Space Explorers: Solo Rulebook & Tracker Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • The Goal
• Initial Setup
  • 1. Space Research Center
  • 2. Achievement Track and Projects
  • 3. Player Setup
  • 4. Starting Hand
  • 5. Development Marker
  • Completed Setup for Solo Mode
• The Achievement Track
• Your Turn
  • Research Tokens
  • Other Player
  • The Center
• Your Opponent's Turn
• Game End
• Scoring
  • Calculating Your Score
  • Calculating Your Opponent's Score
• Game Variants
  • Variant #1
  • Variant #2
  • Variant #3
  • Variant #4
• Project Facts

Introduction

Solo Mode allows you to play Space Explorers by yourself, using their own rules. You are playing against a game-controlled Opponent, taking turns just like in the base game. Gameplay is generally the same — with a few twists.

Additional components required: Achievement Track.

The Goal

Just as in the base game, you are competing with another Hub to launch as many Projects as possible. Your opponent is single-minded in their desire for space exploration, and they play by their own rules.

The game ends when all available Projects are completed or when you recruit 12 Specialists to your Hub. After that, final scoring takes place, and either you or your Opponent is proclaimed the winner.

Initial Setup

Differences from the base game setup are highlighted. (The highlighting in the source is not reproduced in this text; the steps below are the complete solo setup as printed.)

1. Space Research Center

Shuffle the Specialist cards and place them face-down in the center of the table to form the Specialist Deck. Reveal the top 6 cards and place them in a single row face-up beside the deck to form the Space Research Center.

Put the First Player token below the first Specialist card. The First Player token isn't used in Solo Mode, so you will re-use it as the Development Marker to show where your Opponent is looking.

2. Achievement Track and Projects

Take 5 Project tiles at random. Return unused tiles to the game box.

Note: Project tiles are double-sided. The recommended way to choose which side to use is to toss each tile into the air and use the side that lands face-up. However, you may use any other method you wish. Place all 5 Project tiles at the start of the Achievement Track.

3. Player Setup

Take for yourself:

• A Research & Development Hub, with the two pieces connected as shown in the picture.
• 5 Research tokens, one of each color.
• A Player Reference sheet.

Place a Hub on the table for your Opponent.

Give your Opponent 5 Research tokens, one of each color. Shuffle them and place them as a stack beside their Hub.

Your Opponent does not require a Player Reference Sheet.

Place all unused Hubs, Research tokens and Player Reference sheets back in the game box.

4. Starting Hand

Draw one card from the Specialist deck to form your starting hand. Your Opponent does not get a card.

5. Development Marker

In Solo Mode, you are always the First Player. The First Player token is used as the Development marker instead.

Completed Setup for Solo Mode

The completed setup diagram is labelled as follows:

1. Achievement track with 5 random Projects
2. Player Reference card
3. Opponent's Research Hub
4. 5 Research tokens
5. Specialists' Deck
6. Development Marker
7. Your starting hand
8. Your Research Hub
9. Opponent's Research tokens in a stack

The Achievement Track

At the start of the game, there are five Project tiles placed at the first position on the Achievement track. Each time your Opponent recruits a Specialist, all Projects that match the Division of the new Specialist advance one position along the track. If a Project reaches the end of the track before you can complete it yourself, it is considered completed by your Opponent.

The printed tracker board runs from Start (place 5 projects here at game start), through positions 1 to 7, to Finish (the other player takes the project).

Your Turn

You take your turn the same way as in the base version of Space Explorers, with a few changes.

Research Tokens

1. When you need to pass Research tokens to your Opponent (after adding a Specialist to your Hub or by using a Specialist's ability), put those tokens aside instead.
2. At the end of your turn, first take the top Research token from your Opponent's Research token stack (which starts with 5 tokens at the beginning of the game) and keep it for yourself. If the stack is empty when you need to take a token from it, you miss out. Then take any tokens you put aside during your turn and place them underneath the stack in any order. If the stack is empty, those tokens become the new stack.

Example of your turn: You are going to recruit the Astronaut using the card in your hand (a Tester). The Development marker is located below the Astronaut card in the Center. By passing the required Research tokens to your Opponent (i.e. setting them aside) and moving the Tester card to the Center to pay the other required Research tokens, you add the Astronaut to your Hub. The Development marker slides to the next Specialist card in the row.

Other Player

If any game rule refers to another player, your Opponent is always that other player.

The Center

The Development marker is always placed below one of the 6 Specialist cards in the Center. As the game goes on, it slides from left to right, one card at a time.

When the Specialist card above the Development marker is taken from the Center by you or your Opponent for any reason, move the Development marker to the next card in the row. If the Development marker is at the last card, move it to the first card to start again.

• If you need to place a 7th Specialist card in the Center, place it above the row of 6 Specialist cards to create a temporary row of Specialist cards. The Development marker never moves to a card in the temporary row — its movement is limited to the 6 cards in the main row. If you need to add an 8th Specialist card (or more), continue the temporary row by placing the cards to the right.
• When a Specialist card is taken from the main row of the Center and there are cards in the temporary row, fill the vacant place using the leftmost Specialist card from the temporary row. If Center has fewer than 5 cards and there are no cards in the temporary row, reveal a card from the Specialist deck to fill the vacant place, just as in the base game.

Note: the Development marker moves only if the Specialist card above it was taken. If you take some other Specialist card from the Center, the Development marker stays where it is.

Your Opponent's Turn

At the beginning of their turn, your Opponent recruits the Specialist card from above the Development marker in the Center to their Hub. The Specialist is recruited to the Division matching their skill. If the Specialist has 2 different skills, the topmost of the 2 skills determines which Division they join. Immediately move the Development marker to the next card in the row and fill the vacant place. Use the leftmost card from the temporary row if possible, otherwise reveal a new card from the deck.

Recruiting is free for your Opponent. They do not pass you any Research tokens to recruit a Specialist, but the abilities of their Specialists have no effect and are not used in the game.

• Next, advance all Project tiles that share a skill color with the Division of the newly-recruited Specialist one position forward along Achievement Track.

If a Project reaches the end of the Achievement track, it is considered completed by your Opponent. Place the Project tile beside your Opponent's Hub for scoring at game end.

This ends your Opponent's turn, and your next turn begins.

Example of your Opponent's turn: Your Opponent starts by recruiting a Specialist, taking the Scientist card above the Development marker and placing it into their Hub. Then they advance the Development marker and, since the temporary row is empty, they reveal a card from the deck to fill the vacant space.

Next, all Projects that share a Skill icon color with the Division of the newly recruited Scientist, in this case Science (yellow), are moved 1 position forward. There are 3 such Projects out of the 5 available.

Note: the newly-recruited Scientist has 2 Science (yellow) skills, but all that matters is the Division color, so the Projects with yellow Skill icons are advanced only one position, not two.

This ends your Opponent's turn, and your next turn begins.

Game End

The game is over as soon as you (not your Opponent) recruit 12 Specialists to your Hub OR when all the available Projects are completed by you and/or your Opponent. Since you are always the First Player, the game continues until the end of your Opponent's next turn to ensure that you both have an equal number of turns.

Scoring

The player who made the most Progress wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most points from completed Projects wins. If there is still a tie, you share victory with your Opponent.

Calculating Your Score

Count your Progress points as normal.

Calculating Your Opponent's Score

Your Opponent scores 2 Progress points for each Specialist cards in their Hub. Projects completed by your Opponent score the points marked on the tile, as normal.

Example: At the end of the game, your Opponent has 14 Specialist cards (142=28 Progress points) and 2 completed Projects (3 and 4 Progress points), for a total of 35 Progress points.*

Game Variants

After playing a game or two, you may decide to increase the difficulty. You may use any of the variants below in any combination, or even all at once.

Variant #1

After setup, advance all Projects one position forward on the Achievement Track. We do not recommend starting with Project tiles any further ahead (2 positions or more).

Variant #2

Your Opponent scores +2 Progress points for each of their completed Projects at game end.

[Symbol not rendered in the source text.] For a more balanced game, if playing Variants #1 and #2, you may want to choose Projects according to the number of skills shown on the tokens, instead of choosing at random. We recommend to choose 1 Project with 2 skills, 3 Projects with 3 skills, and 1 Project with 4 skills.

Variant #3

After setup, randomly choose a Division in your Opponent's Hub. Your Opponent scores +2 Progress points for each Specialist in the chosen Division of their Hub at game end (scoring 4 Progress points for those Specialists instead of 2). You can choose the Division by drawing a spare Research token from the box and matching the color.

Variant #4

Your Opponent scores extra points in Divisions with many Specialists. In each Division, Specialist number 3 scores +1 Progress point, and each Specialist from number 4 onward scores +2 Progress points (so a Division with 5 Specialists would score +1, +2, and +2).

Looking at the sample illustration in the Game End section, we see that your Opponent would have scored 33 Progress points from the Specialist cards using this Variant (instead of 28).

Good luck in your explorations!

Project Facts

The rulebook's closing section gives background on each Project. The entries are reproduced as printed.

• Sputnik 1 (October 4, 1957, USSR): First artificial satellite launched into orbit. About the size of a beachball, it orbited Earth for 3 months traveling approximately 43 million miles.
• Telstar 1 (July 10, 1962, USA): This satellite allowed for the first live broadcast television signal to be sent between the United States and Europe.
• Explorer 1 (January 31, 1958, USA): First satellite launch by the US. It was the third satellite to achieve orbit, Sputnik 1 and 2 preceding it.
• Mariner 2 (August 27, 1962, USA): It was the first robotic space probe that made a successful encounter with a planet. After 110 days of flight, it reached and transmitted data back from Venus.
• Sputnik 3 (May 15, 1958, USSR): The purpose of the satellite was to provide data on the upper atmosphere, study cosmic rays, and both magnetic and electrostatic fields.
• Voskhod 2 (March 28, 1965, USSR): The capsule carried two Cosmonauts on board: Pavel Belyayev and Alexey Leonov. Alexey Leonov became the first person to space walk when he left the capsule for 12 minutes.
• TIROS 1 (April 1, 1960, USA): A low earth orbit weather satellite and was a joint effort between NASA, RCA, US Weather Bureau, US Army, and the US Navy. It provided the first TV image of the Earth from space.
• Gemini 4 (June 3, 1965, USA): Astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White were on board. This marked the first extravehicular activity (EVA), aka space walk, for the Americans when White exited the vehicle for 20 minutes.
• Vostok 1 (April 12, 1961, USSR): The capsule carried 27 year old Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The mission lasted a total of 89 minutes.