Learn to play

Status, edition, and sources

• Status: draft, not verified against a physical copy.
• Edition used for this draft: Rio Grande English second edition. First-edition differences are a checkpoint, not something this page settles.
• Manual language in the box: not recorded.
• Expansions: excluded. Do not add them while using this page.
• Designer: Tom Lehmann. Art: Martin Hoffmann, Claus Stephan, Mirko Suzuki. Publisher: Rio Grande Games, 2007.

Official rules:

• RFTG second-edition rules PDF
• Rio Grande product page

Before this page can leave draft, confirm the printing, the manual language, that expansions stay out, and which two-player mode the table uses. Also re-check setup, phase bonuses, mandatory consume, production versus windfall, when an ability starts, end triggers, and tiebreaks against that manual.

Thirty seconds

Each person builds a row of worlds and developments. Every round the table secretly chooses which phases happen. You pay for cards by discarding other cards. Most points are on the cards you played, plus chips you earn, plus a few developments that score only at the end.

Goal

Have the most victory points when the game ends. Add three things: points printed on cards in your row, victory-point chips, and developments that say they score at the end.

A tie goes to the person with more cards in hand plus goods still sitting on worlds. If that is also tied, the tied players share the win.

Setup

1. Put out victory-point chips: 12 points per player, using 1s and 5s. Leave the 10s aside until a Consume phase cannot pay what it owes.
2. Each player takes a set of seven phase cards.
3. Shuffle the five basic start worlds. Deal one face up to each player. That card starts their row. Shuffle the unused start worlds into the main deck.
4. Deal six cards to each player. Each player discards two facedown and keeps four.
5. Square the draw deck. Leave the discard pile a little messy so the two piles stay distinct.
6. If a start world begins with a good on it, draw one card from the deck and place it facedown on that world. Alpha Centauri is the usual example.

The manual also offers a numbered first-game setup with fixed start worlds and fixed opening hands. That is an official first-game layout, not a house rule. Use it from the book, or use the shuffle above. Do not mix the two.

A round, and how phases are chosen

Each player secretly chooses one phase card. Reveal them together. Then play only the chosen phases, always in this order: Explore, Develop, Settle, Consume, Produce.

There are seven phase cards and five phases. Explore has two cards and Consume has two cards. The extras change the chooser’s bonus. They do not add a sixth phase. If two people choose the same phase, it still happens once, and both receive the bonus.

After the chosen phases, anyone with more than ten cards discards down to ten. Then check whether the game ends.

See Choosing what the round does for how this differs from Puerto Rico.

Two players

Basic mode, the default on this page: each player still has seven phase cards and chooses one each round. A round often contains only one or two phases.

Advanced mode, later in the manual: each player uses nine phase cards and chooses two per round. The same phase can happen twice. That section is official. It is not the default here, and its branches are not written below. Agree which mode you are using before the first round.

The five phases

Everyone acts in a phase at the same time. The player who chose it also takes the bonus.

Explore

Each player draws two cards, keeps one, and discards the other facedown. The “+5” bonus draws seven and keeps one. The “+1, +1” bonus draws three and keeps two.

Develop

You may play one development. Its cost is the number of other cards you discard. The player who chose Develop discards one fewer. A cost of 0 discards nothing. The card you are playing does not count toward its own cost.

Settle

You may play one world. A peaceful world is paid by discarding cards. The player who chose Settle draws one card after placing it. A military world is not bought with discards. Your military has to be at least as high as its defense, and then you place it. Some cards rewrite that. Read the card when it is on the table.

Consume

If this phase happens, you must use the consume powers already in your row, usually by discarding goods for points or cards. You choose the order of those powers. Goods you cannot use may stay. You may not skip the phase.

The two Consume cards pay different bonuses. “Trade” happens before consume powers: discard one good and draw cards by kind — Novelty 2, Rare elements 3, Genes 4, Alien 5. Only the player who chose Trade may do this. “Double victory points” doubles the chips from consume powers. Cards drawn by Trade are not doubled. A power that discards cards from hand for points is outside that doubling; if you hit one, follow the manual.

Produce

Each empty production world receives one facedown card from the deck as a good. The player who chose Produce may also place a good on one empty windfall world.

Windfall and production are different. A windfall world often arrives with a good when you settle it, and it does not refill itself on every Produce. A production world refills whenever Produce happens and it is empty.

Goods, the deck, and timing

• A good is a facedown card sitting on a world. Spent goods go to the discard pile.
• When the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile immediately and continue.
• A card you just played does not use its powers in that same phase. The earliest is the next phase.
• If a discount would push a cost below 0, the cost is 0. You do not draw cards back.

Ending and scoring

After the round is fully finished, including the discard down to ten cards, the game ends if any row has 12 or more face-up cards. If both Develop and Settle happened, a row may go past 12. Do not stop in the middle of the round when the twelfth card lands.

The game also ends if the victory-point chips run out. If Consume cannot pay what it owes, bring in the 10-point chips, finish the points for that phase, finish any chosen phases still waiting, and then end. Do not stop at the moment the last chip is taken.

Score the printed points, the chips, and the end-of-game developments. Highest total wins. Ties are under Goal.

One example

This is an illustration, not an extra rule. You hold a development of cost 2 and two worlds you want to keep. In Develop you play the development and discard two other cards. If you are the player who chose Develop, you discard one other card. Separate the card you are playing from the cards you are spending before you discard, so a world you meant to keep does not pay the cost.

Common mistakes

• Counting the card you are playing as part of its own cost, and discarding one too many.
• Assuming all five phases happen every round. An unchosen phase is skipped.
• Trying to buy a military world by discarding cards.
• Using a power on the phase the card was just played.
• Treating a windfall world as if it produced every round.
• Stopping the moment someone places a twelfth card, with chosen phases still left.
• Forgetting to discard down to ten cards at the end of the round.
• Starting a two-player game without agreeing basic or advanced mode.

Official rules

The player-aid card is for icons. This page is only the order to teach them. Disputes go to the manual in the box, then to the Rio Grande second-edition PDF if that is the matching printing.

Back to Race for the Galaxy · How this choice differs from Puerto Rico