Powerships
Powerships Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 16 Solar System tiles (see below)
- 1 Finish tile
- 3 space buoys. Put a sticker on both sides of buoys 1, 2, and 3
- 6 powerships
- 20 three-sided dice
- 6 speedometers
- 6 damage markers
Number of players: 2–6 Age: 10–100 Duration: 25 minutes
Setup
- Place the Sun tile in the center and the other tiles around it randomly until you form a hexagonal Solar System (see example below).
- Each player receives a powership, a speedometer of the matching color, and a damage marker.
- Put all the dice in a general supply near the Solar System.
- Roll 2 dice to determine the starting player.
Designing the Track
- Space buoys 1, 2, and 3: Choose 3 planets on which to place buoys 1, 2, and 3. You may also choose the Sun.
- Finish tile: Jupiter and Saturn cannot be the starting planet or the finish planet. Place the Finish tile around the planet (without a buoy) that is farthest from buoy 3.
- The starting planet is the planet, without a buoy or Finish tile, that is farthest from buoy 1.
- Place each space buoy on the side (each buoy has 2 sides with arrows pointing in opposite directions) that makes it easiest to go around it to reach the next-numbered buoy, or the finish in the case of buoy 3. Make sure the powerships don't have to complete a full loop around any buoy.
Here is an example track. The arrows on the space buoys show the route: around buoy 1 first, then around buoys 2 and 3 to finish on the finish planet. The buoys' arrows are set so that pilots never have to cross the route already taken around the previous buoy (or the starting planet).
To go around a buoy you don't have to pass close to it! There can be any distance and any object between your powership and the buoy.
7 planets take up one space; Jupiter and Saturn take up 3 spaces.
The dwarf planet Pluto, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and the Sun sit at positions 1 through 10 (and again at 11–20, 21–30, 31 and beyond) around the ring of planet tiles.
To choose where to place the buoys, you can also use the current day of the month: find the corresponding number among the planets in the table above and roll a die. Buoy 1 will be on the planet/Sun corresponding to the die result (1, 2, or 3) counting from the day's planet toward the right. If you go past the Sun, keep counting from Pluto toward the right. Roll a die again to determine buoy 2, counting from buoy 1's planet, and so on for buoy 3.
Elements of the Solar System
- Dark spaces: powerships can move onto these.
- Stardust (outlined with white lines): powerships cannot move onto these.
- Sun and Planet spaces: powerships cannot move onto these, except when launching (starting) or landing (finishing).
- Colored spaces: see the explanation at the end of the rules.
- Spaces outside the board: in the year 2345 there is a barrier around our solar system to stop alien immigration.
Choosing Starting Positions
The player to the right of the starting player is the first to place their powership on the starting planet or on one of the six spaces around it. Then the other players, going counterclockwise, make their choice (so the starting player chooses last). Two powerships cannot occupy the same space. The nose of your powership must always point toward a side of the hexagonal space, never toward a corner.
Example: Orange, Purple, Red, and Yellow choose their starting position around Neptune.
Turns
First: Roll the Dice
The dice on your speedometer, up to a maximum of 5 dice, show your speed. Speed equals zero at the start of the race (since there are no dice yet).
- Number of dice: On each turn you may add one die (from the supply), remove one die (and put it back in the supply), or keep the same number of dice.
- Rerolling: You may also choose to reroll some of the dice already on your speedometer. Roll the chosen dice, together with the added die if you chose to add one, all at once. Add these dice to your speedometer. (How many dice you reroll is up to you, but you cannot add or remove more than 1 die before your roll!)
Example: At the start of their turn, Yellow has two dice: 3 and 2. Yellow keeps the 3, rerolls the 2, and rolls a new die. Yellow gets 1 and 2. Now Yellow has 3, 1, 2 — 6 in total.
Second: Turn Your Ship
Before moving, you may turn your powership 60 degrees (that is, to the adjacent side) left or right. You must choose a direction in which to move your powership a number of spaces equal to the total of your dice, in a straight line. You cannot move through stardust, planets, or the Sun.
There are only 3 possible directions of movement for a powership.
Exception: at the start of the race, before leaving the starting area, you may move through the space of the starting planet.
Example: Yellow must move 6 spaces. Turning left would crash the powership directly into Uranus, and going straight would hit stardust after 4 spaces. Yellow must turn right before moving.
Third: Movement
Move your powership in the direction it is facing, in a straight line, for the total of your dice. Your powership ends its movement on the last space it reaches (you cannot turn at the end of the movement!). Now it is the turn of the player to your left.
Example: Yellow moves 6 spaces in a straight line. On the last space reached, the powership must keep the same direction.
Collisions, Damage, and Repairs
Collisions
If a planet, the Sun, stardust, or the edge of the board blocks every direction of your powership to the point that you cannot use the full total of your dice to move, then you crash. You must choose the direction with the longest path before the collision. Your powership ends up on the farthest possible space. If this is the same for 2 or 3 directions, you may choose which one. Your powership loses all speed and so you lose all your dice.
Damage
The number of movement spaces you were unable to complete because of the collision is the number of die-spaces your damage marker will move to the left on your speedometer. This means your maximum number of dice on the following turns will drop by that same number of incomplete spaces caused by the collision.
Example: Yellow has 3, 2, 2 and wants to slow down. Yellow keeps a 2, removes a die, and rerolls the other die, getting a 3. Now Yellow has 2, 3, for a total of 5. The longest path Yellow can move along is 3 spaces, so Yellow must go straight and crash. Yellow loses both dice and moves the damage marker 2 spaces to the left on their speedometer (5 [speed] minus 3 [spaces traveled]).
At the following turn Yellow can fire up the engines again by rolling 1 die, as at the start of the race, or choose only to turn left or right and repair one point of damage.
Repairs
Since you have taken damage, move the Damage marker one space to the right every turn in which you do not roll and remove dice.
Passing Other Ships
You may pass through spaces containing other powerships. But if you would have to end your movement on the same space occupied by an opponent, you instead stay behind the other powership, on the last free space you reached.
Example: Yellow has 2, 1, rerolls both, and does not add or remove a die. Yellow gets 3, 2 and passes Orange and Purple.
Example: Orange has 3, 2, 1. Orange removes the 3 and does not reroll the other two dice. Turning right and moving 3 spaces (2 + 1) would land Orange on the same space as Yellow. But two powerships cannot occupy the same space. Orange therefore ends up on the last free space.
Example: Red has 3, 2, 2. Trying to avoid a collision, Red removes one die and rerolls the other two: 1, 3. Moving right or straight, Red has 3 spaces available before the crash. Red chooses to move right, take 1 point of damage (the excess speed), and lose the 2 dice. Since it is not possible to end movement on a space occupied by another powership, Red ends up 1 space behind Purple. (Purple is not damaged.)
Special Spaces
(you may ignore these in a game with children)
- Arrow (yellow): As soon as you enter this space, move your powership one space in the direction of the arrow. Without turning it! Then continue your movement in the same direction your powership is facing.
- Circular arrows (orange, turning left, or green, turning right): As soon as you enter this space, turn your powership in the direction of the arrows (only 60 degrees, i.e. one side). Then continue moving your powership in the new direction. (If you are turned on the last space of your movement, you will not be turned again at the start of your next movement.)
- 2X (blue): As soon as you enter this space, double your REMAINING movement spaces.
- 2X & detachment from the ecliptic plane (purple): As soon as you enter this space, double your REMAINING movement spaces and ignore every type of obstacle. If you end your movement on an obstacle (or off the board), move back to the last available space and crash, losing your dice and taking damage for the excess speed.
Special spaces are not obstacles. You must avoid special spaces if they would make you crash, and you must move onto special spaces if doing so avoids a collision.
Finish
The winner is the first pilot to land in the finish planet's area (the planet's space or one of the 6 spaces of the Finish tile), after passing buoys 1, 2, and 3 in order. You may move onto the finish planet's space after passing buoy 3.
If you are playing a series of races, pilots receive points according to their finishing position and the extra turns they played:
| Position | Winner | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
- Count the number of turns you played after the first player finished. These are your negative points (maximum 10 negative points per race).
Example: Yellow has 2, 3 and does not add, remove, or reroll dice. Yellow moves 5 spaces and lands. (Rolling an extra die would have been a risk for Yellow, since the powership must land on the planet or one of the 6 surrounding finish spaces.)
Publisher
Cwali Einsteinstraat 4H 6227 BX Maastricht Netherlands tel: 0031-640-893506 [email protected] www.cwali.nl