Periorbis

Periorbis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Playing the game

Please read the separate game overview and set up guide before reading these rules.

Periorbis is played over 12 turns, or 6 turns if you are playing the shorter version of the game. Each turn is made up of three phases, Hire Employees, Employee Actions and Bureaucracy. The player who has the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner.

Player Order

Players always act in reverse player order i.e. the "losing" player goes first. The "losing" player is the player furthest to the left on the Player Order Track.

When Player Order is updated, it is determined by comparing 1) Victory Points, then 2) Total Wages and finally 3) Highest employee number. The player with the highest number of Victory Points is the "Winning" player and so on. In the event of a tie, the player with the highest total wage bill is the "Winning" player (of the tying players). If there is still a tie, the player with the highest employee number is the "Winning" player (of the tying players). Player Order is updated at the end of the Hire Employees phase on turn 2 and in the Bureaucracy phase thereafter.

Example (4 player game, figure on page 1): Orange will act first in the Hire Employees and Employee Actions phases. It will then be Green's turn, then Blue and finally Pink.

Asteroids and the Orbit Track

You need to be able to access an asteroid before you can carry out some employee actions.

The Orbit Track shows which of the 9 asteroids will be close enough to access on each of the 12 turns, and the level of Drive Technology needed to access the asteroid that turn. Asteroids not shown on a particular turn can't be accessed that turn regardless of what level of technology you have, so you will need to plan ahead.

Close orbit – only asteroids in the inner band can be reached.
Medium orbit – asteroids in the middle band can be reached once you have upgraded to Boosters.
Far orbit – asteroids in the outer band can only be reached once you have upgraded to Ion drives.

On turn 1, players are only able to access Ada (A), Bertha (B) and Capek (C).

The Drive Technology Track – all players start the game with Basic Drives.

Fleet Capacity

The Transport Cargo action (see Captain Actions) uses up your Fleet Capacity, so the total amount of employees and ore that you can transport is limited.

At the start of the game all players have a Fleet Capacity of 3, meaning that they can transport up to a maximum of 3 cargo in total each turn. Each employee counts as 1 cargo. Each ore crate also counts as 1 cargo. You can transport any combination of employees and ore crates.

You can assign as many employees as you like to perform the Transport Cargo action each turn, but the total amount of cargo that you can transport across all employees is limited to your Fleet Capacity. Fleet Capacity can be increased by carrying out research and upgrading your fleet.

Hire Employees phase (ignore this phase on turn 1)

In reverse player order, players may hire one, and only one, new employee from those available in the employee pool. The first employee cards will be added to the pool in the Bureaucracy phase of turn 1.

You hire employees by paying credits equal to 5x their wage on the first turn that they appear. If an employee is not hired by any player the cost of hiring them is reduced by 1x their wage next turn (4x and 3x wage tokens are used to track this). If an employee is not hired after three turns they are removed from the employee pool.

If you hire an employee, place their card into an empty slot on your HQ board or replace one of your existing employee cards. You can't replace an employee who is on an asteroid mining base. Replaced employees are removed from the game. If you do not want to hire an employee you may pass.

Once all of the players have hired an employee or passed, update the Wage Track to reflect the total wages for all your employees. Then, adjust the employee pool as shown below to show the cost of hiring next turn.

Discard any employees with an existing 3x token.
Flip over any existing 4x tokens to show the 3x side.
Place a 4x wage token on un-hired employees with no existing token.

Employee Actions phase

In reverse Player Order, players chose what each of their employees will do this turn. Each employee can perform one action each turn. All employees can carry out any action, but specialists are more effective. Employees can be used in any order but must complete their action fully before the next employee is used. More than one employee can perform the same action, but they can't be combined into a single action.

Any credit or research data costs (see next sections) must be paid immediately. At the end of your turn, you pay wages for all employees who carried out an action. If an employee doesn't perform an action you don't need to pay their wages. Employees can only perform an action if they will be paid at the end of your turn.

To perform an employee action, place the employee disc for that employee into the relevant Employee Action Zone of your HQ and declare what the employee is doing. After each action has been completed, place the next employee disc and so on until all employees have been used or you want to end your turn.

Employee actions must be carried out in a logical event order using available resources at the point the action is taken. For example, you can't deliver ore to a trading ship, unless you have first signed up to a contract.

Once you have completed all actions for that turn and paid wages, place all of your employee discs except those on mining bases back on top of your employee cards in the HQ slots ready for your next turn.

Engineering Actions

Build a mining base (Building Skill bonus)

The cost of building a mining base is shown on the relevant base slot and is either 10, 15 or 20 credits. You cannot transport employees to an asteroid using the Transport Cargo Action until you have built a mining base on that asteroid.

To build a base, the asteroid must be accessible to you this turn (see earlier Asteroids and Orbit Track section). Building a mining base doesn't count against your Fleet Capacity (the Engineer has his own base installation ship).

If you use a specialist Engineer to carry out this action the cost is reduced by their Building Skill.

Building the first base on an asteroid costs 10 credits, less any Building Skill bonus.

Develop HQ slot (Building Skill bonus)

Developing an HQ slot opens up a new HQ slot (slot 6 or 7), which allows you to have more employees at a time. The cost of opening up a new slot is 12 credits for slot 6 or 17 credits for slot 7. Remove the under development card from your HQ board to show that the slot is now available.

If you use a specialist Engineer to carry out this action the cost is reduced by their Building Skill.

Developing slot 6 of the HQ costs 12 credits, less any Building Skill bonus.

Upgrade Fleet Capacity (Upgrade Skill bonus)

Upgrading increases your Fleet Capacity by one. The cost is 5 research data (see research action).

If you use a specialist Engineer to carry out this action the cost is reduced by their Upgrade Skill.

Upgrade Drive Technology (Upgrade Skill bonus)

Upgrading increases the level of your drive technology by one, allowing you to access asteroids in a higher orbit. The cost is 5 research data (see research action).

If you use a specialist Engineer to carry out this action the cost is reduced by their Upgrade Skill.

Increasing Fleet Capacity or improving Drive Technology costs 5 research data, less any Upgrade Skill bonus when you use a specialist engineer.

Agent Actions

Sign a Contract (Contract Skill bonus)

This action opens a trading ship contract so that you can transport ore crates to that ship (see Miner Actions section for a description of how to create ore crates). Place one of your cubes onto the Contract space of the chosen row of a trading ship card and take credits equal to the advance amount shown.

If you use a specialist agent to carry out this action also place cubes equal to the employee's Contract Skill into the Agent Bonus space for that row.

To open a contract, place a cube on the (light grey) contract space and take credits equal to the advance amount shown. If you use a specialist Agent then also place cubes equal to the Contract Skill on the Agent Bonus space on the same row of the contract. (The printed caption reads "Contact Skill"; the body text and the Agent Skill bonus label refer to the Contract Skill.)

Once you have signed up to a contract you cannot sign up on a second row of the same trading ship. Only one player can sign up on a particular row.

Sell Ore (Selling Skill bonus)

Selling ore allows you to sell ore crates that you already have in your HQ storage. The employee's Sell Ore Skill determines the maximum number of ore crates that they can sell each turn.

For each cube sold in this way you immediately receive credits equal to 2 plus the employee's Contract Skill and 1 Victory Point. (The printed text reads "cube sold"; the captions and examples describe ore crates sold.)

Most employees can sell up to 2 ore crates from storage for 2 credits and 1 Victory Point each. Specialist Agents can sell more ore crates (up to their Selling Skill) and also receive bonus credits (equal to their Contract Skill) for each ore crate sold.

Example figures: 2 ore sold for 4 credits; 4 ore sold for 12 credits.

A Captain Action is not required to sell ore directly from storage, and doing so doesn't count against your Fleet Capacity. The local traders come and collect the ore crates.

Captain Actions

Transport Cargo (Captain Skill bonus)

The Transport Cargo action allows you to transport employees and ore crates to and from asteroids (up to a total of your Fleet Capacity across all employees used each turn - see Fleet Capacity section). The employee's Captain Skill determines the maximum amount of cargo that they can transport each turn. Each employee counts as 1 cargo. Each ore crate also counts as 1 cargo. You can transport any combination up to a total of your Fleet Capacity. Specialist Captains can transport more cargo than other employees.

Example: Blue has a Fleet Capacity of 3. Blue's basic employee with a Captain Skill of 2 can transport up to 2 cargo, for example an employee and an ore crate. Blue could carry out a second Transport Cargo action with another employee to transport more cargo, but is currently limited to a total of 3 cargo in total per turn. Blue's Specialist Captain, with a Captain Skill of 4, can only transport up to 3 cargo this turn because his Fleet Capacity is currently 3.

Transporting employees

You can only transport employees that have not already carried out an action or mined this turn.

You can only transport an employee to an asteroid if you have already built a mining base there and you can access that asteroid this turn. You could have built the base earlier in the same turn. You can have more than one employee on the same asteroid.

To transport an employee to an asteroid, remove the employee's disc from the HQ board and place it on your base in the asteroid information area.

Example: a specialist Miner in HQ slot 2 is transported to a mining base on Ada. It is turn 3 and Ada can be accessed with basic drive technology.

Employees can be transported from one asteroid to another as long as both asteroids are currently accessible to you. Transporting an employee always counts as one against the Captain's Skill level and your Fleet Capacity. Employee discs for employees brought back to the HQ should be placed on top of the employee card in the HQ slot with the same number.

Once an employee has been transported, you can carry out an action with them at their destination. For example, employees transported to a mining base can mine this turn, and employees brought back to the HQ can take an action in the HQ this turn. Employees brought back to the HQ can perform the Transport Cargo action so long as you have Fleet Capacity remaining. Employees on mining bases can only perform the Mining action.

Transporting ore crates

You can transport ore crates from your mining bases which you can access this turn to trading ships where you have an open contract. You can also transport ore crates to your storage in the HQ, and from your storage to trading ships. You can't remove ore crates from a trading ship once they have been supplied. You can always access your HQ storage. See Miner Actions section for a description of how to produce ore crates.

When supplying one or more trading ships, remove ore crates from your mining base or your storage area and place them onto empty cargo spaces on the trading ship card. Fill all of the light grey cargo spaces first before filling any of the dark grey cargo spaces. You cannot supply more ore than there are spaces in a trading ship.

Example: after opening the top contract on a trading ship, Blue decides to use his Captain (and 2 Fleet Capacity) to transport 2 ore crates from his mining base on Ada to the trading ship. He places the ore crates to fill the light grey cargo spaces first.

Instead of supplying a trading ship, you can choose to transport ore crates to your HQ storage area. A Captain Skill point and available Fleet Capacity will subsequently be needed to transport the ore crates from storage to a trading ship. Alternatively, you can sell your ore crates directly to local traders using the Sell Ore action.

You can transport employees and ore crates from and to multiple locations (mining bases, your HQ and trading ships), but each item of cargo transported uses up 1 Captain Skill point and 1 Fleet Capacity.

Scientist Actions

Research (Research Skill bonus)

This action allows you to generate the Research Data that you need to upgrade your fleet. The amount of Research Data generated by an employee each turn is equal to their Research Skill.

To perform this action, place cubes equal to the employee's Research Skill into your lab.

Specialist Scientists generate more Research Data per turn than other employees.

Example: Blue uses a specialist Scientist to generate 2 Research Data.

Sell Research (Research Skill bonus)

This action allows you to sell your existing Research Data for credits. The employee's Research Skill determines the maximum number of Research Data that they can sell each turn.

To perform this action, remove Research Data which is already in your lab and immediately receive 10 credits for each Research Data sold.

You can sell Research Data that another employee has generated earlier on the same turn. You may find this helpful for paying wages on some turns.

Example: Blue uses a basic employee to sell 1 Research Data for 10 credits.

Miner Actions

Mining (Mining Skill bonus)

You can convert ore from an asteroid into ore crates by Mining with your employee(s) at your mining base(s). To mine, your employee must already be on one of your mining bases and there must be ore remaining in the asteroid of a type that your employee is capable of mining. Only specialist miners can mine White ore.

To perform a Mining action, declare which type of ore your employee is mining (Black, Grey or White ore) and reduce that ore track by 1. Then, place ore crates (cubes) equal to the employee's Mining Skill for that type of ore next to your mining base. Mining can be performed even when the asteroid cannot be accessed that turn.

Example: Blue uses a specialist Miner to generate 2 ore crates on Ada by mining 1 Black ore. The ore track on the asteroid is only reduced by 1.

The ore track is only ever reduced by 1 for each mining action regardless of whether 1, 2 or 3 ore crates are produced. Specialist Miners produce a higher number of ore crates per unit of ore mined.

Example Turn

It is the Employee Actions phase of turn 3 and it is Orange to act. He has 5 employees, 4 of which are in his HQ and 1 of which (employee 1) is on his mining base on Ada. At the start of his turn he has 2 ore crates at his mining base on Ada and 3 research data in his lab. He has not yet upgraded his fleet or signed a contract.

Orange decides that he will carry out the following actions with his employees:

First, employee 4 (a specialist Agent) will Sign a Contract with a trading ship and receive an advance payment.

Second, employee 3 (a specialist Captain) will Transport employee 5 (a specialist Miner) to Ada and employee 1 (a basic employee) back to the HQ. He will also Transport 1 ore crate from Ada to the trading ship.

Third, employee 1 (who is now back at the HQ) will Research to generate 1 research data.

Fourth, employee 2 (a specialist Engineer) will Upgrade Fleet and increase Fleet Capacity at a cost of 4 research data. (The standard cost is 5 research data; the specialist Engineer's Upgrade Skill bonus of 1 reduces it to 4, as shown in the Example turn in detail below.)

Lastly, employee 5 (a specialist Miner) will mine Black ore on Ada to generate 2 ore crates.

Finally, Orange will pay the wages of the employees who carried out an action this turn. A total of 10 credits.

Example turn in detail

First, Orange places the employee disc for employee 4 (a specialist Agent) into the Agent Action Zone and declares that the employee will Sign a Contract.

Orange chooses to sign up on the top row of a basic starting trading ship and receives an advance payment of 10 credits. He also places 1 cube to record his Agent Bonus.

Second, Orange places the employee disc for employee 3 into the Captain Action Zone.

He then moves the disc for employee 5 from his HQ to his mining base on Ada and the disc for employee 1 from Ada to slot 1 of his HQ. He also moves an ore crate from Ada to his open contract. Orange does not receive payment for the ore crate at this time. Orange is limited to transporting a total of 3 cargo by his Fleet Capacity.

Third, Orange places the employee disc for employee 1 (who is now back at the HQ) into the Scientist Action Zone.

Orange adds 1 research data cube to his lab, giving him a total of 4.

Fourth, Orange places the employee disc for employee 2 into the Engineer Action Zone.

He advances his cube by 1 space on the Fleet Capacity track and removes 4 research data from his lab to pay for the upgrade. This is the standard cost of 5 less his Upgrade Bonus of 1.

Example continued

Lastly, Orange mines on Ada with employee 5. He reduces the amount of Black ore remaining on Ada by 1 and then places 2 additional ore crates next to his mining base there.

Finally, Orange pays the wages of the employees who carried out an action this turn. A total of 10 credits.

Orange places the employee discs for his employees except employee 5 back on top of the card in the relevant HQ slots ready for his next turn.

Bureaucracy phase

Trading ships leave

Any trading ships that have been supplied with ore crates that fill (at least) all of their light grey cargo spaces leave. It is not necessary for all of the dark grey cargo spaces to be filled for a ship to leave.

For each crate of ore that you supplied to any trading ships which leave, you receive credits equal to the Standard Price paid by that trading ship plus any Agent Bonus for that contract. You also receive or lose Victory Points depending to how many ore crates you supplied. There are two steps to calculate the number of Victory Points gained or lost:

First, you gain one Victory Point for each ore crate supplied, up to a maximum of the contract size. Second, if you supplied fewer ore crates than the contract size, you lose one Victory Point for each missing crate in excess of any Agent Bonus you have on the contract (see example below). If you supplied no ore crates to a contract, you always lose at least 1 Victory Point regardless of any Agent Bonus.

Example (trading ship card with contract rows; the ship leaves in the Bureaucracy phase because all of the light grey cargo spaces have been filled):

Blue signed up on the top row of this trading ship card using a specialist Agent with Contract Skill 2 and has supplied 4 crates of ore. Blue has an Agent Bonus of 2. Blue receives 40 credits. Each unit of ore is worth 10 credits; the Standard Price of 8 credits plus her Agent Bonus of 2 credits. She next receives 4 Victory Points for the 4 crates of ore supplied. The contract size is 6 crates of ore, so Blue is 2 crates short. However, her Agent Bonus is also 2, so she does not lose any Victory Points.

Green signed up on the middle row of the trading ship card using an Agent with Contract Skill 1 and has supplied 1 crate of ore. Green receives 9 credits; the Standard Price of 8 credits plus his Agent Bonus of 1 credit. He then receives 1 Victory Point for the crate of ore he supplied. Lastly, he loses 2 Victory Points for failing to meet his contract size of 4. He is 3 units short, but only loses 2 Victory Points because he has an Agent Bonus of 1. Overall, Green loses 1 Victory Point for this ship. He does not need to repay any of the advance he received.

Pink signed up on the bottom row of the trading ship using an employee with no Contract Skill and has supplied 3 crates of ore. Pink receives 24 credits; 8 credits for each unit of ore supplied. He also receives 2 Victory Points. Pink does not receive a 3rd Victory Point for the last crate of ore supplied because his contract was to supply 2 crates of ore.

(Notes: the printed text reads "receive or loose Victory Points" and "depending to how many"; read as "lose" and "depending on". The Blue example's credit line reads "Blue receives 40 credits" as printed.)

You can supply more ore than your contract size to get credits, but Victory Points are not earned for extra ore.

Using a specialist Agent to sign up to a contract gives you some flexibility in the amount of ore that you need to supply to avoid losing Victory Points, but it does not increase the maximum number of Victory Points that you can receive from a contract.

New trading ships arrive

Draw cards from the top of the lowest level trading ship deck to replace any which left this turn (start with any remaining basic starting cards). In a 2 player game there should be 1 trading ship available, in a 3 or 4 player game there should be 2 trading ships available and in a 5 or 6 player game there should be 3 trading ships available.

Employee pool

Draw new employee cards and place them face up beside the board. The number of cards to draw depends on the number of players and the number of cards already available in the employee pool.

In a 5 or 6 player game, first always draw 3 cards. In a 2, 3 or 4 player game, always draw 2 cards.

Then, draw additional cards (if necessary) until there are at least 2 more cards available than the number of players in the game. For example, in a 5 player game, draw 3 cards first, then check to see if more cards are required to be drawn to have at least 7 employee cards available. Draw cards from deck 1 until it is exhausted, then start drawing cards from deck 2.

Reset player order

The player with the highest number of Victory Points is the "Winning" player and places their cube at the right hand end of the Player Order Track. The player with the next highest Victory Point is next and so on. In the event of a tie, the player with the highest wage bill is the "Winner" (of the tying players). Finally, if there is still a tie, the player with the highest employee number is the "Winner" (of the tying players).

Advance the turn marker

Move the turn marker to the next area of the Orbit Track.

End of the game

The game ends at the end of the 12th turn. All remaining trading ships are scored whether they are full or not and credits and Victory Points are received in the usual way. The player with the most Victory Points wins!

In the event of a tie, the player with the most credits wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the highest wage bill wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the highest numbered employee wins.

Shorter game

If you are new to Periorbis, or if you would like to play a shorter game, we suggest playing with the first 6 asteroids only (Ada, Bertha, Capek, Datura, Eros and Freia) and finishing the game at the end of turn 6. In the short game, the Capek token should be placed in the middle orbit of turn 6 to show that Capek can be accessed that turn.

(Note: the printed text reads "Ada, Bertha Capek, Datura, Eros and Freia", with no comma after Bertha; the list is read as six asteroids.)