Sensor Ghosts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• About
• Objective
  • Win
  • Lose
• Components
• Setup
  • Placing Samples & Creating Obstructed Sectors
  • Strategy Tips (Setup)
  • Command Deck Composition
• Order of Play (1-player)
• Order of Play (Multi-Player)
• Re-Scan
  • Low Memory Mode (Re-Scan)
  • Strategy Tips (Re-Scan)
• Memory Cubes
  • Strategy Tips (Memory Cubes)
  • Low Memory Mode (Memory Cubes)
• Role Cards
• Communication Rules
• Samples
• Command Cards
  • Fly / Peek
  • Deep Scan
  • Shields Charge
  • Wild
  • Playing Command Cards
    • 1-player
    • Multi-player
• Orientation (Inertia) Rule Explained
• Sector Cards
  • Empty Sector
  • Boost
  • Asteroid
  • Obstructed Sector
  • Low Memory Mode (Sector Cards)
• Variant: Escape Pod
  • Additional Objective
  • Additional Setup
  • Moving the Escape Pod
    • Determining Escape Pod Movement Value
• Adjusting Difficulty
  • Reducing Difficulty
  • Increasing Difficulty
• Scoring
• Example Turn
• Low Ink Sector Cards Icons Conversion

About

Sensor Ghosts is a short cooperative puzzle game for 1-4 players where not everything is as it appears.

Objective

You must guide your ship safely to Earth. Along the way you must collect a raw sample of the virus by scooping up a virus infected lump of rock. However, if you take too long, take damage or are pushed off course you and your ship will not survive. But remember it's not what you see that you'll encounter, it's what you can't see.

Win

You win immediately when you:

1. Guide your ship from the space station back to Earth.

AND

2. Collect at least 1 valid virus sample along your way.

Lose

You lose immediately when you:

• Can't draw a Command card (after going through the deck twice).

OR

• Take damage when shields are not fully charged.

OR

• Enter an Obstructed Sector (including pushed off the edge of the grid).

Components

• 1 Ship Token
• 1 Escape Pod Token
• 5 Sample Tokens (3 virus, 2 lumps of rock)
• 2 Shield Tokens (green cubes)
• 3 Memory Cubes (white cubes)
• 16 Command Cards
• 36 Sector Cards
• 7 Role Cards
• 1 Shields Status Card
• 4 Player Reference Cards

Setup

1. Place the 2 blue starting Sector cards (with the 'no flip' icon) in a row to form the bottom left corner of a grid.
2. Shuffle the remaining Sector cards, then place them, white-side-down (see below) in a grid to form a total of:
   • 7 rows;
   • 5 columns.
3. Place the blue Earth Sector card next to the top right corner card in the grid.
4. If any row (except the first row) does not contain at least 1 Empty Sector or Boost, do the following:
   • Swap the positions of an Obstructed Sector/Asteroid with an Empty Sector/Boost of your choice that is in the same column.
   • If there's nothing to swap with in that column, choose any Empty Sector/Boost in an adjacent column to swap with instead.
5. Place your ship token and Escape Pod token (optional - variant) to the left of the bottom left hand Sector card in the grid.
6. Place the Shields Tracker card with the two green Shield tokens nearby and
7. Place the Wild card next to the Command Deck, face-up.
8. Place the 3 white Memory Cubes nearby.
9. Shuffle the Sample tokens then place 1 face-down on a Sector card of your choice in each row in the grid.
   • The Samples should be placed in rows 3 to 7 only, counting from the bottom of the grid (see diagram below).
10. Remove any 3 cards from the grid that are orthogonally adjacent to at least 1 placed Sample and return them to the box.
    • You cannot remove an existing Obstructed Sector card.
    • Do not look at the back of these cards.

Placing Samples & Creating Obstructed Sectors

11. Each player chooses a Role and places it in front of them.
12. Setup the Command deck by including the cards according to selected difficulty level from the table below.
13. Shuffle the Command deck then deal to each player:
    • 1 player: 3 cards
    • 2-4 players: 2 cards
14. Place the Command deck close to the grid, preferably between the players.

Strategy Tips (Setup)

When placing Sample tokens consider if they will be reachable on the Sector that you place them. Also consider the sectors surrounding them - which ones will be the best to remove as required in step 10 of the setup?

When removing Sector cards, consider which ones will be most hazardous to you.

Command Deck Composition

Difficulty	1-player	2-players	3-players	4-players
Introductory	8 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	9 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	9 Fly, 3 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	10 Fly, 3 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild
Standard	7 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	8 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	8 Fly, 3 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	9 Fly, 3 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild
Advanced	6 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	7 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	8 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild	9 Fly, 2 Deep Scan, 2 Shields, 1 Wild

Order of Play (1-player)

Each turn, you will do the following:

1. Bolster: Choose whether to spend 1 or more Samples to charge shields.
   • 1 Shield charge per sample.
2. Choose a command by playing command cards from your hand:
   • 1 card for its action.
   • 2 Fly cards to change the direction of your ship (Inertia Rule).
   • 3 cards as a wild to perform any action.
3. Execute your chosen action (i.e. Fly, Peek, Deep Scan, Charge Shields).
   • When executing the Fly command, flip the Sector card over that you move onto and immediately resolve any effects.
4. Draw cards from the deck up to your hand limit (3 cards).
5. Re-Scan your local environment (see Re-Scan section).

Order of Play (Multi-Player)

The active player leads the turn but can ask for assistance from other players.

Each turn, each player can play a maximum of 1 card from their hand. The active player will do the following:

1. Bolster: Choose whether to spend 1 or more Samples to charge shields.
   • 1 Shield charge per sample.
2. Choose a command by either playing 1 card from your hand or asking for assistance to enable you to:
   • Change the direction of the ship: You and another player must each play a Fly card.
   • Perform any action (wild): You and 2 other players must each discard 1 card from your hands.
     • In 2-player games, discard the top card from the deck to represent a 3rd player.
3. Execute your chosen action.
   • When executing the Fly command, flip the Sector card over that you move onto and immediately resolve any effects.
4. Draw cards from the deck up to your hand limit (2 cards, active player only).
5. Re-Scan your local environment (see Re-Scan section).
6. Play continues with the next player's turn in a clockwise direction.

Note: Only the active player draws up cards at the end of their turn. If at the start of your turn you do not have any cards, skip steps 1-3 above and draw cards up to your hand limit. Perform the Re-Scan step as usual.

Re-Scan

Nothing is stationary in an asteroid field; what is in front of you keeps changing. Also, your sensors panel appears to be glitching and some of the sectors appear to be changing before your eyes.

At the end of each turn, you will need to re-scan your environment.

1. Shift the row directly ahead of your ship 1 sector to the left noting that the row wraps and gaps are maintained.
2. Flip over any 2 cards in the row that is 2 ahead of your ship.

You cannot flip the same card multiple times in a single turn but may flip it multiple times over multiple turns.

Note: The Re-Scan is essentially 3 free Deep Scan actions.

Low Memory Mode (Re-Scan)

At any time, you may peek at any cards in the row that is 2 ahead of your ship that have been flipped an odd number of times, i.e. their 'back' is currently uppermost.

Strategy Tips (Re-Scan)

Think carefully which sectors cards you flip to minimise the use of your Memory Cubes.

Think about using Memory Cubes to mark any exceptions to your strategy.

Memory Cubes

The ships navigation system has limited memory and can only store 3 additional bits of information. Also, rather annoyingly, delete doesn't seem to be a function that the developers thought to include.

You start the game with 3 Memory Cubes in a central pool. During your turn, you may place one or more of these on any Sector card(s) of your choice. They remain on there until you remove them. Once removed, they are removed from the game and returned to the box.

Strategy Tips (Memory Cubes)

Place a Memory Cube on:

• A hidden Obstructed Sector to remind you not to enter this space.
• A hidden Empty Sector to remind you that it's safe to move into this space.
• An exception to your strategy.

We recommend on being consistent with your use of the Memory Cubes or you may not remember what the memory aid is reminding you about!

Low Memory Mode (Memory Cubes)

Memory Bytes can be re-used, however a maximum of 3 can be in play at any one time.

Role Cards

Roles are chosen by each player during setup. They provide a single-use special ability for each player.

Your Role card effect can only be applied on your turn. Once used, place your player aid over the special ability section of the Role Card to indicate it has been used.

Communication Rules

If the computer hears your plans she has cunning ways to disrupt them so be careful with the information you share.

It is recommended that you play with the following communication rules:

1. Your hand is hidden.
2. You may not reveal the exact content of your hand.
3. You must not instruct the other player what to play.

Note: If you prefer playing with fully open hand and free communication then disregard this section.

Samples

Earth is in full quarantine mode with there already being numerous casualties of the virus. This unfortunately means that Earth have refused your request to land but luckily after some adept negotiation, they agreed that if you collected at least 1 raw and uncontaminated sample of the virus they would allow you to land; they hope this will enable them to more quickly create a vaccine. Without it, they've made it very clear that you'll never get to the ground alive.

You must collect and have at least 1 uncontaminated virus sample when you reach Earth to win the game.

You will automatically reveal and collect a sample when you enter a Sector containing one, however it may or may not contain a sample of the virus.

If you reveal a virus icon on the Sample token, place it next to the Shields Status card. If it turns out to be a useless lump of rock, return it to the box; to fulfil the win conditions you must collect a Sample with the virus icon on it.

Alternatively, collected virus samples can be used to charge your shields.

When you choose to perform the Bolster action, add 1 Shields Charge token to the Shield Status card and then return 1 virus sample to the box. This sample is now contaminated; you must collect a new, uncontaminated sample to win the game.

Command Cards

On the console in front of you are a rather limited set of commands. Given that you're not a pilot you may say this is a stroke of luck. But with the dangers that lie ahead it may also a hinderance; at least you might have help from your friends.

There are 3 types of Command cards that you will encounter. They are:

1. Fly / Peek.
2. Deep Scan.
3. Charge Shields.

You go through the Command Deck a total of 2 times. When you can't draw a card the first time:

1. Add the wild card.
2. Shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck.
3. Orientation rules are reset.

If you can't add a card or draw a card and you haven't reached Earth you lose the game.

Fly / Peek

This card allows you to execute either the Fly or the Peek command. You cannot perform both commands using a single card.

Orientation is important when playing this type of card. If the top card of the discard pile is a Fly/Peek card and you wish to play another Fly/Peek card on top, you must match the orientation of the preceding card as it costs additional fuel to turn your ship (see Inertia Rule Explained for more details).

If the preceding card is not Fly/Peek card this Inertia Rule does not apply.

If you choose the Fly command, place the arrow such that its direction matches the direction you wish to move your ship, then move it 1 sector in this direction (see example).

Whenever you move into a new sector, flip the card that your ship lands on and immediately resolve any effects.

Note: After moving, only resolve effects that are relevant to the revealed and now face-up side of the Sector card. Sector cards may be flipped multiple times.

[Figure: Fly Example]

Similar when executing the Peek command, place it in the discard pile in the orientation in which you wish to peek. Once again, its orientation must match the orientation of the previous card played unless you play two Fly/Peek cards together. When executing the Peek command, all players may look at the 3 cards that are directly ahead of your ship that are either orthogonally and diagonally adjacent. Do not permanently flip these cards over - replace them back down in the same orientation as you found them.

[Figure: Forward Peek Examples]

[Figure: Two Right Peek Examples]

Deep Scan

This card allows you to execute a Deep Scan which has one of three effects. You cannot execute multiple effects using a single card.

A Deep Scan does not have any orientation rules and allows you to:

• Flip any 1 Sector card.
• Shift a row left 1 sector (see Re-Scan example).

Note: Sector cards can be flipped multiple times. It is always the effect that is currently on the bottom of the card that you resolve when the ship enters a sector.

Shields Charge

This card allows you to charge shields by one.

Charging shields does not have any orientation rules.

To charge your shields, place on Shields Token on the Shields Status card. One you have two Shields Tokens allocated, your shields are fully charged.

In order to survive an Asteroid impact, your shields must be fully charged. If you ever impact an Asteroid (or enter an Obstructed Sector is playing on Low Memory Mode), all shield charges are immediately fully depleted.

[Figure: Half Charged Shields - Shields Status card with one of two tokens placed]

Wild

The Wild card allows you to execute any action and ignore the Orientation rules as it does not have an associated orientation.

If you don't have the Wild card in your hand, you may collectively play any 3 cards as a substitute wild card.

Playing Command Cards

Each round you will play execute your Command to navigate your ship to Earth.

1-player

You may play 2 Fly/Peek cards in a single turn to overcome the inertia of the ship and change its direction.

Multi-player

You may play a maximum of 1 Command card during your turn. If you need to overcome the ship's inertia and change direction or play a wild card you must ask for help from the other players.

On your turn you may ask for assistance from the other players but they are not forced to help you. If you want to:

• Change the direction of the ship, you and 1 other player must each play 1 Fly card.
• Play a wild card, you and 2 other players must each play any 1 card.
  • In 2-player games, discard the top card of the deck to represent a third player.

Note: Only the active player will replenish their hand at the end of the turn.

Orientation (Inertia) Rule Explained

Moving objects have inertia and it takes energy to overcome this and turn your ship so make sure you plan your journey. However, if you are in a rush you can initiate thrusters and burn through your fuel to more quickly change direction.

When playing a Fly/Peek card, you must play it in the orientation you want your ship to move/look. Cards can only be played horizontally or vertically.

When playing a Fly/Peek card, you must match direction of the previous card.

Collectively, you may play 2 Fly/Peek cards to ignore this rule (i.e. burn extra fuel to turn more quickly). Playing any 3 cards as a Wild card also ignores this rule. Shields Charge and Deep Scan cards do not have orientation associated with them.

[Figure: Orientation Rules Examples - four card sequences, each marked with a red cross]

Sector Cards

Sector cards represent the space surrounding your ship. However, your sensors do not seem to be showing you accurately what lies in the space around you. Somehow, you must carefully navigate through the asteroid belt to reach Earth.

There are 4 types of Sector cards that you will encounter. They are:

1. Empty Sector.
2. Boost.
3. Asteroid.
4. Obstructed Sector.

Note: If you ever move off the grid, this sector is considered to be an Obstructed Sector and you immediately lose.

Each card has a front and a back and it's important that during setup the front is placed face-up. It is also a handy reminder about which cards have been flipped.

[Figure: Differentiating Card 'Front' and 'Back' - Boost front and back, inverse colour denotes card backs]

They are distinguished by one of the inner rings being changed from the core card colour (i.e. purple for Boost) to a bright white (see example above).

Note: Sector cards can be flipped multiple times and it is always what is currently on the bottom of the card that will affect your ship.

Empty Sector

Empty Sectors are safe sectors. There's nothing big enough in these sectors to cause you any damage.

Boost

If you enter a sector and reveal a Boost, continue to move your ship to the next sector in the same direction of travel. If a Boost would push you off the edge of the grid or you enter an Obstructed Sector you immediately lose the game.

[Figure: Boost Example]

Asteroid

If you enter a sector and reveal an Asteroid, your shields are fully depleted.

Unless shields are fully charged (2/2) your ship will be critically damaged and you immediately lose the game.

Obstructed Sector

Obstructed Sectors are always bad and cannot be entered by the ship. If your ship would ever attempt to enter an Obstructed Sector your shields are fully depleted and you will immediately lose the game. These destroy the Escape Pod if you are using that variant.

Obstructed Sectors come in 3 forms:

1. Obstructed Sector card as depicted above.
2. A blank sector where you removed a Sector card during setup.
3. Any sector surrounding the grid is also considered an Obstructed Sector.

Low Memory Mode (Sector Cards)

If you would ever enter an Obstructed Sector, unless shields are fully charged (2/2) your ship will be critically damaged and you immediately lose the game.

If you survive with your shields now fully depleted you must also discard 1 collected virus sample. If you have not collected any virus samples, return the unrevealed virus sample closest to Earth to the box, without looking at it.

Variant: Escape Pod

As you pull away from the space station you notice an escape pod hanging lifeless in space. Another survivor perhaps? You try to contact it but there's no response. Fortunately, you manage to hack into the pod's navigational system.

In order for your conscience to be clear you must now also navigate the pod to safely back to Earth. Luckily the Escape Pod is small enough and it is not affected by anything other than the huge asteroids.

Additional Objective

You lose if the Escape Pod is destroyed.

The Escape Pod is destroyed if it moves into an Obstructed Sector - either an Obstructed Sector card or an Obstructed Sector created during setup (i.e. blank sector). It is not destroyed if it moves off the edge of the grid.

Additional Setup

Place the Escape Pod token next to your ship token in the start position (off to the left of the bottom left hand corner of the grid).

Moving the Escape Pod

The Escape Pod moves every turn and only encounters the face-up side of the Sector cards (i.e. Do NOT flip a Sector card when the Escape Pod moves onto it).

The Escape Pod moves after your ship.

Each Command card has a number on it: This is the movement value for the Escape Pod (possible values are 1, 2 or 3).

For Fly cards (Peek and Fly commands), the Escape Pod moves in the direction that the card is pointing. For all other cards, you may choose the direction the Escape Pod moves in.

If more than 1 card is played (i.e. when changing the direction of your ship or when playing a wild), it is the value of the top card that moves the Escape Pod.

Determining Escape Pod Movement Value

If the Escape Pod would move off the edge of the board, instead move it as far as you can and then stop. It now remains on the last card until you move it in a different direction.

Once the Escape Pod reaches Earth, command cards no longer affect it.

Adjusting Difficulty

If using the suggested modifications to the Command deck and/or including the Escape Pod variant does not provide the sufficient difficulty modifications, you may wish to additionally consider one or more of the following:

Reducing Difficulty

• Samples can be contaminated to execute a second action during your turn. This second action must be executed before you draw cards up at the end of your turn.
  • Contaminated samples no longer count towards the win condition and a new virus sample must be collected to satisfy the win conditions.
• Sector cards are only flipped once during the Re-Scan phase. They are then considered 'revealed' once they have bene flipped the first time.
  • You may use the Deep Scan action during your turn to flip a Sector card back to its unrevealed side.

Increasing Difficulty

• Do not play with the Memory Cubes - return them to the box during setup.
• You need at least 2 Samples to win the game.
• Flip just 1 Sector Card during the Re-Scan phase.

Scoring

TBC

The v12 rulebook leaves this section as "TBC"; no scoring rules are printed in this version.

Example Turn

Amelie and Sammie are at the start of a turn. They have limited information about the sectors surrounding them and their shields are fully charged.

They have peeked at some of the Sector cards and flipped others during the Re-Scan phase. This is what they know about the bottom of the cards:

• The top left Sector card is an Obstructed space - they have put a Memory cube on it to remind them not to enter this sector.
• The card directly ahead of them is a Boost.
• The card to their right is an Asteroid.
• The card in the middle row on the far right is safe as it's an Empty Sector.

As a result of this knowledge, they know that if they play a Fly card to move them forwards, this will move them into the Obstructed Sector resulting in them immediately losing the game. This would also mean they would miss the sample which they would very much like to collect.

[Figure: Amelie and Sammie's hands and the sectors they know about]

With shields fully charged, they can survive a single asteroid impact which will happen if they move to the right. Although they will lose shields, it will line them up for moving into a safe sector on Sammie's turn and enable them to collect a sample.

As on the previous turn a Fly card was also played right, Amelie can play a Fly card without any penalty (see Orientation Rules).

When the ship moves, each sector it moves onto must always be flipped over. In this case, as expected, it's an Asteroid. This fully depletes their shields but as they were fully charged they survive and play continues.

Amelie then draws up 1 card, luckily another Fly card and then her Re-Scan is then executed: an Empty Sector moves directly ahead of their ship which has a sample token on it and she flips two Empty Sectors face-down in the row two ahead of them, removing the Memory Cube and returning it to the box as that sector is no longer dangerous.

Now it's Sammie's turn. Sammie also want to play a Fly card however they need to overcome the inertia of the ship in order to change direction. Sammie must ask Amelie for assistance in order to turn and move the ship. Amelie agrees and they each play 1 Fly card which moves the ship onto the Empty Sector. Sammie immediately reveals the Sample token and luckily it is a Virus!

Sammie draws up 1 card, executes the Re-Scan and then play continues with Amelie who only has 1 card.

Low Ink Sector Cards Icons Conversion

The printed table has four rows, one per sector type, with a Front and a Back icon for each. The icons are images and are not reproduced here; the rows are:

Front	Back	Type
Blank circle	Dashed circle	Empty Sector
Boost icon in circle	Boost icon in dashed circle	Boost
Warning triangle in circle	Warning triangle in dashed circle	Asteroid
Skull and crossbones in circle	Skull and crossbones in dashed circle	Obstructed Sector