Race for the Galaxy

Last updated

Race for the Galaxy
Rftg cover.jpg
Cover Art
Designers Tom Lehman
IllustratorsClaus Stephan
Martin Hoffmann
Mirko Suzuki
Publishers Rio Grande Games
Players2 to 4
Setup time2 minutes
Playing time30–60 minutes
ChanceMedium
Skills Economic management, strategic thought

Race for the Galaxy (RftG), or simply Race, is a card game designed by Thomas Lehmann. It was released in 2007 by Rio Grande Games. Its theme is to build galactic civilizations via game cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments. It accommodates two to four players by default although expansions allow for up to six players, as well as solo play. The game uses iconography in place of language in some places, with complex powers also having a text description. While appreciated by experienced players for being concise, some new players find the icons difficult to learn and to decipher. [1]

Contents

The game won Boardgamegeek's Golden Geek Award for best card game, [2] Fairplay Magazine'sÀ la carte award for best card game of 2008, [3] and was described by the magazine Tric Trac as "Le jeu de cartes de cette année 2008" (The card game of the year 2008). [4]

Development

Race for the Galaxy by Thomas Lehmann began as a card game version of Puerto Rico, with Thomas Lehmann working on his own and in cooperation with Andreas Seyfarth, and while Lehmann's version did not make it into publication as San Juan in 2004, he continued work on the game and added a space-themed customizable card game and this was ultimately released as Race for the Galaxy by Rio Grande Games. [5]

Gameplay

Like many other Euro-style games, players win Race by having the most victory points at the end of the game. VPs come from three sources: worlds and developments placed on a player's tableau, and VP chips earned by consuming goods from worlds. To place a world or development, players pay a cost in cards from their hand. Keeping a steady income of new cards throughout the game is important to victory.

Phase selection

At the start of each round, all players simultaneously and secretly choose one of five phases: Explore, Develop, Settle, Consume, or Produce. Selections are revealed simultaneously. The only phases which actually occur in a round are those selected by players. Additionally, the players who picked a certain phase get a special bonus during that phase, such as the ability to look at more cards during the Explore phase.

Every card in play has powers which are active during various phases. For instance, the development "Investment Credits" has a Develop power which makes placing developments one card cheaper.

A possible starting world from the base game, Epsilon Eridani. This world is worth 1 victory point and has powers during the settle and consume phases (III and IV). Race for the Galaxy -- Epsilon Eridani.jpg
A possible starting world from the base game, Epsilon Eridani. This world is worth 1 victory point and has powers during the settle and consume phases (III and IV).

Round play

Within a round, phases (those selected by players) happen in the following order:

  1. Explore – Draw two cards and keep one.
  2. Develop – Play a development.
  3. Settle – Play a world, either by paying to take it peacefully or by military conquest.
  4. Consume – "Ship" resources for cards and VPs. As a bonus activity, players can Trade a resource to earn many cards, but no VPs.
  5. Produce – Put a good (a face-down card from the deck) on all production worlds that do not have one.

After all phases are complete, players discard down to a hand limit of 10 cards. Unusually among card games, cards discarded due to the hand limit or when paying a cost are placed face-down (in a "messy" pile to distinguish them from the draw deck), concealing information that could be used to deduce upcoming draws.

Play continues until, at the end of a round, either at least one player has 12 or more cards in their tableau, or the entire starting pool of victory point tokens has been claimed by the players. At that point, the player with the highest total of victory points from tokens and from cards in their tableau is the winner. [6]

Race vs. other titles

The play style of the game is similar to that of another Rio Grande game, San Juan , [7] which is the card game version of the board game Puerto Rico. Lehmann, Race's designer, developed his own card game version of Puerto Rico at the request of the publisher. Some of its ideas were incorporated in San Juan. Later, Lehmann used those ideas to create a different game, one of space exploration, settlement, and conquest rather than development in the colonial Caribbean. [8]

The principal difference in the playing sequence between Race and Puerto Rico/San Juan is that in the latter games, a given phase can only be chosen by one player each round, and the order of activities is based on player order and the phases each player picks in succession; in Race, multiple players may choose the same phase, and the order of activity execution is fixed.

Wei-Hwa Huang, who is credited as a development assistant for Race, went on to become the primary designer of Roll for the Galaxy (assisted by Tom Lehmann). In this adaptation six-sided dice represent a player's workers, with rolls determining what phases workers are placed in. [9]

Expansions

Gameplay with the base set. 10 cards have been played in one player's tableau, so the game is likely to end soon Race for the Galaxy gameplay.jpg
Gameplay with the base set. 10 cards have been played in one player's tableau, so the game is likely to end soon

During playtesting, plans were made for two expansions [8] [10] to add more variety to gameplay, shore up certain strategies, and to accommodate more players. The game's success prompted the publisher to request a third expansion, as well as new expansions not requiring the original trio. [11]

Currently there are five expansions for Race. The first three expansions, Gathering Storm, Rebel vs Imperium, and The Brink of War, comprise the first expansion arc. These expansions thematically focus on a struggle for galactic control between the militarily powerful Imperium and a Rebel uprising. [12] [13] [14] The second arc, which is designed to be played separately from the first, includes only the expansion Alien Artifacts, about the revival of long-dead Alien overseer technology. [15] In the third arc the Xeno Invasion set chronicles a catastrophic invasion by monstrous "Xenos" from a distant world. [16]

All the expansions provide new game cards, starting worlds, and support for at least five players. Many new mechanics also interact with base set keywords, such as "Rebel" or "Uplift".

The Gathering Storm

The first expansion adds components for a fifth player, additional cards, goals (opportunities to gain extra victory points chosen at random at game start), and rules and components for solo play (against a "robot" player). [12] [17]

Rebel vs Imperium

The second expansion is intended for use with the first expansion. It adds components for a sixth player, more cards and goals, and direct player interaction in takeovers of other players' military worlds; players who refrain from playing certain cards are immune to conquest. Takeovers are optional and the rules for this expansion encourage trying the game both with and without them. [18] This set also introduces many new Rebel and Imperium Cards and introduces a special two-player scenario where one player takes the role of The Imperium while the other starts with a Rebel homeworld. In this variant the starting hands consist partly of Imperium/Rebel cards and takeovers are allowed. [13]

The Brink of War

The third expansion adds still more cards, and goals, as well as a new mechanic called galactic prestige. Each round the player(s) with the most prestige earn an additional victory point and possibly a card. Each prestige is worth one victory point at the end of the game, and many of the new cards allow prestige to be spent (for victory points, cards, or other effects). Additionally, a new "once-per-game" action is introduced that allows the user to search the deck for a card meeting a specific stated requirement, or to enhance the bonus the user earns in a round (at the cost of one prestige). [19] The set further extends takeover options: the Interstellar Casus Belli development can allow attacks against anyone, and the Imperium Planet Buster can destroy enemy worlds outright. [14]

Alien Artifacts

The fourth expansion is used with only the base game and was released during 2013. It includes new explore powers and an optional "orb game" in which players explore for victory points and new powers. [20] Some players have criticized the gameplay of the orb game while praising the game cards in the set, saying that the orb makes the overall game play non-simultaneously and last too long. [15] [21] [22]

Xeno Invasion

The fifth expansion, published 2015, is for use with the base game only. [23] According to Lehmann, "XI is aimed at intermediate players" and has the most new base cards of any expansion so far. [24] It allows for up to 5 players, and in addition to new world and development cards it includes an optional "Invasion Game", in which players must defeat three waves of Xeno alien invaders. Players can earn bonuses by contributing to the war effort, but the game can also end in two new ways: repulsing the Xeno threat or losing to the invaders. [16]

Reception

Race for the Galaxy was a finalist for the best "Traditional Card Game" at the Origins Awards. [25]

Arjun Sukumaran said that "Thomas Lehmann has received abundant acclaim over the course of his game design career, most notably for his excellent Race for the Galaxy - a game many would consider to be the best card game around." [26]

Matthew Monagle for /Film said in 2021 that "it is a testament to Thomas Lehmann's design that a game released in 2007, an eternity ago in board game years, can still compete with the big boys a decade-plus later." [27]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cosmic Encounter</i> Science fiction board game

Cosmic Encounter is a science fiction–themed strategy board game designed by "Future Pastimes" and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each player takes the role of a particular alien species, each with a unique power to bend or break one of the rules of the game, trying to establish control over the universe. The game was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.

Chrononauts is a family of card games that simulates popular fictional ideas about how time travellers might alter history, drawing on sources like Back to the Future and the short stories collection Travels Through Time. The game was designed by Andrew Looney and is published by Looney Labs. The original game and a variant each won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game.

<i>Ticket to Ride</i> (board game) Board game

Ticket to Ride is a series of turn-based strategy railway-themed Eurogames designed by Alan R. Moon, the first of which was released in 2004 by Days of Wonder. As of 2024, 18 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide and it has been translated into 33 languages. Days of Wonder has released digital versions of the board games in the series, as well as Ticket to Ride-themed card games and puzzles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasy Flight Games</span> American game company

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of Asmodee North America.

<i>Dune</i> (board game) 1979 strategy board game

Dune is a strategy board game set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, published by Avalon Hill in 1979. The game was designed by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge and Peter Olotka. After many years out of print, the game was reissued by Gale Force Nine in 2019 in advance of the 2021 Dune film adaptation.

<i>Descent: Journeys in the Dark</i> 2005 board game

Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a two to five player high fantasy dungeon crawl published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. Descent was designed and produced by Kevin Wilson. The game is based on an improved version of the mechanics of FFG's licensed Doom: The Boardgame. In Descent, players take the roles of adventurers who delve into underground complexes in search of treasure. One player takes the role of the Overlord, who controls the enemies and plays cards to hinder the hero players. Descent differs from other games in the genre in that the Overlord player's goal is to win by exhausting the other players of victory points, rather than merely to facilitate play. The Overlord's resources are limited by the rules of the game, which require them to hoard and expend "threat" points, which are generated in response to the hero players' actions, in order to hamper the other players and to bring out additional monsters to defeat them. This mechanism is very much reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings when playing with the Sauron optional expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twilight Imperium</span> Science-fiction themed board game

Twilight Imperium is a strategy board game produced by Fantasy Flight Games and Asmodee in the genre of science fiction and space opera. It was designed by Christian T. Petersen and was first released in 1997. It is now in its fourth edition (2017), which has large changes over previous editions. It is known for the length of its games and its in-depth strategy. As of 2024, its compelling gameplay and enduring popularity have been hailed by Nerdist and Polygon as one of the "greatest board games ever made."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Petersburg (board game)</span> Board game

Saint Petersburg is a card-driven designer board game, with the design of the game credited to Michael Tummelhofer, a pseudonym for Michael Bruinsma, Jay Tummelson and Bernd Brunnhofer. Most of the design work was done by Brunnhofer. The game was published in 2004 by Hans im Glück and Rio Grande Games, and won the Deutscher Spiele Preis and International Gamers Award for that year.

<i>Twilight Struggle</i> Board game

Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945–1989 is a board game for two players, published by GMT Games in 2005. Players are the United States and Soviet Union contesting each other's influence on the world map by using cards that correspond to historical events. The first game designed by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews, they intended it to be a quick-playing alternative to more complex card-driven wargames.

<i>Agricola</i> (board game) Board game

Agricola is a Euro-style board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It is a worker placement game with a focus on resource management. In Agricola, players are farmers who sow, plow the fields, collect wood, build stables, buy animals, expand their farms and feed their families. After 14 rounds players calculate their score based on the size and prosperity of the household.

<i>Pandemic</i> (board game) Crisis-themed cooperative strategy board game

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock and first published by Z-Man Games in the United States in 2008. Pandemic is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world, each threatening to wipe out a region. The game accommodates two to four players, each playing one of seven possible roles: dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher, operations expert, contingency planner, or quarantine specialist. Through the combined effort of all the players, the goal is to discover all four cures before any of several game-losing conditions are reached.

<i>Dominion</i> (card game) Deck-building card game

Dominion is a card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games. Originally published in 2008, it was the first deck-building game, and inspired a genre of games building on its central mechanic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunderstone (card game)</span> Deck-building card game

Thunderstone is a fantasy deck-building card game series designed by Mike Elliott, with artwork by Jason Engle. It was first published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2009. Each card has dimensions of 6.3 cm x 8.8 cm. It has been translated into several languages.

<i>Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game</i>

Star Wars: X-Wing is a miniature war game designed by Jay Little and produced by Fantasy Flight Games that was released at Gen Con during August 17, 2012. It features tactical ship-to-ship dogfighting between various types of starfighters set in the fictional Star Wars universe. The game is said to be easy to learn and quick to play taking anywhere between 15 and 60 minutes from first set-up to battle's end. Each round both players give all their ships movement orders without knowing what their opponent is doing before resolving these orders while trying to shoot down enemy craft. On May 1, 2018, FFG announced X-Wing Second Edition, to be released on September 13, 2018. Although the physical models are transferable, an entire new set of rules, templates, and markers have been produced and are available through a new core set, waves, and conversion packs.

<i>Galaxy Trucker</i> Science-fiction board game

Galaxy Trucker is a science fiction board game for two to four players. It was developed by Vlaada Chvátil, with graphics designed by Radim Pech. The Czech version of Galaxy Trucker was released in 2007 by Czech Games Edition, and a German version was published in the same year by Heidelberger Spieleverlag. In 2021, a revised edition of the game was released.

<i>Lords of Waterdeep</i> Board game

Lords of Waterdeep is a German-style board game designed by Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2012. The game is set in Waterdeep, a fictional city in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Players take the roles of the masked rulers of Waterdeep, deploying agents and hiring adventurers to complete quests and increase their influence over the city.

<i>Colt Express</i> 2014 board game

Colt Express is a railway-themed family board game designed by Christophe Raimbault, Illustrated by Ian Parovel and Jordi Valbuena, published in 2014 by Ludonaute and distributed by Asmodee.

<i>Star Wars: Rebellion</i> (board game) 2016 strategy board game

Star Wars: Rebellion is an asymmetrical strategy board game designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016. The game's setting is inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy. Players control either the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance. Each player pursues a different path to victory, with the Galactic Empire playing seeking to find the Rebel Alliance player's base and destroy it, while the Rebel Alliance player attempts to avoid detection by the Galactic Empire and sabotage their efforts. The game received highly positive reviews and won numerous awards.

Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game of building space empires for 2 to 5 players. Designed by Wei-Hwa Huang and Tom Lehmann, it was published by Rio Grande Games in 2014. Player dice represent their empire's populace, whom the players use to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and trade. It is a dice version of an older board game Race for the Galaxy.

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is a cooperative deck-building game for 1-5 players, released in 2012. It was designed by Devin Low and published by Upper Deck Entertainment, a division of Upper Deck Company.

References

  1. ↑ Joshua Kosman (December 9, 2007). "Ranking the new board games for the holidays". San Francisco Chronicle.
  2. ↑ "Weitere Auszeichnung für Agricola". Spielbox. 26 November 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  3. ↑ "A la Carte Award". Fairplay Magazin. August 2, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Jouez à Race for the Galaxy sur votre ordi". Tric Trac. 19 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  5. ↑ Batty, Ward (2008-03-12). "Game". Boise Weekly . p. 38. ProQuest   367265827.
  6. ↑ "Race for the Galaxy". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  7. ↑ "Race for the Galaxy". Board Game Geek .
  8. 1 2 Race for the Galaxy Designer Preview #1: "Boardgame News". Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  9. ↑ "Roll for the Galaxy". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  10. ↑ Race for the Galaxy Designer Preview #3: "Boardgame News". Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
  11. ↑ BGG forum post by Lehmann: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/3692801#3692801
  12. 1 2 "RFTG: the Gathering Storm". Rio Grande Games . Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  13. 1 2 "RFTG: Rebel vs Imperium". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  14. 1 2 "RFTG: the Brink of War". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  15. 1 2 "RFTG: Alien Artifacts". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  16. 1 2 "RFTG: Xeno Invasion". Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  17. ↑ "Game Preview: Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm" Archived 2009-02-08 at the Wayback Machine , By Tom Lehmann, September 26, 2008, Boardgame News.
  18. ↑ Tom Lehmann (June 8, 2009). "Rebel vs Imperium Designer Preview". Boardgame news. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009.
  19. ↑ Tom Lehmann (May 25, 2010). "The Secret History of the Brink of War". BoardGameGeek.
  20. ↑ "Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  21. ↑ "The Gamer Nerd Review: Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts | Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  22. ↑ "A Dozen-Play Review: No Card Left Behind | Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  23. ↑ "Race for the Galaxy: Xeno Invasion". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  24. ↑ Tom Lehmann (January 31, 2015). "Fifth expansion named..." BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  25. ↑ "Origins Awards Finalists Announced". ICv2 . 2008-04-28. Archived from the original on 2023-11-22. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  26. ↑ Sukumaran, Arjun (2020-08-27). "A new game of galaxies: In New Frontiers, 2-5 players compete to expand their galactic empires in various ways". The New Indian Express . Archived from the original on 2023-11-22. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  27. ↑ Monagle, Matthew (2021-12-02). "The 20 Best Board Games For Adults". /Film . Archived from the original on 2023-11-22. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.