points add up.
• + (astronaut icon): Starting on your next turn and until the end of the game, you gain +1 action point per turn. Several cards of this type do not stack; the maximum is 5 action points per turn.
• + (card icon): Starting on your next turn and until the end of the game, you may hold up to 4 cards in hand. Several cards of this type do not stack; the maximum hand size is 4 cards.
• (arrow icon): Starting on your next turn and until the end of the game, you may move in the direction of your choice, ignoring the Conveyor card. Note that a player chooses a single direction and must complete their entire move for the turn in that direction — you cannot switch direction partway through a turn.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a player takes the last available Fuel token and places it on one of their rockets.

Scoring

Players then count up their victory points (VP):

• Incomplete rockets score nothing.
• Complete rockets score 2 VP per body section (bases and heads score nothing on their own).
• Each "+1" rocket head scores 1 additional VP.
• Each Fuel token scores 1, 2, 3, or 4 VP, according to its value.

The player with the most VP wins. In case of a tie, the tied player who owns the complete rocket with the most body sections wins. If the tie still stands, victory is shared.

Variant: A Head in the Stars

This variant comes from designer Antoine Bauza's own notes on Pocket Rockets, published on his personal rules page (toinito.free.fr). It is offered as an optional variant, not part of the base rules above.

This variant is meant to open up new strategies, and above all to make the game a little more mischievous. Two changes apply:

1. Building "mini-rockets" (a base plus a head, with no body section) is now allowed. These rockets score no victory points, since they have no body sections, but they let their bonuses trigger early and can launch very quickly.
2. For each of the three action-point, direction-choice, and extra-card bonuses, only the player who owns the tallest rocket bearing that bonus benefits from its effect. If two players each own a same-size rocket with the same bonus, both of them benefit from it. The "+1" rocket heads are not affected by this rule.

Special case: if a player loses the benefit of the extra-card bonus while already holding 4 cards, they do not lose the excess card immediately. However, once that excess card is played, the normal 3-card hand limit applies again.

Reminder: the direction-choice bonus lets a player pick their direction of movement, but it is never possible to change direction of movement within the same turn.

Bonus Cards

These five cards were an unofficial, designer-conceived addition, distributed for free by Hazgaard at conventions and gaming fairs, with a few also sent to shops. They are described here from Antoine Bauza's own notes (toinito.free.fr) for completeness, and are not required to play the base game.

At the start of the game, each player randomly receives one of the five Bonus cards and keeps it secret. On their turn, a player may spend 1 action point to use their card; the card is then discarded (it is single-use). The effects are as follows:

• Launch a rocket without your Astronaut pawn being on the Launch Pad card.
• Look at an opponent's hand and take a card from it.
• Swap your Astronaut pawn's position with any other player's Astronaut pawn.
• Choose a draw pile and take any card of your choice from it, then shuffle that pile and put it back.
• Swap one of your built rocket heads with an opponent's rocket head of the same color.

The five Bonus cards can also be distributed unevenly among players, as a handicap system for mixed groups of experienced and new players — the rest of the rules remain unchanged.