Triplanetary

Return to Board Games

Triplanetary is a fun, unique game with realistic space velocity rules in which you spend your fuel to change your movement vector rather than to move directly. And it comes with a variety of different scenarios, including "Prospecting." However, that scenario has a critical flaw: It requires ore to show up, but whether it does is based 100% on a random die roll. And we learned that, although unlikely, it is possible to play an entire game without ore ever showing up, which breaks the game. Fortunately, this is easily fixed by switching from dice to cards.

Prospecting

In the first Prospecting paragraph, replace sentences two through four with the following:

Draw from a standard deck of 54 cards (with Jokers). If the card is a diamond, ore is present (mark an O); if not, it isn't (mark an X). If the card is a King, Ace, or Joker, the ship has encountered a contraterrene (CT) shard.

For additional complexity, add:

Optional Rule: If a Joker is drawn, the CT shard is particularly potent. If captured and sold, it earns an additional 50% profit; if not, the damage roll is at +1 (max 6)!

Return to Board Games