Trappist One Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Game Flow
  • 1. Benefit Phase
  • 2. Buying Phase
  • 3. Mega-Factory Construction Phase or Shipment Phase
    • A. Mega-Factory Construction Phase
    • B. Shipment Phase
  • 4. End Phase
• End of the Game
  • Scoring Dominion Points
  • Scoring Dominion Points (Expert Version)
• Planets (Solar System Board)
  • 1. Navalis
  • 2. Architecton
  • 3. Sophus
  • 4. Capital One
  • 5. Lux
  • 6. Fragmentum
  • 7. Morula Calva
• Exodite Expansion

Goal of the Game

You are the leader of one of Earth's most powerful mega-corporations and you want to expand your domain to the planets of the new solar system. To do so, you have to command the four Biocult clans, build mega-factories and exploit the new planets' resources. Moreover, you have to invest in satellites, cargo ships and independent orbital stations to progressively increase your power and fortune. Plan your moves and strategy well in order to achieve total control of Trappist One.

Components

Solar system boards (x4). These boards are the main piece of the game. They represent the influence and structures, such as mega-factories, cargo ships, satellites and orbital stations, of each mega-corporation on each of the seven planets of Trappist One. The 4 boards are identical and each player will have 1 of them. Each board has slots meant for different types of cards: each one of you will be able to play up to 3 mega-factories and 1 satellite per planet. Independent orbital station cards do not take up space on the board, you can play as many as you want next to it.

Cards (x142). Except for the 4 reference cards, there are three different types of main cards separated by colour:

• Mega-factory cards (red back), representing 4 types of resources: solar energy, exovegetation, atmosphere and titanium. These are your hand cards.
• Investment cards (purple back), covering Biocultist workers of all 4 clans, satellites, cargo ships and independent orbital stations. These are the market cards.
• Biocultist ship cards (brown back), always available ("Earth").

Pieces of stargold (x50). These stargold pieces represent the fortune of each mega-corporation and will be used to buy structures, activate abilities and to break ties.

Card anatomy. The printed labels on the setup page identify the card parts: COST (upper left corner, the stargold price), VICTORY POINTS (upper right corner, the dominion points), RESOURCES ACTIVATED IN PRODUCTION (bottom left of Biocultist ship and cargo ship cards) and LOADING CAPACITY (bottom right of Biocultist ship and cargo ship cards).

Player area. Each player has a personal scrapyard, an area for independent orbital stations, a hangar for Biocultist ships, and the planets of the solar system board, with spaces for satellites over the planets (orbit) and mega-factories below the planets (planet's surface).

Setup

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." —Lao Tzu

1. Build the solar system boards. They consist of 3 puzzle-like pieces. Put them together as shown in the picture.
2. Separate the cards by colour and create 3 piles.
3. Depending on the number of players, remove cards from the investment and the Biocultist ship decks. In order to do that, check the chart and put the correct amount of investment and Biocultist ship cards back into the box. If you need to remove investment cards, shuffle the investment deck first and then put the shown amount of cards back into the box without looking at them.

Players	Mega-factories	Investment cards	Biocultist ships
2	80 (use all)	26 (remove 20 randomly)	2 of each clan (remove 2 per clan)
3	80 (use all)	36 (remove 10 randomly)	3 of each clan (remove 1 per clan)
4	80 (use all)	46 (use all)	4 of each clan (use all)

4. Each player takes a solar system board and places it on the table. There should be some room around it to play the cards.
5. Determine the starting player. You can do it randomly or decide who is the most ambitious of the group. After all, you are the leader of a mega-corporation!
6. Separate the Biocultist ships depending on their clan (colour) and create 4 separate piles, one for each. Place them face up in the centre of the board where everyone can reach them. This area represents planet Earth.
7. Shuffle the investment deck and place it next to Earth. Reveal the first 4 cards of the deck so that every player has one card pointing to them. These 4 cards represent the market area of Trappist One.
   • If you are playing a 3-player game, the market area is set up the same way, but 1 card is not pointing at any player.
   • If you are playing a 2-player game, 2 cards should be pointing at each player.
8. Put the stargold aside to create a general supply. The stargold you gain during the game will be placed on your board on planet Capital One (the one in the centre).
9. Shuffle the mega-factory cards to build a deck. Give 5 mega-factory cards to the starting player, 6 to the second player, 7 to the third player (if there is one) and 8 to the fourth player (if there is one). These will be your starting deck. Any card in your hands during the game will be kept in secret to other players.
10. Each player chooses 3 mega-factories from their hands. Once you have decided which ones to play, every player places them under their Capital One planet at the same time. Place the cards so that they do not cover each other up completely: you will need to see their symbols (resource production) during the game.

Game Flow

"If you understand the universe you control it, in a way." —Stephen Hawking

Trappist One is played in turns. Each turn consists of 4 phases, and each player will complete all of them before passing the turn on to the player on their left. Turns will go around until the end of the game is triggered by one of the conditions listed in section "End of the game".

Turns are divided into 4 phases:

1. Benefit phase
2. Buying phase
3. Choose one:
   • (A) Mega-factory construction phase
   • (B) Shipment phase
4. End phase

1. Benefit Phase

In this phase, the active player receives benefits from some of the planets, satellites and orbital stations.

The benefits you can gather during this phase are highlighted with a yellow box.

Three of the seven planets grant you benefits once you control them (check "Controlling a planet"). You control a planet once you have built 3 mega-factories on it.

You decide the order in which you want to receive the benefits. This is an important part of the game's strategy, since it can affect how the benefits combine.

Benefits are optional, so you choose which ones, if any, you want to receive each turn.

2. Buying Phase

During this phase, the active player can buy investment cards that are in the market area in the centre of the table. In order to buy a card, you need to pay its full price in stargold first. Check the price in the upper left corner of the card. Once you buy a card, it will go to its corresponding place, depending on the card type.

You can buy as many investment cards from the market area as you want, but you always need to pay their full price. Buying cards is optional, you can also save your stargold! If you want to buy cards, you need to follow these rules:

• If you buy the card that points at you, just pay its price in stargold to the supply. The same happens if you buy the card pointing at no one during a 3-player game.
• If you buy a card that points to another player, you have to pay 1 stargold of the total price to the player the card was pointing at. The rest of the stargold is paid to the supply.

Some effects of cards or the planet Morula Calva may affect these rules (check "Planets").

Before moving on to phase 3, you need to fill up all the gaps in the market area with new cards from the investment deck.

IMPORTANT: Unless the effect of a card or planet states otherwise, you do not fill the gaps immediately after buying a card. This means that you are usually limited to 4 purchases per turn.

Investment cards bought in this phase are either satellites, independent orbital stations, Biocultist workers or cargo ships.

• Biocultist workers: They come in four different colours (clans). Each of them is specialized on one of the terraforming resources produced by each of the four types of mega-factories.
  • As soon as you hire a Biocultist worker, it allows you to play a mega-factory card from your hand if its resource matches that of the worker. Put that mega-factory on one of your planets.
  • If you do not have a matching mega-factory card in your hand you can still hire the worker, but his effect will be lost. In any case, put the worker in your personal scrapyard.
  • At the end of the game, corporations will arise as the new leaders of the Biocultist clans. The Biocultist workers will thus give you dominion points if you control their clan. Try to be the player with the most Biocultist workers of each clan and the one with the most Biocultist workers overall.
• Satellites: Place them in a slot over a planet ("orbit") that has at least one mega-factory. You can only buy a satellite if you have one of these slots available.
  • You can't place more than one satellite over the same planet. Satellites are worth dominion points at the end of the game.
• Independent orbital stations: Place them close to your solar system board ("floating in space"). These cards do not take up any space on your board, so you can collect as many as you want during the game. Orbital stations are worth dominion points at the end of the game.
  • Satellites and orbital stations can have abilities that trigger during another player's action. You have to be very careful not to miss those moments!
• Cargo ships: Add them to your hand. Cargo ships are very similar to Biocultist ships: you can use either of them to do shipments (check "Shipment phase 3(B)"). Usually, cargo ships have a bigger loading capacity than Biocultist ships, and they also activate production of more than one resource. These cards stay in your hand until you use them, so they account for your maximum hand size. Once used, put them in your personal scrapyard. Cargo ships are worth dominion points at the end of the game.

IMPORTANT: When you hire a Biocultist worker and play a factory, you will not receive that factory's construction bonus nor its immediate stargold bonus (if it was the last factory of that planet). Check "Mega-factory construction phase 3(A)" to understand this.

3. Mega-Factory Construction Phase or Shipment Phase

"The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine." —George Santayana

Each turn, players will have to choose if they want their phase 3 to be a MEGA-FACTORY CONSTRUCTION PHASE or a SHIPMENT PHASE. You can only choose one of them every turn, but you can choose a different one on future turns.

A. Mega-Factory Construction Phase

If you choose this phase, take a mega-factory card from your hand and place it below one of your planets (the planet's surface). There are three limitations:

• You can only build one mega-factory during this phase (unless an ability states otherwise).
• You cannot build a mega-factory on a planet you already control. (You can only have three mega-factories on each planet.)
• You cannot build a mega-factory on a planet if you already have another incomplete planet (with 1 or 2 mega-factories built on it). You have to control a planet before you can start building mega-factories on another one.

As soon as you build the mega-factory, you receive its bonus.

Construction bonus. Building a mega-factory on a planet allows you to draw new cards from the mega-factory deck.

Once you have placed the mega-factory, draw as many cards as the amount of different resources that planet produces (= types of different mega-factories on that planet's surface).

If it is the first mega-factory on that planet, it just produces one resource, so you only draw one card after building it.

Construction bonus examples:

• After building a solar energy mega-factory, the planet produces 3 different resources (solar energy, exovegetation and atmosphere). This player draws 3 cards from the mega-factory deck and also controls this planet now.
• After building a solar energy mega-factory, the planet produces 2 different resources (solar energy and atmosphere). This player draws 2 cards from the mega-factory deck.
• After building a solar energy mega-factory, the planet produces 1 kind of resource (solar energy). This player draws 1 card from the mega-factory deck and also controls this planet now.

Controlling a planet. As soon as you build the third mega-factory on a planet, that planet is under your control. Having control over one of your planets gives you advantages. One of them is immediate and some of them are permanent.

Immediate advantage. You receive as many stargold pieces as the number of mega-factories of the same and most abundant type on that planet.

In the examples on the left, you would get only 1 stargold in the first case (any of the 3 mega-factory types is the most abundant one, but there is only 1 of any of them). You would get 3 stargold in the third case, since the most abundant mega-factory type is the solar energy factory and you have 3 of them. You would not get any stargold for the second case, since that planet is not under your control, yet. (The printed "examples on the left" are the construction bonus examples above.)

IMPORTANT: Building mega-factories of the different types (resources) on a planet will give you more cards in the construction bonus, but building mega-factories of the same type (resource) will give you more stargold once you control the planet.

Permanent advantages. Activate the planet's benefit or special ability (check "Planets").

Dominion points: This planet will now score you dominion points at the end of the game.

Your mega-corporation's influence on Trappist One is on the rise! Remember that, once you control a planet, you can start building mega-factories on a new planet.

IMPORTANT: When you play a mega-factory using the ability of a satellite, independent orbital station or planet, or if you play a mega-factory by hiring a Biocultist worker during the BUYING PHASE (2), you WILL NOT get the construction bonus or the immediate advantage, if it was the third factory. You only get these if you "build" a factory during phase 3(A), not if you "play it" due to cards' effects.

B. Shipment Phase

If you choose this phase, you call a specialized Biocultist ship from one of the clans from Earth to ship one of the resources you produce on your planets. This will boost your economy. Alternatively, you can do a shipment with one of your own cargo ships.

To do a shipment, follow these steps:

a) Choose, if you want to call a Biocultist ship from one of the clans from Earth or if you want to use one of your own cargo ships. Place the chosen card in front of you:

• You take Biocultist ships from one of the 4 stacks on the centre of the table ("Earth"). You choose which clan you want to work with. Each one of them is specialized on one resource. If there are no Biocultist ships left from one or more of the clans, you cannot call those clans. Choose another one.
• You play your own cargo ships from your hand.

b) Activate the production of your mega-factories to prepare the shipment.

In order to do that, follow these 2 steps, one after the other (remember to do BOTH):

1. Specialized production (the type of resource matters): Draw as many cards from the mega-factory deck as the number of mega-factories on ALL of your planets that produce the resource that matches the chosen Biocultist ship or cargo ship.

Your cargo ships may be specialized in 2 resources. In those cases, draw the sum of all the mega-factories of those 2 types.

Example 1: You call a Biocultist ship from Earth. The ship is blue, which stands for the Clan specialized in atmospheres, so you draw 1 card from the mega-factory deck for each mega-factory that produces atmospheres on all your planets. In this case, you have 3, so you draw 3 cards.

Example 2: Another player calls a cargo ships from her hand. This cargo ship is specialized in 2 resources: solar energy and exovegetation (yellow and green). Thus, she draws 1 card from the mega-factory deck for each mega-factory that produces solar energy or exovegetation on all her planets. In this case, she would draw 6 cards (2 solar energy mega-factories and 4 exovegetation mega-factories).

2. Non-specialized production (the loading capacity matters): During this phase you will receive stargold. First, you have to check the loading capacity of the Biocultist ship or the cargo ship you just called. The loading capacity can be increased by some abilities (satellites, independent orbital stations and the planet Navalis). Also, you can increase your loading capacity by 1 for each card you discard from your hangar to the general discard pile. After checking and choosing if you want to modify its value, the loading capacity determines the number of mega-factories you will be able to produce resources with during this phase. If your loading capacity is 4, you will be able to produce with at most 4 mega-factories this turn.

For each mega-factory you want to produce with, you will have to discard a matching mega-factory card from your hand. The discarded card goes to the general discard pile. Put 1 stargold from the general supply (which represents the freshly produced resource) on each mega-factory you produced with so you remember that you already produced with that factory. Each factory can only produce once per turn, but you can produce with as many factories as your loading capacity of this turn. Once you have produced everything you want or can, put all the generated stargold on planet Capital One.

IMPORTANT: You can produce in ANY mega-factory during the non-specialized production phase, even if the resources do not match the Biocultist ship or cargo ship you called.

Example of non-specialized production: after finishing her specialized production and drawing 6 cards, the player moves on to the non-specialized production. The player chooses to discard 2 titanium, 1 exovegetation and 1 solar energy mega-factory cards from her hand into the general discard pile. She puts 1 stargold on each of the mega-factories on her solar system she produced with. Although the loading capacity of her cargo ship would have allowed her to produce one more time (it is 5 and she only produced 4 times), she cannot produce with any of the remaining cards in her hand: she cannot play a third titanium card because she already used her two available titanium mega-factories, and she cannot use her atmosphere cards because she does not have a mega-factory of that type. If she had had 2 atmosphere mega-factories on her planets, she could have produced in both of them by discarding one of the cards in her hangar to increase her loading capacity to 6. Since she cannot, she starts the next phase and puts the 4 produced stargold pieces on Capital One. She can use the new money now!

3. If you called a Biocultist ship, put the ship in your hangar face down. During your following turns, you will be able to discard these cards from your hangar to increase your loading capacity by 1 for each chip [sic, as printed]. If you called one of your cargo ships, put it in your scrapyard face down. It will score you dominion points at the end of the game.

4. End Phase

Before finishing your turn, you have to check if your hand cards do not exceed the limit. Both, mega-factory cards and bought cargo ships, account for this limit. The maximum hand size is determined by the planets in which you have presence. At the beginning of the game you already have presence and control over Capital One. Capital One allows you to hold up to 5 cards in your hand at the end of your turn. For each additional planet you have at least one mega-factory on your hand limit increases by 1. Remember: you just need one mega-factory on a planet to increase your hand size, you do not have to control it!

You choose which cards you want to discard if you exceed the limit. The discarded cards go either in your scrapyard (cargo ships) or into the general discard pile (mega-factories). Once you have lowered the number of cards in your hand, the player on your left starts her turn.

End of the Game

"The sky is no longer the limit." —Richard Nixon

Turns will go on clockwise until the end of the game is triggered by one of these situations:

• A player controls all her planets on the solar system board.
• The four Biocultist ship stacks run out.
• The mega-factory deck runs out of cards and there are no mega-factories left in the general discard pile.
• The investment deck runs out of cards.

The game will go on as usual until the last player of this round has finished her turn. The game ends and players proceed to scoring their dominion points.

Scoring Dominion Points

By gaining control of planets and Biocultist clans and by investing in structures your mega-corporation has established its dominion over Trappist One. But only one mega-corporation has absolute power!

Count your dominion points to see who is the leader of the most powerful mega-corporation. You need to add the points of:

• planets you control
• your satellites and independent orbital stations
• cargo ships in your hand
• cards in your scrapyard

You also score dominion points for:

• having the mega-corporation with the most control over each clan of Biocults. The player who hired the most workers belonging to a clan (check the workers in your scrapyard) scores 1 dominion point for each clan, so 4 points can be scored here.
• having the mega-corporation with the most influence over Biocults overall. The player with the most Biocultist workers in her scrapyard ignoring their clan scores 1 extra dominion point.
• having the mega-corporation that has the highest production rate in Trappist One. The player with the most mega-factories on her board scores 1 dominion point.
• having established total control over Trappist One. The player who controls all planets on her board scores 2 extra dominion points.

Example (the English text of this example is not printed on the page; translated from the printed Spanish):

• Biocultist clan specialized in Titanium: player 2 scores (1 dominion point).
• Biocultist clan specialized in Atmospheres: tie between player 1 and player 3. As player 3 has more stargold, player 3 wins it (1 dominion point).
• Biocultist clan specialized in Exovegetation: player 1 scores (1 dominion point).
• Biocultist clan specialized in Solar Energy: player 3 scores (1 dominion point).
• Player 1 gains 1 additional dominion point for having more workers in general.

The power of money! If there is a tie, at any moment during scoring, the mega-corporation with the most amount of stargold wins the tie and scores the points. If there is also a tie on stargold, all tied mega-corporations get the full score for that point.

The mega-corporation with the most dominion points has absolute power over Trappist One over the next millennia. Congratulations on your achievements!

If there is a tie in both dominion points and stargold, between 2 or more mega-corporations at the end of the game, you share the control over Trappist One: All of you win!

Scoring Dominion Points (Expert Version)

If you have played Trappist One a lot and want to increase the competition factor between mega-corporations, you can add the following rules to the scoring:

• The mega-corporations that control any one resource (most mega-factories of one resource) scores 1 dominion point for each. 4 dominion points can be scored here.
• The mega-corporation that controls the orbits (most satellites) scores 1 dominion point.
• The mega-corporation that controls the inter-planetary space (most orbital stations) scores 1 dominion point.
• The richest mega-corporation (most stargold) scores 1 dominion point.

Stargold still breaks ties.

Planets (Solar System Board)

The solar system board represents the influence of your mega-corporation on the seven planets of Trappist One. You can build mega-factories on them and put satellites in their orbits. When you control a planet (3 mega-factories), you activate its ability or benefit. Next you have a list of all the seven planets of Trappist One, their names, short descriptions and a short explanation of their abilities and benefits. From left to right:

1. Navalis

The shipyard planet: Improve your Biocultist and cargo ships to increase their loading capacity!

ABILITY: All Biocultist ships and cargo ships you call during the SHIPMENT PHASE 3(B) increase their loading capacity by 1 automatically.

2. Architecton

The planet of architecture: Boost your mega-factory domain!

ABILITY: When you build a mega-factory in the MEGA-FACTORY CONSTRUCTION PHASE (A), you can pay stargold to play another mega-factory right after. This mega-factory will cost you 1 stargold if it is the first factory on its planet, 2 if it is the second and 3 if it is the third. Playing mega-factories like this does not count as construction, so you do not get the usual bonuses.

3. Sophus

The science planet: Progress is everything!

BENEFIT: During the BENEFIT PHASE (1), you can pay 1 stargold piece to draw 2 cards from the mega-factory deck.

4. Capital One

The headquarters of your mega-corporation!

This planet does not grant you any ability or benefit, you already start the game controlling it. You can put your stargold on it.

5. Lux

The planet of luxury: Casinos and starbanks let the money flow!

BENEFIT: During the BENEFIT PHASE (1), you receive 1 stargold.

6. Fragmentum

The scrap dealer planet: A ship is just titanium waiting to be sold!

BENEFIT: During the BENEFIT PHASE (1), you can discard one of your satellites or independent orbital stations to your personal scrapyard. If you do that, you receive as many stargold as its price minus 1. Example: If the satellite you choose to scrap has a price of 3 stargold, you get 2 stargold and put it in your scrapyard.

7. Morula Calva

The pirate planet: The first black market in outer space!

When you buy a card that does not point at you during the BUYING PHASE (2), you do not have to give 1 stargold to the player it points at. Also, refill the gap in the market area as soon as you buy a card.

Also, remember that each planet where you have presence (at least 1 mega-factory) increases your hand size by one.

Exodite Expansion

If you want to play Trappist One with the expansion "Exodite", follow the rules for the basic game.

The 30 extra investment cards included in the expansion have to be shuffled along with the rest during the setup. You can also choose which cards to play with if all players agree. You cannot change the size of the investment deck, so if you include cards, you have to remove more cards. Check this chart:

Players	Investment cards (Exodite included)
2	26 (remove 50 without looking)
3	36 (remove 40 without looking)
4	46 (remove 30 without looking)

When playing with the Exodite expansion, if the endgame is triggered by the investment deck running out of cards, you can use the removed cards to refill the market area until all players have played their last turns. You can do the same during a two or three-player game without the expansion using the removed cards.

If you ever want to separate the basic game, just remove the 30 cards marked with this icon.