Mission: Red Planet (Second/Third Edition)

To set up Mission: Red Planet, the Mars game board is placed centrally. Fourteen resource tokens are shuffled and placed face down on designated spaces, while twenty destination tokens are shuffled and placed face up. Thirty-four spaceship tokens are shuffled into a face-down pile, with a number equal to players turned up on the launch pad. Each player selects a set of matching colored astronauts and character cards. Event cards are shuffled, three dealt to each player, who then choose one bonus card to keep secret and discard the rest. The remaining event cards form a face-down deck near the board. The player who took the last action in the previous turn receives the First Player token.

The primary objective of Mission: Red Planet is to accumulate the highest number of points by exploring Mars and gathering valuable resources. Players earn points through multiple avenues: by having the most astronauts present in each distinct zone of Mars at the game's conclusion, by collecting various resource tokens throughout play, and by successfully fulfilling the conditions of their secret bonus missions, which provide additional points.

A turn in Mission: Red Planet progresses through five distinct steps. First, spaceships that launched in the previous turn are replaced by new ones from the top of the spaceship pile. Second, each player secretly chooses one of their remaining character cards and places it face down. Third, the player with the First Player token announces characters in numerical order (Recruiter 1 to Pilot 9); all players who played that character reveal it and take their action. Fourth, all spaceships that took off this turn arrive on Mars, and their astronauts are placed in the corresponding landing zones. Finally, the turn counter is advanced, and the First Player token is passed to the player who took the last action.

Points are scored at three specific intervals during the game: after the 5th turn, after the 8th turn, and definitively at the end of the 10th and final turn. During these scoring phases, the player who has the most astronauts in each zone of Mars claims all the score tokens present in that zone. In the event of a tie for astronaut majority in a zone, the tied players equally share the score tokens. Any remaining score tokens are left in the zone to be added to the distribution in subsequent scoring phases. The final score is determined by summing the total value of all collected score tokens, along with any bonus points awarded from secret bonus cards and revealed discovery cards.

The game of Mission: Red Planet concludes definitively after the 10th turn has been completed. At this point, any discovery cards that were placed face down on different zones of Mars throughout the game are revealed. The effects of these discovery cards can potentially alter the distribution of score tokens or modify the calculation of final scores. After all final scoring adjustments and calculations are made, the player who has accumulated the highest final score is declared the winner of the game.