Rayguns and Rocketships

RULES DOCUMENT: VERSION 1.0... Added a little "storytelling" or "world building" for the game at this time. I'm looking for-- and open to-- all criticism of the game, here as comments, PM'ed or sent to pawndreamgames-at-gmail-dot-com (the Gmail being the best way to get me in a timely fashion; it goes right to my phone!). The game itself is a five-round format with tiles and shifting rules; see below on how that's going to work. I went with tiles for a larger, more random kind of layout; 150 cards on the table at once is WAY too many.

The rules here are cut/pasted from Word, so forgive any weird spacing or other visual noise.

BIG CHANGES:
1) VERY different Suits: now 4 instead of 3; changed their names; gave each suit a "power."
2) MUCH simplified rules for Specials. Seriously.
3) CHANGED the specials: added a few, renamed a couple, etc.
4) Changed the "runes" part of the Rules cards. Going to do a "pure" and "special orders" version of each with two "Chaos" cards as well.

Let's do this thing:
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RAYGUNS AND ROCKETSHIPS: A TILE GAME FROM OUTER SPACE!

CONTENTS:
1 Space Station game board
150 R&R tiles
30 Rules Cards
4 Player Boards
4 Score Beads
1 Commander Meeple

WINNING THE GAME: After four rounds of Exploration, return to the Port of Call and score the highest total to claim victory!

SETTING UP:
Place the Space Station board centrally. Shuffle, then place at the Space Station, the Rules deck. Next, put all Tiles face-down in a random assortment around the Space Station. While Tiles are here, this is called the Asteroid Belt.

LAUNCH PHASE:
All players, at the word “GO!” pull two tiles from the Asteroid Belt. They reveal them when all players have chosen; the highest total of the Tiles picked is the first player.

EXPLORATION PHASE:
The Exploration Phase consists of four rounds make up players’ turns. This is where you will be taking Tiles, creating and Docking arrays, and generally putzing about the solar system.

After the Launch Phase, the player who goes first becomes the Commander for the turn. He flips over and shows all players the Rules for the round. This does NOT guarantee the Rules won’t change, but it does set the tone for the round. Next, the Commander (then all other players) take their turn

First, draw 8 tiles. Look them over and choose any 5 to make your Array. Put your chosen tiles face-up with the black line facing you. This is called an “opening Array.” You can take up to 2 of the remaining non-Array tiles and put them on your board where it says “Spare Parts.” You can only have 2 Spare Parts tiles at a time. Put any tiles not in your opening Array or chosen as Spare Parts back into the Asteroid Belt (anywhere, really) and pass.

Play then passes to the Commander’s (or active player’s) right. After everyone has an opening Array, the Commander draws 4 new tiles and chooses to swap any number of opening Array or Spare Parts tiles. As before, put any non-Array or Spare Part tiles back into the Asteroid Belt. After deciding on your Array for the turn, “Dock” your Array at the Space Station by inverting the tiles so the black line’s facing the Station.

When all players have Docked, they score their points. Scoring Arrays are things like a Duo, Straight, or the infamous Supernova. See “Scoring Arrays” for specifics here. Also, after all players score their Docked Array, the Best Array for the turn earns a +5 point bonus. After scoring and Best Array, all tiles are put face down and shuffled back into the Asteroid Field. “Commander” passes to the right, and the next round begins.

THE TILES:

SUITS: Just like in a regular deck of cards, these are the various factions of the R&R universe. Suits matter in Suit-Flushes and for “Intrinsic Abilities.” If 3/5 of your Docked Array features all the same suit (called a Leading Suit), apply the following Intrinsic Abilities:
• RAYGUNS: zappers, blasters, etc. When the leading suit in your array, you choose and “zap” any one tile in play. The zapped tile goes back to the asteroid belt.
• ROCKETS: Ships, crafts, and cruisers…When the leading suit, you can swap a tile in your array for another from spare parts AFTER all players dock their arrays.
• ASTRONAUTS: The landing party explores their new planet. When Astronauts are the leading suit, change the current rules card for the round.
• ROBOTS: ERROR! When the leading suit, Robots can swap any non-robot tile in your docked array with any spare part in play (one time per round).

Each tile is ranked 1-5 and has a color: white, purple, or red.

SPECIALS: These tiles all have unique powers that can change how your game is played. For a Special to use its power, it must be included in the opening or Docked Array and must be part of the scoring array. For example a UFO-2 tile must be part of a “pair of 2’s” to trigger. Specials AND suit abilities can trigger in the same array. Players can only use the effect one special per Docked Array.
• UFO: These guys fly without engines! Your docked array may have 6 tiles this round.
• PLANET: A new world...new possibilities! Take 5 Asteroid Belt tiles, add up to 2 to your Array after it’s docked.
• SATELLITE: We’re getting your signal. Look at any face-down tile on the table.
• GLYPH: We still don’t speak their language, Ignore the High Array for the round; instead, this round becomes “Best tile.”
• ALIEN: Take me to your leader. The player with the highest total score CANNOT win “best array” this round.
• Big Numbers: these are some very large countdown numbers. If your docked array’s highest-valued tile is the same as any “Big Number” in the same array, double the value of that tile. (1-5; non-suited). A Supernova of 5 Big Numbers scores 75 points with no rank bonus.

RULES CARDS:
As stated above, the Rules card for the round is drawn as a round begins by that round’s Commander. However, any player may pay 10 points to draw and immediately apply a new Rules card at any time (players’ scores can’t be less than 0). All Rule cards have the same parts, and these are:

• BEST-ARRAY: Hint…it might NOT be a Jupiter! However, the normal order of how Arrays compare to each other is “circular,” that is, if a Trio ends up as Best Array, a Straight becomes the LOWEST possible array.
• FLAG: Color-flushes of this color score double their points.
• ALLY: Suit-flushes of this suit score double points
• WILD: Any tile of this rank counts as a wild in addition to its rank for the round.

Additionally, some have “Specs,” a rule that applies to that round. These can be kind of weird but all of them tell you how and when their effect works. Refer to individual cards for examples.

SCORING ARRAYS:
As in games like poker, some Arrays simply are better than others. R&R uses the standard poker “hands” as the jumping off point (a pair of something beats a high card, “f beats an s” etc.), but adds a few NEW possible plays.

Suit- and Color-Flushes are Arrays where all the tiles are either the same Color or suit. A Suit-Flush beats a Color-Flush.

Eclipses occur when a player’s Array is both a color- and suit-flush. Obviously, Eclipses beat regular flushes.

A SUPERNOVA occurs when an Array contains all Special tiles as described above (UFO, Alien, Planet, Big Number, Glyph and Satellite). A Supernova beats all Arrays regardless of the Rules card in play. Scoring for a Supernova is 50 points, plus the two highest-ranking tiles. Additionally, the highest-ranked Special in the Supernova may use its effect. When a Supernova is played, that player immediately Docks and, if necessary, skips his second draw. Supernova is the only play possible; ignore things like Earths, Flushes, etc. UNLESS you are determining which Supernova gets the +5 bonus; in this case, use the typical order as below.

The typical order of Best Arrays goes like this:
1. Supernova
2. Jupiter (5-of-a-kind)
3. Straight Suit Flush (sequence of 5 tiles in all the same suit)
4. Straight Color Flush (sequence of 5 tiles in all the same color)
5. Mars (4-of-a-kind)
6. Full House (Venus and Earth in the same array)
7. Eclipse
8. Suit-Flush
9. Color-Flush
10. Straight (five sequenced tiles of various suits/colors)
11. Earth (3-of-a-kind)
12. Gemini (2 Different-ranked Venuses)
13. Venus (pair)
14. High Tile

Any time there is a question of which is the better when two identical scoring arrays are vying for the Best Array (like if two players have an Earth), settle the argument this way:
1) Who has the least number of wilds? (3-Wild-Wild-1-4 would lose to 3-3-W-1-4)
2) Outside of the scoring array, what player’s other tiles in the docked array are highest (3-3-3-2-1 would lose to 3-3-3-4-2).
3) As a last resort, go to the highest-tile in Spare Parts.
4) If NO conclusive best-Array can be determined, each player gets +3 points.

Scoring points is done this way: take the ranks of the Scoring Array and add them together. That’s it. For example, the Earth play up there in 2) of the tie-break rules would score as 9 points (3+3+3). DO NOT USE THE TILES NOT IN THE SCORING ARRAY FOR POINTS.

THE PORT-OF-CALL ROUND:
After scoring and determining the Best Array in the fourth Exploration Round, players then draw 7 new tiles from the Asteroid Belt and compete once more for the Best Array. This is called the “Port of Call” round.

In the Port-of-Call:
NO SPECIALS Tiles’ abilities trigger.
NO Suit’s intrinsic abilities don’t trigger.
NO RULES CARD: Nothing counts as a wild, no flag/ally, and typical order for Arrays is in effect.

The best Array in the Port of Call earns +10 bonus points in addition to its typical score.

At the end of the port-of-call, the player with the highest score wins the game.