Stella Quest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Key Concepts
  • Lead color
  • Trump color
• Round Structure
• Running Out of Cards
• Who Wins a Round?
  • Example 1. Higher value
  • Example 2. Trump card
  • Example 3. Card of the lead color
  • Example 4. Super-trump card
  • Example 5. Super-trump card
  • Example 6. Second super-trump card
• Round Example
• Radiance Tokens
  • Radiance Loss Example
• Rest Cards
• End of the Game
  • Scoring Example
• Two-Player Game

Components

• 54 cards. The color on the back of a card matches the color on its face.
  • 48 emotion cards: 12 cards in each of 4 colors. In each color there are 2 cards of each value from 1 to 6.
  • 6 rest cards.
• 20 radiance tokens (Light side and Dark side).
• Card holder.
• Black star marker. Before the first game, assemble the marker by attaching the black star to the base.

Goal of the Game

You are spirits, and to win you need to learn the whole spectrum of human emotions! To do so, collect 6 different emotion cards of any colors, numbered in order from 1 to 6.

Be careful! Spirits are curious but inconstant beings. If you flip all 5 of your radiance tokens, you lose and turn into yet another black star.

Setup

It is time to prepare the spirits' journey to Earth!

1. Shuffle the emotion cards and rest cards together, then deal each player 5 cards. Put the remaining cards in a shared deck, face down, in the card holder. Place the holder in the center of the table so that all players can reach it.
2. Reveal the top card of the shared deck and place it face up next to the deck; it begins the discard pile.
3. Each player takes 5 radiance tokens and lays them in a row in front of them, Light side up. Throughout the game all players must be able to see each other's tokens.
4. Place the black star marker in the center of the table so that all players can reach it. At the start of the first round no one has drawn the attention of the black star.
5. The player who most recently looked at the stars becomes the first player.

Key Concepts

Lead color

Players must play cards of the lead color if they can. The color of the first emotion card played in a round sets the lead color for the whole round. Each player must play a card of that color if they have one.

Trump color

The player who played a trump card with the higher value wins the round. The color of the top emotion card of the discard pile is the trump color. A card of the trump color is called a trump card. If a player has no cards of the lead color in hand, they may play any card, including a trump card. If at least one trump card was played in a round, the trump card with the higher value wins.

Round Structure

Spirits are very curious. To learn more about people, they are ready to rush on a dangerous journey to Earth.

In a two-player game, play rounds with the changes described in "Two-Player Game" below.

Each round goes through 6 steps in order:

1. The first player plays any card from their hand face up. If they played an emotion card, the color of this card sets the lead color for this round.
2. The other players, in turn order clockwise from the first player, each play one card of the lead color from their hand. If a player has no such card, they play any card from their hand (a trump card is allowed).
   • A player may play a rest card even if they have a card of the lead color (see "Rest Cards").
   • Throughout the game all players must be able to see the colors on the backs of each other's cards. You may not hide the color of your cards by covering their backs!
3. After each player has played exactly one card, determine the winner of the round by the following rules:
   • The player who played a super-trump card wins the round (see "Who Wins a Round?").
   • If no one played a super-trump card, the player who played the trump card with the higher value wins the round.
   • If no one played a super-trump or a trump card, the player who played the card of the lead color with the higher value wins the round.
   • If all players played rest cards, no one wins this round.
4. The round winner takes one of the emotion cards played in this round and places it face up in front of them in their collection. A rest card cannot be taken. Then the round winner puts the remaining played cards onto the discard pile, choosing which card goes on top (this is how they choose the trump color for the next round). However, if at least one rest card was played this round, it must be the one placed on top.
5. The round winner draws the attention of the black star! To mark this, they take the black star marker and place it in front of them.
6. After finishing the round, start a new one from step 1. The player with the black star marker becomes the first player.

See the round example below.

Running Out of Cards

Although spirits are curious beings, they burn with the idea of learning new things only while they themselves shine brightly.

If you run out of cards in hand, immediately draw from the shared deck as many cards as you have radiance tokens lying Light side up. However, if you have only one token Light side up, draw 2 cards instead of 1. When doing this, do not flip radiance tokens to the Dark side.

If the shared deck runs out, immediately shuffle the discard pile, except the top card, and make them into a new shared deck.

Who Wins a Round?

When a spirit learns more about the nature of humanity, it joyfully lights up the night sky.

Usually the round is won by whoever played the card of the lead color with the higher value. But if at least one player played a trump card, the winner is whoever played the trump card with the higher value.

If any player played a super-trump card, that player wins the round. A super-trump card is a card that meets any of the following conditions:

• An emotion card of the same color and with the same value as the top card of the discard pile.
• An emotion card of the same color and with the same value as one of the cards played earlier in this round.

If 2 super-trump cards are played in the same round, the player who played the second one wins.

Card priority is easy to determine from this scheme: super-trump card (the second one, if there are two) > trump card (with the higher value, if there are several) > card of the lead color (with the higher value, if there are several).

If all players played rest cards, no one wins this round. For more about rest cards see "Rest Cards".

Example 1. Higher value

Players played these cards in turn order from left to right: Roman blue 6, Kirill blue 4, Marina blue 3. The top card of the discard pile is green 4. In this round the lead color is blue. No one played a trump card (green), and Roman wins the round: he played the blue card with the higher value (blue 6).

Example 2. Trump card

In this round the lead color is blue and the trump color is green. The discard pile top is green 4. Roman played blue 6, Kirill green 1, Marina blue 4. Kirill played the only trump card (green 1), so he wins the round.

Example 3. Card of the lead color

In this round the lead color is blue and the trump color is red. Marina played a green card, which is neither the lead nor the trump color (neutral). Kirill cannot win this round because he played a rest card. The discard pile top is red 3. Roman played blue 2, Kirill a rest card, Marina green 6. Roman has a card of the lead color (blue 2), and he wins the round.

Example 4. Super-trump card

Roman plays blue 2, and Kirill plays blue 6. Marina plays the same card as Roman, blue 2. Marina's card counts as super-trump, so she wins this round.

Example 5. Super-trump card

The top card of the discard pile is blue 3, so the trump color is blue. Roman plays blue 6 (a trump card of the lead color), so blue also becomes the lead color. Kirill plays green 2 (a card of neutral color), and Marina plays the second green 2. Although green is a neutral color, Marina's card counts as super-trump and brings her the win in this round.

Example 6. Second super-trump card

The top card of the discard pile is yellow 3. Roman plays blue 6 (card of the lead color), Kirill plays the second blue 6 (super-trump card), and Marina plays yellow 3 (second super-trump card). Although the last two cards are both super-trump, Marina wins this round, since the second super-trump card has priority over the first.

Round Example

Roman is the first player. Kirill and Marina sit after him in turn order.

1. Roman is the first player. He plays a blue 5 from his hand, so the lead color this round is blue.
2. Kirill has 2 blue cards, so he must follow the lead color rule and choose one of them. He plays blue 2.
3. Marina has no blue cards, so she may play any card. She chooses green 6.

Roman's card is a card of the lead color with value 5; Kirill's is a card of the lead color with value 2; Marina's is a neutral-color card with value 6.

4. Roman won this round. Of the 3 played cards he decides to take blue 2 into his collection.
5. Roman places the remaining 2 cards on the discard pile, choosing to put the green card on top: this is the trump color for the next round.
6. Roman places the black star marker in front of him.

Radiance Tokens

Many dangers await curious spirits on their journeys. If a spirit loses all of its inner light, it goes out and becomes yet another black star. Then all that is left for it is to devour everything in its path.

Each player starts the game with 5 radiance tokens lying Light side up. If a player must lose 1 radiance, they flip one of their radiance tokens to the Dark side.

You lose radiance in each of 3 cases:

1. If you won a round while the black star marker stood in front of you, lose 1 radiance.
2. If you added to your collection an emotion card with the same value as one already in your collection, lose as many radiance as there are gems shown on that card. Cards with values 1 and 2 have 3 gems each, cards with 3 and 4 have 2 each, and cards with 5 and 6 have 1 each.
3. On your turn you may lose 1 radiance to draw 3 cards from the shared deck into your hand. You may repeat this action several times on your turn as long as you have 2 or more radiance. You may have no more than 10 cards in hand at one time. If while drawing you would have to take an 11th card, stop and draw no more. You may not simply discard cards from your hand.

If any player flips their last radiance token to the Dark side, they are eliminated from the game, and the game ends immediately. The other players count victory points according to the rules in "End of the Game".

Radiance Loss Example

Roman's collection contains emotion cards with values 2, 3 and 4. In addition, because he won the previous round, the black star marker stands in front of him.

1. Roman is the first player. He plays green 4.
2. Kirill plays green 2.
3. Marina plays a rest card.

Since green 4 is the card of the lead color with the higher value, Roman wins the round again! However, despite the win, Roman is not happy...

First Roman loses 1 radiance for winning a round while the black star marker stood in front of him (two wins in a row).

Now Roman must take one of the played cards. Since he cannot take the rest card, he has to choose between green 2 and green 4. His collection already has cards with those values, and he chooses green 4 so as to lose only 2 radiance rather than 3 (by the number of gems on the chosen card).

In total, in one round Roman lost 3 radiance at once!

Rest Cards

Even such unstoppable beings as spirits sometimes need rest. When on a deep night people see an especially dark sky, they do not suspect that the stars have decided to rest before continuing their journey.

As you may have noticed in the last example, by winning rounds several times in a row you, on the contrary, bring yourself closer to defeat. The same happens when you take cards with values that are already in your collection. In some rounds the best decision is to skip a turn; to do so, play a rest card. Such a card has no value and is not counted when determining the round winner. By playing a rest card you are guaranteed not to win that round.

There are several rules related to rest cards:

• When the round winner chooses which emotion card to take, they cannot take a rest card. In addition, they must discard the played cards so that the rest card ends up on top.
• While a rest card lies on top of the discard pile, no color counts as trump.
• If the first player played a rest card, the lead color is determined by the first emotion card played in that same round.
• If all players played rest cards, there is no winner in that round. The black star marker stays where it was, and the first player does not lose 1 radiance. The same first player begins the next round.

End of the Game

There are 2 ways to win the game:

1. Learn human emotions. If any player has gathered in their collection emotion cards with values from 1 to 6, the game ends immediately with their victory! However, if at the end of a round this player not only completed their collection but also lost their last radiance, they are eliminated from the game, and the winner is determined by the second way.

2. Score the most victory points. If any player loses their last radiance, they are eliminated from the game and the game ends immediately. The other players proceed to scoring to determine the winner among them:

   1. Each player flips all cards with duplicate values in their collection (for example, if a player has 3 cards with value 5, they flip all 3 of these cards).
   2. Each player counts their victory points: add the number of their radiance tokens lying Light side up and the number of gems on the unflipped emotion cards in their collection.

   The player with the most points wins! In case of a tie, all tied contenders share the victory.

Scoring Example

A player has 5 radiance tokens, 3 Light side up (1 + 1 + 1) and 2 Dark side up (0 + 0): 3 points. Their collection contains an unflipped card with 3 gems, a flipped card (duplicate value, 0), an unflipped card with 2 gems and an unflipped card with 1 gem: 3 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 6 points. Total: 9 victory points.

Two-Player Game

In a two-player game add a 3rd participant: an artificial opponent. It never becomes the first player and cannot win the game.

Play the two-player game by the normal rules, but with the changes below.

During setup: The artificial opponent has no cards in hand and does not use radiance tokens.

During a round: The artificial opponent always takes its turn after the first player. The turn order is: first player, artificial opponent, remaining player. On its turn the artificial opponent plays the top card of the shared deck.

When determining the round winner: If the artificial opponent should win the round, it is considered that no one won. In this case discard all played cards, and put on top of the discard pile the card played by the artificial opponent (unless someone played a rest card, in which case put it on top as usual). Place the black star marker in the center of the table. The participant who played the last card in this round becomes the first player in the next round.