Space Pirates Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• What Is the Fate of a Cosmic Pirate?
• Creating the Galaxy
• How to Begin
• What Does a Cosmic Pirate Do?
• How to Move a Transport Across the Galaxy?
• What If the Ship Receives Damage?
• What Happens If a Transport Hits a Pirate Ship?
• How Does a Pirate Ship Move?
• How to Leave a Pirate Base?
• How Do Cosmic Pirates Capture a Transport?
• Galactic Police
• Drift
• Crossing the Border of the Galaxy
• Entering a Pirate Base
• What Awaits the Pirate at the Base?
• 6 Cosmic Adventures
• Turn Sequence

Components

• 4 spaceships of different colours (blue, green, yellow, red) and 4 assembly bases for them;
• 10 special rulers for moving spaceships;
• 1 pirate main token showing the red spaceship (always kept by the player whose turn it is);
• 34 round dark-grey transport tokens and 68 stickers for them. The stickers must be carefully separated from the sheet and stuck to the transport tokens. 34 transport symbols on a white background are stuck to one side of the tokens and 30 cargo symbols (6 of each type), 2 asteroid symbols and 2 galactic police symbols go on the other side;
• A cloth bag for the transport tokens;
• 45 hexagonal megacredit tokens (20 tokens worth 1 megacredit, 15 tokens worth 5 megacredits and 10 tokens worth 10 megacredits);
• 36 energy cards. Energy cards are laid out in 5 stacks by value (from 1 to 5). Each stack is shuffled and placed face down on the matching place in the energy bank. Used energy cards are also placed on the base in separate stacks, face up;
• The energy bank: a rectangular stand for the energy cards;
• 5 pirate bases and 5 base-owner tokens (see the section "What awaits the pirate at the base?");
• 10 market cards. These cards show the prices at which pirates can sell captured cargo at the bases. The cards are shuffled and laid face down on the pirate bases (see the section "How to begin?");
• 13 elements of the galaxy map, which can be assembled in different ways to create the playing field (see the section "How to begin?");
• A cosmic storm (a cardboard circle to whose centre the stand must be attached);
• The rules of the game.

What Is the Fate of a Cosmic Pirate?

Of course, the goal is to become the most celebrated and wealthy pirate in the galaxy. The winner is the player who first becomes the owner of a pirate base and accumulates 20 megacredits. As soon as one of the players fulfils both of these conditions, the game stops.

To make the game longer, the victory conditions can be changed slightly. A pirate base is in any case necessary for the best pirate, and the sum in the bank can always be increased:

• 50 megacredits for a two-player game;
• 40 megacredits for a three-player game;
• 30 megacredits for a four-player game.

Creating the Galaxy

First of all, the players must make sure that they have enough room to assemble the galaxy map. Any flat surface on which tokens can easily be moved is suitable for the game. It may be a table or a floor, but preferably without a carpet. The size of this surface depends on the galaxy map the players assemble.

The players must create their own galaxy map using all the elements offered for this. The arrangement of the galaxy elements on the playing field depends only on the players' imagination and may change from game to game. Only the galaxy map elements themselves, the pirate spaceships and the tokens of the unseized transports may be on the playing field. The game box, placed on its side, can be used to mark the border of the map. The recommended size of the galaxy is 60x60 cm for 2 players, and 80x70 cm for 3-4 players.

Besides the various elements, the inhabited pirate bases must be placed on the map. Their number equals the number of players plus 1. The remaining pirate bases can be used as elements of the galaxy map, but no market cards are placed on them, they are considered abandoned and unsuitable for servicing cosmic ships.

Only transports, pirate spaceships and the cosmic storm may move across the galaxy map.

The stand for the energy cards, the energy cards themselves, the megacredits and the bag with the transport tokens are placed next to the map.

The cosmic storm will be needed later.

The special rulers are used only to move the tokens of the cosmic ships across the galaxy map. After a ruler has been used to move a ship, it is set aside until it is needed again.

How to Begin

Each player chooses a cosmic ship, takes 10 megacredits from the bank and 5 energy cards from the energy bank, one from each stack. In total, at the start of the game each player has 15 energy points (5+4+3+2+1=15). The game is started by the youngest player, who takes the pirate main token. Players move clockwise. Each player chooses an inhabited pirate base from which his ship will set out on its first voyage, and places his ship token on that base. Throughout the game, no more than 2 cosmic ships may be on one base at the same time.

Before the game begins, each player may look secretly at the market card of the pirate base where his ship stands. After this the card is again laid face down in its place. If the ships of two players are on the base, each of them may look at the card in turn. During the game it is forbidden to look at closed market cards, except in the case when a player's cosmic ship has stopped at an inhabited pirate base.

The player who currently holds the pirate main token draws 3 tokens from the bag of transports (if there are 4 players, only 2 tokens may be drawn). The player must not show the face side of these tokens to the other players, but he may look at which transports he got. After that he places them face down on the galaxy map in any place. The following condition must be met: the distance from a transport to the elements of the map, the edge of the map, the pirate bases and the cosmic ships must be greater than or equal to the length of 1 ruler.

Then the player sitting to the left of the player with the pirate main token flicks each transport token across the playing field (see the illustration).

After the flick, a transport token may bounce off the elements of the map, hit another transport token, fly beyond the border of the galaxy, turn over, or even hit a cosmic ship. In the last case the affected ship receives 1 damage (see the section "What if the ship receives damage?").

The player who in the end has the pirate main token makes the first turn. As soon as his turn is over, he passes the pirate main token to his neighbour on the left. The number of turns in the game is not limited.

What Does a Cosmic Pirate Do?

A pirate does not wait for the loot to come into his hands; he searches for it and tries to get ahead of the others who want to seize the valuable cargo. The real hunt for the transports begins!

At the beginning of his turn, if the pirate's ship is in space, the player must play at least 1 energy card. If the pirate has several energy cards in hand, he may choose which one to use this turn. If the player has no energy cards at all, his ship cannot move on its own and goes into drift (see the section "Drift"). If the crew of the pirate ship is resting at a base and the ship is only being unloaded, the player may refuse to move his ship and remain at the base.

When an energy card is used, the pirate must carry out all the conditions written on it. The upper part of an energy card shows adventure symbols that await bold pirates in open space (see the section "6 Cosmic Adventures"). The card also shows the distance by which the player may move his ship (from 1 to 5).

The pirate shows the energy card he is playing to the other players. After this he sets off to meet the adventures that this card brought him (there may be 2 or 3 of them). The player decides for himself the order in which to carry out the tasks on the card. Then he moves his ship using the special rulers (see the section "How does a pirate ship move?"). As soon as the player has carried out everything the energy card he is playing requires, the card is laid face up on the corresponding place in the energy bank.

This ends the pirate's turn.

How to Move a Transport Across the Galaxy?

If the energy card shows the transport symbol (see the section "6 Cosmic Adventures"), the pirate with the main token, or his neighbour on the right, must flick the transport token in the same way as was done at the start of the game. If during this the transport token crosses the border of the galaxy, turns over (all players see what cargo is on this transport), or strikes any element of the map, the ship of the player who moved the token receives 1 damage (see the section "What if the ship receives damage?").

If the transport token turned over after the flick, it must be placed face down again. If after the flick the transport token ends up outside the playing field or on some element of the map, it is returned to the map at a distance of 1 ruler from the place where it crossed the border of the galaxy or the edge of a map element.

What If the Ship Receives Damage?

When a pirate's ship receives damage, the player may choose how to act:

• He may give up 1 cargo that he has already captured (the transport token goes back into the bag);
• He may ask any of the players to choose 1 of his energy cards without looking and return it to the energy bank.

If the player has neither cargo nor energy cards, there is nothing for him to pay the penalty with; he is already punished.

What Happens If a Transport Hits a Pirate Ship?

If a transport token, after it was flicked, collided with a cosmic ship, the captain of that ship must look at what hit him, so that the others do not see:

• If the token turns out to be an asteroid: the player shows this token to everyone and places it face up at the place where it ended up after colliding with his ship. His cosmic ship receives 1 damage.

The asteroid token now remains face up until the end of the game, and every pirate knows about this threat! A face-up asteroid token may be "flicked" only when an energy card with the asteroid symbol is played.

If a ship touches an open asteroid token, even if that token was flicked by the captain of the ship himself, or if it struck the ship after bouncing off any element of the map, this ship receives 1 damage.

An asteroid transport token cannot be captured. If a pirate, having looked at a captured token, finds that he got an asteroid, he receives 1 damage, and the asteroid token is returned face up to the galaxy map at a distance of 1 ruler from the point where he picked up the unlucky cargo. In fact it was not the pirate who tried to attack the transport; the asteroid crashed into his cosmic ship, so everything still went well!

• If the token turns out to be any cargo: the pirate must place this token back on the map, face down, at the place where it ended up after colliding with his ship.

How Does a Pirate Ship Move?

The player uses an energy card that gave him 3 points. The pirate ship moves along 3 touching special rulers, approaching the transport token.

The player whose ship must move now takes as many special rulers as shown on the energy card he is playing (from 1 to 5). Then he lays out the course of his cosmic ship: the first ruler must touch the nose of his cosmic ship's base, and the additional rulers touch one another, forming a snake. Each ruler may form a maximum angle of 90° with the previous one.

A ruler may not be placed on the elements of the map, on the base of another cosmic ship, or so that it extends beyond the playing field.

Example 1: the player used a card that gave him 3 energy points. The pirate ship moves along 3 touching special rulers, approaching the transport token.

After the course has been laid out, the ship may be moved to the last ruler, and the remaining rulers are removed from the playing field. Important: if a ruler has been placed on the playing field according to the rules, the player can no longer move or remove it, because part of the ship's course has already been laid, and changing the course while the ship is under way is impossible.

The player may use fewer rulers to move his ship than the number shown on the energy card.

How to Leave a Pirate Base?

Having decided to set off in search of adventures, the captain of a cosmic ship must steer the ship through the gates of the base. To do so, the first ruler on the ship's course must cross the black-and-yellow entrance line of the base.

How Do Cosmic Pirates Capture a Transport?

When a player moves his cosmic ship and the rulers lie on transport tokens (fully or partly), the pirate may capture that transport. To do so he turns the transport token over and looks at what he got this time. If it is valuable cargo, the pirate takes the token for himself, and the other players do not necessarily need to know what loot the player got today. In one turn, any number of cargo tokens may be loaded onto the ship. Transport tokens are revealed one at a time during a capture: the first at the start of the route, the last at the end of the route. If instead of cargo the pirate got an asteroid or a galactic police patrol, he must deal with all the trouble these encounters bring at once.

Example 2: the red pirate ship can capture 2 transports and return to base, following the laid course.

Galactic Police

If the player has drawn a transport token showing a galactic police ship, his luck has run out: the cosmic pirate is arrested and must now return under escort to the nearest inhabited pirate base. The pirate shows this token to all the participants and lays it in front of himself. While this token is in his possession, he may not capture new transports. His ship may only move in the direction of the base, and any transport tokens that turn up on its path must be left where they are.

At the pirate base the arrested captain must pay 1 megacredit to the galactic bank or to the owner of this pirate base (if there is one). After this he is free again and may return to space. The galactic police token is placed back into the bag with the transport tokens.

Example 3: the player uses a card that gives him 5 energy points, but almost immediately he reveals the galactic police token. Now he must interrupt his voyage and return to the base. Until the fine has been paid, the pirate may not board any transport.

Drift

If a player has no energy cards and his cosmic ship is in open space, or if the ship cannot move because it has found itself in a dead end between elements of the map or too close to the edge of the playing field, the pirate must decide to let the ship drift.

For the cosmic ship to start drifting, its captain must place a ruler for moving ships so that it touches the cosmic ship; he may choose the direction of movement freely. Then the ship moves onto this ruler, and the ruler it stood on before is removed from the playing field. Thus a drifting cosmic ship may move only 1 ruler per turn, but in any direction. During such a move the cosmic ship may capture a transport if the transport token turns out to lie on its path.

Crossing the Border of the Galaxy

A cosmic ship, driven by the force of the solar wind, just like the cosmic storm, may end up outside the playing field. If this happens, the ship or the storm is returned to the galaxy map at a distance of 1 ruler from the point where it crossed the border.

Entering a Pirate Base

To enter the port of an inhabited pirate base, the ship must touch any point of the black-and-yellow line marking the docking gates of the base. As soon as the stand of the cosmic ship has touched this line, the ship may immediately be placed on the pirate base.

What Awaits the Pirate at the Base?

When a player's cosmic ship is at a base, the captain may choose what to do on his turn:

• buy the pirate base (the one where the ship is);
• look at the prices of goods at this pirate base;
• sell cargo at the market prices of this base;
• recharge the ship's batteries with energy.

All these actions may be performed only in strict order, one after another. Any one of the actions may be skipped if the pirate has no ability or wish to perform it, and the player moves on to the next one. Returning to a skipped action is not allowed under any circumstances.

1. Buying a pirate base. To become the owner of a pirate base, 15 megacredits must be paid to the galactic bank. The pirate who bought the base takes the owner token of this base and places it in front of himself. Each player may buy only 1 pirate base for the whole game. If a player cannot or does not want to acquire a pirate base, he skips this action.

2. Looking at the prices of goods. When a cosmic ship arrives at a base, the pirate may carefully look at the market card lying on this base. If the card still lies face down, the pirate must not show it to the other players. The base card shows the prices at which cargo can be sold here.

3. Selling cargo. If the prices of goods seem suitable to the player, he may sell as many cargoes at this pirate base as he wishes. The cargoes a pirate may sell must be only those he has managed to capture. The player is completely free to choose which cargo to sell. He is not obliged to sell all his cargo, and he may also sell nothing at all. The price shown on the market card next to the cargo symbol applies to 1 cargo token. Sold cargo goes back into the black bag; in exchange the player receives money from the galactic bank, regardless of whether the pirate base belongs to some player or not. As soon as the player has sold at least one cargo at a pirate base, the market card of that base is turned over and left face up until the end of the game.

4. Recharging the ship's batteries with energy. If the player wants to replenish the energy supply of his ship, he must take the following steps strictly in the order given:

• The player must return to the energy bank all the cards he has in his hand. All the cards are laid face up on the corresponding stacks of played cards (from 1 to 5);
• If some energy card stacks have run out, the corresponding stack of played cards is shuffled and laid face down in its place on the stand. Cards of different values may not be mixed;
• Now the player may buy energy cards for 4 megacredits, for a total of up to 20 points. 1 megacredit spent equals 5 energy points. The player takes from the different stacks of energy cards as many cards as he needs to collect the points he has bought. The player decides for himself which cards by value he takes; the main thing is that the total of the purchased points must not be exceeded. If it turns out that the player does not have enough energy cards to collect the points he bought, the missing energy points are lost.

The maximum capacity of the batteries of any cosmic ship is 20 points, so a player cannot hold energy cards of a large total value. If the pirate base where the recharging takes place belongs to no one, the player must pay the galactic bank for the additional energy. If the pirate base belongs to one of the players, all the money for the energy goes to the owner of the base. When a player decides to recharge his ship at his own base, he does not have to pay for it, but he can replenish the energy supply only up to 15 points.

6 Cosmic Adventures

The pirate chooses 1 transport token on the galaxy map and "flicks" it. If there are no transport tokens on the map, the player does nothing.

The pirate takes 1 transport token from the bag, looks at what cargo he got, and places it in any place on the playing field. After this, the player sitting to the right of the main pirate must "flick" the transport token, observing all the rules described above.

The pirate takes 1 transport token from the bag, looks at what cargo he got, and places it in any place on the playing field. After this, the player sitting to the left of the main pirate must "flick" the transport token, observing all the rules described above.

The pirate must "flick" an open asteroid token. If there are no open asteroids on the playing field, the player does nothing.

Cosmic storm. The pirate may move the cosmic storm to any point on the galaxy map, but it must not touch the elements of the map and the cosmic ships of other players. The cosmic storm is placed on the galaxy map only when one of the players plays an energy card with this symbol for the first time. The storm may leave the boundaries of the galaxy map only under the influence of the solar wind. Each time an energy card requires it, the storm moves from one place to another within the playing field.

A cosmic ship that is fully or partly caught in the storm, that is, its ship token lies under the storm token, receives 1 damage. Even if, within the storm zone, the ship makes several moves (that is, it moves 2 rulers or more), the player still receives only 1 damage.

If a cosmic ship leaves the storm, it receives no damage from it. A player whose ship remains in the storm zone also receives 1 damage.

Cosmic ships standing on pirate bases are reliably protected from the storm.

Solar wind. The pirate chooses the direction in which the solar wind will blow. Using a ruler for moving cosmic ships, the player marks this direction on the galaxy map. Then, using the other rulers, he moves all the cosmic ships that are in space by 2 rulers in the chosen direction. When moving, the ruler must touch any part of the cosmic ship. All cosmic ships move simultaneously.

The cosmic storm also cannot resist the force of the solar wind: it too moves 2 rulers in the direction of the wind.

Example 4.1: the pirate places the ruler for moving ships on the card, showing all the players the direction in which the solar wind will blow. Then rulers are laid out on the playing field to show the movement of all the ships and of the cosmic storm under the influence of the solar wind. Some ships may receive damage. The green pirate ship is on a base, so the solar wind does not threaten it.

Example 4.2: the cosmic ships have moved. The red and blue ships each receive 1 damage, because they collided with elements of the map.

When all the cosmic ships and the storm have moved, the pirates must check where their ships ended up. If a cosmic ship, by the will of the solar wind, collided with another cosmic ship or any obstacle, or ended up outside the galaxy map or in the cosmic storm, such a ship receives 1 damage.

However, driven by the force of the wind, a ship may also very successfully capture a new transport if it turns out to be on its path.

The solar wind may bring a ship to a pirate base (see the section "Entering a Pirate Base").

Cosmic ships already on bases are not subject to the wind.

Turn Sequence

• Choose 1 energy card from those in hand and deal with the adventures (2 or 3), or start drifting, moving the ship 1 ruler.
• Using energy points, move your ship with the special rulers.
  • Leave a pirate base.
  • Capture a transport:
    • Cargo: without showing it to the other players, take the token for yourself;
    • Asteroid: turn the token over and receive 1 damage;
    • Galactic police: turn the token over and take it for yourself; begin moving toward the nearest base. Transports may not be captured while doing so.
  • At a pirate base:
    • Buy this base for 15 megacredits;
    • Look at the market card on this base;
    • Sell cargo at the market prices of this base and receive money from the galactic bank;
    • Recharge your ship's batteries:
      • Put all your energy cards on the stacks of played cards;
      • Spend 1 megacredit to buy 5 energy points. A maximum of 20 energy points can be bought. The purchase is paid to the galactic bank or the money is given to the owner of the base;
      • If the ship is recharged at a player's own base, no payment is needed, but the maximum that can be obtained is only 15 energy points;
      • Take the purchased energy cards from the stacks on the stand.
• Check whether, perhaps, everything needed for victory has already been done.