Moon

Theming: What’s the point?

Moon is a 2-5 player pick-and-pass base-building game played over three Eras. Build a Settlement that produces resources, establishes the five Flag types, and gains Hearts. Hearts earned during play, plus printed Hearts on grey Structures and Reputation cards at the end, determine the winner.

What guests should watch for

• Every Era starts with Production, including the very first one, before any cards are drafted.
• Every Construction turn requires exactly one Build or Assimilate action; the four extra actions are each limited to once that turn.
• Hearts placed on Structures or Reputation cards score again in every later Era; do not remove them after scoring.

Setting up: How to get started?

Make a general supply of Hearts, Rovers, and Energy, Water, Biomass, and Metal. Put three Hearts below each Flag on the Flag Reward board and three Hearts on X. Reveal as many random Bronze, Silver, and Gold Reputation cards as there are players, except reveal three of each in a two-player game. Shuffle the three Structure decks and three Expedition decks separately; start a face-up Era I discard pile with one Structure card.

Table checklist

1. Give each player a Base, player aid, and two Rovers. A Base counts as both a blue and yellow Structure.
2. Give the First Expedition card to the starting player: use the 2-3 card for two or three players and the 4-5 card for four or five.
3. For two players, remove the Base, Expedition, and Era I/II Structure cards marked 3+ before setup. No Era III Structures are removed.
4. In Era I, deal Structure hands only after Production: eight cards at two players, seven at three or four, and six at five. In Eras II and III, first turn one Structure from that Era face up to begin a new discard pile.
5. Deal one current-Era Expedition card to every player except the holder of First Expedition; each hand therefore has Structure cards plus one Expedition card.

Rounds and Phases

Each Era has Production, Construction, then Scoring. In Production, all players take everything shown by the white-arrow Production symbols in their Settlement. Blue Structures produce immediately when built as well as in later Production phases.

Construction turn

1. Starting with First Expedition, take turns clockwise. You must either Build one Structure from hand, paying its resource cost and already meeting all printed Flag requirements, or Assimilate one Structure by placing it on the discard pile and taking its trash-can reward.
2. Before or after that mandatory action, each of these optional actions may be used once: use the Expedition card’s bonus action, park one Rover, claim one Reputation card, and flip one pink Structure.
3. A Rover parks only on another player’s blue or yellow Structure. On blue, take its production immediately; on yellow, use its Flags for this turn’s Build requirement. The parking space remains blocked until Era end, when the Rover becomes that Structure owner’s Rover.
4. A Reputation card may be claimed only when its requirement is met; take its immediate or ongoing effect and keep it. Pink Structures are flipped for their once-per-Era effects.
5. After everyone has taken a turn, pass complete hands, including Expedition cards, left. Repeat until only Expedition cards remain. In a two-player game, the same player leads throughout Construction, then the other player leads next Era.
6. End Construction by passing First Expedition left, returning the other Expedition cards, taking parked Rovers into the owning players’ supplies, flipping pink cards back, and shuffling the discard pile back into the current Era deck.

Important exception

Flag requirements must already be in your Settlement, but a Rover parked on another player’s yellow Structure can supply Flags only for the Build made that turn. A Rover cannot park on your own cards, and one card has room for only one Rover (the Base has one blue and one yellow space).

Scoring

Resolve each Flag reward in order. The player with the most of that Flag in their Settlement takes all Hearts below it. A tie goes to the tied player with more Rovers in their supply; if still tied, nobody takes the reward and the Hearts remain. Then each player gains Hearts equal to the Heart tokens on their Structures and Reputation cards, leaving those tokens in place.

End of an Era

1. Award all five Flag rewards, then score Heart tokens already placed on cards.
2. Remove one Heart from X, reducing the Excitement Value from 3 in Era I to 2 in Era II and 1 in Era III.
3. After Era I, put four Hearts below every Flag; after Era II, put five below every Flag. Unclaimed Hearts remain and add to the refill.
4. After Era III, do not refill. Add the Hearts already earned during the game to the printed Hearts on grey Structures and Reputation cards. Do not score Heart tokens on cards again.
5. The highest total wins. Ties go to the player with more Rovers, then fewer Reputation cards; a remaining tie is shared.

Terminology

• Settlement: Your Base, built Structures, and Hearts and Rovers on them; resources and Reputation cards are not part of it.
• Build: Put a Structure into the appropriate Settlement area after paying costs and satisfying Flag requirements.
• Assimilate: Discard a Structure from hand for its trash-can reward.
• Rover: A token that can use another player’s blue production or yellow Flags for the turn.
• Reputation card: A public, claimable card with a requirement, an effect, and printed endgame Hearts.

Official rules

This teach covers multiplayer; the rulebook’s GURPS opponent is a separate solo mode.