Rise of the Trackers

Rise of the Trackers: A Fireflies Trilogy Game is a board game based on the imaginative world brought to life in the Fireflies Trilogy books by Melissa Koberlein.   This game is played collaboratively between 2-6 players against both time and the deck. Players choose their characters, and each become a "Tracker", a human hosting alien symbiotes called chondria. This relationship grants the player unique abilities resulting in varied attributes that aid the player on their journey to both find other humans that are compatible with chondria and assist in successfully bonding the compatible human and chondria together. In this symbiotic state, both the chondria and human thrive, developing new and elevated skills from the purely human state.   This task is made difficult by the fact that bonding can have complications. If a bonding is attempted on an incompatible human, that human and the chondria die. Additionally, a compatible human still must be willing before successfully becoming a host. If a compatible human is unwilling and a bonding is attempted, their body and the chondria become at odds, and they turn into "Razers". While a Razer remains alive and hosts living chondria inside their body, they also become unresponsive and lose control of their human selves. Their consciousness is now influenced/responsive only to the host that bonded them against their will. In this race against odds, a team of Trackers is on a mission to find more compatible humans and convince them to become a host to this incredible alien species.   Malcolm Durst, however, is a host with a sinister mission: Create more razers to do his bidding. He uses the vulnerability of the Razers to prevent the growth of healthy hosts and grows a force of Razers under him to amass power and control in the world. He and his daughter, Lilah, have to be stopped before their control of Razers gives them unrestrained power to see their plan to fruition.   In this turn-based board game, players move around the board working together in making decisions that influence themselves, their fellow Trackers, Allies, and Enemies. The Trackers must work together to reveal if a human is compatible, use their unique attributes in various combinations to convince them to be a willing host, and bond them into an Ally that can aid in their mission to stop Malcolm and Lilah. As game play progresses, Trackers can be hindered or boosted by characters or their environment via the deck, and an enemy turn every round works to progress Malcolm’s mission. Players win when they have created enough Allies. However, if Malcolm accumulates enough Razers first, or if too many humans dies from incompatible bonding, the Trackers lose.

—description from the designer