Free Trader Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Components
• Set Up
• Objectives
• Turn Sequence
  • 1) Draw and place a World if any are available
  • 2) Buy Cargo if you want to
  • 3) Pay to Jump to another Planet
  • 4) Move your Ship marker
  • 5) Draw Event card and carry out appropriate actions
  • 6) Sell Cargo if you wish to
  • 7) Upgrade your ship if you want to
• Pirate
• Invader
• Police
• Emergency Jumps
• Too Easy?
• Alternate Rules
  • Free Cargo
  • Pregenerated Universe
• FAQ

Introduction

You are a new space trader, with a new ship and big bills to pay off, ships don't come cheap! You will explore new trade routes, trading Weapons, Industrials, Agriculturals and Illegals, fighting pirates and possibly getting rousted by the police. Hopefully while taking part in all of this adventure you'll earn enough Vectorium to make the monthly payments on the ship.

Vectorium : A reactive substance used as fuel throughout the Imperium and as the basic trading currency. Unfortunately no more than 20 units of Vectorium may be collected together at once or it becomes explosively reactive!

Components

A set of cards representing planets. A set of cards representing events. Three cards set side by side show the current state of your ship. A card for tracking your current amount of Vectorium. A Player Aid card with useful info on gameplay. One token is needed to show the location of your ship. Five tokens are needed to track your ship modules and your current Vectorium amount. Five tokens are needed to track what kind of cargo is being carried in your hold.

Set Up

Place the “Earth” planet in the centre of the play area face up. Place your ship token on the card.

Shuffle the remaining planet cards and place in a face down pile.

Shuffle the event cards and remove two and place them to the side without revealing. Place remaining events face down as a draw pile.

Place the ship cards and Vectorium card in front of you, place markers on each of the numbers marked in red.

Objectives

You must make four payments on your ship. A payment becomes due when you have worked your way through the Events deck (at the moment you have used the last card even if in combat!) Each time the Events deck is exhausted a “Month” has passed, payments become due. The required payments are:

• Month 1, Pay 5

• Month 2, Pay 10

• Month 3, Pay 10

• Month 4, Pay 15

If you are unable to make any payment at the time it's due, you lose. If you make all four payments you win! All payments are made with Vectorium.

Turn Sequence

1. Draw and place a World if any are available
2. Buy Cargo if you want to
3. Pay to Jump to another Planet
4. Move your Ship marker
5. Draw Event card and carry out appropriate actions
6. Sell Cargo if you wish to
7. Upgrade your ship if you want to

1) Draw and place a World if any are available

Only do this step if there are still unused planet cards.

Take the top card, look at it and then place it orthogonally adjacent to planet you are currently at. If there is no available space orthogonally then you may place diagonally. If no space is available diagonally then you may place the planet anywhere adjacent orthogonally to any planet.

2) Buy Cargo if you want to

You must draw an Event card even if you don't want to buy cargo.

Once you've drawn one you may purchase Cargo. The Event card lists a “Buy” price for each type of cargo, modify the values shown using the values shown on the Planet card. The result is the cost of buying one cargo of that type. Note if the cost comes out as less than 1, then treat it as 1, no cargo can ever cost less than 1.

If either the card or planet lists a product as N/A (Not available) then it may not be purchased.

To take the cargo, reduce your Vectorium track by the cost of the item and add a cargo token to the appropriate space on the ship card. You may buy as much cargo of as many types as you have both Vectorium to buy them and space in your ships hold. The “Cargo Spaces” track indicates the maximum number of cargo you may carry at once.

Remember to stop spending if you get down to 1 Vectorium. You'll need that 1 in order to Jump to the next planet.

Place the Event card on the discard pile.

3) Pay to Jump to another Planet

It costs Vectorium to Jump to another planet as it gets burnt up as fuel. Therefore to make a Jump you must reduce your Vectorium track by 1.

If possible, you must Jump to another planet.

Each Planet card has a “Distance” number. This is the distance to the Planet. If the “Distance” is bigger than the current “Engine” track value, you can not jump to that planet.

Note : You may not jump back to the planet you just came from it's too dangerous, except under emergency conditions, anything less than an emergency is not worth the risk. What risk? The “ethan” jump drives bend space in some pretty radical ways, and space doesn't like it!

Doubling back on a jump can cause a ship to wink out of existence!

See the “Emergency Jump” rules later.

Of course if your unable to move due to distance, this constitutes an emergency. However you must never deliberately get into this position.

You may only move to an orthogonally adjacent planet.

4) Move your Ship marker

Simply move your ship marker to the planet destination you have chosen.

5) Draw Event card and carry out appropriate actions

Draw a new Event Card, and reference the Event at the top.

If the Event is “None”, then do nothing else and move onto the next phase.

If the Event is “Pirate” then follow the instructions in the “Pirates” section of these rules.

If the Event is “Police” then follow the instructions in the “Police” section of these rules.

If the Event is “Invader” then follow the instructions in the “Invader” section of these rules.

Discard the Event card.

6) Sell Cargo if you wish to

If you have cargo and wish to sell them you may do so during this phase. Use the last Event card that you drew. The numbers in the Sell column show the base value. Modify these values by the numbers shown on the planet card to establish the final prices that you may sell your cargo for. When you sell a cargo, increase your Vectorium track by the final price. Remove the appropriate cargo token from the ship card.

You may sell as many items from your cargo as you wish.

Note : If at any point in the game your Vectorium goes above 20, the excess is immediately given away as charity to avoid the explosion that happens when too much Vectorium is collected together.

7) Upgrade your ship if you want to

Your ship’s Cargo Spaces, Engine, Weapons, and Defences may be increased by purchasing additional modules for your ship.

During this phase you may only purchase a single module. The Costs of each type of module are:

• Cargo : 5

• Engine : 3

• Weapons : 4

• Defences : 5

Move your Vectorium track down the appropriate amount and increase the improved ship statistic by 1.

Pirate

Use this section if you draw a “Pirate” event.

The event will say “Pirate 1”, “Pirate 2”, etc. The number is the base Attack and Defence value for the Pirate ship.

The Pirate will attack first (they have the drop on you).

Draw another event card. Add the “Aggression” value to the Pirate number to establish the Pirate’s final Attack score.

Note: In subsequent months, Pirates and Invaders gain additional bonuses. In the second month +1, in the third month +2, in the final month +3. This bonus gets added to both Attack and Defence values.

Then add the “Defensive” number from the Card to your ship “Defences” value to establish your final Defence score. If the Pirates Attack score is greater than your Defence score you have lost the combat, any other result is ignored.

If you lose, then one of the modules on your ship is damaged and removed from play. Reduce the track of your choice by one, either Cargo Spaces, Engine, Weapons, or Defences.

If you lose a cargo space and you have more cargo then spaces available, then remove a cargo of your choice.

Once the Pirate Attack is complete you have two choices. You may attack back or make an emergency jump to get away.

If you choose to jump you may go back to the planet you just came from or any other adjacent planet, whichever planet you choose, it constitutes an Emergency Jump due to the haste. Remember you use up 1 Vectorium when you jump, check the rules for Emergency Jumps.

If you decide to stay and fight the Pirates follow the procedure below.

Draw an Event card. Add the “Aggression” value from the card to your ship Weapons value to get your Attack score. Add the “Defensive”

number from the card to the Pirate number to establish its final Defence score. If your Attack score is greater than the pirates Defence score you have destroyed the Pirate. Other results are ignored.

If you destroy a pirate your bank account is automatically credited with Vectorium in the following amounts.

• Pirate 1 = 1 Vectorium

• Pirate 2 = 3 Vectorium

• Pirate 3 = 4 Vectorium

Discard both of the Event cards used in combat.

If you have not destroyed the Pirate then the attack process repeats again. That is, the pirate attacks, you have the option to Emergency Jump or attack back. This carries on until one of you is dead or you jump.

Note : Jumping to another planet to avoid/escape Pirates constitutes an Emergency, and is one of the two conditions under which you may return to the planet you just left. However you may only return to the planet you just left if there is no other option. If there is an open space

on the table and a planet card available you may place a new planet and jump to that. See the section on Emergency Jumps later.

After the jump to escape the pirates you arrive at the next planet. You continue playing from step 5 of the turn.

Invader

Invaders are very aggressive aliens from another galaxy. Treat them the same as Pirates with the following exception. When calculating their Attack and Defence scores double the number shown on the event card.

So if the Event was “Invader 2” and you pulled a card with an “Aggression” value of 1, the final Attack score would be 2 + (1 x 2) = 4. Invaders are like Pirates in that they also get the bonus +1 in the second month, +2 in the third and so on.

There is no payment made for killing an Invader.

Police

Use this section if you draw a “Police” event.

If you have any “Illegals” type cargo, the Police will fine you, if you have no “Illegals” the police will leave you alone.

If the Police have caught you with “Illegals”, draw a new event card. The “Fine” number shown on the card is multiplied by the Law Level of the planet you are visiting. The Law Level is indicated by the police icon in the lower left corner.

The result is the number of Vectorium you must give up as the Fine.

You may use any Vectorium you have to pay the fine, and/or sell modules from your ship to raise the funds.

When you sell modules from your ship to pay a fine you only get half (rounded down) of what it costs to buy the same module. Thus a

Defence module that costs 5 to buy will only return 2 for the purposes of paying the fine.

If you are unable to pay the fine, then you are arrested and the game is over.

The Police also confiscate the Illegal cargo. Remove all Illegal cargo tokens.

Discard the Event cards.

Emergency Jumps

When you are forced into an emergency jump there is a chance of a “Mis-Jump”. When a Mis-Jump takes place, your ship blips out of the known universe and appears in an alternate one.

When you carry out an emergency jump, draw an Event Card and check the “E Jump” value.

If it says “Safe” then simply discard the Event card and continue playing from step 5.

If the Event Card says “Mis-Jump” then the worst has happened. Your ship has jumped into an alternate universe where everything is different, except (of course) you still owe the bank its dues! Carry out the following step.

Pick up all planet cards except the one you are on. Shuffle these in with any planets not yet played and place the stack face down as a draw pile. Now continue playing from step 5.

On rare occasions you Emergency Jump into the new universe only to be immediately attacked by Pirates and have no choice but to Emergency Jump again, only there are no other planets to jump to! If this happens draw a planet card and place it following the usual rules, and Jump to this planet.

Too Easy?

If your finding the game too easy (hard to imagine), then try the following modifications.

• When you encounter Pirates, add an additional +1 Agg and +1

Def to the Pirates for each 7 Vectorium you currently have. The bigger the Booty, the bigger Pirates you attract.

• When you make an Emergency Jump, discard an additional event Card.

Alternate Rules

The following rules are suggested as possible optional variants you might wish to try.

Free Cargo

After defeating a Pirate (not Invaders) you may opt to search the wreckage for any Cargo they were carrying. Draw an event card, if the E-Jump value says “Safe” and the Fine value is 2 or more then you have found a free cargo! The type of cargo is determined on the same card, the cargo type with the lowest “Buy” value is what you have found. If more than one cargo share the lowest value, then you choose which type.

Pregenerated Universe

Print out a second set of planet cards, turn these upside down and shuffle the two sets of planets together so that half are upright and half are face down.

Now lay these cards out on the table in a 5x6 grid. Start with the top row and work your away across then onto the next row and so on.

Discard any remaining planet cards.

Choose one planet as your homeworld and place your ship counter on it. Face down cards are empty space, you do not enter these but have to Jump over them.

Do not use the “Distance” value on the cards to determine distances, instead just use the number of cards between the planets. You may move in any direction. You may jump over planets to reach other planets.

FAQ

Q: If forced to cut back on cargo holds while holding a full load, are goods "ejected into space"? A: Yep!

Q: After Combat do you draw another Event card to establish prices? A: Nope

Q: Do I have to encounter all events whenever I draw a card? A: No, only in step 5.

Q: If I arrive at a new planet, and the Event card I draw doesn't give me much Vectorium for my cargo, can I stay at the Planet next turn? A: No, you must move.

Q: Does it only cost 1 to jump any distance? A: Yep.

Q: What do I do when the event deck runs out? A: Grab the two cards you put aside earlier and shuffle these in with the rest of the deck. When you finish shuffling, once again put two cards aside and place the remainder face down as the draw pile.

Q: If I run low on Vectorium, can I sell modules to raise funds to buy cargo? A: No, modules may only be sold to pay fines.

Q: Do I add the "Distance" of the planet I'm on to the "Distance" of the planet I'm jumping to when calculating the Distance? A: No, you only use the figure on the planet you are jumping to. Don't ask me to explain how "Ethan" drives work, I'm a game designer not a rocket scientist!

Q: The first planet I drew was too far away to reach, what now? A: Shuffle that card back into the deck of planets and draw another.