ISS Vanguard: Deadly Frontier

Expansion for ISS Vanguard

ISS Vanguard: Deadly Frontier Rulebook

Table of Contents

Start here: Components

Cards

Standard cards

32 Starmap cards
15 Colony cards
60 Crewmember cards
13 Landing cards
18 Research Project cards
20 Production Project cards
18 Situation cards
72 Section cards
32 Facility Upgrade cards
40 Event cards
33 Discovery cards
16 Threat cards
156 POI cards
21 Global Condition cards
40 Mission cards
37 Unique Discovery cards
18 Rank-Up cards

Small cards

30 Mod cards
1 Morale card
7 Objective cards
24 Bridge Upgrade cards
3 Reference cards

Other cards

79 Equipment cards

Other components

8 Crewmember models
4 Threat models
10 Ship Book pages
9 Ship Book cardholders
1 Rulebook
1 Logbook
1 Planetopedia
4 Medium dividers
15 Resource tokens
4 Threat standees
2 Companion standees
20 Planet Record sheets

Expansion mark

All components from Deadly Frontier have the "DF" mark. This mark will help you to discern components from the base game and this expansion if you want to reset the whole game.

Ship management

All pages in the Ship Book are replaced. They differ from that of the base game, so you should read them carefully at least during the first Ship Management - they are similar to those from the base game, but the differences impact the gameplay.

Note: The table of contents on the left side of the Ship Book cover is not used during the Deadly Frontier campaign. You may ignore it.

Crewmembers

All Crewmembers from the base game are replaced with new ones. You will be able to build the Away Team from a variety of multispecies Crewmembers living on Scrapheap.

Species

Each Crewmember now has another quality - species (some Crewmembers have 2 species at the same time, a result of genetic or body modifications). At the start of the campaign, you will have access to four species: Aerugons, Humans, Idemians, and Visitors. You will unlock more during the campaign.

Species presence in a Sector

During Planetary Exploration, you may encounter instructions similar to those below:

Example: "HAVE A LOOK AROUND - Visitor: you may ignore B1 during this [icon]."

Example: "FIRST CONTACT - Human or Idemian: to go to Log 2261 instead of [icon]."

It means that if there is a Crewmember of a given species in the Sector with such an instruction (they don't have to be the one performing this Action), you may resolve this effect while performing the Action.

Species during Ship Book management and while reading the Logbook

Sometimes, a Crewmember of a certain species is required to use a certain effect. Such effects will be explained in the Ship Book and Logbook.

Multispecies Crewmembers

Some Crewmembers have 2 species at the same time. They are treated as both species at once.

For example: The cost of the Production Project below requires Assigning 1 Human or Aerugon Crewmember and 1 Visitor Crewmember. The Security Section player decides to Assign their Crewmember, Philiph Heeo. Philiph meets both requirements at the same time, because they are a Human and a Visitor, so players don't need to Assign more Crewmembers to complete this Project.

Body type

Crewmembers are divided by 3 body types. They are checked by many game mechanics and suggest which Crewmember models (explained on the next page) you may want to use while choosing a Crewmember for Planetary Exploration. Body types are represented by the icons below.

Earthling (icons: Earthling and Earthling multispecies)
Humanoid (icons: Humanoid and Humanoid multispecies)
Xenoid (icons: Xenoid and Xenoid multispecies)

Crewmember ability

In addition to standard effects, many Abilities affect other Crewmembers of a specific body type. You should take such effects into account while forming the Away Team.

Example: Advisor card - "When Assisting: Spend 1 Charge to Assist a Crewmember in any Sector. If you Assist [body type icon] they may reroll 1 [Section die] in this Dice Check."

Section cards

Similar to Crewmember Abilities, Section cards included in this campaign interact with Crewmembers of specific body types.

Crewmember models

The body type is also a suggestion to players, for which model they should choose for Planetary Exploration.

Earthling models (from the base game) - shown as images in the printed PDF.

Humanoid models (from Deadly Frontier box) - shown as images in the printed PDF.

Xenoid models (from the Deadly Frontier box) - shown as images in the printed PDF.

When you gain Section dice, you will be instructed to choose from one of those two categories.

Colonies

One of your main tasks will be establishing new colonies to provide resources for Scrapheap and new places to live for Scrapheap's residents. Establishing colonies is often connected to the main mission during Planetary Exploration.

Colonies are represented by a special type of cards that will be used during Ship Management, and they will grant you a constant flow of resources and Discoveries.

Colonies are explained in the Ship Book on page 6. You don't need to read any of the Ship Book pages before starting the game.

Example card: Colony "Promising Land" - "Colonists barely survive on the unwelcoming planet. However, their tenacity allows them to produce a tiny surplus of resources. Gain 1 resource or 1 Microorganism Discovery."

Resources

Resource tokens represent resources that you will be able to collect from planets and colonies. During Ship Management, you will use them to pay for Projects, Facility Upgrades, and much more.

When you gain resources during Planetary Exploration, place them on the Lander board.

No success tokens

Success tokens are not used in Deadly Frontier.

Unlike the base game, you won't be able to buy Section dice with Success tokens. You will earn Section dice during the campaign by completing Projects and important story objectives.

Section dice

Section dice are divided into two categories:

Standard Section dice consisting of Basic, Specialized, and Wild dice.
Advanced Section dice consisting of Universal and Expert dice.

Companions

Companions are a new type of Equipment cards. Companions represent sentient or animal helpers, which will aid the Away Team during Planetary Exploration. When you start a Planetary Exploration, you will place a Companion standee in the same Sector as your Crewmembers (there are 2 different Companion standees in case you unlock the possibility to take 2 with you on a mission) - however, you may use any unused Threat standees or unused Crewmember models if you want a more thematic experience.

Example cards: Idemian Advisor and Aerugon Advisor (Companions).

Rank-Ups

Rank-Ups work a little differently compared to the base game.

Most Planetary Exploration has 2 unique Rank-Ups: one for Rank 1 Crewmembers and one for Rank 2. Each of those cards has a different task, completion of which will grant promotion for Crewmembers of a given Rank. You only have to complete the task, there are no other requirements (like the number of Section dice you must have collected in the base game).

Danger dice

Danger dice are divided into 4 categories (A, B, C, and D) and into 3 tiers. Whenever you roll a Danger die, look up the result in the appropriate section of the Danger die Reference card, depending on the letter and number inside the icon.

Sometimes you will be able to reduce the Danger die roll - if that happens, before you roll the Danger die, use the section for a lower tier than you were initially instructed. If you reduce a Danger die roll of tier 1, you don't roll at all. You may reduce one roll several times (if you have several different effects that allow you to do so), but you cannot reduce the die after the roll is made.

For example: You should roll Danger die A3, but you have an Equipment card that allows you to reduce all Danger A rolls. Instead of looking up your result in section A3, you will use section A2.

Reference card entries for the Danger die are listed on the Danger die Reference card (see "Reference cards" below).

Situations

There is no Situation Room in the Ship Book, so Situation cards are a little different - they do not have the "Completion" part. Situations will be added to the "Awaiting..." envelope by story progress and removed from the game in the same manner.

New biome - Diplomatic

Deadly Frontier adds a new biome icon: Diplomatic. It represents places and events where the Away Team will be able to interact with sentients in non-hostile situations such as trading or discourses.

Bridge Upgrades

Bridge Upgrade cards are a little different from the base game. Each Bridge Upgrade has a Cardholder position number. This number indicates where to slot the Bridge Upgrade card.

Characters and Generators

There are two new types of Bridge cards: Characters and Generators. Characters represent important figures currently present on Scrapheap with whom you will be able to interact. Generators are the main source of energy and will be upgraded along with your Research Projects progress.

Example cards: Character "Tetrarchs" (Audience: Go to Log 2100. Chosen by Section Leaders, greatest minds on Scrapheap.) and Generator "Struggling Generators" (The old technology isn't enough to support the enormous city Scrapheap has become.)

Tracks

Sometimes during Exploration, you may come across new Dice Check track icons: a track for 3 or more Crewmembers and a track for 4 Crewmembers. They mean that such tracks are longer and thus more challenging for that number of Crewmembers taking part in a Planetary Exploration.

The first time you make progress on such a track, place the marker in the slot matching the number of Crewmembers in this Planetary Exploration. If there are 2 Crewmembers, always place the marker in the leftmost slot without any icons.

For example: If there are 2 Crewmembers, you only need to progress the following track 3 times. If there are 3 or more Crewmembers, you need to progress the track 4 times.

For 2 Crewmembers, the first marker is placed in this slot.

For 3 and 4 Crewmembers, the first marker is placed in this slot.

3 or more Crewmembers icon
4 Crewmembers icon

Research and Production

Research and Production Project cards are a little different from the base game as well as the Ship Book pages that correspond to them. Everything is explained in the Ship Book on pages 12 and 15.

Starmap

There are no System Maps - the Starmap step is fully resolved inside the Ship Book. There are cards of a new type instead, which are added to the Starmap cardholder during the campaign expanding your available destinations. All the rules for the Starmap step are written on the cards that you will add to the cardholder during campaign setup. Read those cards (Y01, Y02, and Y03) carefully at least once during your first Ship Management.

Example of Starmap card: Unknown and Surveyed side with marked cardholder position.

Section cards

At the beginning of the game, only Section cards of Rank 1 are available. Other Section cards are behind the Unavailable Section cards divider, and you will add them to Section Compartments during the game for completing specific Projects and story objectives.

Standees and miniatures used in Deadly Frontier

New threats

Lithoidian
Accidian
Vulpes Palus / Furious Mother
Corrupted Shardfly / Swarm of Corrupted Shardflies

Threats from the base game and Lost Fleet campaign

Maw
Sprouts
Native Species
Hunter / Besieged Hunter
Carnivorous Thicket
Hunting Predator / Territorial Predator
Amphibian Leaftrap
Saboteur / Besieged Saboteur

Companions

Companion #1
Companion #2

Deadly Memento

ISS Vanguard Operations are single scenarios that can be played either separately during a single gaming session or as a part of the main ISS Vanguard campaign.

Operation Deadly Memento is a mission for 1-4 players that takes place on an artificial object hovering between binary stars. The Away Team will try to find out its purpose and if it poses a threat to the planetary system.

To begin Operation Deadly Memento, go to Log 2701.

Campaign setup

You can safely set aside these base game components: Planetopedia, Logbook and Operations Book, Success tokens, System Maps, Secret envelope, Current System bookmark, Possible Situations and Planet cards dividers. They won't be used during this campaign.

Prepare Cards Tray

Take the following components from base game and Lost Fleet campaign (each of them will be used in the Deadly Frontier campaign):

Dice Check/Game Round reference cards from the base game
Injury cards from the base game
Landers from the base game and the Lost Fleet campaign (cards, boards, standees)
All Rank 1 Section cards from the base game
Threat standees from the base game and the Lost Fleet campaign
All dice from the base game
Crew boards from the base game
Lead bag with Lead tokens from the base game
Universal markers from the base game
All tokens (except Success) from the base game

Take the following cards from base game and mix them with corresponding Deadly Frontier cards (each mixed deck will be used in the Deadly Frontier campaign):

all Mineral Discoveries except for: Ultra-Durable Ceramic Crust, Fractal Nanostructure, Incandescent Gemstone, Carbon Filaments, Strange Inclusion
all Microorganism Discoveries except for: Ravenous Protozoa, Builder's Geneseed, Mind-altering Virus, Detector Spores, Transdimensional Prion
all Alien Tech Discoveries except for: Monomolecular Wire, Alien Data Vault, Fractured Casing, Functional Core
all Strange Flora Discoveries except for: Hibernating Plant, Flower of Eden, Superfluid Slime, Rootbound Object
all Strange Flora Discoveries except for: Telephatic Toroid, Veined Tunicate, Ancient Shapeshifter, Undulating Cnidaria, Glossy-eyed Cluster

You can safely set aside all other cards (along with the specific Discoveries listed above) from the base game box. They won't be used during this campaign.

To prepare Card Trays take all cards from the Deadly Frontier box and all cards prepared earlier and place them in the following order using remaining dividers from the base game and 4 new dividers (Colonies, Starmap, Unavailable Crewmembers, and Unavailable Section Cards):

Card Tray A:

Unavailable Crewmembers (42 cards: W19-W60)
Unavailable Section cards (72 cards: Z01-Z72 - Rank 2 and Rank 3 cards)
Points of Interest (156 cards)
Missions (40 cards)
Global Conditions (21 cards)
Injuries (48 cards)
Discoveries (75 cards)
Unique Discoveries (37 cards)
Rank-Ups (18 cards)
Events (40 cards)

Card Tray B:

Armory (4 cards: E61-E64)
Unavailable Equipment (75 cards: E01-E60, E65-E79)
Resting Crew (0 cards)
Recruits (18 cards: W01-W18)
Landing (13 cards)
Starmap (32 cards)
Colonies (15 cards)
Facility Upgrades (32 cards)
Future Situations (18 cards)
Research Projects (18 cards)
Production Projects (20 cards)
Recorded Planets (0 cards)
Gathered Discoveries (0 cards)
Lander Mods (30 cards)
Bridge cards (32 cards)

4x Section Compartment:

Rank sleeves (9 sleeves)
Section cards of Rank 1 (14 cards)

Place all prepared Trays and Section Compartments in the base game box. Place all large cards from the Deadly Frontier box and all large cards prepared earlier in the base game box. Place the Deadly Frontier Planetopedia, the Deadly Frontier Logbook, Resource tokens, Deadly Frontier standees, clean Recorded Planets sheets, and base game markers and tokens in the base game box.

Hint: You may use the empty Deadly Frontier box to store unused base game components.

Prepare the Ship Book

Remove all base game pages and cardholders from the Ship Book.
Place all cardholders and cardboard divider pages from the Deadly Frontier campaign (you may recognize them by the "DF" mark next to the page number) in the Ship Book in ascending order with page 1 (Resuming a Saved Game) at the front and page 37 (Save Point) at the back.
Find the following starting cards and place them in the cardholders as follows:

Cardholder page 3:

Objective O01
Struggling Generators B23
Medium Morale (insert the Morale card so that only its "Medium" part is visible)
Character B01

Cardholder page 7:

Colony N01

Cardholder pages 8 and 9:

Starmap Y01
Starmap Y02
Starmap Y03
Starmap Y13 (Surveyed side up)
Starmap Y04 (Unknown side up)
Starmap Y05 (Unknown side up)

Cardholder page 13:

Research Project R01
Research Project R02
Research Facility Upgrade F06

Cardholder page 14:

Production Project C01
Production Facility Upgrade F13

Cardholder page 17:

Central Facility Upgrade F29

Cardholder page 21:

Pelican Lander

Cardholder page 23:

Lander Mod A01
Lander Mod A02
Lander Mod A03
Lander Mod A27

Prepare the "Awaiting..." envelope

Move Situation card S01 from "Future Situations" to the "Awaiting..." envelope.

Start the Deadly Frontier campaign

Go to the Starting Log in the Logbook.

Reference cards

Danger die

Transcription note: the Danger die Reference card is partly covered by the Deadly Space Mode card in the printed PDF. Only its header, the general line and the A1, A2 and A3 entries are legible; the B, C and D entries are not visible in this file. The symbols on the left of each entry are Danger die faces and the cube symbols are icons from the printed card; they are shown here as icons.

"If a symbol rolled on your Danger die is not described, it has no effect."

A1: [Danger face] » [cube icon]; [Danger face] » [cube icon]; [Danger face] » Gain a Wounded Injury.
A2: [Danger face] » [cube icon]; [Danger face] » [cube icon] + [cube icon]; [Danger face] » Gain a Wounded Injury; [Danger face] » Gain a Critically Wounded Injury.
A3: [Danger face] » [cube icon] + [cube icon] + [cube icon]; [Danger face] » Gain a Wounded Injury; [Danger face] » Gain a Wounded Injury; [Danger face] » Gain a Critically Wounded Injury.

Deadly Space Mode

Deadly Space Mode is a set of variant rules for players who prefer a more challenging, survival experience with more opportunities for Crewmembers to die, and for the campaign to end in failure. It includes three simple rule modifications. It is recommended you play through a regular campaign at least once before braving Deadly Space.

Transcription note: the card's introduction says it includes three rule modifications, but only modification 1 and the Dead Crewmember procedure are printed on the legible card in this PDF. Modifications 2 and 3 are not present in this file.

1. Alternative Evac rule - Player Elimination

Whenever any Crewmember would gain a fourth Injury, instead of resolving an Evac, follow this procedure:

If this Crewmember already has 3 or fewer Section dice in total, they die - go to the Dead Crewmember procedure below.
The Crewmember rolls 3 Injury dice. If they roll 2 [Injury icon] OR 1 [Injury icon] + 1 [Injury icon], they die - go to the Dead Crewmember procedure below. Otherwise, this Crewmember Sacrifices a die.
Continue the game.

Dead Crewmember: Remove the dead Crewmember from their Rank Sleeve, remove their model from the Planet board, return all their dice to their Section Compartment, and all their Equipment to the Armory. Discard any tokens on the Planet board corresponding to any returned Equipment. Continue Planetary Exploration without the dead Crewmember. If all Crewmembers are dead now, resolve the Evac Log of this Planetary Exploration.

Transcription note: the Injury die icons on this card are shown as icons; the card does not spell them out in text in this file.

Logbook

Component note printed on the Logbook image: This logbook is used to mark and fill in as you progress through the campaign. Instead of this paper copy, you may use the official ISS Vanguard app. If you need another paper copy of the Logbook, print the most up-to-date version from awakenrealms.com/download.