The Stars Align Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Scoring
• Gameplay - Dusk Phase... The Stars Come Out!
• The Night Phase - The Stars Flicker!

Objective

To be the first player to spot five (5) shooting stars. Players spot shooting stars when they clear a row or column (between North and South, or East and West) by having their colored stars in every space in that row or column.

Contents

1. 54 Constellation cards
2. The Night Sky Map (The 7x7 grid on the back of the cloth bag)
3. 50 Player Stars - double sided
4. 10 Shooting Star Points (for scorekeeping)

Scoring

1. When a player fills a row or column with stars of their own color, they get one point, and each star in that row or column is removed from the Night Sky Map. There is no diagonal play.
2. The scoring player adds one Shooting Star Point to their score.
3. When a player reaches five Shooting Star Points, they win!

Gameplay - Dusk Phase... The Stars Come Out!

1. Each player selects a color star to play. Drop a star onto the table, and the color that comes up is the first player.
2. On their turn, the player draws the top Constellaton card and places it so the other player can see it.
   • a. The player may hold or position the card near to where they are playing their pieces if it makes it easier. The card must be visible to the other player.
3. The player puts stars of their color onto the Night Sky Map to form the shape of the Constellation card. They may rotate the card, but it must be played squarely. There is no diagonal play.
   • a. During the Dusk Phase, players cannot play their stars so that they overlap other stars on the Night Sky Map.

Fig. 1: Correct. Fig. 2: Incorrect (the placed constellation overlaps an existing star).

4. They then place the card onto the discard pile.
5. The other player then has their turn. They draw a card and play their card and stars as per steps 2-4.
   • a. Blank grids/areas can be left on the board.

When the board is full and players cannot play cards without overlapping, play moves into the Night Phase!

The Night Phase - The Stars Flicker!

6. Once there is no way that a player can play their card without overlapping an occupied space, either player is THEN able to overlap any stars on their turn.
   • a. From this point on, either player may overlap on their turn, even if there are empty spaces that they could play the card into.
   • b. A player can overlap any number of their own stars, but can only overlap a maximum of three (3) of their opponent's stars.
   • c. Once a star is placed or lifted from the board, the player must continue their move using that position on the Night Sky Map.
7. For overlapped stars:
   • a. If the color star that is overlapped is the opponent's color, it becomes the player's own color. (Flip the star to the other color.)
   • b. If the color star that is overlapped is the player's own color, it becomes the opponent's color. (Flip the star to the opponent's color.)
   • c. If a space is empty on the Night Sky Map, the player plays their own color star on it.

Fig. 3: Overlapping. A. These 2 stars overlap the opponent's 2 stars, so they change to the player's color. B. This star overlaps the player's own star, so it will change to the opponent's color. C. There was no star in this space, so the player can play on it.