Exoplanet Rush Playtest Rules

Setup

Set Sequence. Roll for the initial First Player (Player 1). Give Player 1 the First-Move token. The token will move each turn. Always play clockwise from the current Player 1.

Banker and Supplier. You may appoint a Banker to handle money in and out of the Bank, and a Supplier to handle the market (units acquired or removed).

Distribute to each Player: (a) a Player Mat, (b) ŧ100 (100 teracredits) plus ŧ3 for each position after first, and (c) their initial Confirmed Contract Stockpile* (Stockpile):

4 Worlds: 2 Outposts, 1 Security, 1 Colony, and 1 Refinery
3 Worlds: 1 Outpost, 1 Security, 1 Colony, and 1 Refinery
2 Worlds: 2 Outpost, 1 Security
1 World: 1 Outpost, 1 Security

*Your Stockpile consists of Units for which you have acquired the rights and parts from the interstellar market. Place game pieces for each contracts in your Stockpile, in front of you and not in play. These are the Units you may install on worlds during any following Installation step.

Place the world Boards in the center of the play area. Use the 4-quadrant side for 4-or-less players. Each player picks a sector or quadrant in which to place their Units on each world during the game.

World Traits. The World Traits are Habitability (HAB), Water (H2O), Resources (RES), and Hostility (HOS). Their values are represented by 16mm dice (green, blue, black, and red, respectively). For each world, Player 1 chooses a player to roll a set of world-trait dice and place them in the corresponding dice slots on the world.

PLAY

Exoplanet Rush™ is a 4-turn game, with 6 steps per turn. Each step is resolved for each Player before the next step. For world-by-world steps, Player 1 may choose the order of worlds. When the order matters, players each act in turn order for each step.

Turn Steps Summary

Installation (world by world). Install up to one Unit from your Stockpile on each world. Pay for the installation in one of the following three ways:

  • Upgrade.
  • Standard Price.
  • Discount Price.

Specialty Actions (world by world) (page 6). Labs and Stations may take Specialty Actions.

Secure Contracts (player by player) (page 7). Buy contracts from the Market and place them in your Stockpile. SKIP THIS STEP ON THE FINAL TURN.

Gather Income (world by world) (page 8-10). Activate each income Facility for Teracredits. Most Facilities roll Profit Dice and Loss Dice.

(If this is the last turn of the game, go to ENDING THE GAME.)

Force Majeure (world by world) (page 11). Determine the outcome of changes
not under player control. (Hostility, Habitability, Embassies, Taxes.)

Advance First Move Token. Player 1 passes the token left (the new Player 1).

General Rules

Usage. You Utilize a Unit by paying its Usage Fee to the Unit’s owner (unless you own it, which is free). You can’t refuse a Usage request, or overcharge. The fee is set by interstellar convention. Your personnel will tolerate no violation. Just take the money. Usage is only applicable if the Utilization is expressly authorized in the rules.

No Freebees. You can’t give or loan teracredits to a Player (with the exception of Usage Fees). You can’t “forgive” any Usage Fee. (Your Board will permit neither.)

Borrowing Teracredits. At any time you may, once, borrow ŧ43 from the Bank.You receive a ŧ50 Secured Debt card, which is deducted from your total wealth at the end.

Change. You may make change at any time. The Banker may require this if denominations are needed.

Game Pieces

INSTALLATION
(TURN STEP 1)

You may install or deploy, from your Stockpile, one Unit per world per turn. You pay for installation in one of three ways:

  1. Pay to the Bank the full Standard Price for installation (below, left), or
  2. For certain units, pay the Discount Price if you own or Utilize the appropriate unit that is already in play (below, right), or
  3. For certain units, remove them and Upgrade them to the new unit (see Upgrade Flowchart).

The versatile Outpost may Upgrade to either a Colony, Lab, Quantum Core, Wind Farm, Trade Center, or Refinery.

Beyond that, the Core Facilities may each upgrade to the next better facility in their respective tracks (either Community or Industry). Specifically, Colony Upgrades to City, and City Upgrades to Tower; Refinery Upgrades to Factory, and Factory Upgrades to Plant.

When you install a facility by Upgrade, the new facility from your Stockpile replaces the “upgrading” facility (the lesser Unit already in play), which is returned to the interstellar market. There is no other cost.

SPECIALTY ACTIONS
(TURN STEP 2)

 Certain units enable Specialty Actions. 

Specialty Actions are not subject to Utilization—only the owner of the unit may activate a Specialty Action.

Specialty Actions are not mandatory. A player may choose not to activate a Specialty Action.

In the standard game, the following units enable the following Specialty Actions during this step:

LABS

During the Specialty Actions step, each installed Lab may increase by 1 any one of the beneficial trait of its world provided that beneficial trait is not already at the 6 maximum. The beneficial traits of a world are:

  • Habitability
  • H2O
  • Resources

A Lab does not affect Hostility during the Specialty Actions step.

STATIONS

During the Specialty Actions step, each deployed Station may do one or both of the following:

  • Reduce by 1, the Hostility of the world it orbits, subject to a minimum of 1.
  • Move to another world (provided there is more than one world in play).

These can be done in any order. So, a Station can move first, and then reduce Hostility at the destination world, or reduce Hostility and then move. (It may not reduce Hostility at both worlds on the same turn.)

A Facility that rolls Profit Dice is initially entitled to roll a number of 12mm white dice equal to the value of certain traits of the world.

SECURE CONTRACTS
(TURN STEP 3)

You may secure contracts for units from the interstellar market during the Secure Contracts step. The contract price does not include the installation. Contracts purchased go to your Stockpile, ready to install during the next Installation step. You skip the Contracts step during the last turn of the game.

No player may contract for more than one Tower or Plant per game.

Players may purchase a number of contracts equal to the number of worlds in play. If the order matters (i.e., if there is a shortage of any contracts insufficient for all players that seek to secure contracts of that type), secure one contract at a time in turn order.

INCOME
(TURN STEP 4)

Most facilities generate income during the Income step via a roll of “Profit Dice,” modified by Loss Dice and other factors. Each facility is a separate roll.

Facilities also generate income through Usage Fees anytime during the game where the rules permit another player to Utilize a player’s facility or security. A player may not decline another player’s decision to Utilize a facility.

Each Profit Dice roll is subject to modification. Each owned or Utilized Quantum Core adds 2 Profit Dice to a roll. Each owned or Utilized Wind Farm adds 1 Profit Die.

A Profit Dice roll is subject to a maximum of 20 Profit Dice.

Loss Dice. Where “Loss Dice” is YES, the rolling player also adds 12mm red Loss Dice to the roll. Loss Dice are subtracted from the Profit Dice total.

Each Security owned or Utilized for the roll reduces the Loss Dice total by 1.

Trade Centers. The presence at the world of each Trade Center automatically adds 1 Blue Trade Die to the roll:

  • The rolling player adds a 12mm blue Trade Die to the Profit Dice total (regardless of the 20-dice Profit Dice maximum) for each Trade Center.
  • Trade Dice are not affected by a Hostility reduction.
  • Each Trade Center owner that is not the rolling player also receives a bonus equal to the highest of the Trade Dice rolled.
  • There is no Usage Fee involved in this Trade Center effect.

ROLLING FATIGUE RESPITE TABLE

Where time is short, or you are large-dice-roll weary or averse, you may substitute this procedure to look up a facility’s income:

  • Determine the facility’s number of Profit Dice and Loss Dice.
  • Apply all modifications to those numbers (and pay Usage Fees).
  • Subtract the number of Loss Dice from Profit Dice.
  • Lookup and collect income according to the Average Outcome below.
  • Optional: Roll two dice to determine whether to use the Low Outcome column (if you roll 2 through 4) or High Outcome column (on 10-12).

Trade Dice: In this procedure, roll and collect Trade Dice, if any, separately.

FORCE MAJEURE
(TURN STEP 5)

During the Force Majeure step, things occur that no player chooses or controls. These things occur in the following order:

Hostility

For each world with less than a Hostility value of 6, Player 1 rolls a die and subtracts from the roll the number of Labs present on the world. On a roll of 3 or more, the world’s Hostility value remains the same. Otherwise, it increases by 1.

Habitability

For each world with a Habitability value more than 1, Player 1 rolls a die and adds to the roll the number of Wind Farms present on the world. If the total is matches or beats the number of Core Industrial Facilities on the world (Refineries, Factories, and Plants), the world’s Habitability value remains the same. Otherwise, it decreases by 1.

Embassy

Terran Embassies are placed on the world with the highest Habitability of those worlds that do not already have an Embassy. In case of a tie, Player 1 chooses the world. Do this as follows, depending on the number of worlds in the system:

  • In a four-world game, place a Terran Embassy on each turn.
  • In a three-world game, skip this substep on turn 1.
  • In a two-world game, place a Terran Embassy on turns 2 and 3.
  • In a one-world game, place a Terran Embassy on turn 2.

Sovereign water claim: When an Embassy is placed, Player 1 rolls one die. If the roll is less than the H2O value of the world, the world’s H2O value goes down 1.

Taxes

Pay taxes at each world with an Embassy as follows:

If You Own:You Total Tax is:
1 or more Core Facilityŧ10
Only non-core Unitsŧ5
No units at allŧ0

The foregoing is your entire tax for the world this turn. For instance, for Core Facilities, you may have 1, 2, 3, or more Core Facilities, but your total tax is only 10.

Tax Relief: If you can’t afford a tax, you pay only the cash you have.

ADVANCE FIRST-TURN TOKEN
(TURN STEP 6)

Player 1 gives the First-Turn Token to the next player (the new Player 1).

Start a new turn.

Ending the Game

Terran governance has assumed control. If you have collected the most wealth from this system, you win the game.

Wealth is determined by:

(a) Your Teracredits,

(b) Minus any ŧ50 Secured Debt you still hold,

(c) Plus the SALVAGE VALUE of your installed units.
(Note: Uninstalled Units in your Stockpile don’t count—they are a loss).