Earth Rising: 20 Years to Transform Our World Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What's in the Box
• Setting Up the Game
  • Board
  • Tokens
  • Burdens and Strain Tokens
  • Sectors and Practices
  • People
  • Setting up the Deck
  • Choose Your Player Character
• Playing the Game
  • Turn Order
  • 1. Draw / Discard
  • 2. Actions
  • Creating or Disbanding Practices
  • Strain Phase 1: People
  • Strain Phase 2: Sectors
  • 5. Calendar
  • Status Quo Strikes!
  • Ecological Collapse
  • Transforming Sectors
  • Recessions
• Playable Characters
  • Activist (Culture)
  • Innovator (Industry)
  • Eco Investor (Infrastructure)
  • Ecologist (Agriculture)
  • Climatologist (Energy)
  • Grass Roots Politician (Politics)
• Solo Rules of Play
  • Playing Solo? You can do this!
  • Determine your characters
  • Change the characters
• Quickplay Rules!
  • When time is of the essence!
  • In this shorter version, your goal is simpler:
• FAQs

What's in the Box

The box contains: Game board; Major Burden board segments (6); Minor Burden board segments (6); Calendar cards (21); People (42); Character Ability tokens (24); Practice counters (42, double sided); Ecological Collapse tokens (6); Rising Temperature tokens (3); Strain tokens (84); Character cards (6); Influence cards (42); Status Quo Strikes! cards (6).

Setting Up the Game

Board

• Place the Burden segments on the outer edge of the Ecological Ceiling with their Burden sides facing up. These represent a burdened planet beyond its ability to self sustain.

The circular board represents the planet, with the blue outer border being the extent of the planet's abilities to cope with the strain put on it by human activity.

Tokens

• Give the Ability tokens to the relevant player characters (if in play) and set aside any not used.
• Place the Rising Temperature and Eco Collapse tokens within easy reach.

Character Ability

• Protest (Activist) - purple token
• Start-Up (Innovator) - yellow token
• Regeneration (Ecologist) - green token

Rising Temperature - three tokens.

Ecological Collapse - six tokens.

Burdens and Strain Tokens

Throughout the game, Strain will be added to, and removed from, the Burden segments, representing how much strain is being put upon our planet's ecosystems by our society. When a Burden is free of Strain, it can be flipped into the centre, creating spaces for more Practices which can then support People. See 'Transforming Sectors'.

• Each Minor Burden starts with 2 Strain tokens on it.
• Each Major Burden starts with 1 Strain token on it.

Sectors and Practices

• Take all the Practice counters for one sector (e.g. Infrastructure), shake them up and randomly pick 2. Place these into the centre two spots inside Infrastructure's section. Place the rest in a stack nearby.
• Do this for each sector, including those without a player.
• Each sector starts with 2 Unsustainable Practices in play.

Our society is made up of six sectors of human activity, and our Practice counters represent that activity. Each one provides something our people need.

People

• In each sector, 4 People pieces are placed onto the board: 1 on each Practice counter and 1 in the empty circles next to them.
• The remaining People are placed in the centre of the board, in rows of 3 (for easy counting).
• A Practice counter can support 2 People. ONE is placed onto the counter and the 2nd is placed in any vacant circle in the sector. Each circle or counter can only contain 1 People.

These are the population of the world which you need to get out of poverty! The more counters you have on the board, the more People you can support. Ideally they'll be supported by Sustainable Practices, but even Unsustainable Practices can support People!

Setting up the Deck

To set up the deck:

1. Remove the 6 Status Quo Strikes! (SQS) cards, shuffle them, and pick three at random. Place these face down in a row and put the remaining three in the discard pile.
2. Shuffle the deck (now without the SQS cards) then split the deck into 3 piles of 14 cards.
3. Place a pile face down onto each of the SQS cards you drew in Step 1.
4. Stack these 3 decks to form the final Influence deck. The deck is now ready for you to play!

Before you begin, deal 2 Influence cards to each player.

Choose Your Player Character

Finally, either choose or draw at random a Character Card. Each character has a unique special ability that gives them influence over certain aspects of play. On the rear of each card is a quick reference of the standard 4 'Actions' that players may take each turn. See 'Playable Characters'.

Playing the Game

First time playing? It's best to dive right in and read the rules as you go. Context always helps!

Turn Order

Each player's turn must follow the order below. Play goes in a clockwise direction.

1. Draw / Discard
2. Actions
3. Strain Phase 1: People
4. Strain Phase 2: Sectors
5. Calendar

1. Draw / Discard

Draw - The player draws 2 cards from the Influence Deck at the beginning of their turn. If you draw an SQS card, immediately resolve it, as shown on page 5.

Discard - If a player has more than 5 cards in their hand they discard the extra card(s) of their choice and place them on top of the discard pile, face down.

2. Actions

Each player has 4 actions to use on their turn. They can be performed in any order and can be repeated more than once, as long as the player does not exceed their four actions!

• Create a Sustainable Practice by placing a Practice counter on the board with its sustainable side up. Now increase People Support accordingly (see 'People').
  • In your character's sector - Cost: Influence card
  • In other sectors - Cost: Influence card + 1 card of the same colour
• Disband an Unsustainable Practice by removing it from the board (not flipping it). Then decrease People support accordingly (see 'People' on page 3).
  • In your character's sector - Cost: Influence card
  • In other sectors - Cost: Influence card + 1 card of the same colour
• Draw another Influence card
• Use your character's Special Ability! Character profiles on page 12.
• Clean Up - Remove 4 Strain from any ecologically burdened zones. Eg. 1 from 4 zones, 4 from 1 zone, or any combination. Don't forget to balance strain! (see next page)
• Give a player one of your cards. It's advantageous to hold cards from your own sector. This action gives you an opportunity to pass useful cards to another player which they can use on their turn.
• Refresh the Influence deck - Shuffle the Influence deck and Discard pile together, to create a new Influence deck. Used strategically, this action can help you avoid impending Status Quo Strikes! cards. Of course, it make things worse!

Creating or Disbanding Practices

The Influence cards you draw enable you to affect the sectors of our society and change the way they operate. Each of the characters is linked to a sector (e.g. the Ecologist to Agriculture). This makes it easier for them to reform their own sector.

For example, the person playing the Grassroots Politician is able to create or disband a Practice using only a single Politics Influence card (which matches the Practice counter they wish to affect). Any other player would need to use two politics cards to perform this action.

Note Each card has a Sustainable and Unsustainable half, corresponding to the two sides of the Practice counter.

If an Unsustainable Practice counter matching the card you have is already on the board, you can't create the Sustainable Practice until the counter is disbanded (removed from the board and returned to the counters pile). The exception to this rule is if you're using a Protest Token (see 'Playable Characters').

After use, discard the Influence card.

• Any Influence card matching your sector may be used to affect a matching Practice counter.
• In this case, it is being used to create a Sustainable Practice but alternatively it can disband an Unsustainable Practice if it matches one already on the board.
• If the Politics player wished to create or disband a Practice counter in a different sector (e.g. Agriculture) they would need the card matching the Practice they wish to affect, plus an extra Agriculture card.
• In a situation where both cards could affect something on the board, the player may choose which card to use, but must discard both.
• Use 2 cards matching someone else's sector to create a Sustainable Practice or disband an Unsustainable Practice for them.
• You choose which of the 2 cards affects the board.

REMEMBER TO CHECK THE PEOPLE! When creating or disbanding Practices, make sure to check if the number of People the sector can support has increased or reduced.

1 Practice counter can support 2 People. See 'People'.

Once a player has finished all 4 of their actions we then enter the 2 phases of Strain placement.

Strain Phase 1: People

People Strain

• Every 3 People in poverty produces 1 strain.
• Starting with the player's sector, move clockwise around the board placing 1 strain into the Sectors until all strain has been added.

In the example to the right, 7 strain is produced from poverty, meaning every sector would gain 1 strain, and you'd continue clockwise to add the 7th Strain (meaning the sector you started with has gained 2 Strain at the end of this phase).

• Extra People do not add Strain until they become a set of 3.
• Each set of 3 People adds 1 Strain to the board. This scenario would contribute 7 Strain from poverty!

Strain Phase 2: Sectors

Practice Strain

• Starting with the current player's sector, count up all the practices (Sustainable and Unsustainable) in play:
  • +1 Strain for each Unsustainable practice.
  • -1 Strain for each Sustainable practice.
  • -2 Strain for each Sustainable practice that has an Ecologist's Regeneration token on it.
• If the total is +, ADD that many Strain tokens to the Burdens for that sector. Booo...
• If the total is -, REMOVE that many Strain!
• If both Burdens of the same type reach a total of 15 (e.g. Water Withdrawal, see below), an Ecological Collapse immediately occurs. This happens even if Strain is about to be reduced. See 'Ecological Collapse' on page 8.
• If the Sector has no Practices at all, ADD 4 Strain.
• Repeat this process, clockwise, for each sector.

Example (Industry, as printed): the sector's practices show +1, -1 and -2 markers. Total Strain produced by Industry: -2. Remove 2 Strain tokens from the Burdens.

Balancing Strain

When adding or removing Strain, the Strain must be balanced across both the Minor and Major Burdens immediately. This means that if both burdens are equal, the next Strain token must be added to the Minor burden, (so long as it can tolerate it). Minor burdens must always be equal to, or higher than, the Major burden above it; until reaching a total of 5. Once a Minor burden reaches this maximum tolerance, all future Strain is placed onto the Major burden above it. Once the Major Burden reaches 9, any further Strain overflows and is passed to the Minor Burden in the next sector (clockwise), if it can fit.

• Major Burden tolerance: 9
• Minor Burden tolerance: 5

If it cannot fit, an Ecological Collapse occurs! (See next page).

5. Calendar

If no Ecological Collapse has been caused, then, with all Strain finally accounted for, advance the Calendar by one year, and the next player begins their turn!

The game ends once you've turned the last card and played the round.

Status Quo Strikes!

Throughout the game the old ways of doing things will attempt to prevail, creating difficult situations to overcome, while still trying to create a sustainable world!

If a Status Quo Strikes! card is drawn, place it on the centre of the board and draw 1 Influence card. Then draw 1 extra card for each Sustainable Practice the same colour as the Status Quo card. Place all the cards in the centre of the board where everyone can see them. (If you happen to draw another Status Quo card during this, ignore it, but once you've finished resolving the effects of the original card, shuffle the discard pile into the Influence deck).

Resolve each drawn Influence card in turn:

• If a card currently does not have their corresponding Practice counter in play, add the matching Unsustainable Practice to the board and adjust People support.
• If a card matches a Sustainable Practice, remove the counter from the board and adjust People support.
• If a card matches an Unsustainable Practice immediately add 2 Strain to that sector's Burdens.
• If a card would affect the board but cannot due to a lack of space (all slots are already filled by a counter), draw cards until an effect can be applied.

After resolving all the Status Quo card effects, place the Status Quo card, as well as the other cards, into the discard pile, face down.

After the Status Quo card has been resolved, draw another Influence card and add it to your hand.

The Status Quo Strikes! cards printed in the rulebook are: Austerity Cutbacks (Infrastructure), Traditionalist Resurgence (Culture), Corporate Populist Rises (Politics), Fossil Fuel Lobbying (Energy), Monopolistic Takeover (Industry) and Mass Deregulation (Agriculture).

Ecological Collapse

An Ecological Collapse occurs immediately when a Major and Minor Burden exceed 14 Strain (See right).

Note: the Strain Phase 2 rules above give the trigger as a combined total of 15 on both Burdens of the same type; the Ecological Collapse box gives "exceed 14". The rulebook is transcribed as printed.

• Remove 10 Strain from the Burdens that caused the Collapse: 5 from each affected Sector. Draw an Influence card and place an Ecological Collapse token within the sector that matches the card drawn.
• Place the Collapse token in the outer ring, on the left-most vacant circle. If there are no vacant circles, replace the left-most Practice counter in that sector. Ecological Collapses cannot be placed on Sector Expansions.
• Each time a Collapse occurs, add a Rising Temperature token to the centre circle. The first adds +1 to the People Strain and is cumulative. If another Collapse occurs, add the next Rising Temperature token, increase the Influence cards drawn by 1 and place a further 2 Collapse tokens using the method above.

For example: 1°c (already on the board) + 2°c (new) = +3 on the People Strain phase every turn, and so on to a maximum of 3 Rising Temperature tokens. On the 4th Collapse, you lose the game!

The printed example (Chemical Pollution): the total Strain on Chemical Pollution has risen to 15: 5 in the Minor Burden, 10 in the Major Burden. As it is the first Ecological Collapse, only one card is drawn. 10 Strain tokens are removed from the Burdens that caused the Collapse: 5 from each Sector. Both Sectors then balance immediately. A Rising Temperature token is added each time an Ecological Collapse occurs. In the printed example, a Politics card was drawn: the Collapse is placed on the left-most empty slot. If there are no vacant slots, choose the left-most and replace any Practice counter currently on it. This slot is no longer able to have a People piece on it, even if supported.

Transforming Sectors

When a Burden is finally clear of Strain it can be transformed into further means of providing for our societies in a sustainable and positive way.

• Do this by flipping the Burden over and placing it in the middle of the board, lining it up along the edge of its sector. The burden has become an Expansion!
• Transforming these Burdens is a free action if it's within your sector, but other sectors require any single card matching its sector.
• As an Action, discard the card, then flip the Burden and place it in the centre.

To transform the small (Minor) Burdens, the large (Major) Burden in its sector must have already been transformed, as well as the Major Burdens to either side.

• If the Practices are able to support more People than are currently placed, take them out of poverty and add them to the new blank spaces!
• In order to transform each sector's Minor Burden, it must be clear of Strain and supported by the Major Burdens on either side.

Strain is still placed into fully transformed sectors! Place it onto the blue Ecological Ceiling band, and if the sector has not managed to clear it by the end of the two Strain phases, you must flip the Minor Expansion back out to accommodate it. See 'Recessions'.

The printed diagram shows: Agriculture is supported, but still under Strain. Industry is both unsupported and under Strain! Culture is clear of Strain, but unsupported.

Recessions

If a sector you've expanded has more Strain than it can tolerate before the next player's turn begins, a Recession happens!

• You must flip the Expansion back to outside the board, becoming a Burden again. All Practice counters (sustainable or otherwise) that were on it are removed and placed back into the counter pile.
• Unlike Ecological Collapses, Recessions only occur once the 2 Strain phases are over, giving players more chance to avert the event.
• If a Major zone is flipped back, this may cause more problems. Any Minor zones that are now unsupported (i.e. don't have a Major zone on each adjacent sector), automatically flip back too, and any Practices upon them are discarded.

It's a careful job, managing a society! If one side crumbles, so can the rest!

Note The Strain that caused the Recession does not get removed, but is instead placed on the Burden which was just created.

The printed Recession example: After a nasty strike from the Status Quo, the Energy sector is putting more Strain on the planet than its Minor Burden is able to tolerate (A). The sector is set to receive 2 additional Strain from Practices, putting it up to 6 (B1, B2). A Recession happens at the end of the Strain phases, but before the player's next turn. This means that if Practices are able to remove Strain, the sector will be safe. Unfortunately, in this case, they cannot!

The printed sequence continues: +2 new Strain. The Strain forces the Major Expansion to flip back out and become a Major Burden again (A1, A2), and the Strain immediately balances between them (B). Unfortunately, because the Minor Expansions (C1 and D1) were supported by Energy's Expansion, both Industry (C1, C2) and Politics (D1, D2) are forced to have their own Expansions flipped back and become Minor Burdens again. Finally, the true victims of the recession are the populace, who are forced into poverty. 4 People have to be returned to the centre, raising People in Poverty to 2 (E) (2 sets of 3 People).

Playable Characters

Here's a rundown of the different player characters available, what they do, and what sector they're affiliated with. Please note: if any Practices are removed from the board, any character ability tokens currently on them are removed too.

Activist (Culture)

• As an Action, you may place a Protest token on any Unsustainable Practice. This allows players to flip that Unsustainable Practice instead of disbanding it.
• Once a Practice has been flipped, remove the Protest token.
• For each Sustainable Culture Practice on the board, you may place 1 extra Protest token.
• Using the Action again allows you to rearrange already present tokens, as well as placing any new ones.
• If a Sustainable Culture Practice is removed, you must remove 1 Protest token from the board, because it is no longer supported.

Note Token placements are based on the number of Sustainable counters in play for the Culture sector, +1. You cannot have more tokens in play than that number, even if you use the action again.

Innovator (Industry)

• As an Action, you may place a Start-Up token into the centre of the board and place one of the People in Poverty on it. Once you do this, that People piece no longer counts towards Poverty Strain.
• For each Sustainable Industrial Practice, you may place 1 extra Start-Up.
• If a Sustainable Industrial Practice is removed, you must remove 1 Start-Up token from the centre, because it is no longer supported.

Note Token placements are based on the number of Sustainable counters in play for the Industry sector, +1. You cannot have more tokens in play than that number, even if you use the action again.

Eco Investor (Infrastructure)

• When drawing from the Influence deck, you may draw 1 extra card and look at it, then either give it to another player, or place it at the bottom of the Influence deck. This is great for avoiding SQS cards!
• For each Sustainable Infrastructure Practice, you may draw and decide for 1 extra card.

Note Hand limits are only affected at the beginning of a player's turn, after they have drawn their 2 cards. They need not discard any cards until they are about to take their four actions.

Ecologist (Agriculture)

• As an Action, you may place a Regeneration token on any Sustainable Practice. This reduces 1 extra Strain during the Strain phase.
• For each Sustainable Agriculture Practice, you may place 1 extra Regeneration token.
• Using the Action again allows you to rearrange already present tokens, as well as placing any new ones.
• If a Sustainable Agriculture Practice is removed, you must remove 1 Regeneration token from the board, because it is no longer supported.

Note Token placements are based on the number of Sustainable counters in play for the Agriculture sector, +1. You cannot have more tokens in play than that number, even if you use the action again.

Climatologist (Energy)

• Before the 2 Strain phases, during any turn, you may move 1 Strain to a different Burden. This is a free move and not counted as an Action.
• For each Sustainable Energy Practice, you may move 1 extra Strain.

Note The flexibility of the Climatologist is their greatest strength. The only time you may not use your ability is during the Strain Phases. However, make sure you keep track of how many Strain you have moved during a turn. If you only notice an Ecological Collapse is going to happen after Strain has begun to be added, it's too late! Your allowance for moving Strain is refreshed each turn.

Grass Roots Politician (Politics)

• As an Action, check the next 2 cards in the Influence deck and rearrange them.
• For each Sustainable Political Practice, you may check 1 extra card.

Note Remember to place cards back in the order you want them to be drawn!

Solo Rules of Play

All you need to play solo is a single D6! This could be borrowed from another game, or simply use an online dice roller. For ease, a die has been added to all online versions of the game.

Playing Solo? You can do this!

Solo Earth Rising is a challenging yet different take on the normal Earth Rising experience. The player takes the role of an environmental policy-maker who is committed to sustainable transformation, while the character cards are advisors that give you increased influence over your transformation.

Determine your characters

After setting up, but before choosing your character, take the D6 and roll it three times. If you roll the same number twice, simply reroll until you have three different numbers.

The results determine your characters!

Roll	Character
1	Ecologist
2	Eco Investor
3	Activist
4	Grass Roots Politician
5	Climatologist
6	Innovator

E.g. If your three rolls resulted in a 1, 3 and 5, you would be playing the game with the Ecologist, Activist and Climatologist characters.

The game continues with the usual Earth Rising rules, with you playing each of the characters in a clockwise direction - moving to the next character each turn.

Change the characters

At the end of every fifth turn an election is held!

• Roll the die three times again to determine the new priorities of the recent election.

As a result of your rolls, your character cards (and with them, the matching sector) change, and your next turn will be with the character clockwise from the one that just completed their turn.

• You might have rolled the same numbers for characters that you're already playing - if so, these characters remain in play with their hand intact.
• Any characters that are no longer being played have all their cards collected into a single pile.
• Shuffle this pile and deal randomly to the new characters in as even a quantity as possible. They are then revealed, and the game continues for another five turns!

Quickplay Rules!

45-60 minutes version. Perfect for teachers and demonstrators!

When time is of the essence!

Earth Rising Quickplay has been purposefully adapted to allow for a faster playthrough without disrupting the core mechanics or demonstration of the gameplay. You'll find that even though the rules aren't much different, it requires a very different approach to succeed! This play mode is also designed for larger groups, meaning that 1 or 2 player games are not recommended, but in these cases, play using multiple characters each.

In this shorter version, your goal is simpler:

• Players only need to get the large segment of each sector flipped into the centre to win.

However, the time you have to achieve this is considerably shortened! For 5 or fewer players, you have 10 turns, while for 6 players you have 12 turns. This ensures all players will have at least two turns each.

• 10 - 5 or fewer players

• 12 - 6 players

• Reduce the calendar cards to the appropriate number before play, placing the rest back in the box.

• Now, play as normal except for one key difference: when drawing cards at the beginning of your turn, take 4 cards instead of 2. You still have to discard down to five before you take your actions!

• This will lead to increased Status Quo Strikes cards, so be sure that players have read their rules before play begins!

Note During a Quickplay game, the Politician special ability is doubled: As an Action, check the next 4 cards in the Influence deck and rearrange them. For each Sustainable Political Practice you may check 2 extra cards.

FAQs

Do I have to discard cards from my hand the moment I receive them? No, you only discard down to the 5 card hand limit before you take your first action. This means you still draw your two cards, THEN discard down, giving you more choice about what to keep.

Can I place my allowance of character tokens again when I activate their ability? No, your character's allowance (1+sustainable practices in your sector) is the maximum you may have operating at a time. You may use the action again to rearrange the ones on the board already, but if a Sustainable practice is removed from your sector for any reason you must also remove one character ability token from the board. See p12-13 for more.

Can I flip an Ecological Burden into the centre before all Strain has been removed from the sector? Yes, but only when there is just 1 Strain remaining. This is because Strain balances out automatically, and the Major Burden is only clear when there is just 1 Strain remaining in the Minor Burden. See p5 for more.

How does a Practice employ more than one group of people at a time? Practices do not "employ" people in the strictest sense. Practices essential for societal function provide support from a vital service (e.g. power from the Energy sector, access to goods from the Industry sector). While employment will no doubt be available, a long term sustainable society provides access to these services regardless of employment status.

Does Strain represent CO₂? Not exactly, but it incorporates its impact. Societal strain on ecosystems is complex and multifaceted, and so is displayed through the Ecological Burdens. A point of Strain on a Chemical Pollution Burden represents pollution beyond what the planet can absorb, for example.

An Ecological Collapse is about to happen, but the Practices in that sector are about to reduce it! Does it happen the moment we hit 15 Strain total, or can I finish the Strain phases first? Sadly, the planet does not wait the rest of the year to see if it goes down again. The Ecological Collapse is enacted immediately upon 15 Strain being present across both Burdens.

If there's only 20 years to succeed, how come there are 21 calendar cards? The first turn is thought of as year 0 due to a lack of cooperation or planning leading up to it. However, you're more than welcome to remove the last calendar card if you prefer!