Starspector

Type: Board Game
Genre: Resource Management
Theme: Space

I'm currently working on this board game concept which I describe as "Agricola in space, with ship combat." Agricola is one of my favorite games and I wanted to borrow some of the mechanics I loved from that game, but also create a design that encouraged more player interaction.

This game is in "balancing" mode so if you are interested in giving it a try, please read the instructions below and print out the assets. I would love your feedback and suggestions on how it might be improved.

Parts List

• 5 ship pawns (yellow, green, purple, blue, red)
• 30 crew tokens, 6 in each color (yellow, green, purple, blue, red)
• 35 space hex tiles
• 9 device cards
• 35 subsystem cards, 7 for each player
• six sided dice
• 50 food tokens
• 50 energy tokens
• 50 ore tokens
• 30 fire tokens

Instructions

Every player has an exploration vessel. They are in a star system and can expend crew tokens to get resources from planets or perform ship actions.

Person with most energy at end wins.

Resources

• Energy
• Ore
• Food

Setup

• Each player gets a ship card, ship pawn, and a deck of ship upgrade cards
• Place one sun for each player and randomly place six planets around it face down
• Each player puts his ship one of the suns.  At the start everyone needs their own system.
• Randomly, two planets are flipped over at each system. The other four are unknown until scanned.
• Lay the Device cards to the side of the board face up.

Gameplay proceeds in rounds, clockwise from the starting player. If no starting player is defined, the youngest goes first.

Round

• Phase 1: Crew Actions
• Phase 2: Resource Replenish
• Phase 3: Feed Crew

Phase 1: Crew Actions

If you have an available crew member (in quarters), perform one of the following actions. Place the crew member on the action location (card or tile) to indicate it was used, and that the action is now unavailable to other players.

• Use Subsystem - place crew on one of your ship subsystems and perform that action.
• Landing Party - place your crew on a known planet tile and perform that action.
• Use Device - place your crew on one of your devices to use it.
• Extinguish fire - place your crew on a damaged ship system to repair it. The system cannot be used by another crew until the next round.

This phase continues until no players have any crew left available to perform actions.

Phase 2: Replenish Resources

Any planet with a arrow and a number, deposit that many new resources on it. Resources accumulate round to round if until claimed.

Phase 3: Feed Crew

One food must be returned for each crew on the ship. If not enough food is available, unfed crew members abandon the ship.

End of Game

At the end of a round, if no device cards remain for purchase, the game is over.

Ship Subsystems

• Starting Systems:
  • Engine - allows you to move your ship to another system. Place your pawn on the system's sun tile to indicate you are there. Multiple ships may be on the same sun.
  • Scanner - allows you to flip over one uncharted planet in your current system. Flipped over planets are usable by any player.
  • Crew Quarters (starting) - allows 2 crew to be held
• Buildable Systems:
  • Deep Scan - allows you to look at, secretly, all uncharted planets in a distant system (cannot be used in your current system.) Shuffle and return the tiles to the scanned system.
  • Laser/Torpedo - Fire weapon at another player in the same system.
  • Crew Quarters x2 - each adds two more crew positions
  • Engines x2 - each allows an additional jump

Combat

During an attack, the player rolls a 6 sided dice. If the number rolled matches a ship subsystem the target player has, that system is on fire. A fire token is placed in it to indicate this. The system cannot be used until the fire is extinguished by a crew member.

If the die rolled doesn't match a subsystem the target player has, the attack is a miss.

Common Planets Tiles

• Fertile Planet x4 - Produce 1, 2, or 3 food
• Mineral Planet x4 - Produce 1, 2, or 3 ore
• Volcanic Planet x4 - Produce 1, 2, or 3 energy
• Colony x3 - Can recruit crew from here
• Space Station x3 - Can buy ship subsystems
• Outpost x3 - can buy devices
• Barren Planet x4 (no function)

Special Planets Tiles

• Time Vortex (makes player the starting player next round)
• Debris Field (take 1 energy or 1 ore)
• Lost Cargo (take 1 energy, ore, and food)
• Solar Sail (take 2 energy)
• Asteroid Field (take 1 ore)
• Wormhole (x2) (travel between systems without warp cost)

​Device Cards

• Food Synthesizer (convert 1 energy to 1 food)
• Food Synthesizer (convert 2 energy to 2 food)
• Ore Processor (convert 1 ore to 1 energy)
• Solar Scoop (harvests 1 energy from the star)
• Fusion Reactor (convert 2 food to 2 energy)
• Fusion Reactor (convert 1 food to 1 energy)
• Transporter (steal a crew from an enemy ship)
• Shield Generator (block transporters)
• Tractor Beam (prevent ship from leaving system, remainder of round)
  
• Rapid Loader (roll combat dice twice per attack)
  
  

Card Templates

(coming soon)