Take That

Europa, Jupiter's moon. Deep beneath the crust, the oceans are teeming with alien sea life. Shellfish, plants, corals, arthropods, even strange fish and larger sea creatures populate a wide-ranging interconnected web of hidden seas. Volcanism is rampant, warming the mineral-rich waters and creating excellent conditions for energy-harvesting.

The largest cavern close to the surface is known as The Pocket. This is where the initial teams of Stabilizers built their first outposts, with the intent to establish long-term communities capable of surviving indefinitely. Aqua-farming is well established; food and other sundries are efficiently gathered. The Pocket has many deposits of minerals and crystals that can be mined and processed to create strong and versatile construction materials locally.

Colonists arrive at the Doorstep at regular intervals when the Threshold is opened. The arrivals are of four general types: Pioneers (who are tasked with exploring the changing surface of the moon and the labyrinth of seas beneath), Engineers (who develop and operate the machinery and structures needed to run the colonies), Marines (who defend the colonies from hostile sea life, unwanted intruders, and other colonies), and Stewards (overseers responsible for strategy and negotiation).

Colony development mostly occurs beneath the ice; this is where all of the moon’s resources are concentrated, so this is where the effort is best spent. To keep close to the surface, most colony structures are built clinging onto the underside of the ice crust. Surface structures will be built only once an undersea outpost is well established and beginning to thrive. In addition to construction and resource-gathering, colonies spend a lot of effort on exploring this new environment. The volcanic action and mineral-heavy waters make long-range scanning unreliable, so physical exploration is required to plumb the depths.

As the Pocket is explored and expanded, the established colonies have been making some unusual discoveries beneath the ice. Deep in the trenches, artifacts of non-human origin are starting to be found. The dark seas hide many secrets. Squads of mercenaries occasionally appear on the surface and beneath the sea, penetrating the Threshold somehow to carry out an unknown mission on the moon. These aspects are worrisome but can’t distract the colonies from their main goals.

It is still early in the Artemis project. A foothold on life here has been gained, but it will take tenacious effort from the competing colonies to reach the point where Europa is truly viable as a home.

The Artemis Project is a dice (dis)placement and engine building game that has you fighting the planet as well as the other players. Roll your dice and place them tactically to thwart the other colonists. Harvest energy and minerals. Bid for buildings. Work together to go on Expeditions to earn rewards. Train workers. Will your efforts be enough to survive?

Publisher Blurb:

The Game of Inauspicious Incidents and Grave Consequences! In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards in this set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths.

Unquiet Dead also introduces Stories, Undead, and Timing Symbols. The families of Gloom have many skeletons in their closets. In Unquiet Dead, the spooks come out to play. Mad scientists can Reanimate Relatives or Invent Invisibility. Vampires and shape shifters can Terrorize the Townsfolk and Go Mad in the Moonlight. Will you Give Up the Ghost, or will you hold onto it?

STORIES: These cards give your families even more to fight over. Whoever claims a story gains a special benefit ... but how long can you keep it?

UNDEAD: There are seven special Modifiers that allow a Character to become a supernatural creature -- a vampire, mummy, ghost, ghoul, wereduck, invisible person, or haunted portrait. These Undead Characters are both living and dead; you can still play Modifiers and Events on them, but they also count toward your Family Value and toward ending the game.

TIMING SYMBOLS: Card effects in Unquiet Dead have symbols to let you know whether a card has an Instant effect that occurs when the card is played from your hand; an Ongoing effect that lasts until it is covered by another card; or a Persistent effect that can last as long as the Character is still alive ... or Undead.

The Gloom: Unfortunate Expeditions expansion adds one player and 55 cards to the game. Here is a description of the expansion from the publisher:

In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards in this set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths, and a new family of intrepid explorers who've faced misfortune across the globe. These days Colonel Bumpersnoot is really more of a bargain hunter, while Lady Bumpersnoot struggles with high society -- but she always loves to have guests for dinner. Their Towering Treehouse is included as a Residence card to use with the Unhappy Homes expansion.

Unfortunate Expeditions introduces expeditions into the game. Only one expedition can be in play at a time. An expedition's rules affect all players as long as it remains in play. When you play a modifier of untimely death that has an expedition symbol, resolved the immediate effects of the card, then replace the current expedition with the one shown on the card. Some cards also have special effects that occur if an active expedition is already in play when the card is played.

The Gloom: Unwelcome Guests expansion adds one player and 55 cards to the game. Here is a description of the expansion from the publisher:

In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards in this new set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths, and a new family - the malodorous Malone mob - including The Broken Arms Hotel as a Residence card to use with the Unhappy Homes expansion. When Boils Malone brought his family overseas to “get away from the heat,” he wasn’t expecting quite so much rain!

Adding an extra level of strategy, new persistent effect icons on cards allow their special effects to continue to be active even if covered by another card. A persistent effect ends only when the attached character is killed.

Also inside are five Unwelcome Guest cards. Deal one or more face up to the table’s center at the start of the game. Guests “follow” the card types noted on them; no matter where it currently is, a living Guest immediately moves to join the family of the character on which one of its “trigger” cards is played. All its Modifiers are moved with it, and it’s considered a member of that family until it moves again. This may delay the game’s end if a final play draws a Guest to the near-winner’s family.

The Gloom: Unhappy Homes expansion adds one player and 55 cards to the game. Here is a description of the expansion from the publisher:

In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards included in this set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths, and a new family -- the artistes of Le Canard Noir, whose creative endeavors always end in disaster.

When art lets you down, the Black Duck is there for you. This dingy cafe is home to a motley assortment of washed-up bohemians. Here the tormented painter Rosseau buys drinks for neurotic models and destitute poets, while a troubled actress and sickly courtesan compare notes across the way.

Also included are five Residences with a light blue background behind their central illustration. These are each placed next to their related family at the start of the game. New cards called Mysteries, which have a dark blue effects bar at the bottom, are also shuffled into the deck before play. A Mystery is the only card that can be placed on a Residence (and only a Residence), and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays. It gives that Residence's player a special effect and Pathos points that count toward his final Family Value. A Mystery remains even if the requirements for playing it are lost. You may discard a Mystery from your hand as a free play.