Galactic Renaissance Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1 - Goal of the Game
• 2 - Components
• Setup
  • a) Set up the New Galactic Senate board
  • b) Prepare the game pieces
  • c) Starting assets selection
  • d) Place the Hub
  • e) Distribute starting Portals
  • f) Draw starting hand
• How to Play
  • A) Player's Turn
    • 1 - Operation Phase
    • 2 - Disorder Phase
    • 3 - End of Turn Phase
  • B) Main Scoring & End Game
    • 1 - Objectives and Victory Points
    • 2 - Winning Condition
  • C) Cards & Effects
    • 1 - Allied Planets
    • 2 - Effects with Conditions
    • 3 - Move / Add / Remove
    • 4 - New Planet Exploration
• Credits

1 - Goal of the Game

The Assembly establishes its policy through Objectives that the players must follow in order to gain Victory Points (VP). The first player to reach 30 VP is the winner. To do this, they will have to gain at least 10 VP on their final turn.

2 - Components

Components for each player (x4):

Each player has their own color of assets (orange, purple, blue, or green):

• 12 Emissary miniatures
• 1 Player board and 1 Stability tile
• 7 Advisor cards
• 5 Institute miniatures
• 1 VP marker

The player board represents the Headquarters of your politicians.

Shared components:

• 44 cards:
  • 28 Specialist cards (gray backs and gray text boxes)
  • 16 Objective cards (red backs)
• 5 Starting Emissaries tokens
• 15 Planet tiles
• 15 Planet tokens
• 5 Foundation miniatures
• 36 Portal tokens (12 red, 12 yellow, 12 blue)
• 20 Stability tiles (4 each of Stability 5 to 9)
• 1 New Galactic Senate board
• 6 Disorder markers
• 1 Cosmic Rabbit standee
• 1 Hub token

Setup

a) Set up the New Galactic Senate board

1. Place the New Galactic Senate board on one side of the play area.
2. Shuffle the Objective cards and place three of them face down in the three Objective slots of the New Galactic Senate board. Place an additional Objective card face up on top of each of the first two Objective cards, from left to right. Return the remaining Objective cards to the box without looking at them.
3. Place the Portal tokens in their respective reserves on the New Galactic Senate board.
4. Place the Cosmic Rabbit on the first Portal token reserve (the blue Portals).

b) Prepare the game pieces

1. Shuffle the Planet tiles and the Specialist cards and place them in their respective face down piles.

2. Prepare the Stability tiles pile. Depending on the number of players, remove some tiles from the game:

   • 2 players: remove 3 of each Stability 9, Stability 8, and Stability 7 tiles from the game
   • 3 players: remove 3 of each Stability 9 and Stability 8 tiles from the game
   • 4 players: remove 3 Stability 9 tiles from the game
   • 5 players: don't remove anything. (5th player Expansion only)

   Randomly select one tile of Stability 7 or higher and set it aside for use in Step D. Then, shuffle the remaining tiles and place them in a face down pile.

3. Place the Planet tokens in a pile. They don't need to be shuffled.

4. Place the Foundation miniatures and the Disorder markers on the Senate board within easy reach.

5. Each player takes all these elements in the same color: 12 Emissaries, 1 Player board, 1 Stability player tile, 1 deck of 7 Advisor cards, 1 VP marker, and 5 Institutes. Each player places their 12 Emissaries on the spaces on the side of their Player board and their 5 Institutes on the central spaces (except the topmost space labeled '2'). Then they place their VP marker on the New Galactic Senate board on the first space of the VP track (space 0).

c) Starting assets selection

1. Place the following assets at the center of the play area, each in the quantity indicated and face up:

   • Planet tiles and their associated tokens: number of players +1
   • Specialist cards: number of players + 1
   • Starting Emissaries tokens:
     • 2 players: 4 and 7
     • 3 players: 4, 6, and 8
     • 4 players: 4, 5, 6, and 7
     • 5 players: 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (5th player Expansion only)

   Planets marked as not authorized for the starting asset selection are excluded from this step.

2. Randomly select a first player, then starting from the player on their right and going counterclockwise, each player in turn takes one of those assets of a type they haven't already taken and places it in front of them. Proceed until each player has one asset of each type in front of them.

3. Then each player:

   • Places their Home Planet in the center area near them and attaches the Stability tile of their color to their Home Planet tile
   • Places their starting number of Emissaries on their Home Planet and returns the Starting Emissaries tokens to the box
   • Attaches their Home Planet token to their Player board
   • Shuffles their starting deck, composed of their 7 Advisor cards and their chosen Specialist card, and place it face down in front of them

4. The unclaimed Specialist card is placed face down under the Specialist deck.

d) Place the Hub

Place the remaining Planet in the center of the play area. This Planet is the Hub. Attach the previously set aside Stability tile to it. Place the Hub token and one of each Portal token on the Hub.

e) Distribute starting Portals

Each player, beginning with the first player and going clockwise, takes a Portal color marker of the color indicated by the position of the Cosmic Rabbit and places it on their Home Planet on the appropriate Portal space. The Cosmic Rabbit is moved to the right after each player takes their portal (or back to the first position if it is already in the rightmost position).

f) Draw starting hand

Each player draws three cards from their Advisor deck. Each player may place some or all of their cards face down on the bottom of their deck and draw back to three cards (only once). Note that at the beginning of the game, players have a hand of 3 cards and a value for hand size of 2. This is intentional.

How to Play

A) Player's Turn

On their turn, a player must proceed through the following steps in order:

1. Operation phase (playing cards)
2. Disorder phase (resolve disorder, if any)
3. End of turn phase (discard played cards, optionally discard one additional card, and then refill hand)

Then, the next player in clockwise order takes their turn, continuing in this way until the game ends.

1 - Operation Phase

During the Operation phase of a player's turn, they will play one card (or more, see 'Play Again') for its Operation effect. Cards played will retain their order in a player's deck, allowing the player to structure their deck to prepare for future turns.

a) Card types and deck management

The cards are the heart of the game. Among the 3 types of cards present in the game, Advisor and Specialist cards drive the actions of the game:

• Advisor card — Gray back and player color text box & faction symbol.
• Specialist card — Gray back and gray text box.
• Objective card — Red back.

Each player has their own deck, made up of 8 cards at the start of the game (7 Advisor cards and 1 Specialist card), expanding it as players acquire new Specialist cards.

This deck forms the player's draw pile and will not be shuffled during the game unless an effect explicitly says to shuffle.

Cards in the players' draw piles are always face down. Players have no discard pile; during the End of turn phase, played cards will be placed face down on the bottom of their owner's deck.

b) Card structure

There are 3 different card types, identified by their back colors and text box colors: Advisor cards, Specialist cards, and Objective cards.

The Advisor cards (gray backs and text boxes in player colors) are the basic action cards. They form the players' starting decks and allow all the essential actions. Each player will always have these 7 identical Advisor cards.

The Specialist cards (gray backs and gray text boxes) have the same gray backs as the Advisor cards, but are gained through different effects and added to the players' decks throughout the game.

The Objective cards (red backs) indicate how Victory Points are scored when playing the Senator Advisor card. These cards stay on the New Galactic Senate board and are never played by the players.

Advisor and Specialist cards have a symbol above their effect box, indicating when they can be played. There are two possible timing symbols:

• Operation effect — effects played during the player's turn.
• Disorder effect — effects played during Disorder resolution, when a player is required to choose a Disorder option.

Some symbols can also be present under the effect box:

• Play again — The player may play another card.
• Activate an Allied Planet icon — The player may resolve the effect of an allied Planet token that has not been resolved yet this turn. (This ability is shown in the card text — this icon is meant to, at a glance, remind you that this might allow you to Play again through your Planet token effects.)

c) Playing cards

During the Operation phase, the active player goes through the following steps:

1. Choose a card from your hand and place it in front of you. If this is not the first card played this turn, position this card to the right of any previously played cards to maintain the order of play.
2. You have two options:
   • Choose one Operation effect on the selected card and resolve it fully. If a card has multiple Operation effects, you must select one.
   • Alternatively, if the selected card is a Specialist, you may opt to draw one card from your deck instead of resolving an Operation effect.
3. If the Operation effect you chose includes a "Play Again" arrow (or an "Allied Planet" icon that activated includes a "Play Again" arrow), or if you played a Specialist solely for drawing, you may choose to either go back to Step 1 or move on to Step 4.
4. When a player opts not to play more cards, or cannot do so, the Operation phase comes to an end.

2 - Disorder Phase

During the Disorder phase, the players will resolve potential conflicts caused by the overcrowding of the different Planets in the game. This overcrowding is caused by an excess of elements on the Planets, which will be detailed further below.

If there is no Disorder during this phase, proceed to the End of the turn phase.

a) Planet structure

A Planet is composed of a Planet tile and an attached Stability tile. Elements on a Planet's attached Stability tile are considered to be on the Planet.

The Planet tiles represent planets on which the players can send their Emissaries in order to build relationships, establish Institutes, and discover Foundations.

Each Planet tile has 3 Portal spaces on which the Portal tokens are placed and a space for the corresponding Planet token. These 3 Portals (blue, yellow, or red) allow movement between Planets with a matching Portal. Additionally, some Planets have an effect printed on their tile that should be followed when necessary.

The corresponding Planet token should be placed on the tile if no player is allied with the Planet.

The Stability tiles represent the Planet's tolerance levels to other people coming to their Planet and meddling. Building Institutes, sending Emissaries, and pushing the agenda of the Galactic Senate can all disrupt the planet's existing order.

These tiles indicate how many elements (Emissaries, Institutes, and Foundations) can be placed on the Planet without triggering a Disorder.

White circular spaces on the Stability tile represent each space available on a Planet. These tiles can have a different number of spaces from 5 to 9. The Home Planets have infinite Stability and are not limited in the number of elements that they can contain.

If all spaces are occupied, new elements can be placed anywhere on the Planet, but it now becomes visible that the Stability threshold has been exceeded and that a Disorder will be triggered.

If there are empty Stability spaces on the Stability tile and additional elements on the Planet, move those elements to the empty spaces.

b) Disorder trigger

During the Disorder phase, the active player goes through the following steps:

1. Check for Disorders: for each Planet that contains more elements than its Stability threshold, place a red Disorder marker on it; this means that a Disorder has been triggered on this Planet and will need to be resolved.
2. If there are no red Disorder tokens on any planet, proceed to the End of turn phase.
3. The active player chooses a Planet with a red Disorder token to resolve.
4. The disorder is resolved (see below). Then return to step 2.

IMPORTANT: Stability is only checked during the Disorder Phase, not during the Operation Phase. This means that a Planet could temporarily exceed its threshold without triggering a Disorder if, for example, a player moves some of their Emissaries onto a Planet and then moves them to a different Planet before ending their turn.

c) Disorder resolution

Beginning with the active player and going clockwise, each player present on the chosen Planet must, in turn, choose and resolve one of the following options:

• Remove one of their Emissaries from the Planet in Disorder and return it to their reserve.
• Move 2 or more of their Emissaries from the Planet in Disorder to one or more Allied Planets.
• Remove one of their Institutes from the Planet in Disorder and place it back beside their Player board. This Institute does not cover one of the previously revealed Institute spaces but is available to be rebuilt later.
• Play a Disorder card from their hand, resolving its specific effect. The active player adds this card to their line of played cards for the turn. Any other player playing a Disorder card places the played card face down under their deck after resolving it.

NOTE: If the player's chosen option results in exceeding a different Planet's Stability threshold, then add a red Disorder token to that Planet immediately.

After a full round, when each player present in the Planet has resolved their Disorder option, if there are still more elements on the Planet than the Stability threshold allows, a new full round of Disorder resolution must be observed, and so on, until the Stability threshold is no longer exceeded at the end of a full round.

When a Disorder ends, if there are any elements on the Planet outside of the Stability spaces, place them on empty Stability spaces, and flip the Disorder token to the yellow (resolved) side.

This yellow Disorder side indicates the Planets in which Disorder has already been resolved during this phase. No game effects allow a player to move more elements to a Planet with a yellow Disorder token — these Planets are unavailable until the next turn.

After all Disorders have been resolved, return all Disorder markers to the reserve. Play then returns to the active player, proceeding to the End of turn phase.

3 - End of Turn Phase

a) Discard

The active player places all their played cards face down under their deck without changing the order of the cards. To facilitate the last point, each card played after the first should be played in part over the previously played card. The final card played will end up on the bottom of the deck.

After discarding all played cards, the active player may place one additional card from their hand face down under their deck. This card is not shown to the other players. Lastly, flip all face down Planet tokens face up.

b) Refill hand

The active player draws cards from the top of their deck until they reach their hand size. Their hand size is determined by the highest visible value on their Player board, based on the number of Institutes they have built. If the player has more cards in hand than their hand size, they do not draw any cards but do not have to discard any cards.

For example, a player who has built 2 Institutes has 2 icons visible: the first icon indicates that when this institute is built, they immediately draw a card from their deck; the second icon indicates the hand limit size for that player.

B) Main Scoring & End Game

1 - Objectives and Victory Points

VP are scored mainly through each player's Senator Advisor card. When a player plays this card, as indicated, this player scores all the VP given by all the face up Objective cards.

When players score VP, they track their earned VP by moving their VP marker on the VP track.

If a player ends their turn with more than 20 VP but fewer than 30 VP, they place their marker back on the 20 VP space.

There are two face up Objective cards at the beginning of the game. The Senate will evolve its policy during the game and progressively change the face up Objectives.

On the New Galactic Senate board, the first time a VP marker reaches or exceeds the 6, 13, or 20 spaces (depicted as planets on the track), the Objectives are adjusted as follows:

• 6: Flip the rightmost Objective card face-up.
• 13: Flip the leftmost stack of two Objective cards to reveal the hidden one and hide the revealed one.
• 20: Flip the central stack of two Objective cards to reveal the hidden one and hide the revealed one.

The planets on the VP track are indicators of when the Objectives are to be adjusted.

2 - Winning Condition

When a player reaches or exceeds 30 VP, the game ends, and that player is the winner.

Remember, if a player exceeds 20 points but falls short of 30 points, at the end of their turn they must place their VP marker on the 20 point spot (the planet with the red dot). Therefore, in order to reach 30 VP, a player will have to gain 10 VP in a single turn!

C) Cards & Effects

1 - Allied Planets

The Ambassador card allows a player to take the Planet token of a Planet where they are leading (i.e. they have more total Emissaries and Institutes than any other player). These tokens will be attached to their player board in a free slot reserved for Planet tokens. The Planet token may be taken from anywhere, even if it is attached to another player's board.

A player is limited to 5 Allied Planets at the same time (including their Home Planet), as indicated by the 5 slots for Planet tokens on the Player boards.

When a player takes a Planet token and already has 5 Planet tokens attached to their player board, they must place one of their Planet tokens back on its Planet. They cannot remove their Home Planet token. Your Home Planet token cannot be lost or taken by other players.

Different cards, like the Ambassador or the Explorer, will activate these tokens. When an effect requires activating a Planet token, the player chooses one of the Planet tokens attached to their board and resolves its effect. Each Planet token can only be activated once during a player's turn, so Planet tokens are flipped face down after activation. Flip activated Planet tokens back face up during the End of Turn Phase.

2 - Effects with Conditions

This symbol is sometimes used in expressions such as "Do A → Do B". This means that the player must do A, if able, and that if they do A they must do B, if able. However, they cannot do B if they do not do A.

Some effects allow a player to change the Stability of a Planet. When required to do so, search the Stability tiles pile for the correct new tile and replace the former tile with it. The original tile is shuffled back into the pile. If there is no tile of the correct stability value, then there is no change.

Changing a Stability tile can cause a Planet to exceed its Stability threshold or prevent a Disorder that could have been triggered.

3 - Move / Add / Remove

• To "move" an Emissary, take it from the Planet they are on and place it on an adjacent Planet, which means another Planet sharing at least one Portal color token with the starting Planet. Emissaries must be placed on empty Stability spaces; if all the Stability spaces are filled, the Emissaries are placed anywhere on the Planet tile (see Disorders above). If nothing is specified other than "move," it always means moving to adjacent Planets using the Portals.
• To "add" an Emissary or an Institute on a Planet means that a player takes an Emissary miniature or an Institute miniature from their reserve and places it in a free space on the Stability tile if one is available; otherwise, it is placed anywhere on the Planet tile itself. If players have no Emissaries in their reserve, they cannot add any until they recover some by in-game effects. Institutes must be taken from their Player board in a clockwise order.
• To "remove" an Emissary or an Institute means to place it back into its owner's reserve. Institutes must be placed back beside the owner's Player board. This Institute does not cover previously unlocked Institute spaces, but is available to be rebuilt in the future.

Institutes are removed from a player's board in a clockwise direction (5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st).

Two Planets sharing a Portal color are adjacent and connected; two Planets with no Portal colors in common are not.

4 - New Planet Exploration

When a game effect asks for a player to explore a new Planet, they must proceed as follows:

1. The player shows the Planet from where they are exploring, where they must have at least one Emissary.
2. They choose one of the Portal colors on the Planet and announce their choice.
3. They draw a Planet tile, find the matching Planet token, and place them in the play area.
4. They place a Portal token of the previously chosen color on the Planet tile.
5. They place a second color token on the Portal, matching the color where the Cosmic Rabbit is. If the Cosmic Rabbit indicates the same color that was already chosen, no second Portal token is placed. The Cosmic Rabbit is then moved to the right (or back to the leftmost position if it is already in the rightmost position).
6. They draw a Stability tile and attach it to the Planet tile.

If the Planet tiles pile or the Stability tiles pile is empty, then exploration has no effect.

Credits

• Designer: Christian Martinez
• Illustrator: Tano Bonfanti
• 3D sculptor: Francesco Orrù
• Game development: Arnaud Charpentier
• Art director: Anthony Questel