Gravwell: 2nd Edition
Gravwell: 2nd Edition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's New?
If you've played the original Gravwell, you'll be familiar with most of the game's rules, with a few exceptions. Here's what's new:
- In addition to the Emergency Stop card, each ship now includes 3 additional Special Ability cards. (See page 5)
- Gravwell now allows up to 6 players!
- Mining is streamlined, with players selecting 2 stacks of 3 cards. (See page 6)
- Space Junk tokens replace the Derelict Ships from the original game.
- On the updated board, the Merton Cloud indicates the midway point on the track, and is used for determining who Mines first. The 2 Debris Fields indicate the starting points for the Space Junk.
- Both ends of the track are Warp Gates. Your goal is to reach the Gate opposite from where you start.
- The Fuel Card deck now contains 40 cards, though only the original 26 are used when playing with 4 or fewer players.
- The names for the Fuel Card types have changed, and we added a 4th type that pushes everything away from your ship. (See page 3)
Watch the video to learn to play Gravwell 2nd Edition: www.renegadegamestudios.com/gravwell
Components
- 1 Game Board
- 24 Ship Ability Cards
- 40 Fuel Cards
- 1 Round Tracking Token
- 2 Space Junk Tokens
- 6 Spaceship Miniatures
- 1 Rulebook
Game Setup
- Place the game board in the middle of the table.
- Place the two Space Junk tokens on the Debris Field spaces.
- Place the Round-Tracking Token on the "Start" bubble of the Round Tracker at the bottom of the game board.
- Each player chooses a spaceship and the 4 Ship Ability Cards of the same color. Place the 4 Ship Ability Cards in front of you so that the white "Charged" light is face up for your Emergency Stop card, but face down for the other 3 cards.
- In games with 2-4 players, all players place their ships on the Inner Warp Gate. For 5-6 player games, players may choose to place their ships on either Warp Gate, but no more than 3 ships can start on the same Warp Gate.
- Prepare the Fuel Deck. For games with 2-4 players, remove all the Fuel Cards marked with a no-symbol, leaving 26 cards in the deck. When playing with 5 or 6 players, use all 40 Fuel Cards.
- Shuffle the Fuel Cards, then deal 6 Fuel Cards to each player. Place the unused cards face down and away from the play area. These cards cannot be looked at by any players during the Round.
During Rounds 2-6, players will mine for Fuel Cards, but for the first Round, dealing the cards helps get the game started more quickly.
Goal of the Game
Be the first player to move from one end of the spiral arm to the other. You do not have to land exactly on the space - either the Outer Warp Gate or the Inner Warp Gate, depending on your starting space - to escape. If after 6 Rounds of play, no player has escaped, the player farthest from their starting point wins. Only one player may escape the Gravwell. Will it be you?
Game Sequence
Playing Your Fuel Cards
Each Round has 6 Movement Phases which correspond to the 6 cards in your hand. At the start of each Movement Phase, each player chooses 1 card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. The card you choose should be based on what is happening around you and what you can predict will be likely courses of action for your fellow players. Once each player has placed a Fuel Card face down, immediately flip all of these Fuel Cards face up for all to see.
Resolving Your Fuel Cards
Your engines don't work while you're trapped in the Gravwell, so you will use your Tractor and Repulsor Beams to propel your ship. The challenge is that your beams lock onto the nearest source of gravity, which will be either another ship or Space Junk.
Throughout the rules, the term "object" refers to ships and Space Junk.
Features on the board, including the Warp Gates, Debris Fields, and the Merton Cloud are not objects and do not act as sources of gravity.
Fuel Cards are resolved in alphabetical order, based on the chemical symbol of the element listed on the card. If two Fuel cards start with the same letter, resolve them based on the second letter in the symbol. Starting with the played Fuel Card closest to the start of the alphabet, resolve each player's card in alphabetical order.
Each player should move their own ship in order to learn how movement works.
Fuel Card Types
The color of each Fuel Card determines how the ships will move.
Standard Tractor Beam - Most of the Fuel Cards are this type. When resolving, move your ship toward the nearest object by the number indicated.
Standard Repulsor Beam - Indicated by a double-arrow-pointing-inward symbol, these cards move your ship away from the nearest object.
Multipoint Tractor Beam - Indicated by a facing-outward double-arrow symbol, these cards do not move your ship. Instead, all other objects move toward your ship by the number indicated. Start with the closest object and work outward. Normal drifting rules apply. Ships in Warp Gates are affected.
Multipoint Repulsor Beam - Indicated by a double-set of inward-pointing-arrow symbols, these cards do not move your ship. Instead, all other objects move away from your ship by the number indicated. Start with the closest object and work outward. Normal drifting rules apply. Ships in Warp Gates are not affected.
During each of the six Movement Phases each Round, players will play only one Fuel Card. All other cards remain hidden in hand as each player is resolving their Fuel Card.
Each Fuel Card contains a number. For standard Tractor Beam and Repulsor Beam cards, that number is how far your spaceship will move. For Multipoint Beams, the number indicates the number of spaces all other objects will move toward or away from your ship.
Standard Tractor and Repulsor Beams
The majority of the Fuel Cards are Standard beams. Your Tractor Beam moves your ship toward the nearest object. The Repulsor Beam repels your craft away from the nearest object. Ships in either Warp Gate do not act as objects (sources of gravity). At the start of the game, the nearest object outside of the Warp Gates will be Space Junk.
If your ship is exactly between two objects - the same distance on both sides - then count the number of ships on each side. If one side has more objects, then treat the object on that side as the nearer object. Do not include ships in Warp Gates. If both sides have the same number of objects, then your ship does not move.
A Tractor Beam moves your ship toward a nearest object. A Repulsor Beam deflects your ship away from a nearest object.
Multipoint Beams
Multipoint beams do not move your ship. Instead, they move every other object in the Gravwell. Starting with the object nearest to your ship, move each object the number of spaces indicated on the card. If two objects are the same distance from your ship, first move the object that is closer to the Inner Warp Gate, then move the other object.
Multipoint Beams can drag ships out of Warp Gates. If two or more ships are inside a Warp Gate, choose the order in which to move them out. If you play a Multipoint Beam while in a Warp Gate, all other objects in the Gravwell will move toward (and possibly into) the Warp Gate.
Multipoint beams tend to cause objects to land on other objects. Be sure to understand the Drifting rule, listed next.
Drifting
When moving your ship, if your movement would make your ship land on the space occupied by an object, continue moving in the same direction until you land on a vacant space. Follow the same rule when moving any objects.
Ship Ability Cards
Each player has 4 Ship Ability Cards, the same color as the ship they are using. The cards are kept in front of you so that the other players can see which abilities you have available. Ship Ability Cards are not part of your hand.
Ship Ability Cards are double-sided. The Charged indicator light appears on one side. The card's reverse shows the condition required for Charging the ability. All players have an Emergency Stop card, and 3 other ability cards unique to their ship.
The Emergency Stop card starts Charged at the beginning of the game and is recharged automatically at the start of each Round. All other Ship Ability Cards must be charged before they may be used. The condition for charging each card is listed in the circle on the card. It is possible to charge multiple Ship Ability Cards at once.
Ship Ability Cards allow you to bend the rules. Most can only be played during your turn, but some may be played in response to the actions of others.
To use a Ship Ability Card, simply state that you are using it. You may want to read its ability out loud to the other players so that they understand what you are doing. Once you use a Ship Ability Card, it is no longer charged and must be flipped back over. It may be charged again during the course of the game.
Note that if you end a Round without using your Emergency Stop card, you may charge one of your other Ship Ability Cards before the start of the next Round. When you do this, your Emergency Stop card remains charged.
End of a Round
A Round ends when each player has played all of the six Fuel Cards in their hand.
- All Emergency Stop cards that were used in the round are Charged.
- Collect and shuffle all Fuel Cards, including those that were not used during the Round.
- Advance the round-tracking token 1 space to the next highest number. If the token is on Round 6 or less, start a new Round. If after 6 rounds of play, no player has entered their destination Warp Gate space, the player nearest to it wins the game.
Mining Fuel Cards
At the start of each Round, players will select new Fuel Cards using a process called Mining. Start by creating stacks of 3 Fuel Cards such that each stack has one face-down card and two face-up cards. The number of stacks should equal the number of players x2.
For example, in a 4-player game, 8 stacks of 3 cards each are used. Place the remaining cards aside. These cards will not be used during this round. Players may not look at the unused cards.
Mining setup for a 4-player game.
The player closest to the Merton Cloud will mine first. If two players are the same distance from the Merton Cloud, the one closer to the Inner Warp Gate mines first. That player picks up a stack of 3 cards, adding it to their hand. Once they pick up the stack, the 3 cards are part of the player's hand and may be hidden from the other players. The first player also chooses which direction, left or right, the rest of the mining phase will progress. If the first mining player chooses left, then the player to that person's left mines second, and each player to the left mines in order. Continue around the table twice so that each player will mine 2 stacks of 3 cards, forming a hand of 6 cards.
End of the Game
The game ends immediately when a player's ship enters the Warp Gate opposite from the one in which they started. You do not have to land on the Warp Gate by exact count.
If at the end of Round 6 no player has entered their destination Warp Gate, the player closest to their destination wins. A joint victory is possible.
Sample Game Round and Examples of Movement
Movement Phase 1: Moving Out of a Warp Gate
Ships in Warp Gates do not cause a Gravwell. They don't affect the movement of other ships. The first player out of a Warp Gate will do so by locking a Tractor Beam onto a piece of Space Junk. Looking at your hand, you have the following 6 Fuel Cards: Argon (1), Lithium (4), Iodium (2), Yttrium (8), Hydrogen (4), Xenon (3).
You are the Blue ship and play Hydrogen to advance 4 spaces. As soon as a card has resolved, discard it into a common discard pile near the cards that were unused this Round. At the end of the first Movement Phase, the board looks like this.
Movement Phase 2: Moving Towards the Nearest Object
For your Phase 2 Fuel Card, you choose to play Yttrium, a card that will surely have you moving after the other players.
Movement order for Phase 2 in alphabetical order: B (Yellow), Ir (Red), Y (Blue).
After Yellow advances 2 spaces first with the Boron card, the board looks like the above. The Red player is next to move 6 spaces with Iridium. The nearest spaceship to him is Yellow, which means the Red player moves backwards 6 spaces! Since Red was only on the #6 space to start with, he ends up back in the Inner Warp Gate. On the Blue player's turn, the Yellow spaceship is nearest. Move toward and past it, 8 spaces total.
Movement Phase 3: Repulsor Movement
Now you are way out in front! That means the nearest spaceship to you is far behind you. You could hope that Yellow uses your gravity and moves ahead of you before your movement letter comes up. However, you don't have many late-letter cards. The Xenon card, though, moves you away from the nearest spaceship. This will move you on the board in the direction you'd prefer, unless Yellow manages to get ahead of you before your X resolves. If Yellow is in front of you and nearest when your Xenon resolves, you will move away from it backwards!
Xenon is a Repulsor Beam card. Your two opponents have both already moved by the time your "Xe" resolves and the nearest object to you is still behind you. The Repulsor Beam then moves your Blue spaceship forward 3 spaces onto the #15 space.
Movement Phase 4: Using Ship Ability Cards
Now you are still out in front, but you don't have another Repulsor Movement card. You decide to play your Lithium card in the hopes that another player will get ahead of you before your L resolves. Unfortunately, you have to resolve your Lithium first. Since the nearest object is behind you, you will move backward. But wait! Your "Emergency Stop!" Ship Ability Card is charged. Flip it face down and discard your Lithium card without moving this phase at all. Your opponents still resolve their cards as usual.
Movement Phase 5: In the Middle
You are now surrounded by your opponents! With only two cards remaining in your hand, you play your Argon Fuel Card, as you know you will go first and only move 1 space. When your "A" resolves, you think you will advance forward 1 space. Since you land on the Red spaceship, you get to drift forward 1 additional space, as there can't be more than one spaceship per space.
But hold on - weren't the nearest objects equidistant ahead and behind your spaceship? If a tie for nearest object results when your Fuel Card resolves, the deadlock is broken by counting the total number of objects on each side of the surrounded spaceship. In this case, the two Space Junk objects are ahead of you and so the majority of the gravitational pull is ahead of you this turn. Note that a "surround" can happen where the nearest objects ahead and behind you are not immediately adjacent to you... they could be 5 spaces ahead and 5 spaces behind!
Movement Phase 6: Multipoint Tractor Beam
Only one Fuel Card is left in your hand. You have no choice but to play it in Movement Phase 6. Your Jodium ends up resolving first and its Multipoint Tractor Beam will move each object on the board towards you by 2 spaces.
Move all other objects in order from nearest to farthest, including the Space Junk. If a distance tie exists, move the spaceship nearest to the Inner Warp Gate first. Players cannot use an Emergency Stop! to avoid this movement, but some Ship Ability Cards can negate it. The Red spaceship is nearest; you move it 2 spaces toward you. Since this will cause the Red spaceship to land on your space, the Red spaceship will drift over and ahead of you into the next empty space. The Yellow spaceship is next nearest and moves 2 spaces toward you. The Space Junk then moves 2 spaces toward you. Keep track of which spaceships you have already moved by temporarily turning them 90 degrees. The other Space Junk also moves towards you (but not seen here).
The phase continues as usual and your opponents resolve the Fuel Cards they played.
Special Cases
- When you are equidistant from the 2 closest Objects, the direction of gravity is determined only by counting the other objects ahead and behind you. Do not consider the distance other objects are in relation to you. For example, if the next nearest object is 4 spaces behind you and another is 11 spaces ahead of you, you are still hopelessly stuck.
- Ships in a Warp Gate are not moved by either type of Repulsor Beam.
- You may use your Emergency Stop Card to cancel a Multipoint Beam Card that you played - so that it doesn't move any ships - but not to prevent movement caused by other players.
- A single action may Charge more than one Ship Ability Card.
- When using the Multiplex Dynamo, the Multipoint Card played may only be converted to a Standard Beam of the same type, Repulsor or Tractor.
Variant Game Rules
Make It Count
Start the game with all Ship Ability cards Charged, BUT the cards cannot be recharged during the game. Each may be used only one time.
Classic Gravwell
All players have their Emergency Stop card, but no other Ship Ability cards.
Ship Descriptions
Rayken - Built for speed and efficiency, the Rayken is a prototype space racer from Naazkar. Its crew excels in eaking out every last newton second of impulse. The ship is polished and immaculate, but its captain is not afraid to "swap some paint" if it puts the Rayken closer to the finish line.
RC71 - Its official name is unknown, but the Sovereign Armada designated this ship, "Recondite Craft 71" or simply "RC71". Reputed to be a pirate vessel, the RC71 has eluded capture by remotely redirecting ships that approach it and by occasionally simply disappearing.
T'Rang - The beings of Thi Thu possess a more refined relationship with time. Renowned for perceiving the near future, they often "preact" to events before they transpire. Never one to waste a good moment, the T'Rang is outfitted with an Echo Drive, allowing its crew to reuse particularly useful events.
Lehamarn - The being known as "Lehamarn" is simply the largest member of its symbiotic clan. The rest of the "crew" (not a concept they endorse) reside inside. The benign collective is known to occasionally latch on to passing ships. Its abilities to root itself in space and flail other objects about give it a powerful upper... tentacle?
The Champion - Regal and well-weathered, "The Champion" is the former flagship of the Sovereign Armada. Its experienced captain, brilliant navigator, and well-trained crew allow the heavy ship to turn on a dime and precisely maneuver to familiar waypoints.
Gracie - Named after a former captain's mother, "Gracie" is a rugged patchwork of mismatched technologies. Its wildly unsanctioned and overclocked tractor/repulsor arrays allow it to dynamically convert fuel in useful ways. While more than half the crew are engineers, not one of them can explain how it all works.
Credits
Game Designer: Corey Young Illustrator: Kwanchai Moriya Graphic Designer: Larry Frank Sculptor: Jason Beaudoin Production Artist: Kim Forrai Editor: Scott Thomas
Renegade Game Studios: President & Publisher: Scott Gaeta Controller: Robyn Gaeta Director of Operations: Leisha Cummins Director of Sales & Marketing: Sara Erickson Creative Director: Anita Osburn Senior Producer: Dan Bojanowski Senior Producer of Roleplaying Games: Elisa Teague Senior Game Designer: Matt Hyra Senior Graphic Designer and Creative Lead: Jeanne Torres Creative Production Lead: Gordon Tucker Video Production Manager: Desiree Love Event Manager: Chris Whitpan Associate Game Designer: Dan Blanchett Customer Service: Jenni Janikowski
The game designer would like to thank all of the playtesters who allowed this game to exist, including the Game Designer's Group at Epic Loot Games, Steve Adams, Charles Bainter, Jonathan Bishop, Scott Cozzolino, John Coblentz Jr., Marty Connell, Susie Dancer, Hamid "DJ" ElDahdah, Paul Eveslage, Gary Gentry, Jason Glover, Jordan Goddard, Mandy Goddard, Liam Harn, Allen Hillier, Patrick Hillier, Garret Kinderman, Jeff King, Steve Mayne, Tony McRee, Patrick Murphy, Jimmy Okolica, David Sheppard, Moe Tousignant, Rodney J. Smith, Stephan VanDeventer, David Witche, Matt Worden, Alex Young, Brandon Young, and Trang Young.
The game designer dedicates this game with love to his wife, Trang.
Renegade Game Studios would like to thank the Renegade Tabletop Playtesters, the Renegade Heroes, and all of the fans of Gravwell that made this edition possible.
For additional information or support, please visit us online: www.renegadegames.com
(c) 2021 Renegade Game Studios. All Rights Reserved.