Science Fiction

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is a card-driven dice game in which players use special dice to develop their corporations and terraform Mars into a new home for humanity. The dice represent resources that players spend to play cards and perform other actions. During the game, you increase your production of dice, terraform, place cities and greenery tiles on the board, and gain various bonuses. Each turn, you either produce new dice (Production Turn) or perform actions (Action Turn).

Whenever you terraform Mars (raise oxygen or temperature, or place an ocean tile), you gain 2 Victory Points (VP). You can also gain VP for placing tiles and playing cards, as well as winning Awards and Milestones.

The game ends when two of the three global parameters — oxygen/temperature/ocean — have been completed. The player with most VP wins.

Transgalactica

The Galactic Senate has launched the "Transgalactica Decree" in order to increase their knowledge and influence beyond the already well-known fringes of the galaxy. Fleets from every planet have been launched to the stars in search of adventure, riches, and (hopefully) an influential seat in the governing spheres that lie beyond the known space.

Transgalactica is a worker-placement and engine-building game with a high level of interaction between the players. In order to thrive in this game, you will travel the far reaches of the galaxy, improve your fleet's influence in all galactic matters, compete with other fleets for technological advancements, build a commercial network, and possibly even send representatives to the Galactic Senate to claim political advantages.

The game is divided into five rounds. In each round, players use their Captains to perform powerful actions in their own operations panel. Then, the other players may follow taking the same action using their crew, but without gaining a bonus. Little by little, players will increase their military power, political influence, or technology level, and earn victory points by exploring, trading, mining or completing missions. May the best spacefarer win!

—description from the publisher

Aldebaran Duel

In the glow of the rays of the orange giant, an interplanetary clash of two empires is approaching...

In Aldebaran Duel, you are the leader of a space fleet with which you want to control as much of a newly available planetary system as possible. Over three epochs, you will discover new planets, populate them, use their mineral wealth to build spaceships, and try to gain superiority over your opponent.

During the game, you obtain cards that represent planets, shuttles, mining stations, and colonized parts of planets. Planet building is one of the game's key mechanisms, and using it correctly can be a crucial winning strategy. By building a fleet of merchant, diplomatic, and battle ships, you gain influence in the explored universe — and in the laboratories, your scientists might discover new technologies that can turn the duel in your favor at the right moment.

At the same time, however, you can — and must! — use cards as raw materials to build your empire, so during the game you are always considering how to use them most effectively. Is it better to play out the card — or pay with it? Laying out the right combinations of cards will allow you to have better and more varied options in subsequent turns. Whoever builds the best functioning new civilization after three epochs wins.

Aldebaran Duel includes a variant for solo play.

How to Save a World

As one of the leading scientific researchers in the galaxy, you're in high demand. You've spent the last two years on Alarria, a small terrestrial planet several light-years from Earth. You've been studying the diverse indigenous fauna, and your field research has already yielded some incredible results. However, your days as a simple scientific researcher are about to end.

An asteroid roughly the size of a small country has been picked up on radar hurtling towards Alarria — a planet killer. Your research work has been put on hold as the greatest minds on the planet have been recruited to develop plans. Time is running out as each second brings the asteroid closer to Alarria. Where will you focus your efforts? Which plan has the best chance to succeed? There's no time to waste. If something isn't done soon, the planet itself might cease to exist. Three distinct plans have been set into motion, each with a razor thin chance of succeeding:

A powerful laser is tracking the asteroid's approach and will fire as soon as it comes within range in hopes of reducing it to a mere pebble.
An energy shield might be just enough to deflect the approaching asteroid, altering its course and saving Alarria.
In a final desperate attempt to preserve some of the unique species of the planet, an evacuation plan has been ordered. The nearby forest moon, Fortuna, has been tested and can support life, and thankfully it's out of the blast zone. You just need to move as many of the species as possible before impact.

How to Save a World is a worker-placement game with hand-building and resource management. Each turn, you assign workers to perform critical tasks or spend action cards to help advance your goals. At the end of each round, the projects will be assessed and the asteroid will move ever closer. Can you make the right decisions to avert disaster in this competitive science-fiction game?

—description from publisher

Galactic Cruise

Hello, and welcome to Galactic Cruise. Here, we offer our guests something special: the comfort of a luxury cruise with the innovation of space travel. As the first company to offer extended-stay space vacations, we are excited to have you working for us! As a supervisor of this company, you’ll be expected to not only build these ships and satisfy our guests, but also to help the company thrive by enhancing our company network, inventing new technologies, and growing our workforce. We are a united company, and you’ll often find that what another supervisor does will make your job easier. Let me be clear, though, this is a competition. Our current CEO will be stepping down in three years, and the supervisor who comes out on top will take his place.

On your turn, you will either place a worker to take two actions in the ever-expanding network, launch a ship and send one of your workers to space as a pilot, or recall all your earthbound workers to collect funding bonuses. Actions include acquiring blueprints, constructing ships, attracting guests, and building developments–connections between locations that increase action selection throughout the game. You will also be affecting resource markets that ebb and flow with the actions of all the players.

Throughout the game, you will also be competing with your fellow supervisors to complete company goals, which will earn you progress cubes throughout the game. Progress cubes are also placed when you launch ships, and when a certain number of cubes are placed onto the company’s progress track, the game ends, and the player with the most Victory Points becomes the new CEO of Galactic Cruise.

Do you still think you have what it takes to work for us? You do? Great. Let’s get started.

—description from the publisher