Planeteer

Planeteer is a unique dice allocation and tile laying game set in a retro science fiction universe. Each player takes on the role of a freelance space exploration agency. Throughout the game they will be hiring personel (known as Planeteers), exploring planetoids, encountering aliens, and completing objectives based on scenarios.

The game begins by drawing a random 4"x4" starting tile. This tile will set the scenario for the current game, whether it be a crashed starship of colonists that need rescuing, an alien hive that must be destroyed, or a cache of rare space minerals that can be mined and exploited. Players will then take turns laying down tiles to create a 5x5 grid that will serves as the planet's surface.

The game is divided into two phases: The Preparation Phase, and the Action Phase. During the Prep Phase, players will allocate dice to different tasks, such as acquiring components to build rovers to explore the planet surface, building and deploying rovers, researching technology, or recruiting more Planeteers (represented by 6-sided dice). Players have a maximum number of Planeteer Interaction Points (or pips) that can be allocated amongst their available Planeteers. Once players have taken their actions in the Prep Phase, any remaining Planeteers go to the Flight Deck, and will become the Pilots for the rovers during the Action Phase.

During the Action Phase, players will assign their Pilots to any rovers they have on the planet's surface. These vehicles can perform tasks such as moving around the planet, interacting with objects (like salvaging or mining for minerals), or attacking (other players or aliens). Each scenario has a certain objective to complete, and the player who does so most efficiently wins the game.

One of the most unique aspects of Planeteer are the rovers. Rovers are built by stacking components (cardboard chits). Each stack has a hole in the middle to fit a die (the pilot). The die face will show how many actions are available for that rover. Actions are dependent on the components equipped. Each component stacks so that it's available actions (icons) don't overlap, so any icon showing is an action available for that rover.