Living Planet
Living Planet Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Game Components
- Number of Players
- Game Objectives
- Setting Up the Game
- The Leader Role
- Game Length
- Game Turn Sequence
- Line A - Production
- Line B - Actions
- Free Actions
- Line C - Cataclysms
- Step 4 - Planet exhaustion
- Step 5 - Pass the Leader board
- End of the Game
- Scoring
- Playing with Less than 4 Players
- All is Not Lost
- Variants
- Golden Rule
- Planet Cards Special Effects List
Game Components
- 24 Hexagons including 3 starting Hexagons without cataclysm
- 1 Stock Market board including the Planet's Exhaustion track
- 1 Leader board
- 25 Stock market cards
- 4 dice (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green)
- 4 Fate Control tokens
- 5 Stock Market indicators of 5 different colors (1 per resource)
- Resources: a total of 43 resource meeples
- 8 resources in each of the following colors: Black (Oil), Pink (Vibrium), Blue (Electricity), Grey (Iron)
- 11 Green resources (Mycelium)
- Currency: a total of 60 coins
- 20 x 1 MC (Mega-Credit) coins
- 20 x 5 MC coins
- 16 x 10 MC coins
- 4 x 50 MC coins
- Building tiles: a total of 58 building tiles
- 30 factory buildings (6 of each): Oil Drill, Mycelium Farm, Iron Mine, Vibrium Mine, Wind Turbine
- 12 protective buildings (4 of each): Energy Field, Steel Dome, Shock Absorber
- 4 Spaceports
- 12 Stock Market buildings (4 of each): Multi-Trading Outpost, Trading Office, Marketing Department
- 4 sets of player's material, in four different colors:
- 5 Scientists
- 2 Motorized Scientists
- 10 Automation chips
- 1 deck of 6 Planet cards matching the player's color
- 1 player's help/screen
And this rulebook.
Number of Players
2 to 4 players can play Living Planet. These are the rules for 4 players.
See the special rules section for games involving less than 4 players at the end of this booklet.
Game Objectives
In Living Planet, each player represents one of the major Galactic Corporations exploiting the planet Myceliandre. Each one of them is eager to industrialize the planet and generate as much profit as possible before the planet self-destructs.
At the end of the game, each player will earn victory points based on how many Mega-Credits they possess and how many buildings and vehicles they control (see the scoring chapter for further details).
Setting Up the Game
To set up the game, follow the steps described below. Note, the setup may be different based on the planet you will explore (i.e., depending on the chosen scenario). The setup described here relates to the discovery of the first Living Planet, which is the normal game.
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Use the 4-player Starting Hexagon. Place the tile at the center of the table. It will be referred to as the Landing Zone.
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Each player chooses a color and takes all the elements matching their color: 1 screen, 1 deck of 6 Planet cards, 5 Scientists, 2 Motorized Scientists, 10 Automation chips, 1 Spaceport. The players set up their screens in front of themselves and place all their cards behind the screen in a face down pile. All the wooden pieces are placed in front of their respective player's screen, so that all other players can see them. Money, resources and unplayed cards are the only pieces to be kept hidden behind the players' screens.
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Each player places their Spaceport tile on one of the square sections of the starting hexagon, along with an automation chip and a Scientist on it. The Automation chip should be placed on the 10 MC value of the Spaceport since this information won't be used in the normal game.
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Place the Stock Market board on one side of the playing area. Place the five colored wooden cubes on the 5 MC value of each column. Make sure to match the cube with the color of the column (see component list). Assemble the Planet's exhaustion track to the Stock Market board.
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Place all the coins above the Stock Market board to create the bank.
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Place all the remaining resources under the Stock Market board. This is the resource pool.
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Each player takes 20 MC from the bank and 1 Mycelium resource from the resource pool. Players must hide their money and resources at all times behind their screen. We suggest you take one 10 MC coin and two 5 MC coins.
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Shuffle all the Stock Market cards together to create a face down draw deck (the Stock Market Deck) and place it on the left of the Stock Market board. The face up discard section of the Stock Market cards will be on the right side of the Stock Market board.
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Place the 4 Fate Control tokens beside the resource pool.
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Take all 23 remaining hexagons and shuffle them together in a face down pile called the Hex Deck. Place it somewhere on the table close to the Landing Zone.
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Sort all buildings by type so that players can easily pick the one they need during their Construct action. There are 11 different types of buildings, so there should be 11 piles of different buildings (different artwork). This is called the pool of buildings.
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The last player who ate mushrooms becomes the Leader, taking the Leader board and the 4 dice and placing them in front of themselves, so all players can see it.
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The first turn may now begin.
The Leader Role
In clockwise order, players will alternate taking the Leader role each turn. The Leader will have important choices to make at the beginning of the turn, but most of all, their task will be to clearly announce the sequence of play so as to ensure that the turn is played in the proper order.
The Leader takes the Leader board with the 4 colored dice and places it in front of themselves at the beginning of the turn. How to use it will be explained later.
Game Length
The game is played in 12 turns. At the end of the 12th turn the planet explodes.
However, for your first few games we strongly suggest that you play only 8 turns when playing with 2 or 4 players, and 9 turns when playing with 3 players.
Game Turn Sequence
Each turn follows a preset sequence that must be followed step by step. When you are done with step 5, the turn is over and a new turn begins, starting with step 1. Repeat this process 12 times for a complete game.
- Planet card selection (All players simultaneously)
- Leader's actions (Leader only)
- Leader board sequence, from left to right (Leader calls for play)
- A. Production (All players)
- B. Actions (Active Player only)
- C. Cataclysms (All affected players)
- Planet exhaustion (Leader only)
- Pass the Leader board and the 4 dice to the player on your left.
Each of these 5 steps will now be described in detail.
Step 1 - Planet card selection
This step is played simultaneously, with all players acting at the same time.
All players take in hand all the Planet cards they have available behind their screen. If a player has no cards behind their screen at that moment, they take the Planet cards in their discard pile back into their hand. From those cards in hand, each player chooses one card to play face down in front of them. When every player has done so, proceed to step 2.
Step 2 - Leader's actions
One after the other and in any order, each player reveals the Planet card they played and announces clearly the die value and the color shown on the card played. The Leader sets the same color die with the upper face showing the value announced and play proceeds with the next player, until all players have revealed their cards including the Leader. Once this is done, the value of the 4 dice are set and the Leader must now decide in which order the play will occur.
To do that, they arrange the four dice on the four dice icons, on the first row of the Leader board in the desired order of play. For example, if the blue die is placed in column 1, then the blue player will go first. And if the red die is placed in column 4, then the red player will go last. When the Leader has placed the 4 dice on the 4 icons, proceed to step 3.
All revealed Planet cards remain in one face up pile in front of each player's screen, so that all players can only see the last Planet card played by each player. The remaining Planet cards that have not yet been played are kept behind the players' screens.
Example: Each player reveals their card (Blue 2, Yellow 6, Red 4, Green 4). The Leader places the corresponding dice in the order they desire on the Leader board.
Planet Card special effect
Each Planet card has a special effect described on it. This special effect is triggered only when played by the Leader. Do not trigger the effects of the planet cards played by players other than the Leader.
The list of all the special effects from the planet cards are detailed at the end of this rulebook, after the scoring section.
Some special effects must be used by the Leader during step 2 (cards with die value 2-5-6), others are to be used during step 3 (cards with die value 1-3-4).
Step 3 - Leader board sequence
Starting with the first column on the left and progressing right one column at a time, the Leader moves down each die until all 4 dice are aligned on the bottom row (Line C – Cataclysms).
A. Production (see Line A) — First, the die on the top row of the first column goes down one row to the multicolored production icon. Once all players have completed their production (because the icon is multicolored), the Leader moves down the die one row and reaches the Action icon.
B. Actions (see Line B) — The Leader has moved the die to the row below, on the Actions icon. In this example, the Blue player now performs their two actions. When done, the Leader continues and moves the die one more row down to reach the Cataclysm icon.
C. Cataclysms (see Line C) — If cataclysms are triggered, resolve them now. Then the Leader proceeds to the second column, moving the die there row by row and all the way down, following the same procedure as the one described here above.
When all four dice have reached a Cataclysm icon, proceed to step 4.
The Leader leads the game! Each time a die reaches a new icon, the Leader must announce aloud what is happening next. For example, when the Blue die displaying a 2 Value is moved down to the Production icon, the Leader should say: "Production for everybody with a building value of 2". When the same die reaches the Action icon the Leader should announce: "Blue, it is your turn to perform two actions". And finally when it reaches the Cataclysm icon they should announce cataclysms on any hexagon with a 2 Blue die icon. Then they should proceed to the 2nd column, moving down the die in the same manner.
Line A - Production
During this phase, depending on the die value and the situation, each player may be able to:
- Produce resources
- Fix the automation of a factory building
- Add a new unit to their Spaceport
When a die reaches a Production icon, the Leader announces the value of the die, which gives the production value for all players. The color of the die on the Production icon is of no importance at that moment; only the value shown on the die matters.
Starting from the Leader player and going clockwise, each player resolves their production until all players are done.
To produce a resource, players need to control a Factory Building showing the same production die number on it. If they do, then they take 1 resource of the type produced by this Factory from the resource pool. If the resource pool has ran out of this type of resource, then the player receives nothing, but the Stock Market value of this resource goes up 1 MC on the Stock Market board for each resource that couldn't be taken (see the Stock Market board paragraph). If a player controls more than one Factory building with the same production number, each one of them produces the corresponding resource.
A player controls a building when it has an Automation chip or an active unit on it, or both. If there are none of these elements, the building is not controlled. It is either abandoned (if it is empty) or simply occupied (if there is only a wounded Scientist on it).
A Unit is either a Scientist or Motorized Scientist. An active unit is either an unwounded Scientist or Motorized Scientist.
Example of production: The production die has a value of 3.
- A. The building is controlled and produces 1 Oil.
- B. The building is controlled and produces 1 Vibrium.
- C. The building is controlled but doesn't produce (it only produces on a 5).
- D. The building is controlled but it is not a Factory building.
- E. The building is not controlled (occupied by a wounded Scientist).
- F. The building is not controlled (abandoned Factory).
Fixing the automation of a building during production
If a building with the corresponding production number is occupied by an active unit but has no Automation chip on it, then the controlling player may elect to repair the automation system instead of taking the production for this building. To do so, they place one of their Automation chips on the building and this counts as their Production action for this building for this phase.
Adding a unit to the Spaceport
In most games, a starting building is the Spaceport. It doesn't really produce resources. It is more like a spaceport attracting and receiving new scientists, workers and their equipment. When a "6" in production is announced by the Leader and if a Spaceport has no unit, the player can spend 1 Mycelium resource from behind their screen to recruit a new Scientist and place it onto their Spaceport. Alternatively, they can spend 1 Oil resource to get a Motorized Scientist instead.
Players may use a resource that they have just produced this phase to add a new unit to their empty Spaceport.
Example: The Leader announces a 6 for this production phase. Only Red receives a new Scientist because: Green's Spaceport is already occupied; Blue doesn't have a Mycelium to spend; Yellow doesn't wish to spend a Mycelium.
Line B - Actions
When a die reaches the Action icon, the Leader invites the player controlling this die color to perform up to two actions. This player will be named the Active Player. The Active Player cannot perform the same action twice, and can do less than 2 actions.
NOTE: For explanation purposes, the value indicated by the Active Player's die is given as X.
Type of Actions:
- Explore
- Move
- Construct
- Trade
- Grants
- Fate Control
EXPLORE
The Active Player draws X hexagons from the Hex Deck. They show them to all the players and choose one that they can place on the map following the exploration rules:
- The hexagon must touch either the Landing Zone or at least 2 other hexagons.
- The newly placed hexagon must match the landscapes of all other hexagons it is adjacent to (ex: mountain must connect to mountain, desert to desert, and so on).
- The Active Player must be able to reach the newly placed hexagon with one of their units. A Scientist can only move to the new hexagon from an adjacent one. A Motorized Scientist can move up to X hexagons to reach the newly placed one. Only one unit must be moved onto the new hexagon. If no unit can reach the new hexagon legally, then this new hexagon cannot be placed. A wounded Scientist cannot explore.
If no exploration is possible with the hexagons the Active Player has just drawn, or if the Active Player does not wish to explore any of the drawn hexagons, then the exploration has failed.
Place all discarded hexagons at the bottom of the Hex Deck in any order you like.
Exploration example: With a die value of 3, if Green explores, they can place the new hexagon on any location marked with a green mark, the Motorized Scientist being able to move up to 3 hexagons to reach the new one. If Yellow explores, they can place the new hexagon on any location marked with a yellow mark. The Scientists being able to move only one hexagon, Yellow's die value is of no importance. Green draws 3 hexagons and chooses one to place. Green chooses the Vibrium Mountain with only one placement possible to respect and match the landscape puzzle. Fortunately this hexagon can be reached by moving the Motorized Scientist 3 hexagons, which Green does.
MOVE
The Active Player may move as many of their units as they'd like, as long as the total number of hexagons they move onto does not exceed the X value of the die.
Each Scientist can only move one hexagon, from the hexagon they are on at the beginning of the action to any adjacent one. A wounded Scientist cannot move. Each Motorized Scientist may move up to X hexagons.
If it ends its move on a new hexagon, a unit belonging to the Active Player can enter a building they control or an abandoned building for free. They do not need to spend a movement point.
However, if the unit is either moving on the same hexagon directly from one building to another, or entering a building from the same hexagon, it will cost one movement point out of the X available.
The Active Player may move a unit onto a building only if this building has an Automation chip of the matching color or if the building is abandoned. If the building is abandoned, the Active Player is taking control of it.
There can only be one unit per building, no matter the type, at any time. Automation chips are not considered units.
The number of units allowed on a hexagon outside of any building is not limited.
Example: the Red die shows a 5. Red moves 1 of their Scientists 1 hexagon and uses the 4 remaining movement points to move their Motorized Scientist 3 hexagons to enter an abandoned building there. Red decides not to use the fifth movement point they are entitled to.
CONSTRUCT
The Active Player may construct one of the available buildings from the pool of buildings, as long as they can pay the cost for it and place it legally on a hexagon where one of their active units are present and can construct it. Constructing a building is independent of the X value of your die.
Once a construction is completed and paid for, the Active Player must move an active unit from the same hexagon onto the newly constructed building, and therefore controls it. A unit already standing on a building may build another building in the same hexagon without having to spend a Move action. Just move the unit out of the initial building and place it on top of the new one.
The Active player then places an Automation chip on this building unless they have no chip remaining in their reserve. The Automation chip is always placed on the cost value of the building, as this information is no longer needed once the building is constructed.
The Active Player can construct 3 different types of buildings:
- Factory
- Stock Market
- Protective
FACTORY BUILDINGS
Cost: 5 MC
Location: Must be built on an empty square space with the required resource icon shown on the Factory building.
The Factory buildings produce resources.
STOCK MARKET BUILDINGS
Cost: 5 MC plus 1 resource of the type needed to insure the total protection of this building from one type of cataclysm.
Location: These buildings can be built on any empty square space. If the square space shows a resource, the future exploitation of that resource is not possible.
The Stock Market buildings boost your trading capacity on the trade market (see below).
For example it requires 5 MC and 1 Electricity to construct the Multi-Trading Outpost, which is always protected from Tornadoes (see the details about the Stock Market buildings in the Trade chapter below).
PROTECTIVE BUILDINGS
Cost: 5 MC
Location: Can be built on any empty square space. If the square space shows a resource, the future exploitation of that resource is not possible.
The Protective buildings are used to protect your installations from various cataclysms (which will be explained in greater detail in the Cataclysms chapter).
Construction example:
- A. Red can construct either an Iron Mine, any Stock Market or any Protective building on this empty square space.
- B. Red can construct either a Vibrium Mine or any Stock Market or Protective building on this empty square space.
- C. Yellow can construct either a Vibrium Mine, Iron Mine, any Stock Market or Protective building on this empty square space.
- D. Blue cannot construct anything since their Scientist is wounded in this hexagon.
- E. Green can construct either any Stock Market or Protective building on this empty square space (except a Trading Office, as they already own one). There is no resource on this hexagon so it is not possible to construct any Factory Building.
Limitations on buildings
There is no limit to the number of Factory buildings a single player may build, control, and occupy, whether they are producing the same resource or different ones.
However, a player may control or occupy only 1 building of each one of the buildings available in 4 copies from the pool of buildings. Therefore they cannot build one of these if they control or occupy another similar one. This includes the Spaceport, Stock Market buildings, Protective buildings and all other expansion buildings available in 4 copies only.
TRADE
When choosing this action, the Active Player:
- Must update the Stock Market
- Can buy or sell resources
Update the Stock Market
The Active Player draws X cards from the Stock Market Deck. If the deck is emptied, shuffle all market cards from the discard pile into a new Draw deck. Then complete your hand until you have drawn all X cards. Now the Active Player selects one card that will take effect and returns all drawn cards back to the discard pile, face-up, with the selected card on top. All players only see the selected card on top of the discard pile, face-up. This last card indicates a resource and how its price value will change on the Stock Market.
A green arrow goes up with a value of +1 to +3. The cube indicating the price value of this resource on the Stock Market board shifts up the chart, raising the value by 1 to 3 MC.
A red arrow points down with a value of -1 or -2. Thus, the cube indicating the price value of this resource on the Stock Market board shifts down to indicate a value reduction of 1 or 2 MC for the resource.
The price value of a resource on the Stock Market can never go below 1 MC. If an effect should have it go lower than 1 MC, it stays at 1 MC.
Example: Blue's die value is 5. Blue draws 5 Stock Market cards. They choose the card with a +2 on the Vibrium to raise the price of this resource by 2 MC.
Stock Market crash
When the price value of a resource would exceed 10 MC, then the price of this resource crashes on the Stock Market and the marker continues its progression passing from 10 MC to 1 MC.
When a Stock Market crash occurs on one resource, each player holding this kind of resource behind their screen must sell their whole stock at the new price (see: Selling transaction below). Note that this type of selling does not reduce the value of the resource on the Stock Market as a normal sale would usually do.
Once the crash (or crashes) has been resolved, proceed normally to the Buy and Sell Resources step.
Example: The value of Oil is 9 MC on the Stock Market. Blue chooses the Market card with a +3 MC on Oil. This results in a Stock Market crash and the new price of Oil becomes 2 MC. All players possessing Oil (Blue included) must sell those immediately. Players earn 2 MC per Oil sold (the ending value). The resources sold are returned to the resource pool.
Buy or Sell resources
Once the Stock Market card's effect has been applied and any potential forced selling has been completed, the Active Player may perform one transaction on the market. A transaction is either buying or selling resources of the same type. Note, it is not allowed to buy and sell (or sell and buy) the same type of resource during the same Trade action.
Buying transaction
To represent the rarity of resources on the intergalactic market, the Active Player may only buy up to 2 resources of any one type, as long as these are available in the resource pool and their die allows it (ex: if the X value is 1, then they cannot buy more than 1 resource). The price must be paid in full, based on the current value on the Stock Market. The money comes from behind the Active Player's screen and goes to the bank. The resources come from the resource pool and go behind the Active Player's screen.
If the Active Player controls a Multi-trading Outpost (see below in this chapter), they may buy up to X resources in total, but never more than 2 resources of the same type.
For instance, if a player's die value is 5, and they control a Multi-Trading Outpost, they could buy 2 Mycelium, 2 Vibrium and 1 Oil. If the market prices are: 4 MC per unit of Mycelium, 3 MC per unit of Vibrium and 6 MC per Oil unit, you will have to pay 20 MC to the bank and get the corresponding resources from the resource pool.
Each time a player performs a buying transaction, no matter how many units are bought, the price of this resource goes up 1 MC on the Stock Market board afterwards. Of course, this could trigger a Stock Market crash.
Selling transaction
The Active Player may sell up to X resources of any one type at its current value on the Stock Market. The resources sold come from behind the Active Player's screen and goes into the resource pool. The money received comes from the bank and goes behind the Active Player's screen.
Each time a player performs a selling transaction, no matter how many units were sold, the price of this resource goes down 1 MC on the Stock Market board afterwards. This last effect does not apply when players are forced to sell as the result of a Stock Market crash.
Buying example: 1. Green's die value is 5, so Green draws 5 Stock Market cards from the Stock Market deck. 2. Green selects the -1 MC on the Mycelium as the card to be applied. Green discards the 5 cards to the discard pile with the selected card face-up on top. The price of Mycelium goes down 1 MC on the Stock Market board to reach 4 MC. 3. Green decides to buy 2 Mycelium (this is the maximum). Green pays 8 MC to the bank and takes 2 Mycelium from the resource pool. Then the price of Mycelium goes up 1 MC because a buying transaction just occurred.
Selling example: 1. Green's die value is 5, so Green draws 5 Stock Market cards from the Stock Market deck. 2. Green selects the +2 MC on the Vibrium as the card to be applied. Green discards the 5 cards to the discard pile with the selected card on top. The price of Vibrium goes up 2 MC on the stock market board to reach 7 MC. 3. Green decides to sell 5 Vibrium (this is the maximum allowed by Green's die value). Green takes 5 Vibrium from behind their screen and places those in the resource pool. Green takes 35 MC from the bank. Then the price of Vibrium goes down 1 MC because a selling transaction just occurred.
Controlling Stock Market Buildings
Players can construct Stock Market buildings to help them during their Trade actions. Each active Stock Market building controlled by the Active Player grants them the following advantages:
MULTI-TRADING OUTPOST (Cost: 5 MC + 1 Electricity) — Protected from Tornadoes
A player controlling a Multi-Trading Outpost may trade different types of resources in the same trade action. The total number of resources bought and sold cannot exceed the X value of their die. They still cannot buy and sell the same resource in the same action.
Example: The Red die value is 6. The Red player has a Multi-trading Outpost and performs the Trade action: they buy 2 Mycelium and 1 Oil, and sells 1 Electricity and 1 Iron for a total of 5 dealt resources out of a maximum of 6 possible. They pay 13 MC (2 x 4 + 5) and earns 12 MC (7 + 5). The prices of Mycelium and Oil increase by 1, the prices of Electricity and Iron decrease by 1.
TRADING OFFICE (Cost: 5 MC + 1 Vibrium) — Protected from Earthquakes
A player controlling a Trading Office adds +2 to their die value when performing a Trade action. That means that they will draw 2 more cards and can do transactions with up to X+2 resources.
Example: The Yellow die value is 3. The Yellow player has a Trading Office and performs the Trade action, they draw 5 Stock Market cards (3 for the Yellow die, +2 for the Trading Office) then applies 1 card and can sell up to 5 resources of one type (if they choose to buy, they are still limited to 2 resources of one type).
MARKETING DEPARTMENT (Cost: 5 MC + 1 Iron) — Protected from Geysers
A player controlling a Marketing Department doubles the number of Stock Market cards drawn during a Trade action. Two Trade Cards may be applied as well, provided they address two different resources.
Example: The Blue die value is 6. Blue player has a Marketing Department and a Trading Office. With a die value of 6, and a +2 from the Trading Office, the virtual die value is now 8, so they draw 16 Stock Market cards, apply the effect of 1 card and potentially a second one, and then they can sell up to 8 resources of one type or buy up to 2 resources of one type.
RECEIVE GRANTS
The Active Player takes X MC from the bank and places it behind their screen.
TAKE THE FATE CONTROL TOKEN
The Active Player takes a Fate Control Token and places it in front of their screen. Each player can only have one Fate Control token at any given time. A player can neither take then use, nor use then take, the Fate Control token during the same turn.
The Fate Control token can be used by a player in any future turn to change the value of their colored die before it reaches any icon on the Leader board. That means the player using it can choose a new value for their die, before it reaches either production, actions or cataclysms. The new value of this die remains until the beginning of the step 1 of the next turn (unless another effect requires it to change again).
The Fate control can be used:
- Before the Production phase.
- Before the Action phase.
- Before the Cataclysm phase.
Free Actions
Free actions are extra actions performed only during a player's action phase when they are the Active Player. They do not count as one of the two actions they are allowed each turn. They can perform as many Free actions as they want per action phase with different units they control or even with the same unit if needed. They can perform Free actions at any given time during their Action phase, either before or after or in between the two allowed actions.
Using Mycelium to heal your Scientists
The Active Player can heal as many wounded Scientist as they wish by spending one Mycelium per Scientist. A wounded Scientist is laid down on its side. Each time they spend 1 Mycelium resource from behind their screen, one of their Scientists can be returned to an upright position. Mycelium cannot be spent to heal other player's Scientists. Motorized Scientists cannot be wounded, so they cannot be healed. Once a Motorized Scientist suffers from a cataclysm, it is returned to its owner's reserve instead.
Fixing the automation of a building
If an active Unit they control stand upright in a building without an Automation chip, they can pay 5 MC to restore and repair the automation as a Free action. They place an Automation chip of their color on this building.
Line C - Cataclysms
When a die reaches the Cataclysm icon, the Leader announces the color of the die and its value. Then, the players locate on the hexagons the die icons of the given color and value. If there is no such die on the hexagons, then nothing happens and the game proceeds to the next step.
If there is at least one matching die icon, the Active Player must trigger a minimum of one cataclysm on the whole map. All or some of them (with a minimum of one) may be triggered, at the Active Player's discretion.
If the Active Player decides to trigger more than one cataclysm, the Leader chooses the order of resolution for all cataclysms.
There are three different types of cataclysm: Tornadoes, Geysers and Earthquakes. Each one of them can be recognized by its effect on the dice icons on the hexagon.
- A Tornado is represented by a die caught in a sand tornado.
- An Earthquake is represented by a cracked dice caught in the middle of huge cracks in the earth.
- A Geyser is represented by a die with acid holes caught in the middle of geysers.
A Cataclysm affects all buildings and units in the hexagon, no matter their color.
Units outside of a building during a cataclysm
A Scientist that is not on a building is immediately wounded. Lay the Scientist on its side to show its wounded state.
A Scientist that is already wounded is killed instead. Return the Scientist to the player's reserve in front of their screen.
A Motorized Scientist cannot be wounded. So, if it suffers from a cataclysm, it is immediately returned to the player's reserve.
Buildings suffering from a cataclysm
If a building only has an Automation chip, it loses its Automation chip. It goes back to its owner's reserve.
If the building only has an unwounded Scientist on it, the Scientist becomes wounded. Lay the Scientist on its side to show its wounded state. If the Scientist was already wounded then it is killed instead. Return the Scientist to the player's reserve.
If the building only has a Motorized Scientist, it is returned to the owner's reserve.
If the building has a unit and an Automation chip, then the controlling player decides whether it is the Automation chip that is removed or the Scientist that is wounded (or removed in the case of a Motorized Scientist, since Motorized Scientists do not have a wounded state).
If the building is abandoned, meaning no Automation chip or unit is on the building, then it is destroyed and returned to the pool of buildings available for construction.
Cataclysm examples: The Red die reaches the Cataclysm section of the leader board. A Red 2 die present on a hexagon triggers an Earthquake. Yellow's Scientist is wounded and laid down (this unit is not standing inside a building, so it does not benefit from any kind of protection). Yellow's Mycelium Farm loses its Automation chip. Green loses the Motorized Scientist since a Motorized Scientist does not have a wounded or broken state; the Oil Drill becomes abandoned. Blue and Red both have the choice of either losing the Automation chip or having their Scientist wounded.
The Blue die reaches the Cataclysm section: A Blue 3 die present on the hexagon triggers the Geysers. Yellow's Scientist is now dead and goes back to Yellow's reserve. The abandoned Mycelium Farm and Oil Drill are destroyed and returned to the pool of buildings. Red's Scientist becomes wounded and is laid down. Blue can decide to lose the Scientist or lose the Automation chip.
Protective Technologies
When a player is hit by a cataclysm on a hexagon, if this player has constructed a building providing protective technology effective against this particular type of cataclysm, they may use it to protect the buildings they control. No matter where this Protective building is located on the map, as long as it is active, the controlling player may spend one required resource to protect all the buildings they control on the hexagon hit by the cataclysm, as well as the units and Automation chips on those buildings.
Units outside any building on a hexagon hit by a cataclysm cannot be protected and must suffer the effects of the cataclysm.
The resources spent come from behind the screen of the player controlling the Protective building and are returned to the resource pool.
Reminder: a Protective building is considered active as long as it has an Automation chip or an active Unit on it (or both).
Example: The Green die reaches the Cataclysm section. The green 2 die present on the hexagon triggers the Geysers. Yellow controls the Steel Dome protective building and with this technology, by spending 1 Iron resource, they can protect all buildings they control in one hexagon. Yellow spends 1 Iron from behind their screen to protect their 2 buildings controlled as well as the Scientist inside. Yellow only loses the Motorized Scientist, which cannot benefit from any protection since it is outside. Red and Blue suffer the consequences of the Geysers as usual, as they cannot benefit from Yellow's protective technology.
ENERGY FIELD BUILDINGS protect against Tornadoes at the cost of 1 Electricity resource per hexagon to be protected.
STEEL DOME BUILDINGS protect against Geysers at the cost of 1 Iron resource per hexagon to be protected.
SHOCK ABSORBER BUILDINGS protect against Earthquakes at the cost of 1 Vibrium resource per hexagon to be protected.
Players cannot use their Protective buildings to protect other players' buildings.
Protective buildings are not automatically protected. Thus, players must spend the required resource in order to protect them too, as well as other buildings on the same hexagon at the same time.
Each Stock Market Office is automatically protected against one type of cataclysm. The resource needed to protect those buildings is spent at construction time. There is no need to spend any additional resources during the course of the game to protect those buildings against the type of cataclysm they are already protected against.
- Trading Office — Protected against Earthquakes
- Marketing Department — Protected against Geysers
- Multi-Trading Outpost — Protected against Tornadoes
Step 4 - Planet exhaustion
This step simulates the fact that the planet is being exhausted of its mineral resources. Electricity and Mycelium cannot be exhausted during this step, because they are directly connected to the planet's cataclysms. The more the planet is exploited, the more it generates cataclysms; winds and Tornadoes (which generate Electricity) or Geysers (the source of Mycelium).
During this step, the Leader has to take one available resource from the resource pool and place it on the next numbered spot available on the Planet's Exhaustion track. The Leader must choose one resource amongst Oil, Vibrium or Iron.
Example: At the end of Turn 3, the Leader must choose Oil, Vibrium or Iron from the resource pool and place it on spot 3 of the Planet's exhaustion track. The Leader chooses a Vibrium.
The planet's Exhaustion track is also used as the turn tracker. When the 12th resource is added to the track, it is the end of a normal game.
If there is no Oil, Vibrium or Iron to exhaust in the resource pool, the Leader must take the resource placed on the lowest number of the Planet's Exhaustion track and move it up to the next available number.
Example: At the end of turn 10, there are no more mineral resources in the resource pool, therefore the Leader takes the first resource placed on the exhaustion track, a Vibrium, and places it on the number 10.
Step 5 - Pass the Leader board
The Leader passes the Leader board and the 4 dice to the player sitting to their left. A new turn now begins.
End of the Game
The game ends when a resource is placed on the number 12 of the planet's Exhaustion track, during step 4. When that happens, the players proceed to the final scoring step.
Again, we strongly suggest that you play shorter games at first, such as 8 turns for a 2- or 4-player game, and 9 turns for a 3-player game.
Scoring
Each star represents 1 Victory Point (VP).
At the end of the game, players score Victory Points (VP) for the buildings they control and for the amount of money they possess behind their screen. Remaining resources do not provide any VP.
Reminder: A building is controlled if you have an Automation chip or an active unit on it (or both).
- Each Factory building is worth 2 VP.
- Each Protective building or Stock Market building is worth 1 VP.
- Each Spaceport is worth 2 VP.
- Each Motorized Scientist on the map is worth 1 VP.
- Each player also earns 1 VP per 5 Mega-Credit (MC) they possess.
The player with the most VP after the scoring step is the winner.
In case of a tie, the player with the most resources wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most money wins the game.
Playing with Less than 4 Players
Setting up the game
When playing a 2-player game, you must use the starting hexagon with two square spaces.
When playing a 3-player game, you must use the starting hexagon with three square spaces.
The 23 remaining hexagons are still shuffled together in the Hex Deck.
Special Rules for 2 or 3 Players
When you are playing with less than 4 players, you MUST still use the 4 dice and the 4 decks of Planet cards. The one or two colors that are not chosen by the players are now represented by a face down deck of Planet cards that are shuffled at the beginning of the game.
During step 2, when players reveal their chosen cards, reveal the first card of each deck belonging to a non-player. The Leader then sets the dice of each player as described in step 2, including the dice of the non-players. Then the Leader selects the order of play for the 4 colored dice, including the non-player ones, as described for a 4-player game.
During the Leader board sequence, when the Leader starts moving down the die of a color belonging to a non-player, this die triggers the production for every player as described for a 4-player game as usual.
When a non-player die reaches the Action phase, nothing happens. Just skip this phase and move directly to the Cataclysm phase.
When a non-player die reaches the cataclysm phase, ALL the cataclysms present on the map corresponding to both the die's color and value are triggered.
When a non-player deck becomes empty, shuffle all cards from the corresponding face-up discard pile into a new draw deck for this non-player.
Effect of a non-player die going down the column:
- Production icon: All Factory buildings with the same die value produce.
- Action icon: Nothing happens.
- Cataclysm icon: All the cataclysms corresponding to both the die's color and value are triggered.
All is Not Lost
Some scenarios can place players in really tricky situations. Some expansions come with new types of cataclysms endangering even the safest places, generally where Spaceports are constructed.
In the rare case of a player ending up without any Unit and Spaceport, Seaport (Aquarius expansion) or Garage (Industria Expansion) on the map, they may place a Scientist for free during their Action phase. This Unit must be placed on a building controlled by that same player.
If this player doesn't control any buildings, they can place a new Spaceport from the base game with a Scientist and Automation chip on any empty square space of the planet. If there is no empty square space, they draw hexagons from the Hex Deck, one at a time, until a hexagon can be placed, on which they can build their new Spaceport (for free) with a Scientist and Automation chip.
Variants
Negotiations allowed
The players can talk, make deals, promises all while choosing to honor them or not. But most of all, they are allowed to offer resources or money to try to corrupt the Leader to change the order of play.
Any kind of deal, exchange, promise or corruption is allowed as long as players do not trade or give any of their units, Planet cards, or constructed buildings.
Golden Rule
If at any point in the game more than one player has to perform actions or take decisions simultaneously, always start with the Leader and proceed clockwise.
Apart from the Planet card selection step, nothing is ever done simultaneously in the game.
Planet Cards Special Effects List
Below you will find a detailed description of the special effect of each Planet card. Remember that each turn, only the Leader uses the special effect of the Planet card they played.
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Card value 1: Once during the turn, the Leader can change the value of any die just before it reaches the Cataclysm icon. Although this card is revealed during step 2, the leader applies the effect right before any Cataclysm phase. If the Leader doesn't use this bonus effect before the end of the turn, the effect is lost. If the Leader wishes to change the die value and the Active Player also wishes to do so by using a Fate Control token at this moment, the Leader takes precedence and the Active player cannot use the Fate Control token.
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Card value 2: The Leader MUST name a resource when Planet cards are revealed during step 2. Until the end of the turn, any player producing the named resource will produce twice the amount of this resource each time.
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Card value 3: Although this card is revealed during step 2, the Leader applies the effect during the Action phase when they are the Active Player. The Leader can use it at any time during their Action phase like a Free action. If the Leader does not use it during their Action phase, the special effect is lost. The Leader can place a new Scientist on the Spaceport they control without having to pay the Mycelium resource. The Spaceport has to be empty of all Units prior to this Free action.
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Card value 4: Although this card is revealed during step 2, the Leader applies the effect during the Action phase when they are the Active Player and only when performing a Trade action. The Leader first draws the number of Stock Market cards indicated by their die. Then the Leader can choose any resource on the Stock Market and raise or lower its value by 2. This could trigger a Stock Market Crash. Afterwards, the Leader proceeds with their Trade action normally by choosing a Stock Market card effect to be applied and discarding all cards with the chosen one on top.
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Card value 5: The Leader MUST remove a resource from the resource pool when Planet cards are revealed. The chosen resource does not go on the planet's exhaustion track but is removed from this game instead.
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Card value 6: When Planet cards are revealed, the Leader retrieves all their face-up Planet cards from their discard pile and secretly picks one to place behind their screen. Then the Leader places all the other cards back in a face-up discard pile, with the #6 card value on top visible to all players (so the Leader cannot pick the #6 card they just played). If the Leader played this card and there is no other card than the #6 in their discard pile, then they lose the special effect provided by the #6 Planet card.
From the Author: I would like to thank all our Kickstarter backers and all the joyful players who explored new living planets during the long development of this game.
Art by Ismaël, Bertrand Benoît, Irvin.