ISS Vanguard Rulebook

Table of Contents

Rulebook Structure
Chapter I — Introduction
Chapter II — Tutorial
Chapter III — Campaign
Chapter IV — Glossaries
- Game Terms Glossary
- Icons Glossary

Rulebook Structure

This Rulebook is divided into four chapters.

Chapter I: Introduction — The first chapter introduces you to the components of the game, some steps that need to be followed before your first game, and provides some essential information. Make sure you read through it carefully.
Chapter II: Tutorial — This chapter details the Tutorial mission, an introductory scenario which teaches you how to play the game. At least one player in the group should play through the Tutorial to learn the game.
Chapter III: Campaign — This chapter contains the entire, detailed rules of the game. We do not recommend reading through all of them right now. The Tutorial mission will teach you all of the basic rules. Only refer to the full rules when you have a specific question, or need a detailed breakdown of a certain procedure.
Chapter IV: Glossaries — The last chapter contains detailed Glossaries of all icons and terms in the game. Refer to this whenever you find an icon or keyword you don't remember the rules for.

Note: This Rulebook covers Planetary Exploration and the general rules of the game. All rules related to Ship Management (managing ISS Vanguard, performing Research, preparing missions, and more) are found in the Ship Book. References of the form "SB" followed by a number refer to a page of the Ship Book.

Chapter I — Introduction

Game structure

The ISS Vanguard Campaign is played by repeating two separate parts of the game.

Planetary Exploration — An Away Team lands on one of the many planets to explore, completing Missions, and gathering Discoveries.
Ship Management — All players manage the crew of the ship, conduct research, fly to other planets, and deal with ship situations.

Because ISS Vanguard is a campaign game, played over multiple sessions, you will need to regularly save your progress. This is best done at the end of the Ship Book. In a single game session, you should aim to complete at least one Planetary Exploration followed by the final Ship Book pages that clean up your table and save your game. However, if you have time, you may choose to play more.

Before your first game

Before you can enjoy ISS Vanguard, there are several preparation and unpacking steps you must complete. Since all of these steps can take some time, we recommend performing them in advance of your first play session. If your copy of the game has already been played, it is recommended to follow these steps to make sure it is ready for a new playthrough.

1) Prepare Card Trays A & B

First, unpack all card packs found in the Card Trays, except for two sealed Tutorial decks (A and B). If the Tutorial decks were already open, go to Log 720 in the Logbook in order to recreate them.

Card Tray A is used during Planetary Exploration. Its dividers are: Points of Interest (POI), Missions, Global Conditions, Discoveries, Unique Discoveries, Rank-Ups, Injuries, Events. Fill it as follows:

Put all Point of Interest cards behind the "Points of Interest" divider in ascending order.
Put all Mission cards behind the "Missions" divider in ascending order.
Put all Global Condition cards behind the "Global Conditions" divider in ascending order.
Put all Discovery cards behind the "Discoveries" divider grouped by type.
Put all Unique Discovery cards behind the "Unique Discoveries" divider in ascending order.
Put all Rank-Up cards behind the "Rank-Ups" divider in any order.
Put all Injury cards behind the "Injuries" divider in alphabetical order.
Put all Event cards behind the "Events" divider in any order.

Note: Since at first some cards are located in pre-sealed Tutorial decks, the numbering for some decks may not start at 1.

Card Tray B is for cards used during Ship Management. Its dividers are: Armory, Unavailable Equipment, Resting Crew, Recruits, Landing Cards, Recorded Planets, Facility Upgrades, Possible Situations, Future Situations, Research Projects, Production Projects, Gathered Discoveries, Lander Mods, Bridge Cards, and Removed from the Game (a separate slot without a divider). Fill it as follows:

Put all Equipment cards behind the "Unavailable Equipment" divider in ascending order.
Put all Crewmember cards behind the "Recruits" divider in any order.
Put all Landing cards behind the "Landing Cards" divider in ascending order.
Put all Facility Upgrade cards behind the "Facility Upgrades" divider in ascending order.
Put all Situation cards numbered S01–S10 behind the "Possible Situations" divider in ascending order.
Put all Situation cards numbered S11 and higher behind the "Future Situations" divider in ascending order.
Put all Research Project cards behind the "Research Projects" divider in ascending order.
Put all Production Project cards behind the "Production Projects" divider in ascending order.
Put all Lander Mod cards behind the "Lander Mods" divider in ascending order.
Put all Objective, Secondary Objective, Bridge Upgrade and Tech Level cards behind the "Bridge Cards" divider in ascending order.

2) Prepare Section Compartments

Take the Section Compartments. This is where each of the four Sections will keep their dice and cards. For each Section there are Rank sleeves and Section cards dividers.

Put the Rank sleeves behind the "Rank sleeves" divider of each Section.
Put the Section cards behind the "Section Cards" divider in order of Rank (Rank 1 first, then Rank 2, then Rank 3).

3) Prepare the Ship Book

A. Place all cardholder and cardboard divider pages in the Ship Book in ascending order with page 1 (Resuming a Saved Game) at the front and page 39 (Save Point) at the back.

B. Find the following starting cards and place them into the cardholders as follows:

Cardholder page 3: (1) Objective O01 (The Next Step); (2) Tech Level 1; (3) Medium Morale (insert the Morale card so that only its "Medium" part is visible).
Cardholder page 9: (1) Research Project R04 (Biomedical Enhancements).
Cardholder page 13: (1) Production Project C01 (Section Tools); (2) Production Project C02 (Improved Vanguard Systems); (3) Production Project C03 (Heavy Mission Equipment); (4) Production Project C06 (Pelican Lander).
Cardholder page 19: (1) Space Ranger Lander card.

Once all the above steps are finished, return the Card Trays and the Ship Book to the game box.

Number of Players

There are four specialized Sections of ISS Vanguard: Engineering, Recon, Science, and Security. Each has its own roster of Crewmembers, Section-specific cards, Equipment, and decisions to make. Each Section is controlled by 1 player; if there are fewer than 4 players, some players must control more than one Section.

Players	Section Control
1 Player	One player controls 4 Sections.
2 Players	Two players control 2 Sections each.
3 Players	Two players control 1 Section, one player controls 2 Sections.
4 Players	Each player controls 1 Section.

Notes:

Planetary Exploration requires an Away Team of at least 2 Crewmembers from different Sections.
It is not required to have the same number of players (or even the same players) each time you play.

Starting Your Game

ISS Vanguard offers a Tutorial, a Campaign, and several Operations (one-off scenarios).

Tutorial — Estimated Playtime: 3-4 hours. Players: 1-4 (1 recommended). For your first time playing, it is highly recommended to play through the Tutorial using either the text version in this Rulebook or the Tutorial Video. It teaches most of the rules while playing through the first, simplified, Planetary Exploration. You do not need to read the whole Rulebook first. After playing, you may continue with the Campaign using the same Crewmembers. To limit player downtime as you learn, you may play the Tutorial alone and then start the Campaign with other players using the Quickstart rules. To start the Tutorial, go to Chapter II.

Campaign — Estimated Playtime: 20-60 hours. Players: 1-4. The main mode of the game. The Campaign consists of playing through the process in the Ship Book from start to finish, that usually includes a Planetary Exploration. You can then continue playing or save your game and continue later. Each play through the Ship Book should take 2-4 hours. Once you know how to play, you can begin a new Campaign without replaying the Tutorial, using the Quickstart rules. To start the Campaign, go to Chapter III.

Operations — Estimated Playtime: 2-3 hours. Players: 1-4. Operations are single Planetary Exploration missions that may be played as part of the Campaign, or separately as stand-alone scenarios. These scenarios require full knowledge of the rules. We do not recommend playing them before you open the Secret envelope during your Campaign playthrough. To start an Operation, go to its setup rules in the Operations book.

Logbook or App: Any time you are instructed to go to a Log, either read that section of the Logbook or use the ISS Vanguard App. ISS Vanguard Logs are not resolved in consecutive order — if you ever read any narrative in the Logbook that feels out of place, double-check that you are reading the correct Log.

Chapter II — Tutorial

This chapter contains a walkthrough that teaches all the fundamental rules. The first part (Planetary Exploration) focuses on exploring an alien world with your Away Team. The second part (Ship Management) takes you to ISS Vanguard and teaches you how to fly your ship to other explorable worlds, manage your crew, conduct research, production, and more.

Important: You should follow the Tutorial at least once before playing the Campaign. After that, as long as one player knows how to play and is happy to teach the others, you do not have to replay it. Because you learn the game gradually as you play, there is a lot of reading of new rules, including some scripted sequences. To avoid player downtime, if you use the text version, consider playing it solo and then restarting the Campaign with your entire group.

During the Tutorial, Crewmembers do not draw Event cards at the end of their turn until Mission M02 has been revealed.

Turn structure

Planetary Exploration is divided into a series of rounds. In each round, starting with the Crewmember with the Start token and going clockwise, each Crewmember takes a turn to perform two Actions.

At the start of each round, the Crewmember with the Start token chooses any Crewmember (including themselves) to receive the Start token. Crewmembers then take turns beginning with the Crewmember with the Start token and continuing clockwise. Each Crewmember flips over their Turn token at the start of the round.

A Crewmember's turn consists of the following two steps:

Actions Step: Perform two Actions.
End Turn Step: Flip Turn token face down, then draw and resolve an Event card.

You may use the Actions token to keep track of how many Actions you have remaining.

There are five different Actions: Travel, Rest, Prepare, Lift-Off, and Special Action (Special Action may only be performed once per turn). With the exception of the Special Action, you may perform the same Action twice.

The Actions (Reference card summary)

Travel: Choose a Path from your Sector and resolve all icons along the Path. The Travel icon is explained on the Global Condition card.
Rest: (1) Reduce the Supplies track on your Lander by 1. If there are no Supplies, you cannot Rest — use Exertion instead. (2) Refresh half of your total number of dice (available and in Spent Pool), rounded up. (3) Draw 1 Section card from your deck.
Prepare: Draw 1 Section card and/or make a Dice Check to trigger Dice Combinations.
Lift-Off: May only be performed by a Crewmember in the Lander Sector. Other Crewmembers must agree. Lift-Off ends Planetary Exploration.
Exertion (NOT an Action): Use at any moment of the game. (1) Sacrifice 1 chosen Section die. If you have a total of 3 or fewer dice, gain an Exhausted Injury instead. (2) Refresh 5 dice.

Convert Abilities

Each Crewmember has a Convert Ability depicted in the top left of their Crewmember card. During a Dice Check, you may use your Convert Ability whenever you Spend a die to treat Basic results of the color shown as if they were the depicted icon. The color of the die is unchanged.

Dice Check procedure

Dice Checks are one of the main mechanisms of ISS Vanguard, identified by the Dice Check icon. Some Special Actions involve making a Dice Check. Each is resolved in 10 steps:

Step 1: Choose dice. At the start of a Dice Check, the Crewmember performing the Check takes any number of dice from their Crew board into their hand. Look at the rows below the name of the Special Action. A row marked in green is a positive Outcome (success). A row marked in red usually indicates the Action has been unsuccessful. Each die has a Vanguard icon which counts as any other icon.

Step 2: Add Injury & Danger dice. If you have any Injury dice on your Crew board, take them into your hand. Also take the number of Danger dice depicted to the left of the Action's name, if any. Crewmembers who Assist you do not add their Injury dice.

Step 3: Roll dice. Roll all of the dice in your hand. Together, all dice rolled by the player and any assisting players form a single Roll Pool. An Accident result means something has gone wrong and usually leads to some negative effect. A Basic icon has no effect on its own, but could still be useful in some situations.

Step 4: Modify the results. Play Section cards (top effect, "During a Dice Check:") and use other dice modifier effects (such as certain Equipment cards) to change the results of your dice and meet the requirements of the desired Outcome. After resolving a Section card, place it face up in your Discard pile. Other Crewmembers in the same Sector may Assist by playing 1 Section card from their hand.

Step 5: Check for Dice Combinations. You may use the Dice Combination effect (lower part of a Section card) of any Section cards in your hand if you meet the requirement with dice in the Roll Pool. In the Campaign, there may also be Dice Combination effects on the current Global Condition card.

Step 6: Resolve Injury & Danger dice. Resolve any Injury dice (see Injuries) and look up any Danger die on the Danger die Reference card.

Step 7: Resolve Special Effects. Special Effects are in a black frame between the name of the Action and its Outcomes. Resolve them left to right, top row first.

Step 8: Mark Outcomes. Starting from the top row and proceeding down, check to see if you meet the requirements depicted to the left of the Outcome space with dice in the Roll Pool. If you do, move those dice to your Spent Pool and place a marker on the Outcome space. Only one marker can be placed on a card during this step. If a marker was placed, proceed to Step 9. This step is skipped for Dice Checks with tracks.

Step 9: Spend remaining dice. Move all remaining dice in your Roll Pool to your Spent Pool.

Step 10: Resolve Outcomes. Remove the marker from the marked Outcome space and apply the effect of that Outcome.

Connected Outcomes: If the marked Outcome has an arrow pointing to another Outcome, apply that second Outcome as well after the first. Outcomes are only connected in the direction of the arrow.

Section dice and locations

Your Section dice will either be: in Section dice slots on your Crew board (your "Available dice"); in your hand (about to roll during a Dice Check); in your Roll Pool (an area above your Crew board); or in your Spent Pool (to the right of your Crewmember card). Dice are taken from your Section dice slots into your hand, rolled and placed in your Roll Pool, and then moved to your Spent Pool when used. Dice are moved back to your dice slots by Resting or other effects which Refresh dice.

Dice Identification: Each die has two or more sides with markings (called brackets) in the four corners. These identify the type of die and indicate the most common result. When placing a die into a slot, place it so that the side with the markings faces up.

Dice Checks with tracks

Some Dice Checks, instead of Outcomes with requirements, have each Outcome associated with a track. Each of your dice will give a chance of progressing one of the tracks. The first time you progress on a track, place a universal marker on the leftmost space of the track. Each subsequent progress moves the marker 1 space to the right. When the marker moves onto the Outcome space (the large space on the right), progressing it again will not move it farther. The effect of that space is applied at the end of the Dice Check procedure.

Progress on a track is saved from one turn to the next — one Crewmember could progress a track on their turn, and another Crewmember progress more later on. You can even make some progress, Travel elsewhere, come back, and continue.

At Step 10, check each track from top to bottom. If the marker is in the Outcome space, remove the marker and apply the effect of that Outcome. In the rare case that you progress both tracks to the end, because they are resolved from top to bottom, the top (usually green) Outcome would be resolved and the lower (red) track would then not be resolved.

Success tokens

Whenever you gain a Success, place 1 Success token above the indicated space on the upper edge of the Planet board. Successes measure how efficient you are on your Mission and are used to buy new Section dice and to Rank-Up Crewmembers.

Rest Action detail

Supplies are your most vital resource, representing oxygen, filters, water, and everything else you need to explore alien worlds. When you Rest, you Refresh half of your total number of Section dice, rounding up (count both Available dice and dice in your Spent Pool). To Refresh a die, move it from your Spent Pool back into a matching colored dice slot on the left side of your Crew board.

Finally, as the last step of the Rest Action, draw 1 Section card from your deck into your hand. At Rank 1, the maximum number of Section cards a Crewmember may have in hand is 2. If you have too many cards, you must discard down to your limit.

Empty Section card deck: Whenever you need to draw a Section card and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, then draw. You only create a new deck when you need to draw a card and your deck is empty, not just when your deck runs out of cards.

Cards with 2 Special Actions

Some cards depict more than 1 Special Action. You must choose which Special Action you are performing before starting the Dice Check.

Bonus Outcomes

Some Dice Checks have a bonus yellow Outcome in addition to the green and red Outcomes. A bonus Outcome usually gives you something in addition to the standard positive Outcome, and is often connected by a yellow arrow to the green Outcome (apply both). A red Outcome that is not connected to another Outcome is simply a failure and a wasted Action.

Immediate Special Effects

A Special Effect that depicts one of the Immediate Special Effect icons ends the Dice Check immediately when its conditions are met. Move all rolled dice from the Roll Pool to their owner's Spent Pools and resolve the depicted Outcome.

Multiple POI cards

Whenever you are instructed to take a POI card (e.g. a P000 card) and there are multiple copies of that card available, choose one at random.

Rank-Up card

Rank-Up cards contain an additional goal that Crewmembers should try to achieve during Planetary Exploration. As soon as you meet the requirements listed on the current Rank-Up card, flip the card over to the Completed side. This means the Crewmembers in the Away Team have an opportunity to increase their Rank during Ship Management. When playing the Campaign, you draw 2 Rank-Up cards and choose one to keep.

Injuries (Tutorial)

To gain an Injury, first take an Injury card and place it face up in the leftmost Injury slot on the bottom of your Crew board. Then place 1 yellow Injury die in the top dice slot of any column of your Crew board, moving all other dice in that column down 1 slot if the top slot has a die in it.

Dice Checks when injured: Whenever you make a Dice Check, any Injury dice you have must be rolled during Step 2 along with any Section dice you choose. During Step 6, if the result of an Injury die in your Roll Pool matches the icon on your Injury card, place the Injury die on the card and apply the effect of that icon as listed on the card. If the result does not match an icon on any of your Injury cards, leave it in your Roll Pool. Injury dice are returned to your Section dice slots at the end of Step 6 (top slot of any column, moving other dice down if required).

Removing an Injury: Some effects allow a Crewmember to remove an Injury die and an Injury card. Take the die and place it back in the supply and place the card back with the other Injury cards.

Prepare Action detail

To perform the Prepare Action, do one or both of the following (in any order):

Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now have more cards than your Section card limit, immediately discard 1 card.
Make a Dice Check to try and match the icons on your rolled dice to Dice Combinations of Section cards in your hand. This follows the normal Dice Check process (you must include any Injury dice, other players may Assist you, and you may play the top effects of Section cards to modify its results).

Dice Combinations

During Step 5 of a Dice Check, you may use the Dice Combination effect of any Section cards in your hand if you meet the requirement with dice in the Roll Pool. If the results of dice in the Roll Pool (including dice from Assisting Crewmembers) match the Dice Combination requirement on a Section card in your hand, you may move the matching dice to their owner's Spent Pools to activate the effect described on the card, then discard that card. It is possible to activate the effect of more than 1 Section card this way, but dice used to activate an effect are moved to their owner's Spent Pool immediately and cannot be used to activate another card or an Outcome.

Any die showing a Basic result counts toward "any Basic".
"2 dice showing the same icon" — remember that the Vanguard result counts as any icon.
Accident results cannot be used for Dice Combinations.

Assisting

Whenever a Crewmember (the Active Crewmember) is making a Dice Check, each other Crewmember in the same Sector may choose to Assist, in one or both of the following ways:

During Step 1, another Crewmember may Assist by choosing 1 die from their Available dice. This die is rolled during Step 3 and may be used by the Active Crewmember as if it was in their Roll Pool. When it is moved to the Spent Pool, place it in the Spent Pool of the owning Crewmember.
During Step 4, another Crewmember may Assist by playing 1 Section card from their hand that has a "During a Dice Check" effect. Resolve the effect as if the Active Crewmember played it.

Collective Roll Pool: Each player has their own Roll Pool in order to keep track of who owns each die. However, all dice in all Roll Pools are considered to be in the same Roll Pool and can be used by the Active Crewmember.

Convert Abilities when Assisting: Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Convert Abilities. Only the Convert Ability of the Crewmember performing the Dice Check may be used — but this Crewmember can use it also on dice from Assisting Crewmembers.

Danger Dice in Dice Checks

Some Special Actions are dangerous to perform, represented by the Danger die icon depicted to the left of the Special Action's name. A Danger die must be rolled at the same time as your other dice. During Step 6, resolve the Danger die by looking up the result on the Danger die Reference card, then place the Danger die back in the supply.

Unique Discovery

Unique Discoveries are found on certain planets and are placed face down on the Planet board during setup. When you are instructed to gain a Unique Discovery, flip the card over. Unique Discoveries are normally stored on your Lander. If you are instructed to gain a Unique Discovery you already have, gain 1 Success instead (as printed on the Unique Discovery space in the top right of the Planet board).

Events

When a Crewmember ends their turn, they reveal the top Event card and resolve it:

Reveal the top Event card from the Event deck. If the Event deck is empty, shuffle the Events discard pile to form a new deck first.
If none of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector (including icons on a POI card), follow the secondary effect of the card, printed at the top.
If any Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector, resolve the main effect of the card, printed in the lower part. Unless specified otherwise, this effect only applies to the player who revealed the card.
Discard the card face up to the Event cards discard pile.

Time Tracks

At various times during the game, you will be instructed to progress all Time Tracks. Time Tracks work in a similar way to tracks on Special Actions: whenever instructed to progress all Time Tracks, if there is no Time token currently on the track, place one on the leftmost space. Each subsequent progress moves the token one space to the right. Once it reaches the rightmost space (the one with details of the effect), resolve that effect. Whenever instructed to reset a Time Track, remove the Time token from it.

Not enough dice to Spend

If you have to resolve a Spend effect and you don't have enough Available dice, you will need to Sacrifice a die instead.

Chapter III — Campaign

Before playing the Campaign, at least one of the players (and ideally everyone) must have watched the tutorial video or played through the Tutorial, as that teaches you the main rules.

You have two options for starting the Campaign:

Continue from the Tutorial — the recommended option if you have just played the Tutorial. You do not have to perform any additional setup; simply continue your game where the Tutorial left off.
Quickstart — Choose this if you want to start the Campaign with different Crewmembers than were used in the Tutorial, or if you are playing the Campaign for a second time or more.

Campaign Quickstart

Check Card Trays & Ship Book. Make sure the Card Trays and Ship Book are organized as in "Before your First Play." If you remade the Tutorial decks, move the appropriate Tutorial cards (POIs P101, P102, P103, P105–P109, three P000; Missions M01, M02, M03; Global Condition G01; Unique Discovery 1; four "Just a Scratch" Injury cards; five Tutorial Event cards and a Tutorial Rank-Up card; four Tutorial Crewmember cards to "Recruits"; Research Project R01) to the correct trays.
Gather Components on the table (Reference cards, Danger Die Reference card, 4 Crew boards, Card Trays A and B, Section Compartments, Planetopedia, Start token and tokens, 12 Injury dice, 2 Danger dice, 5 Tutorial Event cards, 1 Tutorial Rank-Up card). Return everything else to the box.
Read the Starting Log (the very first Log in the Logbook) that begins Vanguard's story.
Choose Sections. Players discuss which Sections each controls. Each player takes the Crew boards for the Sections they control. Each of the four Sections must have a controlling player.
Draw initial Crewmembers. Each Section's player takes 3 random cards from "Recruits," picks two starting Crewmembers for each of their Sections (into Rank 1 sleeves), places one on a matching Crew board and the other in "Resting Crew." Return the rest to "Recruits" and shuffle.
Prepare Section Dice and Cards. Take the Section dice for each Section per the images, placing them into slots of the Crew board. Return unused dice to the box.
Choose the Away Team. Each player who controls more than one Section picks only one Section to take part in the first mission. If playing solo, choose two Sections. For any Section NOT in the mission: move its Crewmember card to "Resting Crew," move its dice to that Section's Compartment, and return its Crew board to the box.
Prepare Section Cards. For each Crewmember in the Away Team, take the 10 Rank 1 Section cards marked with a white bar next to their Rank from that Section Compartment. Each Crewmember shuffles their Section cards and places them face down in the Section deck slot to the left of their Crew board.
Set up the Planet Board. Open Planetopedia at pages 02-03 (Eye of the Void). Place the Tutorial Rank-Up card "Incomplete" side up. Place Mission card M01 face up. Place Unique Discovery 1 face down. Shuffle 5 Tutorial Event cards next to the board. For each Section in the Away Team, choose a mini in a colored ring and place them in Sectors 1 and 2 (at least one per Sector). Place a Turn token showing "Turn Available" next to each Crew board. Give the Start token to the Recon Section player. Leave the Charges slot empty. Read the Mission card aloud. Each Section's player draws two cards from their Section deck.
Begin your Exploration! Go to Log 1.

Note: The starting planet doesn't use all rules and components of the game, such as Threats, Discoveries, Leads, Equipment, Crew Abilities, and Charges. This means not every card ability will be useful for now.

Planetary Exploration Rules

At the start of Planetary Exploration:

Each player takes 1 Turn token for each Crewmember on the Planet and places it on their Crew board, showing "Turn Available."
The Recon Section player chooses which Crewmember receives the Start token.

Planetary Exploration is divided into a series of rounds. In each round, starting with the Crewmember with the Start token and going clockwise, each Crewmember takes a turn to perform two Actions. At the end of a turn, they flip their Turn token to the other side. Once all Crewmembers have taken a turn, the round ends and each Crewmember flips their Turn token back to "Turn Available." At the start of the next round, the Crewmember with the Start token chooses any Crewmember (including themself) and gives the Start token to them.

On your turn:

Perform two Actions — Choose an Action and resolve it fully, then choose a second Action and resolve it fully. With the exception of the Special Action (once per turn), you may perform the same Action twice. The Actions are: Special Action, Travel, Prepare, Rest, Lift-Off.
End of Turn — Flip your Turn token face down ("Turn Ended"), then draw and resolve an Event card.

When all Turn tokens show "Turn Ended," the round is over: begin a new round. This sequence repeats until any of the following happens: a Crewmember performs the Lift-Off Action; a Crewmember receives a fourth Injury card; or a Log or Mission card tells you to end Planetary Exploration. Then refer to "Ending Planetary Exploration."

Using an effect of your Crew board, Lander board, Crewmember card, Equipment, Section card, etc. does not count as an Action unless it is identified as a Special Action, or its text states that using it counts as an Action.

Special Actions

Special Actions include anything from taking samples of a dangerous substance to negotiating with an alien life form. They are identified by the Special Action icon before the name. On your turn, you may perform one Special Action that is visible: on the Planet board depicted in your Sector; on a POI card in your Sector; on the Global Condition card; on a card representing any Threats in your Sector; on a revealed Mission card; or on a Lander Mod or Rank-Up card.

Most Special Actions involve making a Dice Check. Other Special Actions simply involve following the text shown below the Action.

Travel

The Travel Action is the main way in which Crewmembers reach new Sectors. If there is a No-Movement icon visible anywhere in your Sector, you cannot perform this Action.

Choose a Path (a line connecting your Sector with the Sector you want to Travel to). Some Paths are one-way; you can only choose a Path if there is an arrowhead at its start (you can only move in the direction indicated by the arrowheads). All Sectors you can Travel to are called Connected Sectors.
Resolve each icon depicted on the Path. If the Path depicts a Travel icon, skip step 3 of this Action and resolve the effect of the Travel Action listed on the Global Condition card in the lower-right corner of the Planet board.
Place your mini in the Sector on the other end of the Path. If you arrive in a Sector that contains a Log number, immediately read this Log.

Until the Travel Action is completed (all Path icons resolved), your Crewmember is considered to be in the Sector you started your Travel from. This means Crewmembers in your starting sector can Assist you, but those in your destination Sector cannot.

Lander Sector: Some Sectors depict a Lander icon, indicating a possible Sector where you can land. The Sector with the Lander in it is the Lander Sector. At the end of most Planetary Explorations, you will have to go back to the Lander Sector to Lift-Off.

Log numbers on the Planet board: During your turn, if you arrive in a Sector that directs you to the Logbook ("Go to Log XX"), immediately read that entry.

Prepare

Whenever you perform the Prepare Action, do one or both (in any order):

Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now have more cards than your Section card limit (2 cards for Rank 1, 3 for Rank 2, 4 for Rank 3), immediately discard down to your limit.
Perform a Dice Check to try to match the rolled dice with a Dice Combination of a Section card in your hand or on the current Global Condition card (normal Dice Check process; include Injury dice; others may Assist; you may play top effects of Section cards).

Rest

Resting is the main way in which Crewmembers Refresh their Section dice (move them from the Spent Pool to Available dice slots).

Reduce your Supplies by 1 (tracked on the Supplies track of your Lander). If you are unable to (the track is at zero), you cannot Rest.
Refresh half of your total number of Section dice, rounding up. Count both Available Section dice and dice in your Spent Pool. (Example: 2 Available + 5 Spent = Refresh 4.)
Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now exceed your Section card limit, immediately discard down to your limit.

To Refresh a die, move it from your Spent Pool into a matching colored slot of your Crew board, brackets facing up.

Lift-Off

This Action may only be performed by a Crewmember in the Lander Sector, and only if all other Crewmembers unanimously agree. Performing this Action ends Planetary Exploration immediately.

Important: Lifting off without all Crewmembers in the Lander Sector will cause the abandoned Crewmembers to die. Lifting off with an incomplete mission will apply Mission Failed penalties in the Ship Book.

Exertion

You may Exert your Crewmember at any time (this includes Landings, and even in response to an effect, or after drawing an Event but before resolving it). Exerting does not count as an Action.

To Exert, Sacrifice 1 die (from Available Section dice or Spent Pool) to Refresh 5 of your Section dice. If you have a total of 3 or fewer Section dice in play (Available, Spent Pool, and Roll Pool), you must gain an "Exhausted" Injury instead of Sacrificing a die.

Sacrifice: Move a Section die from your Crew board or Spent Pool back to your Section Compartment.

Dice Checks (full rules)

Many Actions involve making a test with your Section dice to determine the Outcome. These are called Dice Checks and are identified by the Dice Check icon. Use these rules only if instructed to perform a Dice Check. If you are instructed to roll a specific die (e.g. a Danger die or D10), the following rules do not apply; that is not a "Dice Check."

Some Dice Checks show one or more colored rows. Each row is a possible Outcome. The green Outcome is a success. A yellow Outcome (if any) is a better success. The red Outcome is a failure, but could lead to something. Other Dice Checks contain one or two tracks that you progress a marker along; usually a green track leads to something beneficial, a red track leads to something bad.

Steps to perform a Dice Check:

Choose dice: Take any number of Available Section dice from your Crew board (not your Spent Pool) into your hand. It is not required to choose any of your own dice. Each other Crewmember in the same Sector may Assist by choosing and taking one Available Section die from their Crew board into their hand.
Add Injury & Danger dice: If you have any Injury dice on your Crew board, also take them into your hand. Assisting Crewmembers do not add their Injury dice. Also take the number of Danger dice depicted to the left of the Action's name, if any.
Roll the dice: Roll all of the dice; they now form a Roll Pool. Assisting Crewmembers roll the die they Assisted with; keep other players' dice separate but count them as in the Roll Pool.
Modify the results: You may use 1 or more Equipment cards you carry with a "During a Dice Check" effect (Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Equipment unless it says otherwise). You may play 1 or more Section cards from your hand with a "During a Dice Check" effect (discard after resolving). Other Crewmembers in the same Sector may Assist by playing up to 1 of their Section cards.
Check for Dice Combinations: You may activate any Dice Combination effects of cards in your hand and/or of the current Global Condition card.
Resolve Injury & Danger dice: If you have no Injury or Danger dice in your Roll Pool, skip this step. Otherwise, choose one of your rolled Injury dice; if the result matches an icon on one of your Injury cards, place the Injury die on the card and apply that icon's effect. Check your Injury cards in order, leftmost first. Repeat for each rolled Injury die (each Injury card may only have one die placed on it during this step). If the result does not match an icon on any of your empty Injury cards, move the die to your Spent Pool. At the end of Step 6, move any Injury dice from Injury cards and your Spent Pool to Available Section dice slots (top slot of any column, pushing other dice down; only 1 Injury die per column). Then look up the result of any Danger die rolled on the Danger die Reference card, apply it, and return the Danger die to the supply.
Resolve Special Effects: Special Effects are located in a black frame below the name of the Special Action and above the Outcomes. Resolve the effects on each row from top to bottom; within a row, left to right. If there are icons in the Roll Pool that match a Special Effect requirement, move those dice to the Spent Pool and apply the effect once for each time the requirement is met. Each Special Effect must be resolved as many times as possible with the dice rolled. Dice moved to the Spent Pool when resolving one Special Effect cannot be used to resolve another.
Mark Outcomes: Skipped if the Special Action has one or more tracks. Starting from the top row and proceeding down, check to see if you meet the requirement for that row. If you do, move those dice to their owner's Spent Pool and place a marker on the Outcome space; otherwise proceed to the next row. A maximum of one marker per row; once a marker is placed, skip to the next step. The red row always has no requirement, so mark it if you haven't marked any other row.
Spend dice: Move all Section dice from all players' Roll Pools to their Spent Pools.
Resolve Outcomes: If your Action has one or more tracks, starting from the top track and proceeding down, if the marker has reached the Outcome space, remove that marker and apply that Outcome. If your Action has no tracks, remove the marker from the marked Outcome space and apply that Outcome. Also apply the effect of any Outcome connected to it with an arrow (only in the direction of the arrow). Unless stated otherwise, the effects of an Outcome only apply to the Crewmember performing the Action.

Collective Roll Pool: Although each player has their own Roll Pool to keep the dice separate, all dice in all Roll Pools are considered to be in the same Roll Pool.

"Any" Symbols: The "any" symbol means any icon may be used. If there is more than one of these symbols in a requirement, the same icon must be used for each. Vanguard icons count as any icon. Accident results cannot be used for Dice Combinations.

Outcome requirements: The "+" icon indicates you must have all of the things depicted. The "/" icon indicates alternative requirements — you only need to have all of the things before or after the "/".

Dice with multiple icons: If a result depicts two icons, each icon is treated separately. When resolving a Special Effect, each icon on a die is treated separately, so it is possible that one die resolves a Special Effect more than once.

Section card Dice Combinations

If you have icons in the Roll Pool that match the Dice Combination requirement of a Section card in your hand, you may move the dice with these icons to their owner's Spent Pool to apply the Dice Combination effect, then discard the card. You may apply the effect of more than 1 Section card this way, but must use different dice for each. Dice added by Assisting Crewmembers may be used, but Assisting Crewmembers cannot use Dice Combination effects of their own cards.

Global Condition Dice Combinations

If you have icons in the Roll Pool that match the Dice Combination requirement on the current Global Condition card, you may move the required dice to their owner's Spent Pool to apply the effect. This may be done multiple times, using different dice each time.

Convert Abilities (full rules)

Each Crewmember has a Convert Ability depicted in the top left of their Crewmember card. Some Equipment also have Convert Abilities. During a Dice Check, the player making the check may use their own Convert Ability and that of any Equipment they carry whenever they Spend any dice. A Convert Ability allows you to treat Basic results of a certain color as if they were another icon. The conversion only applies as the die is being spent; you cannot use a Convert Ability to simply "change" a die in your Roll Pool. If more than one Convert Ability can convert the same die, you may use only one (or none). Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Convert Abilities, but the player performing the Dice Check may use their own on dice from Assisting Crewmembers.

Track progression

All tracks on cards (both POI tracks and Time Tracks) start with no marker. The first time you make progress, place a marker in the leftmost slot. After that, each time you make progress, move the marker one space to the right. When the marker moves to the Outcome space, its effect is applied in Step 10.

Section Cards

Section cards are the primary way of modifying your rolls or stacking your chances for crucial rolls. They also make it possible to roll icons that are not on any of your Available dice. Apart from one playable effect (top part of the card), each Section card contains a Dice Combination (bottom part).

You may play the upper part of Section cards at any point indicated on the card (many have more specific rules listed on the card).
Dice Combinations in the lower part may only be used during Step 5 of a Dice Check.
Discarded or played Section cards are placed face up on your discard pile.
Whenever you must draw a Section card and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile and place it to the left of your Crew board as your new deck.

Each Section has a different set of Section cards, kept in their Section Compartment. If instructed to sacrifice a Section card, place it in your Section Compartment.

Section card deck: Players build Section card decks during the Mission Launch Procedure step of Ship Management. Each deck must contain a minimum of 10 cards. It cannot include any cards with a Rank higher than the rank of the Crewmember.

Section card limit: If a Crewmember ever has more cards in their hand than their Section card limit, they must immediately discard down to their limit. They may not play any cards while above the limit. The limit is 2 cards for Rank 1, 3 cards for Rank 2, and 4 cards for Rank 3.

Section Dice

Section dice come in three colors: red, blue, and green. They are used during Dice Checks, after which they are placed in their owner's Spent Pool. On each die, the sides that depict the most common result are indicated by brackets in the corners; always place dice so a side with brackets faces up. Each color uses a different form of brackets to help distinguish them if you are colorblind.

Three special die sides:

Vanguard — May be treated as if it were any one other Section dice icon, even one not present on the die rolled.
Basic — Most often has no effect on its own, but may be Converted to another icon using your Crewmember's Convert Ability (if the die color matches).
Accident — Represents an unpredicted outcome. Sometimes no negative effect, other times a disaster. Accident results can never be used to trigger Dice Combinations.

Each die still counts as a die of its color, no matter what icons are showing.

There are 5 types of Section dice per color:

Type 1 – Basic dice: No specialized icons. Useful when you simply need dice of a certain color; the Basic icon can be changed into a specialized icon using a Convert Ability.
Type 2 – Specialized dice: Have one of three different specialized icons associated with their color.
Type 3 – Universal dice: Contain all three specialized icons associated with their color in various two-icon combinations. Lower chance for a specific icon, but no Accident icon. Unavailable at the start of the Campaign — unlocked by progressing the story.
Type 4 – Expert dice: Have all the icons from their color on a single die, some sides depicting two icons; no Accident icon. Unavailable at the start — unlocked by progressing the story.
Type 5 – Wild dice: Contain only Vanguard icons and Accident icons. Higher chance to roll whatever icon you need, but also a higher chance of rolling an Accident.

Crewmember Ability & Skill

Convert Ability: The top left of each Crewmember card depicts a Convert Ability that allows them, when Spending a die, to treat a Basic icon of the color shown as if it were the icon depicted.

Crewmember Skill: Each Crewmember also has one Skill in the lower section of the card, with a starting number of Charges. A Skill can be used at any time (unless stated otherwise) by discarding 1 Charge from the Crew board. The number of Charges listed is the starting number, not the maximum — some effects may give a Crewmember more Charges than they started with.

Events (full rules)

At the end of each Crewmember's turn, they draw and resolve the top Event card:

Reveal the top Event card. If the deck is empty, shuffle the Events discard pile to form a new deck first.
If none of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector (including icons on a POI card), follow the secondary effect (printed at the top).
If any Biome icons match any Biome icons in your Sector, resolve the main effect (printed in the lower part). Unless specified otherwise, this effect only applies to the player who revealed the card.
Discard the card face up to the Event cards discard pile.

Unaffordable choices: If a card offers you a choice, you may not choose an option that you cannot pay for in full. However, you are allowed to choose an alternative way to pay that is allowed by other rules (e.g. an option requiring you to Sacrifice a die may be chosen even with only 3 Section dice — you gain an "Exhausted" Injury instead of Sacrificing).

Time Tracks (full rules)

At various times, you will be instructed to progress one or more Time Tracks. For each Time Track, if there is no Time token on the track, place one on the leftmost space. Each subsequent progress moves the token one space to the right. Once it reaches the rightmost space (details of the effect), resolve that effect. If instructed to reduce a Time Track, move a Time token one space to the left (or discard it if already on the leftmost space). If there are several Time Tracks in play, you can resolve them in any chosen order.

Landers & Lander Mods

Landers are an essential part of Planetary Exploration and are required to reach many dangerous worlds. Before each Landing, you choose and customize your Lander to increase your chances of success. Landing cards may provide useful information on atmospheric conditions and what will be needed to overcome them.

1) Stats + Landing Track: There are 3 Lander statistics: Armor, Sensors, and Agility. Some or all will be tested during the Landing procedure. Each Lander has different starting statistics. More agile Landers require less time to complete the Landing (fewer rolls), reducing the chance of negative Outcomes.

2) Capacity: Each Lander has limited storage for: Supplies (how many you start Planetary Exploration with); Equipment (the number of Personal and Mission Equipment cards you can take from the Armory); and Discoveries (the combined number of Discoveries and Unique Discoveries you can bring back).

3) Lander Mods: When customizing the Lander, you may add Mod cards to increase its capabilities. Two types: Structural (increase at least 1 Lander statistic) and Utility (usually provide additional bonuses during Planetary Exploration or increase Lander storage).

Equipment

Equipment cards represent useful tools to help the Away Team. Four types:

Small Equipment — Light, personal items that take no cargo space in the Lander; placed next to Crew boards before the Planetary Exploration.
Personal Equipment — Carried by Crewmembers and placed in the Lander before the Planetary Exploration.
Mission Equipment — Heavy Equipment that often requires an Action to set up or use and is often represented by a token on the Planet board.
Mission Equipment Upgrades — Cards representing upgrades for Mission Equipment; take no cargo space and may be taken every time the Mission Equipment they attach to is taken.

All available Equipment is stored in the "Armory" (Card Tray B). Each Crewmember may carry any number of Equipment cards. If an Equipment card depicts a Section icon in the upper-right corner, only Crewmembers from that Section may carry and use it. Crewmembers in the same Sector may freely exchange Equipment cards without a Section icon.

Most Equipment you carry may be used at any time during your turn, including in the middle of a Dice Check. If a card lists "this counts as an Action," using it counts toward your 2 Actions and may be used only when you can normally perform an Action. Unless specified otherwise, the effect can only be used by the Crewmember carrying it. Once a Mission Equipment token is placed on the Planet board, any Crewmembers may benefit from it. If instructed to discard an Equipment card, place it back in the "Armory."

Danger Dice

At various points you will be instructed to roll the Danger die (a Travel effect, a Special Action requirement, or something else). Whenever you roll the Danger die, look up the result in the appropriate section of the Danger die Reference card, depending on the letter inside the icon.

Discoveries

Discovery cards represent interesting objects, samples, and specimens gathered by the Away Team. They are divided into 5 decks and placed above the Planet board during setup. When instructed to gain a Discovery, take the top card from the corresponding deck and place it below the Lander board. During Planetary Exploration there is no limit to the number of Discoveries on the Lander; at the end you must discard any in excess of the Lander board limit (discarded Discoveries go to the bottom of the corresponding deck). A Discovery with a "Planetary Exploration" ability may be used at any time during Planetary Exploration unless stated otherwise.

Discoveries are unloaded from the Lander to ISS Vanguard during the Unloading procedure of Ship Management. If a Discovery has a "Ship Management" ability, its effect resolves when unloaded. Once unloaded, Discoveries are stored in "Gathered Discoveries" (Card Tray B). Many Research Projects require Discoveries as a cost — to pay, move a Discovery from "Gathered Discoveries" back to its Discovery deck.

Unique Discoveries

Unique Discoveries are special, numbered Discoveries found only on specific Planetary Explorations. Unique Discoveries up to number 32 are slotted into the Ship Book during Unloading. Those numbered 33 and higher are discarded during Planetary Exploration. If told to gain a Unique Discovery without specifying its number, take the top one from the Unique Discoveries slot on the Planet board. Unique Discoveries numbered 1-32 should never be discarded or removed from the game.

Leads

Lead tokens represent clues that guide Crewmembers toward Discoveries. At the beginning of Planetary Exploration, all 20 Lead tokens are placed in the Lead bag. Whenever instructed to gain 1 or more Lead tokens, randomly draw them from the bag and place them one by one (in any order you choose) on top of the corresponding Discoveries deck. If there are no Leads in the bag, you cannot gain any more at that moment. Lead tokens have a value between 0 and 3.

When the total value of Lead tokens on a deck is 3 or more, place all Lead tokens on the deck by the side of the bag, then gain the top Discovery card. If a Lead token has a Lead-recycle icon, place it back in the Lead bag instead. (This could mean you place one token, gain a Discovery, then place another token and gain another Discovery.)

Lead tokens may also have additional instructions:

+1 Card — When placed on a Discovery deck, a Crewmember chosen by the Science Section player draws 1 Section card.
+1 Charge — When placed on a Discovery deck, a Crewmember chosen by the Science Section player adds 1 Charge to their Crew board.

Whenever you gain a Discovery card (in any way), if there are Lead tokens on that deck, place those tokens next to the bag (or back in the bag if they have the recycle icon) before drawing the card.

Threats

Threats represent neutral or hostile creatures and phenomena the Away Team will encounter. A Threat consists of two elements: one or more Standees placed on the Planet board (indicating where the Threat is), and a Threat card placed in the designated space next to the Planet board (showing the Threat's special rules, including how the Away Team can interact with it).

The Time Track on a Threat card shows how the Threat behaves: when a Time token progresses, resolve the effect printed above the space the token moves into. Crewmembers may perform the Special Action shown on a Threat card if they are in the same Sector as the Threat's standee; this often leads to neutralizing the Threat. Some Threats have more than one standee — unless the card states otherwise, a Crewmember in a Sector with a secondary Standee may not perform the Special Action and is not considered to be in the same Sector as the Threat. When moving, Threats ignore the No-Movement icon, but they still only move to a connected Sector unless their card states otherwise.

Injuries

Injuries represent many negative conditions Crewmembers can gain. They are represented by Injury cards and Injury dice.

Gaining an Injury: Place its card in the leftmost empty Injury slot on the bottom of your Crew board. Then take 1 Injury die and place it in the top dice slot of any column that does not currently have an Injury die in it. If you place a die in a slot containing a Section die, move that die (and any dice below it) one slot down. Any dice moved to a slot your Crewmember cannot use (due to rank) are moved to your Spent Pool. You may rearrange the dice below an Injury die before they are pushed down. If you gain an Injury and there are no more Injury cards of that type available, gain the "Wounded" Injury instead.

Emergency Evac: If a Crewmember with 3 Injuries would gain a 4th Injury, the Away Team is evacuated and Planetary Exploration ends immediately.

Injuries in Dice Checks: Injury dice must be rolled when performing a Dice Check (see the Dice Check procedure).

Removing an Injury: Some effects allow you to remove an Injury die and sometimes an Injury card. Remove an Injury die by taking it from its dice slot and placing it back in the supply. Remove an Injury card by taking it from its Injury slot and placing it back in the Injuries deck. Although you gain an Injury die whenever you gain an Injury card, they are separate — you do not remove one when removing the other unless instructed.

Flipping an Injury: Some effects allow you to flip an Injury card face down. A face-down Injury card is inactive; Injury dice cannot be placed on it. However, it still counts as an Injury for all rules that count Injury cards, such as Emergency Evac and Medbay.

Global Conditions, Missions, Points of Interest

Whenever instructed to take any numbered Global Condition, Mission, or POI card and there are multiple copies available, take one at random.

Global Condition Special Effects and Effects: Some Global Condition cards contain additional Dice Combinations, Special Effects, or another passive effect. Dice Combinations on the current Global Condition card can be triggered any number of times during a Dice Check. Any Special Effect on the current Global Condition card is added to every Dice Check and must be resolved before other Special Effects.

Completing Missions: Most missions complete automatically — you will be instructed to discard the card when you reach a certain point (a Logbook entry, or the effect of another card). Other missions require you to trigger their Completion text once you have met the requirements; this can be done before or after any Action.

Replacing POI cards: To replace the POI in a Sector with another card, discard all POI cards from the Sector (return them to "Points of Interest" in Card Tray A) and place the new POI card in their place. If the current POI is printed on the board, simply place the card on top of the printed POI.

Placing POI cards on top: To place a POI card on top of any cards in a Sector, do not discard any POI cards — simply place the new card on top.

Whenever a new POI card is placed in a Sector, discard all Time tokens and markers from the previous POI card in that Sector. Do not remove markers or tokens placed directly on the Sector.

Ending Planetary Exploration

Planetary Exploration ends whenever:

A Crewmember in the Lander Sector performs the Lift-Off Action (with agreement from all others). Resolve the Lift-Off Log shown on the Planet board.
A Crewmember who already has 3 Injuries would receive a fourth Injury. This triggers an Emergency Evac. Resolve the Evac Log shown on the Planet board.
A Log or a Mission card tells you to end the Planetary Exploration. Follow its instructions.

Important: Lifting off without all Crewmembers in the Lander Sector will cause the abandoned Crewmembers to die. Emergency Evac saves everyone on the Planet board, but it is only triggered when a Crewmember gains a fourth Injury, and it results in failing the Planetary Exploration. All non-Unique Discoveries are lost during an Emergency Evac.

Ship Management

All rules related to managing ISS Vanguard, performing Research, preparing missions, and others are found in the Ship Book. Whenever asked to perform a Ship Management, open the Ship Book on its first page and begin to resolve its procedure, progressing to other pages when prompted.

Resetting your game

To completely reset your game:

Take out all cards from the Ship Book and any cards that were "Removed from the Game."
If you plan on replaying the Tutorial, prepare the Tutorial decks (see Log 720).
If you are using a paper Logbook, erase all marks and notes, or print a fresh copy (issvanguard.com/resources/).
(Contains spoilers for the Secret envelope — read only if you have already opened it.) Place the components listed as "Components in Secret envelope" back in the Secret envelope.
Resolve the "Before your first game" step at the beginning of Chapter I.

Warning: Upcoming ISS Vanguard campaigns will import some of the choices you made in the first campaign. If you want your decisions to impact future campaigns, safely store your marked Logbook.

Optional Game Mode: Deadly Space

ISS Vanguard comes with an optional, harder difficulty setting called "Deadly Space." This mode is recommended if you have already completed the Campaign or want a more challenging game, with more chance of losing your Crewmembers. To enable it, place the Deadly Space Reference card on the table and follow its instructions. You can add or remove these optional rules even during the Campaign.

Chapter IV — Glossaries

Game Terms Glossary

Assignment — Various tasks during Ship Management that you can assign Available Crewmembers to in order to gain a benefit.
"Awaiting..." envelope — Temporary storage for components awaiting to be slotted into the Ship Book. Whenever you gain a Ship Book card, put it in the "Awaiting..." envelope; the appropriate page of the Ship Book will tell you what to do with it.
Away Team — The group of Crewmembers currently exploring the Planet board.
Charges — Markers placed in the Charges slot of the Crew board, spent to use a Crewmember's Skill.
Convert Ability — An ability of a Crewmember to treat results of one color of dice as another icon during Dice Checks.
Connected Sector — A Sector is connected to your Sector if it's linked with a Travel Path that has an arrowhead pointing from your Sector to that Sector.
Crewmember — A playable character, represented by a Crewmember card in a Rank sleeve of their Section. During Ship Management, Crewmembers in players' hands are referred to as Available Crewmembers.
Danger die — A die used in situations to determine additional disadvantages. The letter inside the Danger die icon indicates which part of the Danger die Reference card to use.
Dice Check — A test performed using Section dice, using the Dice Check procedure summarized on the Reference cards.
Dice Combination — An effect depicted on the lower part of a Section card or on the current Global Condition card. Spend dice with the icons depicted during a Dice Check to activate the effect.
Discard — When discarded, numbered cards (such as POI or Mission cards) go into their tray behind a corresponding divider. Unnumbered cards, unless stated otherwise, are discarded to the bottom of their decks. Only Section and Event cards have a dedicated discard pile.
Discovery — Something valuable found during Planetary Exploration. Represented by cards in 5 decks; used for an effect during Planetary Exploration or Ship Management. Discovery cards are used during Research.
Equipment — Crewmembers may use Equipment they carry during Planetary Exploration. Each may carry any number of Equipment cards. Discarded Equipment goes back to the Armory.
Equipment token — A token representing a piece of Equipment placed on the Planet board.
Evac — The forced Evacuation that interrupts Planetary Exploration whenever any Crewmember receives a fourth Injury card. Evac causes you to lose all non-Unique Discoveries from the Lander board, and the Exploration is a failure.
Event — A card representing a dangerous or interesting situation happening on the planet.
Exertion — Sacrifice a die to Refresh 5 of your dice. If you have a total of 3 or fewer dice, gain an "Exhausted" Injury instead.
Global Conditions — Cards placed (or printed) in the bottom-right corner of the Planet board. They contain effects that affect the entire Planet board (additional Dice Combinations, rules of Travel, Actions, Time Tracks, etc.).
Injury card — A card with the name of the Injury used to determine the effect of your Injury die roll.
Injury die — A yellow die used to roll for Crewmember's Injuries.
Lander — A ship used to land on explorable planets. Represented by a Lander board and a standee, and may be equipped with several additional Mods.
Lander Mod — A card representing an available Lander modification. Mods come in two types: Structural and Utility; each Lander board has a certain number of slots.
Lander Sector — The Sector with the Lander standee.
Landing card — A card representing an explorable planet or object, with useful information about the conditions for your next Planetary Exploration.
Landing Opportunity — A place found on a System Map where you can land on the planet and perform Planetary Exploration.
Leads — Tokens with values ranging from 0 to 3 that represent your progress toward a Discovery. Some have additional effects.
Lift-Off — An Action allowing Crewmembers to end a Planetary Exploration. All Crewmembers on the Away Team must agree, and you must be in a Lander Sector. Then read the Lift-Off Log on the Planet board.
Mission — An Objective for the Away Team to achieve during Planetary Exploration. Each Planetary Exploration consists of 1 or more Missions.
Morale — One of the key statuses of ISS Vanguard, represented by the Morale card in the Ship Book.
Objective — The main task you need to fulfill to progress your campaign. Represented by the Objective card in the Ship Book.
Outcome space — The rightmost spaces of rows of Dice Checks on POI, Threat, Mission, and Rank-Up cards. Its effect is applied when a marker is in the space.
Planet board — A large board stored in the Planetopedia showing the surface of a Planet. Divided into Sectors, some containing pre-printed POIs. Contains information about Missions, Global Conditions, Unique Discoveries, Lift-Off, Evac, and any additional Planet-specific rules.
Planet Record sheet — A small sheet of paper used to save the state of the Planet board so that you can return later.
Planetary Scanner — A cardboard component that holds a Landing card and reveals it piece by piece, depending on the amount of Energy spent while Scanning.
Point of Interest (POI) — A card signifying something of interest to the Away Team. It may contain its own Biome icons and rules for Special Actions. Some POIs are pre-printed on the Planet board.
Production Project — A card used in the Production Complex of the Ship Book. The front contains basic information, its starting Stage and boost requirements; the back (revealed on completion) lists cards and bonuses.
Random Crewmember — Whenever a rule targets a Random Crewmember, players roll a D10 for each Crewmember. The Crewmember with the lowest score is the target. In case of a draw, repeat the roll between those tied in last place.
Rank-Up card — A card listing requirements players must meet to Rank-Up their Crewmembers at the end of Planetary Exploration.
Refresh — Move a Section die from your Spent Pool to your Available dice slots on your Crew board.
Remove from the game — Place back in the game box, in the "Removed from the Game" compartment. Removed cards/components no longer take part in the Campaign; when you start a new Campaign, return all removed cards to their trays.
Required dice — Any dice added to your roll by any rule of the game, including Injury dice in your Crew board, the Danger dice required by the POI you are in, and more.
Research Project — A card used in the Research Laboratory of the Ship Book. The front contains basic information and its cost; the back (revealed on completion) lists cards and bonuses.
Reset — Discard the marker or Time token from the corresponding track. The next time you progress this track, place the marker/Time token on the first slot again.
Rest — The main way Crewmembers Refresh their dice.
Roll Pool — A group of dice that were rolled as part of a Dice Check, but not spent yet.
Sacrifice (card) — Return this card to your Section Compartment.
Sacrifice (die) — Move a Section die from your Available dice or Spent Pool back to your Section Compartment. This reduces the total number of dice your Crewmember has until the end of Planetary Exploration. If you have no Section dice on your Crew board or Spent Pool, or only a total of 3 Section dice in play, gain an "Exhausted" Injury instead.
Section — One of four specialized Vanguard divisions (Recon, Security, Science, Engineering). Each consists of: a Crew board, a Section Compartment, Section cards, Section-specific Equipment cards, and 9 Rank sleeves for the Crewmembers recruited for this Section.
Section card limit — You may have up to 2/3/4 Section cards in your hand if you are Rank 1/2/3.
Section cards — Cards used in many ways that may affect the Outcome of rolls, grant rerolls, or even change the situation on the Planet board. Each belongs to one Section and cannot be exchanged between Sections. You may only use Section cards of your Crewmember Rank or below.
Section Compartment — A part of the box reserved for cards, sleeves, and dice of your Section, identified by its color.
Section dice — A selection of red, green, and blue D6 dice belonging to your Section, used by Crewmembers of this Section during Planetary Exploration.
Sector — A numbered part of the Planet board. May contain a Log entry or POI, or be empty.
Ship Book divider — An indexed page in the Ship Book, usually the title page for a section.
Ship Situation — A Ship Management card representing events that happen on ISS Vanguard during its long space travels.
Ship Upgrade — A Ship Management card representing additional systems and rooms installed on ISS Vanguard over the campaign. Available as you complete Research and Production Projects.
Supplies — The primary resource Crewmembers consume during Planetary Exploration (oxygen, filters, spare parts, rations, water, batteries, and more). Tracked on the Supplies Track on the Lander board. You may never have more Supplies than the track allows.
Supplies Track — A track on the Lander board or Planet board showing the current number of Supplies.
System Maps — A book containing maps of many planetary systems and interesting objects. Each page has the Outbound Systems frame showing which systems are connected and how much Energy is needed to travel between them.
Tech Level — One of the key statuses of ISS Vanguard, represented by the Tech Level card in the Ship Book.
Threat — A creature, natural disaster, or other danger represented by a standee on the Planet board and a card containing its rules. Not every planet contains a Threat, but some may contain multiple.
Travel — A basic Action that allows Crewmembers to move from one Sector to another connected Sector. Each Path contains 1 or more Path icons that determine Travel rules. If the Path contains a Travel icon, use the specific Travel rules printed on the current Global Condition card instead.
Unique Discovery — A special type of numbered Discovery found in only one specific place. When gained, placed on your Lander and then transferred to your Ship Book during Ship Management. When instructed to gain one, if the Unique Discovery space on the Planet board is empty, follow the instructions on the space instead.

Icons Glossary

Cost / Requirement Icons

Die — A Section die of any color (Red, Green, Blue for a specific color).
Spend a die — Move 1 die (of the color shown, or any color if all 3 are shown) from your Crew board to your Spent Pool. If you have no dice on your Crew board, you must Sacrifice a die instead.
Sacrifice a die — Return 1 die to your Section Compartment (of the color shown, or any color if all 3 are shown).
Danger die — Roll a Danger die and compare its result to the entry with the same icon on the Danger die Reference card.

Planet Board Icons

No Movement — Crewmembers in this Sector cannot Travel or move from this Sector. Effects that place them in another Sector can still be used.
No Save — When you save the state of the Planet, do not save this card — further Ship Book instructions will tell you where to return it.
Final POI — This Sector is now fully explored.
Important! — This Sector is of particular interest to ISS Vanguard.
Success — Represented by special tokens; used to measure efficiency, buy new Section dice, and Rank-Up Crewmembers.
Lander — This Sector may contain a Lander and become a Lander Sector.

Equipment Icons

Small Equipment — Light, personal items that take no cargo space; placed next to Crew boards before Planetary Exploration.
Personal Equipment — Carried by Crewmembers and placed in the Lander before Planetary Exploration.
Mission Equipment — Heavy Equipment that often requires an Action to set up or use and is often represented by a token on the Planet board.
Mission Equipment Upgrades — Cards representing upgrades for Mission Equipment; take no cargo space and may be taken each time a Mission Equipment they attach to is taken.

Crew Dice Icons (Section dice)

Physical — Athletic feats, stamina, raw strength, speed, withstanding harsh conditions.
Gathering — Mining, taking samples, searching for valuable Discoveries.
Defense — Defense, preventing damage, combat, dogfighting.
Scouting — Surveying the terrain, overcoming natural obstacles, outdoorsmanship, survival.
Biology — All natural sciences: microbiology, botany, medicine, creating antidotes.
Xenology — Understanding and using / communicating with all alien life: sentient beings, alien specimens, alien plants.
Construction — Building, repairs, modifying equipment, making camps.
Science — All formal sciences: physics, maths, calculations, statistical analysis, studying exotic matter or alien minerals, research.
Technology — Using complex technology and systems: operating robots, flying ships, querying computer consoles, understanding alien tech.
Basic — This result may be modified by your Crewmember card (Convert Ability).
Vanguard — This icon can be used as any other icon from Section dice.
Accident — An unpredictable or negative Outcome; some rolls have rules related to this icon. It cannot be used in Dice Combinations.
Any same icons — This combination requires several identical icons on your Section dice. You cannot use two different icons to fill it.

Injury Dice — Icons on this die have different meanings depending on which Injury card you are checking during the Dice Check: Damage, Heavy Damage, Mental, Special.

Special Effect Icons — Some icons direct you to a specific Outcome and mean the Special Effect is Immediate: when you resolve them, immediately end the Dice Check process, move all dice from the Roll Pool to their owner's Spent Pool, and resolve the corresponding Outcome. Other icons indicate progress on a track (first progress places a marker on the leftmost space; each subsequent progress moves it right; once at the Outcome space it does not move further). Some icons represent a reduction of a track (each reduction moves the marker left; if on the leftmost space and reduced again, discard the marker).

Biome Icons

Caves — Caves, underground tunnels, and structures.
Crystalline — Areas affected by the scintillating crystalline anomaly.
Deadly — Toxic / corrosive / extremely high-pressure or radioactive environments, where a minor suit malfunction would cause death.
Desert — Arid plains and deserts.
Frigid — Extremely low-temperature conditions, with water or methane ice, and snow / ice impeding travel.
Hostile — Unfriendly locals are a problem in this Sector.
Rocky — Areas dominated by sharp rocks and / or steep mountains.
Ruins — Planets covered in ruins / structures of alien civilizations or with ancient mechanisms.
Tutorial — This special Biome is used only during the Tutorial, when resolving an Event during the Events step at the end of the turn.
Vegetation — Forests, jungles, tundra, lush fields of plants.
Void — A special icon used when exploring space-based zero-g locations or when Crewmembers are in near-void conditions, with little to no gravity.
Volcanic — High-temperature locations with lava and / or seismic activity.
Water — Used in coastal or underwater conditions — and sometimes in very thick, water-like atmosphere.

Other Icons

Lead-recycle — This Lead is put back in the Lead bag after discarding it from a Discovery deck.
Energy Cost — Indicates an Energy cost; found on Systems you visit, when scanning Landing cards, or on installed Ship Upgrades.
Lander Agility / Lander Sensors / Lander Armor — Show the respective stat of your Lander, important during the Landing Procedure.
Special Action — Indicates a Special Action, limited to once per turn.
Dice Check — Indicates that a Dice Check must be performed.
Rank 1 / Rank 2 / Rank 3 — Show the Rank of your Crewmember (on a Rank sleeve), or a Rank requirement (on any other component).

Danger Die — Icons on this die have different meanings depending on the letter of the Danger die (check the Danger die Reference card): Common, Uncommon, Rare, Special.

Ship Book Icons

Crew Assignment — Marks all places where you can spend your Available Crew on various effects throughout Ship Management.
Section — Icons representing the 4 Sections: Security, Recon, Science, Engineering.