Science Fiction

A permanent base is being built in the Shackleton crater at the Moon's South Pole. You're leading one of the space agencies that are working together to expand their presence on the base, while at the same time the three major corporations sponsoring the mission are each pursuing their own agenda. In Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon, you will build structures on the base, while also funding projects from the corporations that provide special abilities and scoring opportunities.

At the start of the game, pick three corporations randomly from the seven available. Each corporation introduces new projects, actions, and scoring opportunities, along with their specific mechanisms. The game is played over three rounds, each divided into three phases:

• Shuttle phase: Each player drafts a shuttle tile from an open display to determine which type of astronauts and resources they can use that round, as well as the turn order for the next phase.

• Action phase: Players take turns deploying their astronauts on the moon to collect resources, build structures, or fund projects. Depending on which corporations were selected, different types of resources will be available, resources that can be used in various ways for the projects or to build structures. Each project provides ongoing abilities and scoring opportunities. Each corporation provides different ways to score points, which could be during the action phase, the maintenance phase, or at game's end.

• Maintenance phase: Deployed astronauts are assigned to work on the structures (providing a bonus to the player owning them), then players collect income and pay maintenance costs. If corporations in play have end-round effects, those effects take place.

The end of the game brings a final scoring, then the player with the most points wins.

Vantage is an open-world, co-operative adventure game that features an entire planet to explore, with players communicating while scattered across the world. With nearly eight hundred interconnected locations on four hundred cards and over nine hundred other discoverable cards, the world is your sandbox.

You begin each game of Vantage on an intergalactic vessel heading towards an uncharted planet. After crashing far from your companions, you have complete freedom as to how you explore, discover, and interact with the planet. You view your location from a first-person perspective, and you can communicate with and support other players, but you are separated by vast distances, so only you can see your current location. You have complete freedom in how you explore, discover, and interact with the planet.

In addition to a mission victory, a destiny victory, or an epic victory (completing both the mission and a destiny), you may define success in Vantage through anything you pursue and achieve.

Vantage is not a campaign game. Each game is a standalone experience; you bring to future sessions only what you’ve learned about the world. It is completely self-contained with no expansions — just a few accessories like metal coins.

—description from the publisher

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is a card-driven dice game in which players use special dice to develop their corporations and terraform Mars into a new home for humanity. The dice represent resources that players spend to play cards and perform other actions. During the game, you increase your production of dice, terraform, place cities and greenery tiles on the board, and gain various bonuses. Each turn, you either produce new dice (Production Turn) or perform actions (Action Turn).

Whenever you terraform Mars (raise oxygen or temperature, or place an ocean tile), you gain 2 Victory Points (VP). You can also gain VP for placing tiles and playing cards, as well as winning Awards and Milestones.

The game ends when two of the three global parameters — oxygen/temperature/ocean — have been completed. The player with most VP wins.

The Galactic Senate has launched the "Transgalactica Decree" in order to increase their knowledge and influence beyond the already well-known fringes of the galaxy. Fleets from every planet have been launched to the stars in search of adventure, riches, and (hopefully) an influential seat in the governing spheres that lie beyond the known space.

Transgalactica is a worker-placement and engine-building game with a high level of interaction between the players. In order to thrive in this game, you will travel the far reaches of the galaxy, improve your fleet's influence in all galactic matters, compete with other fleets for technological advancements, build a commercial network, and possibly even send representatives to the Galactic Senate to claim political advantages.

The game is divided into five rounds. In each round, players use their Captains to perform powerful actions in their own operations panel. Then, the other players may follow taking the same action using their crew, but without gaining a bonus. Little by little, players will increase their military power, political influence, or technology level, and earn victory points by exploring, trading, mining or completing missions. May the best spacefarer win!

—description from the publisher

In the glow of the rays of the orange giant, an interplanetary clash of two empires is approaching...

In Aldebaran Duel, you are the leader of a space fleet with which you want to control as much of a newly available planetary system as possible. Over three epochs, you will discover new planets, populate them, use their mineral wealth to build spaceships, and try to gain superiority over your opponent.

During the game, you obtain cards that represent planets, shuttles, mining stations, and colonized parts of planets. Planet building is one of the game's key mechanisms, and using it correctly can be a crucial winning strategy. By building a fleet of merchant, diplomatic, and battle ships, you gain influence in the explored universe — and in the laboratories, your scientists might discover new technologies that can turn the duel in your favor at the right moment.

At the same time, however, you can — and must! — use cards as raw materials to build your empire, so during the game you are always considering how to use them most effectively. Is it better to play out the card — or pay with it? Laying out the right combinations of cards will allow you to have better and more varied options in subsequent turns. Whoever builds the best functioning new civilization after three epochs wins.

Aldebaran Duel includes a variant for solo play.