Good Little Martian Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Setup: Earth Player
  • Setup: Mars Player
• Aim of the Game
• How to Play
• 1. Peril
  • Malfunctions
  • Targeting
• 2. Action
  • Play a Card
  • Prepare a Card
  • Repair a Malfunction
  • Add Thrust
• 3. Upkeep
  • Eat Food
  • Move Ship
  • Draw Cards
  • Shuffling a Discard Pile
• Variant: Dust Cloud

Components

The game contains 27 cards:

• Earth deck: 12 cards — Mission Control 01–12
• Mars deck: 12 cards — Equipment 01–12
• 3 tracking cards — Target, Trajectory, Resources

You will need the following additional components:

• 1 regular six-sided dice
• 5 tracking tokens — ideally small wooden cubes

Setup

The game can be played solo, or cooperatively by 2 players. Sort the cards and decide who will play which role: Mars player and Earth player.

Setup: Earth Player

• Lay the Target and Trajectory cards in your play area and place 1 tracking token on each light-blue space.
• Shuffle the 12 cards of the Earth deck and lay it face-down.
• Take the top card from the deck and slide it face-down underneath Trajectory card without looking at it. This card is your first 'Thrust' card.
• Draw a hand of 3 cards from the deck.

Setup: Mars Player

• Lay the Mars Resources card in your play area and place 1 tracking token on each light-blue space.
• Shuffle the 12 cards in the Mars deck and lay it face-down.
• Draw a hand of 3 cards from your deck.
• Take the dice.

Aim of the Game

The players must work together to keep the Martian alive while the rescue ship travels from Earth to Mars. If any one of the Martian resources drops to zero before the ship arrives, the rescue mission is a failure and both players lose.

Mars player: Your aim is to use your functioning or repaired equipment to maintain your Food, Energy and Shelter. Each round, new equipment will malfunction, giving you new problems to solve!

Earth player: Your aim is to give the Mars player aid when they need it, but also make sure that the rescue ship gets to Mars quickly and on target.

How to Play

The game is played over a number of rounds. A round has 3 phases: Peril, Action and Upkeep.

1. Peril

First, the Martian player draws the top card of their deck and lays it face-up in their play area beside the Mars Resources card. This card represents a new equipment malfunction. The strip of icons on the left-hand side are the possible effects of each face-up malfunction. Unless malfunctions are repaired or discarded, their effects will build up. Be careful!

Second, the Mars player rolls the dice once. Both players may take one or more of the 'Reaction' actions available to them (if any) before resolving the dice. 'Reaction' actions are marked with a purple banner.

• Mars player: If you have Equipment 08, 11 or 12 in your hand, you may play these to take their 'Use' action. If Equipment 07 has been 'repaired' (see below) you may use its 'Repair' function.
• Earth player: If you have Mission Control 09 in your hand, you may play it to take its 'Use' action. If Mission Control 02 or 03 has been 'prepared' (see below) you may use its 'Prepare' action.

Alert! The action or function on all other cards cannot be used before the dice is resolved.

Now resolve the dice to discover what new misfortunes have befallen the mission. The dice triggers all face-up malfunctions and can affect the ship's targeting.

Malfunctions

Compare the dice result to the strip of icons on the left-hand edge of each face-up malfunction. The dice triggers all effects that have the same result as the dice roll. The effects are always cumulative.

• Dust cloud: No effect.
• Solar storm: For each solar storm, one player must discard 1 card from their hand. You may freely discuss who will discard and choose which card to discard. If multiple solar storm effects are triggered on multiple malfunctions, 1 card must be discarded for each.
• New malfunction: The Mars player must draw the top card from their deck and lay it face-up as a new malfunction. The new malfunction is not triggered in the current round by the current dice roll.
• Lose resources: The Mars player must lose the number of resources shown. Move the corresponding tracking token on the Mars Resources card down a number of spaces equal to the number of resources lost. If the resource symbol is the 'wild' symbol (showing all three colours and resource icons), the Mars player can freely choose which resources to lose, in any combination.

Alert! If the loss of resources triggered by the dice means that amount of any of the three resources has now dropped to zero, the mission immediately fails — and both players lose the game!

Targeting

Also compare the dice result to the dice symbols on the Earth-Mars Target card.

• On a roll of 2, 3, 4 or 5, move the ship's target token one space in the direction shown by the matching dice symbol in the middle of the card.
• On a roll of 1 or 6, do not move the token.

Alert! If the movement triggered by the dice moves the target token across the solid boundary line (and off of the grid of spaces), the ship must slow down to correct course. Put the most recently added Thrust card on your discard pile and put the target token back on the central light-blue space.

2. Action

The players may take any combination of the following actions, in any order:

• Play a card — both players
• Prepare a card — Earth player only
• Repair a malfunction — Mars player only
• Add Thrust — Earth player only

The players should discuss their choices — you will need to work together!

Play a Card

Both players may play any number of cards from their hands. Each card will generate a number of resources or perform another action explained on the card. Play cards one at a time, resolving each card's action before playing another.

Mars player: When you play a card from your hand, immediately take its 'Use' action, then put it on your discard pile.

You cannot play a card from your hand to use its 'Repair' function.

Most 'Use' actions generate resources, which you should immediately record by moving the corresponding tracking token on your Resources card. If an action shows the 'wild' symbol (showing all three colours and resource icons), you may freely choose which resources to gain, in any combination.

Earth player: When you play a card from your hand, immediately take either its 'Use' or 'Target' action, then put it on your discard pile.

When you generate resources, you must either give them to the Mars player (who must then record them by moving the tokens on the Resources card) or immediately use them yourself to allow you to 'Add Thrust' (see below). You cannot store resources from round to round, although you may 'prepare' a card and use its 'Prepare' action in a later round (see below).

The 'Target' action allows you to move the target token on the Target card exactly 1 space in one of the possible directions shown by the arrows on the card. When you play a card and take its 'Target' action, you must orient the card so that the text on it is aligned with the text on the Target card.

Prepare a Card

Earth player only — You can 'prepare' one card from your hand for use in a later round. Lay the card face-up in your play area beside your deck. Make sure it is separate from your discard pile.

In a later round you may take the card's 'Prepare' action, but once it is prepared you can no longer take its 'Use' or 'Target' action. When you use a prepared card, put it on your discard pile.

You may only have one prepared card face-up in your play area at any time. If you prepare another, you must discard the previously prepared card without effect.

Repair a Malfunction

Mars player only — You can 'repair' a face-up malfunction by using the combination of resources contained in the grey bar in the card's 'Repair' section. You must have enough resources currently available on your Resources card and must adjust the position of the tracking tokens to indicate that you have used them.

You cannot choose to play a card from your hand as a malfunction. You cannot repair a card in your hand.

If the Earth player has prepared Mission Control 01, they may use it to allow you to repair any one malfunction for 1 Food, 1 Energy and 1 Shelter instead of the combination shown on the card.

When you repair a malfunction, move the card from the line of malfunctions beside the Resources card and place it in a separate line of repaired cards. As you repair other malfunctions, lay them in a line and keep them in the order in which you repaired them.

Repaired malfunctions are no longer triggered by the dice, and you can now use its special function (shown in the 'Repair' section) in this and later rounds. Equipment 10, 11 and 12 have no special function.

Add Thrust

Earth player only — You start the game with 1 Thrust card under the Trajectory card. You will need to add additional Thrust to accelerate the ship and get to Mars fast enough to save the Martian.

To add a Thrust card, you must be able to surrender a card from your hand to lay as a Thrust card, while also generating enough resources from a combination of 'Use' actions on other cards in your hand and the 'Prepare' action on any prepared card.

A second Thrust card requires 2 resources of any type; a third Thrust card requires 3 resources; and so on. You cannot use resources that the Mars player has already received. As you add Thrust cards, keep them in order.

3. Upkeep

At the end of each round, you must take the following actions and draw cards to refill your hands.

Eat Food

Mars player only — The Mars player loses 1 Food.

Alert! If this loss means that the amount of Food has dropped to zero, the mission immediately fails!

Move Ship

Earth player only — Move the ship (the tracking token on the Earth-Mars Trajectory represents the rescue ship) closer to Mars by a number of spaces equal to the number of face-down Thrust cards currently underneath the Trajectory card.

Alert! If the ship has reached Mars (the orange space at the end of the track) the mission succeeds — and both players win the game!

Draw Cards

Both players — You must draw enough cards from your own deck to refill your hands to 3 cards. You cannot choose not to draw cards.

If the Mars player has repaired Equipment 09, they must draw cards to refill their hand to 4 cards.

Shuffling a Discard Pile

If you ever need to draw a card but your deck is empty, you must shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck. Beware! Each time you shuffle, there is a penalty:

• Mars player: Before you shuffle, you must discard 1 repaired Equipment card. If you have 2 or more, always discard the oldest repaired Equipment card.
• Earth player: Before you shuffle, you must discard 1 Thrust card. Always discard the oldest Thrust card.

Variant: Dust Cloud

To increase the challenge, this variant adds additional peril. Before you play, choose which of these four levels of difficulty you will attempt. Now, when resolving the dice, if at least two dust clouds are triggered, you must deal with a single additional effect:

• Level 1: Lose 1 resource of your choice.
• Level 2: Lose 2 resources of one type of your choice.
• Level 3: Lose 1 resource of each type.
• Level 4: Reveal a new malfunction.