Pulp Invasion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Icons
• Setup
  • Example Setup
  • Card Anatomy
• Game Play
  • 1. Encounter Phase
    • 1a. Engage
    • 1b. Evade
    • Captain's Dice
  • 2. Planet Search Phase
  • Round End
• Order of Rule Modifications
• Game End
• Dice Icons - Crew
  • Weapons Specialist (red)
  • Engineer (orange)
  • Infiltration Agent (blue)
• Dice Icons - Systems
  • Artificial Intelligence (yellow)
  • Scanning Technology (gray)

Components

• 78 Cards: 12 Planet cards, 6 Captain cards, 3 Cosmic Hegemony Alien cards, 6 Super Weapon cards, 48 Guardforce, Location, and Agent/Event cards
• 5 Captain's Dice: Red (Weapons Specialist), Blue (Infiltration Agent), Orange (Engineer), Orange (Engineer), and Gray. The Red, Blue and Orange dice are Crew dice; the Yellow (Artificial Intelligence) and Gray (Scanning Technology) dice are Systems dice.
• 3 Player Tracking cards
• 1 Cloth Bag
• 1 Rules Booklet
• 76 Wooden Cubes: 6 Yellow, 10 White, 15 each of Red, Blue, Orange, Black

Icons

• Combat Ability (red cube, C)
• Diplomatic Ability (blue cube, D)
• Super Science Ability (orange cube, S)
• Codes
• Keys
• Planets
• Cosmic Hegemony
• Captains
• Super Weapons (yellow cube, W)
• Guardforce
• Locations
• Agents/Events

Setup

1. Shuffle the 3 Cosmic Hegemony Alien cards and place them in a row. Turn all 3 cards face-up.
2. Shuffle and draw 1 Captain card. Place this in front of you with the 3 Player Tracking cards beside it. Then place a matching cube on each of the 3 ability tracks (Combat: red, Science: orange, Diplomacy: blue), on the space indicated in the lower right of your Captain card. Choose 2 dice from those depicted on your Captain card (see pages 11-12 for information on all Captain's Dice) and place them in the ship/crew area of the Player Tracking card (Mina Tormelson allows you to keep all 3). Set values of the chosen Crew dice to 6; roll the chosen Systems dice to determine their initial values.
3. Shuffle the Location, Guardforce, Agent, and Event cards together and deal them face down in three equal piles of 16 cards, one pile below each Hegemony card, as Encounter draw decks.
4. Seed the bag with 4 cubes each of Combat (red), Science (orange), Diplomacy (blue) and Black, as well as a number of Super Weapon (yellow) and White cubes, depending on the difficulty level you would like to play: Basic: 4 of each; Normal: 5 of each; Advanced: 6 of each. (This is also the number of Super Weapon cards you will use in Step 5.) Place the remaining cubes in a general supply to be drawn from later.
5. Randomly choose and shuffle the appropriate number of Super Weapon cards (see Step 4) and place them face down as a draw deck.
6. Shuffle the 12 Planet cards, dealing 3 face up in a row above the Encounter draw decks. Place the rest of the Planet deck face down within reach.

You are now ready to begin your mission to find the 6 world-shattering super weapons.

Example Setup

Layout: Planet draw deck, 3 face-up Planet cards and the Super Weapon draw deck across the top; the 3 Cosmic Hegemony cards in a row with an Encounter draw deck below each; your Captain card and Player Tracking cards with cubes and chosen dice placed as referenced on the Captain card; slots for 4 Encounter cards forming an Encounter Line; a slot for the chosen Planet card; a slot for the drawn Location card; and the general supply for cubes.

Card Anatomy

• Guardforce and Agents: the number in the upper left is the Engage Strength; the icon beside it is the Engage Strength Icon; the cube(s) shown are seeded into the bag at the start of the Encounter Phase.
• Captains: number/type of dice to be taken during setup; setup/maximum Abilities (numbers to be recorded on your Player Board).
• Planets: action text which may supersede rules in the rulebook.
• Cosmic Hegemony Alien: each Cosmic Hegemony Alien controls a Sector, special action, and icon that may affect Location cards and Engage Strengths.
• Super Weapons: action text regarding Understanding this weapon.
• Locations: the active Action is matched to the icon on the Cosmic Hegemony Alien's card for the current Encounter deck.

Game Play

You win if you can discover all the Super Weapons in time. If any two of your three abilities - Combat, Diplomacy, Super Science - reach 0 during any encounter OR if you do not find all the required Super Weapons before you are unable to draw new cards from the 3 Encounter decks, you have lost and the Intergalactic Alliance is invaded by the Cosmic Hegemony.

The game is played in a series of rounds. Each round has two phases: Encounter and Planet Search.

1. Encounter Phase

Choose 1 Planet card from the face-up cards as the Planet you are searching during this round and place this to your right. If all Planet cards have been searched, deal 3 new face-up Planet cards.

Draw 4 cards from the Encounter deck that is below the leftmost Cosmic Hegemony card. Place them, in the order drawn, in a row in front of you to form the Encounter Line.

Note: If the Encounter deck below a Cosmic Hegemony alien is ever empty, you will move to the next Cosmic Hegemony alien and draw cards from the deck belonging to that alien.

Take the cubes depicted in the upper left of the drawn cards (Guardforce and Agents cards show 1 cube, Locations show 2 cubes) from the supply and place them in the bag. If you cannot place cubes in the bag as required by the drawn cards, ignore placing further cubes of that color. Cubes are not unlimited.

If you draw a Location card, remove any current Location card below your chosen Planet card and replace it with this new Location. If you draw multiple Locations, discard all but the last drawn and use that as the new Location. Action text on Location cards is subject to the Cosmic Hegemony Alien's sector you are currently in; this Alien's icon in the lower right of its card will match an Ability icon on the Location card. These actions may supersede rules in the rulebook.

Encounter each card remaining in the Encounter Line in turn, left to right. For each card, do all of the following:

a. Apply any listed actions on the current Location card whose Ability icon matches the sector of the current Cosmic Hegemony alien.

b. Choose whether to 1a. Engage or 1b. Evade. Sometimes you have no choice!

1a. Engage

The number in the upper left of each card is its Engage Strength. The card to its immediate right will show an Engage Strength icon and it will be used to determine which of your abilities you will use to engage this Guardforce or Agent.

The rightmost card uses the leftmost card's icon.

Engage Strengths can be modified by Cosmic Hegemony aliens, Locations, or individual actions on Guardforce or Agent cards. Encounters you engage may also have additional Engage Strengths and Icons added to them. If a card has an Engage Strength of 0, it must be Evaded instead.

If only one card remains in the Encounter Line and you choose to Engage it, use its own Engage icon for Engage Strength calculations.

Example Encounter Lines to determine Engage Strengths

Example A (four cards in the line; the third is a Nebula):

• Guardforce (1st card): Engage Strength = 2, Engage Icon = Combat.
• Hostile Agent (2nd card): Engage Strength = 4, Engage Icon = Super Science.
• Nebula (3rd card): no Engage Strength of its own.
• Guardforce (4th card): Engage Strength = 2, Engage Icon = Diplomacy.

Example B (Location drawn at the start of the Encounter is placed below your Player Board):

• Guardforce (1st card): Engage Strength = 2, Engage Icon = Combat.
• Card with Engage Strength 0 (2nd card): Engage Strength = 0. No Engaging possible. You must Evade this card.
• Guardforce (3rd card): Engage Strength = 4, Engage Icon = Diplomacy.
• Location card (4th card): placed below your Player Board at the beginning of the Encounter.

In Example B above, the Guardforce 5 would have an additional 1 Engage Strength with a Combat icon added to it, if encountered in the Cosmic Hegemony - Kah's Sector. The new Engage Strength would be 4 Diplomacy and 1 Combat.

To engage the Guardforce or Agent you must pay with matching Abilities (Combat Ability for Combat icons, Diplomacy Ability for Diplomacy icons, Super Science Ability for Super Science icons) equal to, or greater than, their Engage Strength number(s) and/or by using one of your Captain's Dice (see Captain's Dice below).

You may additionally pay any two points of one Ability to act as one point of another - e.g. pay two Diplomacy Ability points to equal one Combat Ability point.

Move the cubes down on your Player Tracking card tracks for those abilities you are paying with. If any two Abilities ever reach zero during an encounter you have lost the game.

You may choose to add any Encounter card, from those you have engaged (not evaded), into your hand at the end of the round if it has either a Key or a Code icon.

1b. Evade

Instead of engaging you may evade an Encounter by paying one Ability point of your choice and randomly drawing two cubes from the bag and placing them back in the general supply. Any Super Weapon (yellow), White or Black cubes drawn this way are put back in the bag and you must draw again. For each Combat, Diplomacy or Science cube you draw, reduce the Ability of that color by 1, then put the drawn cube in the general supply. If an Ability of that color is at 0 already, the cube is ignored.

This card's Engage Icon is no longer valid for the rest of the Encounter line. Rotate the evaded card ninety degrees to show it has been evaded. Additionally, during the Planet Search phase, you must disregard Planet icons on evaded cards.

Remember: If a card has an Engage Strength of 0, it must be Evaded instead.

Captain's Dice

You may use the action of one of your Captain's dice - Crew or Systems - at any time during the Encounter Phase (or Planetary Search Phase if noted on the dice actions). If you use the action on a Captain's die, you must rotate the die down to a lower value (bottom right of the die - you may opt to skip a face if you wish). When the die reaches its lowest face, it remains there unless the die is rerolled.

You will have up to four Encounter phases within each Cosmic Hegemony Alien's Sector.

When the Cosmic Hegemony Alien's Encounter deck is empty you will move to the next Cosmic Hegemony Alien.

Remember: Action text on cards supersedes any rules within this booklet.

2. Planet Search Phase

After all cards in the Encounter Line have been encountered through evade or engage, you may now search the Planet for any Super Weapons.

Follow any actions listed on the chosen Planet card, paying Code and Key icons on the cards in your hand to the Encounter discard pile, if you wish to activate the actions.

Then randomly draw cubes from the bag equal to the number of Planet icons showing on the bottom right of the remaining Encounter Line cards. The number of cubes drawn may be modified by cards you have evaded and/or actions you are subject to, either from the Encounter Line or from the Planet.

Results of cubes drawn:

• Yellow (Super Weapon): Draw a Super Weapon card from its deck and place it in front of you. Place the Super Weapon cube on the card.
• Red (Combat), Blue (Diplomacy), Orange (Science): For each cube drawn, either add +1 to an Ability of the matching color and place that cube back in the general supply OR add that cube to a Super Weapon card to Understand how it can be operated. You may never increase your abilities beyond the maximum indicated on your Captain's card. Any unused cubes go in the general supply.
• Black: Add the cube to the Cosmic Hegemony card, The Quietus, unless you are already past it. If you have already encountered the Quietus Sector, you must lose 1 Ability point of your choice and the cube is then placed back in general supply.
• White: White cubes are false leads. Place this cube back in the bag.

You Understand a Super Weapon (You have used your knowledge and abilities to understand how the weapon functions) after the number of color-matched cubes added to the card equal the total listed on the card's rule. No additional cubes need to be added thereafter for understanding and cubes remain on the Super Weapon card. The weapon is now active. Understanding a Super Weapon card activates its special ability during your encounters. You may use each Super Weapon's power once during each Encounter phase. Some Super Weapons do not need to be Understood to activate them.

Round End

Discard all cards in the Encounter Line, adding all Code and Key cards from Engaged enemies to your hand.

Discard the now searched Planet.

Begin a new round, comprising an Encounter phase and a Planet Search phase. Remember: Once the draw deck of a Cosmic Hegemony Alien's Sector is exhausted, move to the next Cosmic Hegemony Alien in the row and begin drawing new sets of 4 cards.

Order of Rule Modifications

When deciding how cards interact, follow this order:

1. The Encounter Line cards show the default set of rules, actions and icons.
2. The Location card actions then modify the Encounter Line.
3. The Planet card actions then modify the Encounter Line.
4. Any Super Weapons understood by your actions then modify the Encounter Line.

Game End

You win if you find all Super Weapons, for your chosen Skill Level, on the Planets. The Intergalactic Alliance repulses the Cosmic Hegemony invasion.

You lose if you do not find all 6 Super Weapons before you are unable to draw new cards from the 3 Encounter decks, or if any 2 Abilities ever reach 0 during an encounter.

Dice Icons - Crew

You may use the action of one of your Captain's dice (Crew or Systems) at any time during the Encounter Phase (or Planet Search Phase if noted on the dice actions). If you use the action on a Captain's die, you must rotate the die down to a lower value (bottom right of the die - you may opt to skip a face if you wish). When the die reaches its lowest face, it remains there unless the die is rerolled.

Weapons Specialist (red)

Face	Effect
1	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against Combat Enemy Engage Strength.
2	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against any Enemy Engage Strength type.
3	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Combat Enemy Engage Strength.
4	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against any Enemy Engage Strength type.
5	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Combat Enemy Engage Strength or remove 2 white cubes from the bag during an Evade action.
6	Gain +3 to your Engage Strength against Combat Enemy Engage Strength.

Engineer (orange)

Face	Effect
1	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against Super Science Enemy Engage Strength.
2	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against Super Science Enemy Engage Strength or upgrade any Captain's System die 1 side.
3	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Super Science Enemy Engage Strength.
4	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against any Enemy Engage Strength type.
5	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Super Science Enemy Engage Strength.
6	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Super Science Enemy Engage Strength and upgrade any Captain's System die 2 sides.

Infiltration Agent (blue)

Face	Effect
1	Draw 1 additional cube in your Planet Search phase during this round.
2	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against Diplomacy Enemy Engage Strength.
3	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against Diplomacy Enemy Engage Strength or draw 1 additional cube in your Planet Search phase this round.
4	Gain +1 to your Engage Strength against any Enemy Engage Strength type.
5	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Diplomacy Enemy Engage Strength.
6	Gain +2 to your Engage Strength against Diplomacy Enemy Engage Strength or remove 2 chosen cubes from the bag during an Evade action.

Dice Icons - Systems

Artificial Intelligence (yellow)

Face	Effect
1	Roll 1 red Weapons Specialist die when Engaging. Use the rolled die face for this current Engage turn then discard the die.
2	Swap and roll any 1 unowned die for any 1 owned die if Engaging any Guardforce card with a planet icon.
3	Roll 1 blue Infiltration Agent die when Engaging. Use the rolled die face for this current Engage turn then discard the die.
4	Reroll any 1 owned die if Engaging an Agent.
5	Roll 1 orange Engineer die when Engaging. Use the rolled die face for this current Engage turn then discard the die.
6	Reroll any 1 owned die if Engaging any Guardforce card with a planet icon.

Scanning Technology (gray)

Face	Effect
1	You may use 1 disregarded Planet icon from 1 Evaded Encounter during a Planet Search.
2	During an Evade action, take 1 cube of your choice from the bag; however, you cannot choose yellow. Put it in the general supply.
3	Any 1 Super Weapon in your possession is automatically Understood.
4	During an Evade action, draw 1 random cube from the bag. If it is yellow, return it to the bag; otherwise, put it in the general supply.
5	You may use 1 disregarded Planet icon each from 2 Evaded Encounters during a Planet Search.
6	If you draw a yellow cube during a Planet Search, you may choose which Super Weapon card to acquire.