Afternova Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Setup
  • Component reference
• How to Play
  • Extract
    • Extract (continued)
  • Market
  • Completing Blueprints
• Game End
• 2-Player Variant

Overview

Recruit Hired Paws.

Use their skills to extract Fragments from the Planets.

Score Victory Points by spending Fragments to complete Blueprints.

When a player completes their 6th Blueprint, the game ends. The player with the most Victory Points wins.

Setup

• Shuffle the Hired Paw deck (paw symbol), and shuffle the Blueprint deck (blueprint symbol). Create the Market by drawing 4 Hired Paws and 4 Blueprints. Place them face-up in rows next to their respective decks.
• Shuffle the Planet deck (planet symbol). Draw 3 Planets and place them face-up in a row next to the deck.
• Place all Fragments (orange, purple, green, white, black) in the bag. Randomly draw Fragments to fill the spaces on the Planets.
• Shuffle the Starships and deal 1 to each player Starship-side up. You may look at your hidden objective on the back. Return the remaining Starships to the box.
• The player who most recently won a game is first player. Play will begin with the first player and proceed clockwise.
• Deal 1 Blueprint to each player. Deal 3 Hired Paws to first player, 5 Hired Paws to last player, and 4 Hired Paws to each other player. You may look at your hand of cards. You may show them to other players when negotiating.

Component reference

• Market — a row of 4 face-up Hired Paws and a row of 4 face-up Blueprints, each next to its draw deck.
• Planets — a row of 3 face-up Planet cards, each showing skill requirements (Piloting and Engineering icons) and a set of Fragments (colored gems) filling its spaces.
• Bag — holds the Fragment supply.
• Player setup — each player starts with 1 Starship, 1 Blueprint, and a hand of Hired Paws (3 to the first player, 4 to middle players, 5 to the last player).

How to Play

Play begins with the first player and proceeds clockwise. On your turn, perform an Extract or Market action. You may attempt to negotiate for an Extract action, change your mind, and instead do a Market action.

Extract

Extract Fragments from one of the Planets by playing Hired Paws whose total skill icons (Piloting, Combat, Engineering, Scouting) meet or exceed both of the Planet's skill requirements. You may work alone to extract all the Fragments or negotiate with other players. Players can help by playing Hired Paws to meet the skill requirement in exchange for Fragments.

When other players help you extract, you must all agree on how to split the Fragments. After you've agreed, play the Hired Paws needed to meet the requirement and collect the Fragments, placing them in your Storage. If you do not have enough available Storage spaces, immediately discard Fragments of your choice to the Fragment discard pile until you are at capacity (do not discard into the bag).

Then discard the Planet and the played Hired Paws next to their respective decks. Draw a new Planet and fill the spaces with Fragments from the bag. If no Planets remain, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. If the bag is empty, place the discarded Fragments into the bag.

Example Extract action: On Jeff's turn, he tells the group he would like to extract Fragments from Planet Nektarr. His Hired Paws can satisfy part of the piloting and engineering requirements, but he needs help. Andrew is willing to play one of his Hired Paws and requests the two purple Fragments in return. Jeff agrees, so both players discard their played Hired Paws, claim the agreed upon Fragments, and place them in their Storage.

Extract (continued)

You can also negotiate using stored Fragments. The active player and any players helping with the Extract action may agree to give Fragments in their Storage to one another. Players that are not helping with the Extract action cannot give or receive Fragments.

Example Extract action with stored Fragments: On Jeff's turn, he offers his green Fragment to any player willing to play 1 Piloting. Andrew agrees, so they play the Hired Paws. Jeff gives Andrew his green Fragment, which clears space in his Storage, so he can store all 4 Fragments from the planet.

Market

Take any 3 Hired Paws and/or Blueprints from the Market. At any point during your Market action, you may sweep a row and then take 1 fewer card. To sweep, discard the 4 Hired Paws or 4 Blueprints from the Market, and replace them with 4 new cards. When you finish taking cards, refill the Market with cards from the Hired Paw and Blueprint decks. If no cards remain, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. You can never have more than 8 cards in hand. If you exceed 8 cards, immediately discard cards of your choice until you are at capacity.

Example Market action: On Andrew's turn, he does a Market action. He takes 2 Hired Paws and 1 Blueprint.

Completing Blueprints

At the end of any player's turn, you may complete Blueprints in your hand by discarding the required Fragments from your Storage. If you have more Fragments than Storage spaces, discard excess Fragments before completing Blueprints.

Reveal the completed Blueprint to show that you met the requirement, and place the required Fragments in the Fragment discard pile. Then tuck the completed Blueprint under the right side of your Starship to hide the Victory Points, but leave the Upgrade showing. Once you complete a Blueprint, you may use its Upgrade for the rest of the game. If you gain multiple of the same Upgrade, their abilities stack. An Upgrade cannot be used on the same turn that its Blueprint is completed.

Example completed Blueprint: Jeff completes his 2nd Blueprint. He discards the required Fragments from his Storage. Jeff tucks the completed Blueprint to the right of his Starship.

Game End

When a player completes their 6th Blueprint, all players have an opportunity to complete Blueprints, and then the game ends. You cannot complete a 7th Blueprint. Flip your Starship card, and calculate your total Victory Points by adding:

• Victory Points on completed Blueprints.
• 1 Victory Point per Fragment in your Storage.
• 1 Victory Point per Fragment on your completed Blueprints that matches your hidden objective.

The player with the most Victory Points wins. If tied, the player going later in turn order wins.

Example scoring: Jeff completes his 6th Blueprint and ends the game. He adds the Victory Points on his completed Blueprints (29), plus 1 per Fragment in his Storage (2), plus 1 per black Fragment (2) and white Fragment (4) on his completed Blueprints. His score is 37.

2-Player Variant

This mode includes a third, simulated player (Bot). Follow the standard rules with the following exceptions:

Bot starts with a face-down Starship and a row of 3 face-up Blueprints. Bot will never have or use Hired Paws. Bot is first player.

On Bot's turn, draw a Fragment from the bag. Place the Fragment on one of Bot's Blueprints, covering the matching Fragment icon. If there are multiple matching icons, place it on the leftmost Blueprint. If there is no matching icon available, it is placed in Storage. If Bot stores a 4th Fragment, discard the 4 Fragments, and Bot scores the top Blueprint from the deck face-down (do not look at it). Bot does not need to have the required Fragments to score this Blueprint.

Example: On Bot's turn, an orange Fragment is drawn and placed on the leftmost orange Fragment icon.

If one of Bot's Blueprints has all the required Fragments on it, discard the Fragments, and Bot scores the Blueprint. Bot will not use abilities on completed Blueprints. Then Bot draws a new Blueprint from the deck, placing it on the right of its row of Blueprints. Immediately place any matching Fragments in Bot's Storage on the new Blueprint.

Bot has an unlimited ability to help players extract with any skill. Players can negotiate to work with each other and/or use Bot's unlimited skills. For each skill requirement Bot satisfies, you must give it one of the Fragments from the Planet matching an uncovered Fragment icon on its Blueprints (following Bot's Fragment placement rules).

At game end, Bot scores its completed Blueprints, its hidden objective, and 1 VP for each Fragment in Storage and on incomplete blueprints.

Example: On Jeff's turn, he extracts using the shown Hired Paws and help from Bot. Jeff decides to let Bot take the white and orange Fragments. In return, Bot provides 2 skills (1 piloting and 1 engineering), which fulfill the skill requirements.