Rocket Squad

Rocket Squad Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

88 playing cards (with boxes on the back):
- 15 blue Boosters (value 3-6)
- 15 green Boosters (value 4-7)
- 15 yellow Boosters (value 5-8)
- 15 red Boosters (value 6-9)
- 28 Action cards (characters & items)
20 Launchpad cards
15 Moon Rock tokens

Setup

Shuffle the playing cards to form a face-down draw pile within reach of all players. Leave room for discards. (If you ever deplete the draw pile, simply reshuffle the discards.)
Place the Moon Rocks, shuffled, in a face-down pile within reach of all players, using only 3 tokens per player, returning any extras to the box.
Give each player a set of 4 Launchpads, 1 each of Red, Yellow, Green, & Blue.
Deal 4 playing cards to each player.

Order of Play

The player who most recently opened a cardboard box is the starting player. Play progresses clockwise around the table.

On your turn, you may play as many of your cards as you like to build rockets, use actions, discard, or save for later. End your turn by drawing back up to 4 cards in hand.

Start with Boosters

You may only build one rocket of each color: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. To begin construction on a rocket, you must first place a Booster, face-up, in front of you, on top of the matching Launchpad. You may place multiple Boosters on your turn, but each must be a unique color.

Replacing a Booster

On a subsequent turn, you may replace a Booster with another of the same color, but only if there are no boxes on top of it (or if you discard the built boxes). Be sure to discard the replaced Booster.

Build with Boxes

Each card in the game has two possible uses. When you play a card, you will either use the face of the card to start rockets with Boosters or use Actions (see page 7), or use the back of the card (a cardboard box) for building rockets on top of your Boosters. You may add boxes to as many rockets as you like during your turn.

Every single card in the deck can be used as a box instead of played as its face.

The number on the Booster fin indicates how many boxes you'll need to build on top of the Booster to prepare it for launch, as well as the minimum number of points you'll score for launching the rocket (you may get some bonuses!). You may never exceed the indicated number of boxes on top of a Booster.

Launch Your Rockets

You can launch a rocket when you meet these 3 criteria:

It is currently your turn
The required number of boxes are on top of the Booster
You make a super-awesome rocket launching noise!

Discard the boxes from the launched rocket, face-up, but keep the Booster (and any Crew, see page 11) in front of you face-down. As a prize for launching, claim a Moon Rock token from the supply, if there is one (these are worth either 1 or 2 bonus points...you may look, but keep the value hidden from others). Flip the launchpad for that rocket to the launched side and cover the Booster and bonuses. These points are now safe. All points from launched rockets will be revealed during final scoring.

Example

Here's what your building area may look like in the middle of a game.

You have launched your Red rocket (because you met the box requirement on your turn). These points are safe and you only have to launch the three remaining rockets to trigger the end of the game.

Your Green rocket has been stopped by an Allie card that you were not able to block, so you will have to scare it away by discarding an Orange Action card before you can build on it again! (see Allie action)

The Yellow rocket needs 5 more boxes and the Blue rocket only needs 1 more box to launch. These two are the only rockets you can build on right now.

Use Your Actions

Building rockets with boxes seems easy enough, but perhaps not so easy when your friends are sending family members, pets, and toys to stop you!

In addition to Boosters, you'll find Action cards showing special characters & items you can use. When played on your turn, most of these cards present you with a choice of one of two actions. Orange actions are aggressive and let you slow down other players, while Grey actions are helpful and give you a direct advantage. Unless stated otherwise, discard these Action cards when you use the action.

A few Action cards have the ability to block actions played against you; these cards are played as a reaction during another player's turn. The blocking action describes how and what type of Action card it blocks. After you play (and discard) a blocking card, you do not redraw a new card to replenish your hand and will begin your next turn with fewer than 4 cards (but it just might be worth it!).

Character Actions

Dad

"Careful...that looks unstable!"

Target an opponent's rocket. Take one box off the top of that rocket and immediately build that box on top of one of your rockets.

Jack

"That's mine! Give it back!"

Target an opponent with 3 or more cards in their hand. Take one card at random and add it to your hand. You may play the new card on this turn.

Uncle

"Here...let me help with that!"

At the start of your turn, you may first choose to discard your entire hand of cards and immediately draw back up to 4 cards. You then take your turn as normal.

Jackie

"I just wanna take a peek"

Look at the top 3 cards of the draw pile in secret. Add 1 of the cards to your hand. Place the other 2 cards face-down underneath the draw pile. You may play the new card on this turn.

Mom

"You kids play nice!"

As a reaction, you may block any Orange action targeting you. Do not draw a replacement card after playing this card as a reaction.

Grandma

"What's going on out there?"

As a reaction, you may stop any Orange action from taking effect. Alternatively, you may cancel a Mom's reaction. Do not draw a replacement card after playing this card as a reaction.

More Character Actions

Allie

"Prrrrr rrrrrr"

Target an opponent's rocket. Place Allie on top. That player cannot build on top of this rocket until they discard an Orange Action card to remove Allie (another player's Orange action targeting this rocket will also remove Allie). Once Allie is removed, building may resume on this rocket.

Ace

"Bark bark bark, bark bark"

Target an opponent's rocket. Discard the top 3 boxes from that rocket.

Imaginary Friend

"Nothing to see here!"

Place this card beside one of your rockets to protect it from being targeted by Orange actions for one full round. Discard this card at the start of your next turn.

Item Actions

Duct Tape

"Strong stuff"

Take 2 boxes from the top of the draw pile and immediately build them on top of one of your available rockets (you must have room for both boxes).

Crew

"Go for launch!"

Play when you launch a rocket to add a 2-point bonus to the base value of that rocket. Maximum 1 Crew card per launched rocket. Keep the card along with the launched Booster for end game scoring.

Water Balloons

"Heads up!"

Target a single rocket belonging to each opponent. Discard the topmost box from every targeted rocket.

Game End

The end of the game is triggered by the player who first successfully launches 4 rockets (one of each color). The other players get one final turn to try to launch their remaining rockets. Unlaunched rockets (and cards remaining in hand) are discarded at the end of your final turn and you do not draw new cards.

Once all final turns have been taken, reveal your launched Boosters and bonuses from cards and tokens, and add up your points. The player with the highest total has launched the most impressive rockets and wins the game!

In case of a tie, the winner is the tied player who launched the tallest rocket (or next tallest, and so on, until the tie is broken). If there's still a tie, the tied players share the victory!

Example Scoring

John's score	Sarah's score
Blue = 4	Blue = 5
Green = 6	Yellow = 8
Yellow = 7	Red = 9
Red = 6	Crew = 2
Moon Rocks = 4	Moon Rocks = 3
TOTAL = 27	TOTAL = 27

Sarah wins the tie because she built the tallest single rocket (the Red 9).