Moon Colony Bloodbath Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Contents
• Setup & Components Overview
  • Resources
  • Cards in the Progress deck
• Turns
• Work
• Buildings
• Perks
• Developments
• Trouble & Events
• Twists
• Robots
• Losing People & Game End
• More Rules
• One Player Variant
• Robot Card Notes
• Building Card Notes
• Development Card Notes
• Twist Card Notes
• Credits

Overview

This is an engine-building engine-losing tableau game, with a shared deck the players build that makes things happen, many of them bad things that kill people in your moon colony, but some positive, and some that let you build up. The game lasts until one player's moon colony has no people left in it, or the players reach the bottom of the Event deck; the player with the most survivors wins.

Contents

• 90 Building cards
• 25 Perk cards
• 25 Twist cards
• 20 Development cards
• 20 Robot cards
• 13 Event cards
• 7 Starting cards
• 5 playmats
• 40x 1 people
• 35x 5 people
• 40x 1 money
• 20x 5 money
• 40x 1 food
• 10x 5 food
• 40x 1 box
• 20 Action chits
• 1 Robot deck chit
• 1 Twist deck chit

This game is not component-limited; if you run out of a chit, use a replacement (but cards are limited).

Setup & Components Overview

Shuffle the deck of Building cards. Deal 4 to each player.

Each player chooses a scientist (they're identical) and gets the Moon Base playmat for that scientist, with 30 people on it, plus 4 money and 4 food. Give each player the set of 5 Perks for their scientist. Each player takes 4 Action chits.

Shuffle the Twists and deal out 2 face up; for your first game, use two Twists with the word "Twist" in white (they're simpler). Everyone study the chosen Twists. Then shuffle them into the starting cards - 2 copies of Trouble and 4 copies of Work (Loneliness is only used for the solitaire variant). This is the initial Progress deck.

Put the Twist deck token on the Twist deck.

Shuffle the Robots. Put the Robot deck token on the Robot deck.

Keep the Developments handy in a sorted face-up pile, ready for when you need them.

Keep the Events, sorted by number, in another face-up pile, with the lowest number on top.

Keep the remaining money and food and people on the table, as well as the boxes.

So that's: a face-down deck for Buildings; a face-down Progress deck; face-down decks for Robots and Twists, each marked with a chit; and face-up piles of Developments and Events. The Building and Progress decks each have a face-up discard pile, once cards are discarded.

Resources

There are a bunch of resources you can have in this game:

• People - These are the inhabitants of your moon colony. Some hang out in your original moon base (your playmat); others occupy the Buildings you build. Your goal is to have the most people at the end.
• Money - This is the way you pay for Buildings and sometimes other things. Keep it on or by your playmat.
• Food - This is the food the people in your Buildings are eating. Keep it on or by your playmat. Without food, people will starve.
• Boxes - These are boxes of resources kept in your moon colony. They have no intrinsic value, but may be given value via Buildings or Developments or Twists. They always go on Buildings; they don't just sit on your playmat. When you lose a Building, you lose the boxes on it.
• Cards - These are your ideas for new Buildings. Your hand of cards is private. Discards however are face up.

Cards in the Progress deck

These are all the kinds of cards that go into the Progress deck:

• Starting Cards - Work and Trouble, present in every game.
• Twists - These change the game somehow. Normally there are just two, shuffled into the initial Progress deck, but sometimes there can be more.
• Events - These are things that happen while you're working on your moon colonies.
• Robots - These are your friendly mechanical servants, ready to do dull tasks for you, and having almost no chance of glitching out and killing people in droves.
• Developments - These are positive or negative things that players can add to the Progress deck.
• Perks - These are special bonuses you can get, that will be specific to you, not shared with other players. Leave yours in a face up pile in your area, for if you ever need them.

Turns

Each turn, turn over the next card from the Progress deck, putting it face up on top of the Progress deck discard pile. Everyone follows the instructions on it (simultaneously). Then the turn is over, and you turn over the next card.

Make sure everyone is done first!

After resolving a card, if the Progress deck is empty, shuffle the discards to make a new Progress deck and continue. You only shuffle when you need to turn over the next card and there isn't one; a card can still be added to the deck when it's empty, and that card will happen next.

Work

There are four Work cards in the starting deck. When one happens, each player puts an Action chit onto their mat on the Action they want to do. They do their Action, then move the Action chit to one of the four slots in the center, to indicate that they're done. They can pick the same Action over and over; there's no limit there.

There are four Actions:

• RESTOCK - You get 2 boxes; put them onto whichever of your buildings you want. You can put two on the same Building, or one on each of two Buildings. Boxes only go on Buildings; your playmat can't hold them.
• BUILD - You play a card from your hand. Pay the money cost in the upper left corner; put the card "into play" in front of you; do any PLAY rules on it.
• MINE - You get 4 money.
• FARM - You get 4 food.
• RESEARCH - You draw 2 cards.

If they picked BUILD, they put the card they want to BUILD face down, and players BUILDing at the same time can reveal their cards simultaneously. Sometimes you won't care if other players know what you're BUILDing; you'll just put your card face up on the table once you've picked it, and go about paying for it.

When you do an Action, some of your Buildings may make things happen. These abilities are color-coded by the Action; a yellow Building ability will say "MINE" and will do something each time you use the MINE Action, and so on. If you have multiple Buildings that do something for the same Action, you can resolve those abilities in any order, and do any of them before or after resolving the Action itself.

For example, suppose you have Restaurant, Nursery, and Silica Mine in play, and Work happens and you choose FARM. You decide to first get +4 food from FARM, then spend one of that food for +4 money from the Restaurant. If you had a box on Nursery you could spend it for +4 people, but you don't have any boxes on it so you don't manage to use that ability. Silica Mine isn't relevant here at all, it doesn't care about FARMing.

Each time the Progress deck is shuffled, remove your Action chits from your playmat.

Buildings

A Building card has:

• Cost - The amount of money you pay to BUILD the card (upper left corner).
• Title - What this card is called.
• Art - What it looks like!
• People - The number of people that live in this Building. You never put people chits onto the Building; the Building just comes with the people in it, and when you lose the Building, you get that many people on your playmat.
• Abilities - Things the card does for you while you've got it in play.

Iron Mine says "MINE: +1 box." This means every time you use the MINE Action, you'll also get a box. It can go on the Iron Mine itself, or on some other Building you have. Iron Mine also says "PLAY: Add a Perk." This means that when you BUILD the Iron Mine, you'll get to add one of your Perks to the Progress deck. That only happens once; then Iron Mine is just this handy thing that makes boxes.

Potato Farm says "FARM: +2 food." So every time you FARM, you'll get an extra 2 food, in addition to your regular 4 food. It also says, "You may spend food as money." That applies whenever you get to spend money.

You can have two of the same Building; nothing is stopping you. Their abilities will usually be cumulative (a few things like "ignore Paperwork" aren't cumulative, because well once you're ignoring Paperwork, you're ignoring it all the way).

Building abilities that happen due to an Action will happen even if the Action wasn't due to Work. For example when you BUILD a Kale Farm, it causes you to FARM; that will immediately get you +4 food and also get you an extra +1 food due to the Kale Farm's ability.

Perks

These are personal favors the players can call in. Each player has a set of 5 Perks, the same cards except referring to that specific player. The text "add a Perk" means you get to add the Perk of your choice to the Progress deck. It goes on top of the deck, and will usually be the next thing that happens. And then it will be in the deck; every time the Progress deck is shuffled, your Perk will be in there, ready to come up again.

Your Perks only affect you. The Dr. Brain Perk that gives +2 money, for example, just gives Dr. Brain +2 money; no-one else gets anything.

Perks aren't cards in your hand, and can't be discarded; the only thing you can do with them is add them to the Progress deck, and only when something tells you to "add a Perk."

Developments

These are cards players can add to the Progress deck, that will affect all players. Cards that add them will explain what they do in parentheses. For example, Market says, "PLAY: Add Trade. (box for +2 cards)" And sure enough, Trade says "You may spend a box for +2 cards."

When you add a Development, fish it out of the pile of them that's on the table, and put it on top of the deck. When one comes up from the Progress deck, everyone does whatever it says; when Trade happens, everyone can optionally spend a box to draw 2 cards. Most of them are optional but a few are not.

There are two copies of each Development. If you're called on to add a third copy, you fail to.

Trouble & Events

There are two Trouble cards in the starting deck. When one comes up, add the next Event to the top of the Progress deck - meaning it will be the very next thing that happens. The Events are always added in the same order - first Hunger, then Paperwork, and so on, based on the number at the top. The text on Trouble is in blue to remind you that it applies only once, not once per player.

Some Events will make you lose people; see that section.

Here are the Events:

• Hunger: So this is why you want food. Lose an amount of food equal to the number of Buildings you have. For each Building you didn't lose a food for, you lose a person. If you didn't lose any people, you get +2 people on your playmat.
  • This affects all players at the same time.
  • You lose the food even if you don't want to; the people have to eat.
  • If you don't lose people, you get +2 people, even if you didn't need to spend any food at all.
  • You lose all of the people at once, as one big loss. If this makes you lose a Building, you still had to pay food for it.
• Paperwork: Each player draws a Building card, then discards 2 cards. Hacker Lair makes you immune to this; you don't do either part (and can't choose to).
• Glitch: This adds a random Robot - the next one from that deck. As usual it goes on top of the Progress deck, so it will then immediately happen. Watch out! Only one Robot is added each time Glitch happens, not one per player.
• Leak, Tempers Flare, Accident, Airlock Test, Moonquake, Power Failure: Each player loses the indicated number of people. Space is a dangerous place, it turns out.
• Instruction Manual: All problems are solved at last, and the player with the most people (counting buildings and playmat) wins. New players will not possibly reach this, but experienced players may. See the Game End section.

Twists

Two Twists are shuffled into the starting Progress deck each game. More Twists are only possible via the Sentient AI Robot.

Twists just have abilities that affect all players. Follow the instructions. Some are optional and some are not, as indicated.

Robots

Robots are added to the Progress deck via the Glitch Event, and also due to the Bunker Building. They are all robots gone haywire; it's just not possible to debug these things completely before putting them into operation.

When a Robot is turned over, first, everyone loses the indicated number of people. See the Losing People section just below.

When that's done, follow the rest of the instructions on the Robot. They may be optional but usually are not, as indicated.

Losing People & Game End

Any time you have to lose people, they come from your moon base - your playmat. If there aren't enough people on your playmat, lose a Building, gaining its printed people on your playmat; if there still aren't enough people on your playmat, keep losing Buildings until there are. When you finally have enough people on your playmat, lose the required number of people.

You lose a Building by putting it into the Building discard pile, putting its printed number of people onto your playmat, and doing any LOST abilities the Building has. You also lose any boxes that were on the Building. LOST abilities can end up with a bunch of stuff happening; work through it all before you move on to either losing another Building or losing the people you have to.

You can't just lose a Building because you want to; you have to be forced to, either due to losing people without enough on your playmat, or due to being told directly to lose a Building. If you lose a Building such a way, you still move its people onto your playmat.

When you have to lose a Building, it can be any Building you choose; it doesn't matter how many people it has.

If you have to lose more people than you can, or you are reduced to no people between your playmat and Buildings, your moon colony has failed. Humanity abandons the moon colony plan; it was hubris from the start. The game is over. The player with the most surviving people - counting both people on playmats, and people printed on Buildings - wins.

The game also ends if the players reach the Instruction Manual Event. The moon colonies are a success, all early hardships overcome. The player with the most people - counting both people on playmats, and people printed on Buildings - wins.

More Rules

When told to do something, do as much as you can! Anything you can't do, you don't do. However abilities like "you may spend a box, to..." only do anything for you if you actually spend the box.

Abilities aren't optional unless they say they are, e.g. with "you may."

Cards added to the Progress deck always go on top. If two or more cards are added to the deck at once, shuffle them, so that they happen in a random order. You can even add a card to the Progress deck when it's empty; you don't shuffle the deck until you need to turn over a card and can't.

If you need to draw a Building card and the deck is empty, shuffle the discards.

You can't look through the discard piles for the Building and Progress decks.

Abilities that let you spend a box still just work once per time they happen; you can't spend multiple boxes at once unless the ability specifically lets you.

One Player Variant

You can play Moon Colony Bloodbath solitaire. Set it up as usual, but add the Loneliness card to the starting deck. Just try to reach the Instruction Manual; if you do, you win. Otherwise your score is the highest numbered Event you added before being wiped out.

If you can regularly reach the Instruction Manual, you can keep going. Instead of adding Events for Instruction Manual and on, add Robots. Your score is the number of extra Robots you added before losing.

Loneliness refers to little symbols on Buildings that never mattered before. This is to balance Developments for single player; good Developments are just great, bad ones are just awful, so Loneliness compensates for that. Each time Loneliness happens, you get 3 people per (good) symbol Building you have in play, and lose 3 people per (bad) symbol Building you have in play.

Robot Card Notes

• Automatic Doors: Set this Robot aside so that you remember that it affects the next Work, once it shows up. Once the next Work shows up, discard the Automatic Doors, and Buildings have no abilities during that Work. That includes PLAY abilities! This doesn't stop Buildings from doing things prior to that Work. If there are no Works left before the next time the Progress deck is shuffled, then that ability of Automatic Doors does nothing that time.
• Construction Robot: The card put on your mat (face down) will be the next card you BUILD, because it's the only card you can BUILD (whether via a Work BUILD, or other things letting you BUILD)... unless Construction Robot hits you multiple times without you BUILDing, in which case you'll set aside a 2nd card, and then could BUILD either one next. If you have no cards in hand, you don't put a card on your mat. Cards put on your mat with this don't interact with the cards put under your mat due to Surveying.
• Delivery Drone: If you have no cards in hand, you'll fail to pass a card to your left, but still be passed a card from the player to your right.
• Drilling Robot: When you lose a Building, you add its people to your playmat, and LOST abilities happen.
• Mining Robot: This gives you 1 money each for having Dust Mine, Silica Mine, Iron Mine, Helium-3 Mine, Titanium Mine, and/or Aluminum Mine.
• Repairs Robot: Set this Robot aside so that you remember that it affects the next Work, once it shows up. Once the next Work shows up, discard the Repairs Robot, and no-one can BUILD during that Work. This doesn't stop players from BUILDing at other times, such as due to Innovation. If there are no Works left before the next time the Progress deck is shuffled, then that ability of Repairs Robot does nothing that time.
• Robot Butler: If you have no boxes, you simply fail to lose one.
• Robot Companion: This Action isn't tracked with an Action chit, and doesn't use up a Work.
• Robot Waiter: If you just have one food, lose it; if you have no food, you just don't lose any. You still lose 4 people, but take delight from whatever small comforts you can.
• Sentient AI: The blue text on this is to remind you that you only add one Twist, not one Twist per player. Only add the Twist after all players have resolved losing people. The added Twist goes on top of the Progress deck and will be the next thing that happens. Adding this Twist doesn't give anyone +2 money for Trading Post; the Sentient AI is adding it, not a player.
• Stacking Robot: You don't have to spend any boxes, but for each one you spend, you lose 2 fewer people to the Stacking Robot. You can spend more than 3 boxes, but you won't want to.
• Warehouse Robot: If all of your Buildings already have one or more boxes on them, you will sadly not get a free box.

Building Card Notes

• Aluminum Mine: Note that when using MINE with no money, you can choose to first resolve Aluminum Mine and get +5 money, then resolve the MINE Action itself and get +4 money for it.
• Assembly Line: When you lose this, you get to BUILD a Building, but you won't have Assembly Line in play anymore to make that Building cheaper.
• Bunker: The added Robot is a random one from the deck. It goes on top of the Progress deck and will normally be the next thing that happens.
• Flag: If you have no people and this is your only Building, you still lose. The Flag has no people.
• Fuel Cells: Note that you can first get +2 boxes from RESTOCK, put one of them on Fuel Cells, then spend that box for +4 money and drawing a card then discarding a card.
• Hacker Lair: You don't draw for Paperwork, and don't discard for Paperwork. You can't choose not to ignore it.
• Kitchen: Note that you can first get +2 boxes from RESTOCK, put one of them on Kitchen, then spend that box for +4 food.
• Launch Pad: For example you could choose to repeat the "Add a Perk" on Organ Banks, or the "+2 cards" on Lunarcrete Factory.
• Market: Note that you can first get +4 food from FARM, then spend 2 of the food for +4 money from the Market.
• Moon Hotel: This counts each time you get +food. If you FARM and have a Kale Farm, you got +4 food from FARM and +1 food from Kale Farm, so Moon Hotel would give you +2 people.
• Organ Banks: This lets you spend a box from Organ Banks rather than lose 3 people to an Accident. It has no effect on other ways to lose people, including all of the other Events; it just works on Accidents.
• Potato Farm: This applies any time you can spend money; you can spend food instead. It doesn't let you otherwise use food as money; for example Budget Cuts will still make you lose 2 money and ignore your food. You can spend money and food in any combination. This doesn't let you use money as food.
• R&D Storage: "Any time" really means at any time. For example, we flip over Paperwork from the Progress deck, and you decide, time to remove a box and draw a card. You could even immediately use R&D Storage again, up to the number of boxes on it, before finally moving on to resolving Paperwork.
• Radio Antennae: If you have two of these and start Work with no cards in hand, you'll draw 2 cards.
• Reactor: Building costs aren't affected by things that let you pay less, such as Reactor itself.
• Recycling: If you discard 2 or more cards at once, such as to Paperwork, you get +1 money for each card.
• Restaurant: Note that you can first get +4 food from FARM, then resolve Restaurant to spend one of those food.
• Solar Panels: Because you can choose the order of abilities, you could for example BUILD a Makeshift Lab, resolve its PLAY ability to put 2 boxes on Solar Panels, then resolve Solar Panels to get +people.
• Trading Post: Any cards you personally add to the Progress deck make you +2 money each; this includes Perks, Developments, Robots, and Events.
• Warehouse: This lets you move a box from one Building to another.

Development Card Notes

All abilities that let you spend something will fail to work for you if you don't actually spend the something. If you don't have 2 food, you can't make use of Tourists, and so on.

• Budget Cuts: If you just have 1 money, lose the 1 money; if you have no money, just be happy that Budget Cuts didn't affect you.
• Innovation: You still pay for the Building.
• Radiation: If you choose to lose a Building, you add its people to your playmat, and LOST abilities for it happen.
• Repairs: If you have no boxes, this doesn't affect you.

Twist Card Notes

• Construction Kits: You spend a box for the privilege of BUILDing; you still have to pay for the Building. You can spend a box even if you then have no Buildings in hand costing up to 4 money. Things that reduce what you pay, such as Lunarcrete Factory, don't change costs, and have no effect on what can be built with Construction Kits.
• Engineers: When you lose a Building, you add its people to your playmat, and LOST abilities happen.
• Grand Plan: You discard a card for the privilege of BUILDing; you still have to pay for the Building. You can discard a card even if you then have no Buildings in hand costing 5 money or more. Things that reduce what you pay, such as Lunarcrete Factory, don't change costs, and have no effect on what can be built with Grand Plan.
• Overtime: You still have to pay for the Building.
• Risky Research: You can pay 2 people to do this even if you don't have enough people on your playmat; that would cause you to lose a Building.
• Surveying: You may choose to discard the cards even if there aren't any there (and you'll get +0 money). Cards put under your mat for Surveying don't interact with cards put on your mat due to Construction Robot.

Credits

Game Design: Donald X. Vaccarino. Art & Graphic Design: Franz Vohwinkel. © 2024 Rio Grande Games. All Rights Reserved.