ok, here's the first half of the explanation of the alpha version. work in progress, feel free to comment.
merchant prince
players build their spaceships and develop their ship crews to trade between the stars, competing with other players both indirectly in business and directly in combat to see who can avoid financial ruin and accumulate the most profits to win.
two or more players. each player brings to the game:
home world mat, one per player
general slots
one slot for the ship deck
one slot for the planet deck
one slot the profit card deck
ship
ship capabilities - one slot for each ship deck category (listed below)
profits
profit pile slot - one slot to hold accumulated profit cards
ship deck, one per player
13 categories, 4 cards per category, 52 total
pilot 4
navigator 4
gunner 4
engineer 4
broker 4
deckhand 4
maneuver 4
jump 4
cargo space 4
armor 4
laser 4
missile 4
sand 4
planet deck, one per player
3 categories, specified cards per category, 9 total
j1 worlds 4
j2 worlds 3
j3 worlds 2
profit card deck, one per player (alt rule: one per game)
3 categories, specified cards per category, 54 total
profit 1 27
profit 2 18
profit 3 9 (54 total)
game play
each player starts the game by setting up their homeworld mat and placing their shuffled decks face down in their appropriate general slots. each player searches their ship deck to find one maneuver card and one cargo space card and sets those cards in their appropriate slots on the homeworld mat in the ship capabilities section, reshuffling and replacing the ship deck in its slot. appropriate cards in the ship capability slots represent ship capabilities. a single maneuver card in the maneuver slot means the player's ship is able to maneuver within any star system at speed 1 (but cannot yet jump to another star), and a single cargo space card in the cargo space slot means the player's ship is able to carry one profit card of cargo. the ship can fly in-system and engage in in-system trade but has no other capabilities at this time.
the player then draws seven cards from their ship deck. at the start of every following turn the player may, but need not, draw one more ship capability card, but must then choose a card to discard to once again hold seven cards. discarded cards are placed in a discard pile and are not used again. (alt rule: recycle these cards)
players engage in trade to obtain profit cards having profit points. these profit points may be spent to buy upgrades to ship capabilities to defend themselves or carry more cargo or reach more profitable trading areas or hire professional crew, or the profit points may be retained to accumulate a certain number of profit points necessary to win the game.
all turns are simultaneous between players.
players may engage in trade within their homeworld or any other world automatically whenever they remain in that world more than one turn. this automatically produces 1 profit card of 1 profit point per turn. the card is simply taken from the profit deck and the profit deck reshuffled. (alt rule: only in homeworld)
each ship capability card costs 1 profit point. a player may purchase any or all (or no) ship capability cards that he holds in his hand by using any profit point cards in his homeworld mat profit pile slot. as ship capability cards are purchased they are placed in the appropriate ship capability slot on the homeworld mat, any proft point cards used to make the purchase are discarded to the bottom of the profit card deck, and replacement ship capability cards are drawn from the top of the ship card deck to restore the player's hand to seven cards.
one may continue to accumulate profit points in one's homeworld, but other worlds offer greater profits. to trade between worlds, a ship must have at least one jump card. this qualifies it to jump to any j1 world to conduct trade. two jump cards qualifies it to jump to any j1 or j2 world to conduct trade. three jump cards qualifies it to jump to any j1 or j2 or j3 world to conduct trade.
to qualify to trade at a given world the player must pay profit points before jumping to that world - one profit point to trade at a j1 world, two profit points to trade at a j2 world, and 3 profit points to trade at a j3 world.
merchant prince
players build their spaceships and develop their ship crews to trade between the stars, competing with other players both indirectly in business and directly in combat to see who can avoid financial ruin and accumulate the most profits to win.
two or more players. each player brings to the game:
home world mat, one per player
general slots
one slot for the ship deck
one slot for the planet deck
one slot the profit card deck
ship
ship capabilities - one slot for each ship deck category (listed below)
profits
profit pile slot - one slot to hold accumulated profit cards
ship deck, one per player
13 categories, 4 cards per category, 52 total
pilot 4
navigator 4
gunner 4
engineer 4
broker 4
deckhand 4
maneuver 4
jump 4
cargo space 4
armor 4
laser 4
missile 4
sand 4
planet deck, one per player
3 categories, specified cards per category, 9 total
j1 worlds 4
j2 worlds 3
j3 worlds 2
profit card deck, one per player (alt rule: one per game)
3 categories, specified cards per category, 54 total
profit 1 27
profit 2 18
profit 3 9 (54 total)
game play
each player starts the game by setting up their homeworld mat and placing their shuffled decks face down in their appropriate general slots. each player searches their ship deck to find one maneuver card and one cargo space card and sets those cards in their appropriate slots on the homeworld mat in the ship capabilities section, reshuffling and replacing the ship deck in its slot. appropriate cards in the ship capability slots represent ship capabilities. a single maneuver card in the maneuver slot means the player's ship is able to maneuver within any star system at speed 1 (but cannot yet jump to another star), and a single cargo space card in the cargo space slot means the player's ship is able to carry one profit card of cargo. the ship can fly in-system and engage in in-system trade but has no other capabilities at this time.
the player then draws seven cards from their ship deck. at the start of every following turn the player may, but need not, draw one more ship capability card, but must then choose a card to discard to once again hold seven cards. discarded cards are placed in a discard pile and are not used again. (alt rule: recycle these cards)
players engage in trade to obtain profit cards having profit points. these profit points may be spent to buy upgrades to ship capabilities to defend themselves or carry more cargo or reach more profitable trading areas or hire professional crew, or the profit points may be retained to accumulate a certain number of profit points necessary to win the game.
all turns are simultaneous between players.
players may engage in trade within their homeworld or any other world automatically whenever they remain in that world more than one turn. this automatically produces 1 profit card of 1 profit point per turn. the card is simply taken from the profit deck and the profit deck reshuffled. (alt rule: only in homeworld)
each ship capability card costs 1 profit point. a player may purchase any or all (or no) ship capability cards that he holds in his hand by using any profit point cards in his homeworld mat profit pile slot. as ship capability cards are purchased they are placed in the appropriate ship capability slot on the homeworld mat, any proft point cards used to make the purchase are discarded to the bottom of the profit card deck, and replacement ship capability cards are drawn from the top of the ship card deck to restore the player's hand to seven cards.
one may continue to accumulate profit points in one's homeworld, but other worlds offer greater profits. to trade between worlds, a ship must have at least one jump card. this qualifies it to jump to any j1 world to conduct trade. two jump cards qualifies it to jump to any j1 or j2 world to conduct trade. three jump cards qualifies it to jump to any j1 or j2 or j3 world to conduct trade.
to qualify to trade at a given world the player must pay profit points before jumping to that world - one profit point to trade at a j1 world, two profit points to trade at a j2 world, and 3 profit points to trade at a j3 world.
