Safe Space

This is a cooperative game with limited communication.

Each one of you is the leader of a fleet of starships, harboring the last remaining humans in the universe. It’s your—very important—job to find a safe space for everyone to land in this vast, scary, dangerous universe.

If even a single person dies, the whole mission is blown. Unfortunately, you cannot contact the other leaders, so you’ll have to try and predict their movements … if you want any success.

Setup

Place the four corner tiles. These designate the boundaries of the universe.
Draw X random start tiles. Place the first one randomly. Place the others offset by the coordinates shown on the tile.
- For example: the tile says “+3,-5”. Then place the tile 3 columns to the left, and 5 rows downward from the previous tile.
- If it goes out of bounds, simply wrap back to the other side and continue counting.
- If there’s already a tile there, place it on an adjacent free spot.
Divide all remaining tiles among the players.
- Each player randomly divides their tileset into Y decks.
- These are their individual ships.
- Each player may view the top 3 tiles from each ship and use that information to pick a starting ship.
- Take all tiles from your starting ship in your hand.

Objective

Everyone wins if all humans have found a suitable home.

Or, put the opposite way, everyone loses if …

A human tile dies.
Someone runs out of fuel and has no active spaceships left.
… <some more tile conditions?>

Spaceships

Each deck of tiles that a player has, is an individual “spaceship”.

Players are not allowed to communicate any information about their spaceships ( = which tiles they have).
Unless a spaceship is actively being flown, you may not look at its tiles.
Keep spaceships clearly separate, to avoid accidentally mixing their tiles.
When a spaceship runs out of fuel ( = no tiles left), it is simply gone. If you hadn’t activated another spaceship yet, everyone loses the game.

The idea of “spaceships” is merely for thematic and rule purposes. There is no actual, physical ship that you move around the board. It’s just a deck of tiles, which also means that you can place any tile anywhere.

Placing Tiles

There are two tile types:

Object tiles can only be put in empty spaces.
Organism tiles can only be put on filled spaces.

Many tiles have extra placement rules. Some might forbid a certain placement, some might have specific requirements. Similarly, many tiles give a bonus when placed in a very nice way.

In any case, every tile has a certain rule or functionality that you’ll probably need at some point.

Gameplay

Players take clockwise turns until game end.
On your turn, you must place exactly one tile per active spaceship.
The order in which you handle your active spaceships, is entirely up to you.

Tiles

Organisms

Humans:
- Placement: must be placed on a suitable planet. One that has oxygen, heat, and water.
- Rule: needed to win the game!
Space Bear:
- Placement: can be placed anywhere.
- Rule: Place any organism on top, to completely remove it from the game. After doing so, the space bear is also removed.
Fuel Forager:
- Placement: when placed, permanently remove two tiles from its spaceship.
- Rule: if your ship has three or fewer tiles, and one of them is a fuel forager, the ship is immediately destroyed.
Space Pirates:
- Placement: when placed, all pirates on the board will move one step in the direction shown on their tile.
- Rule: cannot place anything adjacent to them.

Objects

Planet:
Junkyard: Place any object on top, to completely remove it from the game. After doing so, the junkyard is also removed.

IDEA: “blind flight”/lights out => you must draw a random tile from your deck (instead of looking at it and picking yourself)

IDEA “multiple ships” => you can activate your extra ships to be able to use their tiles. However, this means you must place more tiles each turn, which can also be a great disadvantage!

My Biggest Problems With It

Problem #1: It’s hard to place tiles accurately, if you only have four corner points to go by. Ideally, you’d fill the whole border with tiles to create a nice grid. But that takes a LOT of tiles.

Unless … those tiles have meaning as well!
There is some way, some action, to remove them from the border. (And get them into your hand, or place them immediately.)
- Simple method: when you build something adjacent to it.
Good things: grab one of these to skip a turn, grab these to glue parts together, grab these to get more information from other players.
Bad things: these are enemies, these display a level of “dark matter” or “energy” or whatever in the universe (and it shrinks as you remove it),

Problem #2: If the goal is to save all humans, what does a “bonus” mean in this context? (I mean, there are no victory points or something.)

One human tile is allowed to “die”? (Because it will be saved?)
Or the bonus is simply a special power you might need? (Such as the oxygen for a planet.)
Or it’s an in-action bonus: place an extra tile, show some tiles to the other players, look at the top 5 tiles from another spaceship and place one of those?

Or, there is a concept of points. When you win the game, you still record how many points you had, and try to beat that the next time. (These points would then be registered by the tiles on the borders. The more of these tiles you take, because you need them to fix problems, the lower your score.)

Variables for Difficulty

Here are some ways that the game could scale up its difficulty.

Make the board bigger
Use more/fewer individual starships
Use more/different starting tiles. (Forcing you to work around them more, instead of doing your own thing.)
Include more special tiles, including more aggressive ones

@UPDATE (Tiamo from the future): Seems like a somewhat promising idea, but the rules need to be completely rewritten and simplified.

**This is a cooperative game with limited communication.** Each one of you is the leader of a fleet of starships, harboring the last remaining humans in the universe. It's your---very important---job to find a safe space for everyone to land in this vast, scary, dangerous universe. If even a single person dies, the whole mission is blown. Unfortunately, you cannot contact the other leaders, so you'll have to try and predict their movements ... if you want any success. ## Setup - Place the four corner tiles. These designate the boundaries of the universe. - Draw X random start tiles. Place the first one randomly. Place the others offset by the coordinates shown on the tile. - For example: the tile says "+3,-5". Then place the tile 3 columns to the left, and 5 rows downward from the previous tile. - If it goes out of bounds, simply wrap back to the other side and continue counting. - If there's already a tile there, place it on an adjacent free spot. - Divide all remaining tiles among the players. - Each player randomly divides their tileset into Y decks. - These are their individual **ships.** - Each player may view the top 3 tiles from each ship and use that information to pick a **starting ship.** - Take all tiles from your starting ship in your hand. ## Objective **Everyone wins** if **all humans** have found a suitable home. Or, put the opposite way, everyone loses if ... - A human tile dies. - Someone runs out of fuel and has no active spaceships left. - ... \<some more tile conditions?> ## Spaceships Each deck of tiles that a player has, is an individual "spaceship". - Players are *not* allowed to communicate any information about their spaceships ( = which tiles they have). - Unless a spaceship is actively being flown, you may *not* look at its tiles. - Keep spaceships clearly separate, to avoid accidentally mixing their tiles. - When a spaceship runs out of fuel ( = no tiles left), it is simply gone. If you hadn't activated another spaceship yet, **everyone loses the game.** The idea of "spaceships" is merely for thematic and rule purposes. There is no actual, physical ship that you move around the board. It's just a deck of tiles, which also means that you can place any tile *anywhere.* ## Placing Tiles There are two tile types: - **Object tiles** can only be put in empty spaces. - **Organism tiles** can only be put on filled spaces. Many tiles have extra placement rules. Some might forbid a certain placement, some might have specific requirements. Similarly, many tiles give a bonus when placed in a very nice way. In any case, *every tile* has a certain rule or functionality that you'll probably need at some point. ## Gameplay - Players take clockwise turns until game end. - On your turn, you **must** place exactly **one** tile per **active spaceship**. - The order in which you handle your active spaceships, is entirely up to you. ## Tiles ### Organisms - **Humans:** - Placement: must be placed on a suitable planet. One that has oxygen, heat, and water. - Rule: needed to win the game! - **Space Bear:** - Placement: can be placed anywhere. - Rule: Place any *organism* on top, to completely remove it from the game. After doing so, the space bear is also removed. - **Fuel Forager:** - Placement: when placed, permanently remove two tiles from its spaceship. - Rule: if your ship has three or fewer tiles, and one of them is a *fuel forager*, the ship is immediately destroyed. - **Space Pirates:** - Placement: when placed, *all pirates* on the board will move one step in the direction shown on their tile. - Rule: cannot place anything adjacent to them. ### Objects - **Planet:** - **Junkyard:** Place any *object* on top, to completely remove it from the game. After doing so, the junkyard is also removed. **IDEA: "blind flight"/lights out =>** you must draw a random tile from your deck (instead of looking at it and picking yourself) **IDEA "multiple ships" =>** you can activate your extra ships to be able to use their tiles. However, this means you *must* place more tiles each turn, which can also be a great disadvantage! ## My Biggest Problems With It **Problem #1:** It's hard to place tiles accurately, if you only have *four corner points* to go by. Ideally, you'd fill the whole border with tiles to create a nice grid. But that takes a LOT of tiles. - Unless ... those tiles have meaning as well! - There is some way, some action, to remove them from the border. (And get them into your hand, or place them immediately.) - Simple method: when you build something adjacent to it. - Good things: grab one of these to skip a turn, grab these to glue parts together, grab these to get more information from other players. - Bad things: these are enemies, these display a level of "dark matter" or "energy" or whatever in the universe (and it shrinks as you remove it), **Problem #2:** If the goal is to save all humans, what does a "bonus" mean in this context? (I mean, there are no *victory points* or something.) - One human tile is allowed to "die"? (Because it will be saved?) - Or the bonus is simply a special power you might need? (Such as the oxygen for a planet.) - Or it's an in-action bonus: place an extra tile, show some tiles to the other players, look at the top 5 tiles from another spaceship and place one of those? Or, there **is** a concept of points. When you win the game, you still record *how many points you had*, and try to *beat that the next time*. (These points would then be registered by the tiles on the borders. The more of these tiles you take, because you need them to fix problems, the lower your score.) ## Variables for Difficulty Here are some ways that the game could scale up its difficulty. - **Make the board bigger** - **Use more/fewer individual starships** - **Use more/different starting tiles.** (Forcing you to work around them more, instead of doing your own thing.) - **Include more special tiles, including more aggressive ones** > @UPDATE (Tiamo from the future): Seems like a somewhat promising idea, but the rules need to be completely rewritten and simplified.