ULTIA Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Concepts
• Phases Overview
• Phases In-Depth
  • Phase 1: Plan Declaration
  • Phase 2: Exploration Phase
  • Stage 3: Reporting
• FAQ and Reminders

Components

• 32 Planet Cards
• 1 Main Survey Team Card
• 1 Main Survey Team Token
• 1 Progress Meter
• 3 Player Survey Markers

Setup

1. Shuffle the 32 planet cards.
2. The player who is currently closet to the sun in the first dealer.
3. Each player chooses a Survey Team Marker and places it on the 0% location at the top of the Progress Meter.
4. Each player receives an Exploration Plan List.
5. The dealer deals two cards to themselves, and then deals the remaining cards evenly to all players. The dealer will have 12 cards and the other two players will have 10 cards each.

Gameplay

The game of ULTIA is broken up into rounds called "years", with each round broken up into three mandatory phases. After a round's final phase the players check to see if a player has reached or exceeded 100% on the Progress Meter: if one or more players have more than 100%, the highest progress achieved is the winner; if not then the player on the dealer's left becomes the new dealer, and a new round commences.

Note: the Gameplay section above says the new dealer is the player on the dealer's left. The Reporting phase and the Dealer concept below say the dealer's right. Both are reproduced as printed.

Concepts

• Progress (Victory Points): ULTIA's victory points. First to reach or exceed 100% progress wins the game. Also referred to as a Plan's Difficulty.
• Exploration Plan (Plan, Bid): Also referred to as a "Plan" or "Bid". A declaration of how the player is going to win the round by comparing the cards of all the tricks they have won. Example plan conditions: win all tricks played; get at least 5 cards of value 7 or higher. Players choose a plan from the Exploration Plan List during the first phase.
• Dealer: Player that deals the cards at the beginning of a round and is the first player to declare a plan. The dealer changes each round to the player on the dealer's right.
• Trick (Survey): Called "Survey" in the original rules. Each player will play a single card into the centre of the play area following the rules of play. The highest applicable card wins. This is called a trick. Once the trick has been won (taken) the cards are removed and the winner (the trick-taker) will start a new trick by playing a new card from their hand.
• Suit (Tool): Called "Tools" in the original rules. The suit is shown as the coloured symbol in the top left-hand corner of the card, next to the number. There are eight cards in each suit, and four suits in the game. See Lead Suit and Trump Suit for more details.
• Trump Suit (Main Tool): Called Main Tool in the original rules, cards that belong to a trump suit will always be worth more than all other suits played. The trump suit is not always the same and will be declared by the Main Surveyor at the start of the Exploration Phase unless required to be declared during the Plan Declaration phase by the chosen Plan.
• Lead Suit: The suit of the first card played in a trick. Players must follow suit if possible. Even if the trump suit is different from the lead suit a player with trump cards MUST still follow suit.
• Main Surveyor: The player who is the winner of the Plan bidding during phase one. Throughout this round, this player will be playing against the other two players, the Sub Surveyors.

Phases Overview

1. Plan Declaration (Bidding)
   • Players will take turns bidding on tricks they can complete this round by declaring which Plan on the Exploration Plan List they think they can complete.
   • Each Plan has a progress associated with it. The plan with the highest progress (most difficult), wins.
2. Exploration (Trick-taking)
   • Starting with the Main Surveyor players play and win tricks until all ten cards have been played from their hands.
   • The Main Surveyor is attempting to complete their Plan whilst the two Sub Surveyors are teaming up to stop them.
3. Reporting (Scoring)
   • Players will earn progress based on if they were they Main Surveyor and achieved their goal, or a Sub Surveyor that stopped the Main Surveyor.
   • If a player has reached or exceed 100% progress, they are crowned king or queen of ULTIA. If not, the player on the right of the dealer is made the new dealer. They shuffle and deal out the 32 planet cards as per game setup, and a new round commences.

Phases In-Depth

Phase 1: Plan Declaration

The Plan Declaration phase is where players will take turns bidding for the plans they think they can personally complete. The Exploration Plan and Main Surveyor are decided in this phase.

The declarer of the plan with the highest progress gain will be named the Main Surveyor, and the other players become the two Sub Surveyors.

Step 1

• The dealer must declare an Exploration Plan (passing is not permitted this time only as they start with the 12 cards in their hand).
• To choose a plan:
  1. The player looks at the Exploration Plan List and chooses a Plan. For Plans with multiple requirements, each requirement must be completed.
  2. They then discard two cards from your hand face-down into the centre of the play area (the dealer starts with 12 cards, they will discard down to 10 cards during this step).
• Once the Plan is declared and the cards discarded, it is the player to the right (counter-clockwise) of the dealer whose turn it is to bid (active bidder).

Step 2

• The new active bidder chooses to declare a new Exploration Plan or to pass.
• If they pass, the player to their right (counterclockwise) is now the active bidder.
• If they instead decide to choose an Exploration Plan they take the two facedown cards discarded by the previous bidder into their hand, and choose which Plan from the Exploration Plan List they wish to bid.
  • This plan must be more difficult (have a higher progress percentage) than the previous bid.
• If the player takes the two discarded cards into their hand they can no longer pass and must suggest a higher bid.
• Once a new bid is made, the player discards two cards into the centre of the play area and the player to their right (counterclockwise) is the new active bidder.

Step 3

• Step 2 is repeated in a counterclockwise manner until three consecutive passes have occurred. A player who passed previously is able to bid on subsequent turns as active bidder if they choose.

Step 4

• The last Exploration Plan (the highest progress difficulty) will be adopted for the round. The player that chose the Plan is now the Main Surveyor and the other two players are the Sub Surveyors. The Main Surveyor should take the Main Survey Team Badge.

Phase 2: Exploration Phase

Starting with the Main Surveyor and going counterclockwise, players will play a card into the centre of the play area. Once the third card has been played, a winner is determined for that trick who will then start a new trick by playing a card from their hand. This repeats until all cards have been played from players' hands.

The Main Surveyor is attempting to succeed in their chosen Exploration Plan whilst the Sub Surveyors' goal is to work together to sabotage the plan. The success of the Main Surveyor plans is judged in the next phase, Reporting.

At the start of the Exploration Phase:

• If the trump suit was not required to be declared during the Plan Declaration phase, the Main Surveyor must do it now. This will be the trump suit for the rest of the round.
• If the chosen Plan requires some or all of the players to reveal cards, this is done now before any cards are played. Once revealed, these cards are returned to the hand of the player who owns them and play resumes as normal.

How to Play Tricks

Starting with the Main Surveyor and going counterclockwise, each player plays a single card into the centre of the play area following card play restrictions. Once each player has played a card, the winner of those three cards (called a trick) is determined. The winner of the trick will play the first card of the next trick. This is repeated until all cards have been played.

Card Play Restrictions

• If no cards have been played, any card can be played from the active player's hand. This includes cards that are a part of that round's trump suit.
• The first card played in a trick will determine the lead suit.
  • If a trump suit card was lead, then the leading suit will also be the trump suit for that trick.
• If the next player has cards that match the lead suit, they must play one of them.
  • If the trump suit is different from the current lead suit, the player must still follow suit if able.
• If a player cannot follow suit, there are no restrictions as to what card they can play from their hand.
• Once each player has played a card to the trick in counter-clockwise order, the winner is determined. The cards of the previous trick are given to the winner to put aside and they play a new card from their hand to start the next trick.

Winning a Trick

• If one or more cards from the trump suit have been played, whoever played the highest value trump card wins the trick.
• If no trump cards have been played then whoever played the highest numbered card that matches the lead suit is the winner.
• The player who wins the trick is the player that leads the next trick.

Overwork (Optional)

It is recommended that Overwork is ignored for first time players.

Overwork is a way for players to pushing their luck leading into a new Exploration Phase. If successful, the winning player(s) will earn bonus progress during the Reporting Phase.

A Sub Surveyor can only declare Overwork as they play a card into the first trick. The Main Surveyor can only declare Overwork as they play a card into the second trick. Declaring Overwork costs nothing and it cannot be cancelled by another player if they disagree. However, more than one player can declare Overwork.

For Overwork rewards and specifics, see the calculations at the end of Stage 3: Reporting.

Stage 3: Reporting

Success of each Surveyor is determined by the success or failure of the round's Exploration Plan.

• If the Main Surveyor was able to complete each requirement of their adopted Plan, they move their token on the Progress Meter by the Plan's listed progress amount.
• However, if the Main Surveyor failed to complete their Plan, the two Sub Surveyors both move up their tokens on the Progress Meter by half the Plan's listed progress.

The players are to check if any of the tokens on the Progress Meter have reached or exceeded 100%. If one or more players have achieved this goal, the highest on the Progress Meter wins.

Tie-Breakers

Currently there are no official tie-breakers in ULTIA. My suggested tie-breakers:

1. The player who won the most tricks in the last round is the winner.
2. If still tied: the player with the fewest trump cards in won tricks.
3. If still tied: the player that declared Overwork.
4. If still tied: the player with the most cards of value 1.
5. If still tied: paper, scissors, rock — best out of three.

Overwork Scoring

When one or more players declare Overwork during the Exploration Phase, the amount of progress awarded is increased (based on how many players requested Overwork).

• The effects of Overwork are granted regardless if the player(s) who declared it during play ended up winning.
• Overwork is based on the number of players that declared it during a round.
• The Overwork formula:
  • N = B × 2^P
    • N = New progress.
    • B = Basic progress.
    • P = Number of players who declared overwork.
• Example Formula:
  • If the original progress was 10% and number of players who declared Overwork was 3 the formula would be:
    • N = 10 × 2³
    • N = 10 × 8
    • N = 80
  • This would turn the previous progress of 10% into 80%.
  • Main Surveyor would now get 80% (instead of 10%) if they succeeded, or each Sub Surveyor would now get half of 80% (40%, instead of 5%) if the Main Surveyor failed.

FAQ and Reminders

• Extended FAQ available on the Exploration Plan Glossary and FAQ page.
• For some reason, the rules specify that all actions occurs in a counterclockwise manner.
• Some rules are inferred. If incorrect, let me know.