Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Latest and Greatest EmDice (Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory) prototype files

For those following along, or those who are interested in following along, I thought I would post the latest and greatest prototype files for EmDice. Some years ago people printed and played the game. For those people, you'd only really need to do two things to update your copy:

  1. Print the new tech board, 
  2. Mark the dice to change the Produce and Trade sides to Produce/Trade and Politics.

The planets and resource/fighter tokens remain the same.

And if you would like to play with 5 players, you will need to create 7 more dice and 12 more resource/fighter tokens.

Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory prototype files (v2.1)
Fighter/Resource/Influence Tokens

And for those interested, but not enough to download files, I'll paste the up-to-date (as of November 2017) rules here:

Chaos Theory: the Eminent Domain dice game
V2.1 11/14/17


Components
35 Role dice (6/player + 1/player for Oversight Committee)
36 Planet tiles (12 of each Advanced, Fertile, Metallic)
+/- 60 Fighter / Resource / Influence tokens
1 Draw bag
1 Tech board
25 Tech markers (5 in each player color)

Setup

  1. Set the tech board in the center of the table.
  2. Place 1 die per player near the Oversight Committee tech space.
  3. Shuffle all planet tiles in the draw bag. Draw 5 planet tiles and place them FACE UP above the Survey slots on the Tech board.
  4. Each player takes 6 dice and rolls them into their empire.
  5. Each player takes 1 start planet at random and places it FACE DOWN in their Empire. Return unused start planets to the box.
  6. Each player takes the tech markers that match their start planet border.
  7. Determine a Start player via any method you choose.


Game Turn
Players take turns choosing roles in order to Survey new planets, Settle or Attack them, Produce and Trade resources, and do Research. On your turn, do the following:

1. Choose a Role. 
There are 6 roles to choose from (Survey, Warfare, Colonize, Produce, Trade, Research). You may freely choose any role.

2. Boost the Role.
You may use any number of your active dice with symbols matching the role symbol to boost the chosen role. Place any used dice into your Used pile.

Roles may also be boosted with role icons on face-up planets or techs you own. You also get a leader bonus of +1 role symbol (+2 Role Symbols for Survey, or -1 Warfare cost for Warfare if you choose to attack).

3. Resolve the Role.
Carry out the effect of the role (see below for the effects of each role). Each opponent in turn order may choose to Follow or Dissent. Any dice used by a player to follow are placed in that player's Used pile.

  • Follow: An opponent choosing to Follow a role may use any number of their own active dice with icons matching the chosen role (as well as icons on face-up planets or techs owned by that player) to carry out the effect of the role for themselves. All dice used are placed in that player's Used pile.
  • Dissent: An opponent choosing to Dissent a role may re-roll any number of their active dice that all share the same symbol. This need not be the symbol of the chosen role! IN ADDITION, for each "Re-roll +1" ability that player has, they may re-roll 1 additional die, no matter what symbol it shows. This additional die MAY come from the active dice, or the Used pile!

Remember, whenever a die is used, it is placed in the Used pile!

Game End
Play continues until the last Fighter/Resource/Influence token is taken from the supply, or when there are not enough planets to fully restock the Survey display at the end of a Survey role. When the game is over, count the Influence and determine a winner:

  • Count 2 Influence for each face-up planet (+1 Influence bonus as indicated on some planets), 
  • 1 Influence for each resource traded during the game, 
  • 1 Influence for each Level 3 Technology (as printed on board), 
  • 2 Influence for each Level 4 Technology (as printed on board), and 
  • 3 Influence for each Level 5 Technology (as printed on board) 

The player with the most Influence is the winner!

Roles
Survey (Leader bonus: 2 Survey icons)
Above the Tech board there is a display of face up planet tiles that cost 2/3/4/5/6 Survey symbols to take, with the rest of the planet tiles in a draw bag. Choose any of those planets you can afford, then slide the rest of the planets down. Do not draw a planet from the bag (or stack) to fill the missing slot yet! Restock the planets at the end of the role, after each player has followed or dissented.

Warfare (Leader bonus: 1 Warfare icon or -1 Warfare cost)
Collect 1 Fighter for each Warfare icon OR Attack a planet instead, at a discount of 1 Fighter.
When you Attack a planet, discard a number of Fighters equal to the Warfare cost and Flip the planet.
NOTE: Unlike the card game, in this game, you CAN Attack a planet when following! But of course, you do't get the leader bonus discount.

Colonize (Leader bonus: 1 Colonize icon)
Spend as many Colonize icons as the Colonize cost of a face down planet in your empire to Settle that planet.
NOTE: Unlike the card game, in this game, you CAN Settle a planet when following!

Produce (Leader bonus: 1 Produce icon)
Produce 1 resource for each Produce icon. You must store these resources on planets in your Empire. Each planet can store 1 resource. You may not produce more resources than you have planets to store them on (no sneaky triggering the game end when you cannot hold the resources!).

Trade (Leader bonus: 1 Trade icon)
Trade 1 resource for each Trade icon. When trading a resource, move a resource token from a planet in your empire into your score pile. Each of these tokens will be worth 1 Influence point at the end of the game.

Research (Leader bonus: 1 Research icon)
Pay the appropriate cost and satisfy the planet prerequisite to advance your Technology marker on one of the Technology tracks on the Tech Reference Board. There are 4 tracks on the Tech board: Advanced, Fertile, Metallic, and Diverse. The spaces in each track indicate the number of Research icons and planets required.

Each Technology confers a bonus of some kind, as indicated on the Technology board.

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