Board Game Designers Forum

Background and game idea:

Year 2149 and a new Gold rush is on it's way. Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has proven to be full of precious metals, especially gold and titanium. Vesta family part of the belt is exceptionally rich in these metals. Hopeful prospectors make their way into the belt to become rich and preferably richer as their fellow 49'ers.

The game's prime idea is the gaming board that tries to represent evermoving and changing asteroid field. Game is heavily themed, but also has multiple gaming elements such as resources and trading. It allows aggressive, harrassive tactics, or more diplomatic approach.

This is first translated and comprised rules version so any critic is most welcome. I'll try to add pictures as soon as possible.

Purpose of the game:

Players task is to move around on a moving gameboard and collect various minerals and water markers by mining them from asteroids. Game ends when all titanium markers are collected. Winner is the player who has amassed most mineral markers and thus victory points.

Here's the gameboard idea to look from rules. Red line shows which tiles are pushed away at the end of each turn, and green line shows where new tiles should end. Play-area is thus all the tiles in the picture.

1. Equipment

   • 6 Prospectors
   • 84 Hex tiles (15 gold asteroids, 15 empty spaces, 30 empty asteroids, 2 titanium asteroids, 10 water asteroids, 1 space saloon
   • 32 equipment cards
   • 50 gold markers (301p, 105p, 102p, 1010p) ???
   • 50 water markers
   • 20 titanium markers
   • Gaming board

2. Preparations:

2.1 Place the board on a flat, even surface.

2.2 Place forty (40) hex tiles randomly face down on the board. Turn the hex tiles face up. From now on all the tiles that are placed on the board come in face down.

2.2.1 Place rest of the tiles face down into a pile or the gamebox so that you can randomly draw them when needed.

2.3 Shuffle the equipment cards into a pile next to board

2.4 Place gold-, water- and titanium markers next to board on their own piles

2.5 Players can decide amongst themselves who starts the game

2.6.1. Starting positions

Players place their prospectors on the marked starting area (marked with yellow/gold lines) and all players must use their first action phase to move into the field. They don't necessarily have to use all of their actions to do so, but must use at least one of their actions so.

2.6.1. Starting supplies

Each player is given six water markers to represent their original water supply.

1. Game turn: Gameturn is divided into three phases. -Actions -Trading -Common events

3.1 Actions

Each player has three actions that they can use during their actionphase. Any action can be used multiple times, and the player can also refuse to use some of their actions in which case the turn is passed around to next player clockwise.

Actions can be used in any order. So a player can move and then mine twice or vice versa, or move, scan and move etc.

Each action turn is started by player who has least gold. After that players do their turns on clockwise order.

Movement: Player can use actions to move around in the asteroid field. With one action, player can move one hex tile. Player must end their action phase in an asteroid. (Example. Player wants to move from one asteroid to another asteroid that has one empty space between them. They use two actions and move the prospector through the empty space into the new asteroid.) Players can't move through or end their movements into face down tiles.

No player can move into a tile where there already is a player. Nor can you move through such tile. Space Saloon tile is the only exception to this as explained later.

Scan: Player can use one of their actions to scan any adjacent face down tile. When player uses scan action, they can turn around and adjacent tile. The turned tile stays face up until it is removed from the board.

Mining: Whenever players prospector is on an asteroid that has one of three symbols (water, gold or titanium) they can use the mining action. For each mining action, the player collects same number of markers that the asteroid has symbols. (For example, player uses two mining actions on an asteroid that has two gold symbols. Therefore he gets four markers.)

Equipment cards: Player can use action to play their equipment cards. Each card has special effect that is explained in the card and later on in these rules. Some cards are one-shot cards. These are removed from the player after use and placed back into the equipment card pile which is then reshuffled.

3.2 Trading

Trading is essential part of the game. When all players have used their actions, trading takes place.

Any players in adjacent tiles can trade with each other. They can trade for markers or equipment. Players together decide the appropriate trade ratio. If three or more players are in adjacent tiles, then any player that is in contact with at least one of the others can take part in trading.

3.2.1 Space Saloon Whenever one of the players turns Space Saloon tile face up, the Saloon opens. When this happens, take four topmost cards from the equipment pile and turn them next to the board face up.These cards are now for sale at the price indicated in the card. You can buy the equipment by moving into the Space Saloon tile and paying the price during the trading phase. If two or more players are on the saloon then they bid for the item, and the person who pays the most (minimum amount of the price indicated in the card) gets the equipment.

You can also buy water supplies from the saloon. Every time saloon is opened, ten water markers are taken from the marker pile and placed into separate pile. These represent the amount of water that can be bought from the saloon. With each gold paid you receive two water markers. When ten water markers are sold, no more can be bough until the saloon opens up again.

Gold used to buy equipment or water is placed on the gold pile next to board.

3.3 Common events

3.3.1 Moving the asteroid belt

After trading has ended (both between players and in Saloon) following happens: 9 new hex tiles are brought (pushed) face down into the game and into play area from one end of the board (marked with blue line). 9 hex tiles are consequently removed from the other end of the play area. (marked with red line). This is done by the player who has most gold.

3.3.2 Player being forced out of playing area. If any player is standing on a tile that is removed from the play area, they are immediately removed from the tile and they lose their next action turn, as well as half of their gold and all of their water markers, as well as all possible titanium markers collected. If the player had any equipment with him, it is taken away and placed into the equipment card deck. After losing one complete game turn, player places their prospector into the original start area and continues the game from there with water supply of six. (any markers lost this way are placed into the piles next to board)

3.3.2 Water check

Water is necessity in the space. This is represented with the water markers. At the end of each turn, after the board has been moved all players must give up one water marker. If a player can't pay this (ie. they have no water markers left), then they may use only one action during any turn, until they get water from either mining it, or purchasing it from another player or from saloon. There is no maximum amount of water that a player can have.

3.3.3 Game end check If at the end of any turn titanium chips are out of the pile next to board, game will be at final stage. When this happens, all players will have one more turn. After that the game will end.

1. Game ending and victory After the titanium chips are exhausted, each player counts up their points. Each gold marker is worth one point. Each titanium marker is worth two points. Equipment cards are ALL worth one point. The player who has most points wins the game.

2. Equipment cards This part explains the equipment cards that you can buy from the saloon.

Magnetic lasso:

Space moped: With space moped you can move two tiles with one action. However, this movement must be in straight line.

Antimateriagun: Antimateriagun let's you destroy any face up tile adjacent to your prospector. If a player is occupying the destroyed tile, they must immediately be placed into another, adjacent tile that has an asteroid. If there are no adjacent tiles, or no tiles with asteroid, player is counted out as being removed from the board. They then follow the regular rules of being removed from the board.

Minifusion explosive: Minifusion explosive works the same way as antimateriagun, but it is a one-shot card. After usage, place it back to equipment card deck and reshuffle the deck.

Galactic Express –credit card: With Galactic Express credit card, the player can trade with other players even though he isn't in an adjacent tile. To buy equipment or water markers from saloon, player still must be in the saloon tile.

Hyperscanner: With hyperscanner you can turn up two tiles during your scan action. Also in addition, you can turn up tiles that are either adjacent to you, or one tile away from you.

Gold-detector: With Gold detector, you get one extra scan during your action phase. This scan allows you to look any adjacent face down tile and you can choose whether or not you want to turn it face up.

Water separator: With water separator you can mine water from any empty asteroid (asteroid tile with no symbols in it). Every mining action used this way gives you one water marker. You can't mine water from gold-, or titanium-asteroids this way.