Galaxy Trucker Rules en
Galaxy Trucker Rules en
Don’t Panic! Or, you know what, go ahead. Panic. Either way, we’d like you to
know that you can learn to play just by reading the first half of this rulebook.
In fact, we’ve designed it so you can learn to play while you are reading.
By the time you finish page 5, you’ll be able to set up the game. And when
you finish page 8, you’ll build your first space ship. Then we’ll explain how
to fly through space, and you can begin your first galactic adventure! As
you play, consult pages 12 and 13 when you run into an adventure card,
and you’ll be done with your first flight by the time you reach page 15.
So really, there’s nothing to panic about until you reach your
first meteor swarm, and by then it will be too late.
BITS AND PIECES
FOR YOUR FIRST FLIGHT
rockets
These represent your
8 level I adventure
flight board marked space ship in flight,
ship boards cards marked
L is for Learning, not Llama. even though they could
Here is where you’ll build Again, not designed for
This game has no boards never be as beautiful.
a beautiful space ship. llamas. You should find
designed specifically these all together at
for llamas. the top of the deck.
+
+
+
Plasma drills. If you want to Storage compartments. Not just tool sheds, these
build a sewer system, you need are space tool sheds. Please use red
25 to start by digging some holes compartments for substances that should be kept
+
planets?
Shield generators. These keep
Central housing units. The core settlements safe from stray
of the colony. Aliens say they’re meteors, cosmic rays, and minor
3
BUILDING YOUR FIRST SHIP
SETUP
For your first game, use the game board marked with an . 6
1 (It’s a learning flight.)
Dump out all the tiles in the middle of the table where everyone
2 can reach them. These are space ship components.
• Turn all components face down.
• Mix the components so no one knows what
any of them are. 2
Each player takes a ship board and folds it so they
3 can use the level I side.
Each player chooses a color and takes the rockets and
4 starting cabin in that color. Your starting cabin goes in the
center of your ship board.
5
5 One rocket goes on your ship board. 4
The other rocket goes on the parking lot on the flight
6 board.
When everyone is ready, the boldest player says “Go!”.
Everyone begins building simultaneously according to
the rules on this page.
3
HOW TO BUILD
1 Using only one hand, take one tile.
1 2
Note that all players are building simultaneously, as fast as they can, all grabbing from the same pile
of tiles. As they build, they will return some components, and these will be face up. The components
you take can be face up or face down, but you must take them one at a time. If you take a face-down
component, you must bring it all the way to your board before you reveal it. Under no circumstances
should players be flipping over multiple components in the middle of the table.
4
WELDING CONNECTORS
Each component added to your ship must be placed on an empty
square next to a component that is already part of your ship. It
1 must join to your ship using one of the three types of connectors:
universal connector
one-pipe two-pipe
connector connector
Any type of connector will join with another of the same type. A one-
pipe connector cannot be adjacent to a two-pipe connector.
5
COMPONENTS
Cabins Cannons
You always start with one cabin, Cannons can point in any
which is called (for obvious direction, but they are most
reasons) your starting cabin. effective when they point
Additional cabins allow you to have forward (away from the player).
a bigger crew, so you want to have No component can sit on the square in front of the
as many cabins as possible. cannon’s barrel.
6
Battery components Cargo Holds
Energy for double engines and double Cargo holds come with 2 or
cannons is stored in size E batteries. 3 containers. You can put them
(The “E” is for “E-normous.”) anywhere. They can be used to store
the goods that you find along the way.
A battery component will have 2 or
Of course, goods translate into
3 batteries. Each battery stores
profits, which is what trucking is all
enough energy to power one use of a
about, so you want as many cargo
double engine, a double cannon, or a
holds as possible.
shield. Batteries can be anywhere on
the ship; they do not have to be next to the component
they are powering. Special Cargo Holds
Red goods are hazardous materials
With matter-annihilation technology, it was possible
which can only be transported in
to store this much energy in a battery no larger than
these special cargo holds. These
a golf ball. Today, of course, such batteries are illegal
holds have only 1 or 2 containers, but
thanks to the lobbying efforts of matter rights activists,
they are heavily reinforced and (as far
who received heavy support from the Fatally Confused
as we know) radiation-proof. Meeting
Golfers’ Memorial Fund.
maximum safety requirements, these
To get the most from your ship, you’ll need double containers can hold any type of
cannons and double engines, which means you will goods. They are “special” because
want as many batteries as possible. they are the only containers that can also hold red
goods.
Shield Generators
Shields are there for when things go Of course there are thousands of horror stories
wrong. They can deflect smaller illustrating why hazardous goods should not be
meteors and some hits from enemy transported in normal containers. We give only the
cannons. They get their power from example of James “Skip” Fairweather, who decided to
batteries. transport several tons of plutonium in used fruit crates.
Upon landing, he lost both arms and one leg to a mob
One shield generator can protect the ship on two of angry environmentalists.
sides. It works from any place on the ship. All that
matters is which way it is oriented. Hazardous goods are the most valuable, so it is
important to have a lot of special cargo holds.
Now you are probably expecting us to say you want
as many as possible. Of course not. You only need Structural Modules
two shield generators, provided they are oriented to Structural modules don’t seem very
cover all four directions. In fact, if you are gutsy (or important because they don’t do
suicidal) you can fly without any shields at all. anything. However, they have a lot of
connectors, many of them universal.
Structural modules can make your
ship more durable so that it doesn’t fly apart the first
time it gets hit by something.
7
POP QUIZ!
Now that you know all the ship-building rules, you should be able
to find 7 things wrong with the ship illustrated here.
Exposed connectors are allowed, but they increase Whenever players are supposed to do something “in
the risk of damage to your ship and in some cases order” that means the order shown by their rockets on
they can slow it down. The ends of exposed pipes the flight board. Some adventures are harsher toward
get warped in transit, so Corporation Incorporated players who are in front, but if you have a decent ship,
pays a bonus for ships that arrive with few exposed being in front is usually better. So it’s not enough to
connectors. build a perfect space ship with lots of everything and
no exposed connectors. You want to be the first.
5
2
5 6
7
3
4
1 2 3
If Yellow loses 3 flight days, he will end up in the space just in front of Red.
You can protect your ship from ou can protect your ship
Y
small meteors by building it well from light cannon fire with
(they bounce off smooth sides) a properly oriented shield
or by using a properly oriented shield (which will cost you 1 battery
(which will cost you 1 battery token). token).
If a component of your ship is hit (because you can’t Lost components (whether they were destroyed or
or won’t protect it) it is destroyed and the tile must be fell off) are placed in your discard pile – in the marked
removed. This might cause some other components area in the upper right corner of your ship board.
to become disconnected and fall off – remove them When you reach your destination, you will have to
from your ship as well. If your ship is broken into forfeit 1 cosmic credit for each component lost along
multiple pieces, you decide which piece you will pilot the way. Any playing pieces (crew, battery tokens,
to your destination and the other pieces fall off. goods) on lost components are returned to the bank.
GAINING CREDITS
If a card gives you cosmic credits, take them from the bank. You can keep them in a stack so no one
knows how many you have. It’s none of their business anyway.
10
GAINING GOODS PARAMETERS
When a card enables you to load
goods onto your ship, take the
OF YOUR SHIP
Sometimes you have to count up
indicated colored blocks from the
the strength of your engines or
bank and place them in your cargo
cannons.
containers. (Each cargo hold has
1 to 3 containers.) Each container Double engines and double
can only hold 1 block. Excess cannons need batteries. Each time
goods have to be dumped into you have to calculate the strength
space (returned to the bank). The of your engines or cannons, you
price list will help you decide what to keep and what must decide which double engines
to dump. or cannons you will use. Spent
batteries are returned to the bank.
Red blocks are the most valuable,
but they are hazardous materials Engine Strength
and must be kept in the special red
containers. If you don’t have enough
+1 +2 Each single engine counts as 1.
A large meteor is, of course, even more A complete example of the learning flight’s Combat
dangerous. It will damage even a well-built Zone is on page 14.
ship, and shields cannot stop it. Your only
hope is to blast it. You can only shoot it if STARDUST
you have a cannon pointed at it in the same Yellow cards are special events. In your
column. If it is a double cannon, you will learning flight, the only special event is
have to pay 1 battery token to use it. Large Stardust. Every player loses 1 flight day for
meteors tend to come from in front of you, which is why every exposed connector. (Each exposed
we recommended you pay special attention to cannons connector only counts once, regardless
pointing forward. of whether it is one pipe, two pipes, or
If you don’t shoot a large meteor, the component it hits universal.) In reverse order, starting with the last player,
is destroyed. each player counts exposed connectors and moves
back that many empty spaces.
13
EXAMPLE: SMUGGLERS EXAMPLE: COMBAT ZONE
Red, Green, and Blue are trucking Green and Yellow are trucking
across the Galaxy in that order. They across the Galaxy in that order,
run into smugglers with strength 4. minding their own business, when
they run into this combat zone.
First, Green and Yellow compare crew.
Because Yellow has more, Green moves
back 3 flight days. This puts Yellow in the lead.
Green is next in line. By paying 2 battery tokens, Green can have engine strength 1, 3, or 5, depending
she has strength 4 ½. This is enough to defeat the on whether she spends 0, 1, or 2 battery tokens.
smugglers and take 2 of their goods. (She discards Yellow is now ahead, so if they are tied for
the blue block because she can’t fit it on her ship.) strength, Yellow will have to pay the penalty
She also moves her ship back 1 empty space. and Green will not. Green decides to spend
1 battery token. Yellow loses 2 crew.
Finally, they compare cannon strength. Again, they are
tied, and again it is Yellow who gets shot by cannon fire.
First, he rolls for the light cannon fire. Yellow rolls
5 and 2, that’s 7. He has no shield, so the engine in
column 7 is destroyed. Yellow puts it on his discard pile.
For the heavy cannon fire, he rolls 1 and 4. That’s
a miss – there is no component in column 5.
(If rolling 7 again, yellow’s starting cabin
Blue is lucky to have been flying last. He can’t
would be destroyed, which would also
make his strength go higher than 3, so he
cause the right engine to fall off).
would have lost his blue block and 1 battery
token. As it is, the Smugglers are defeated Anyway, the Combat zone is evaluated. Green hands the
and the adventure does not affect him. adventure deck to Yellow, who reveals the next card.
14
JOURNEY’S END
Your flight is over once all 8 adventure cards have been dealt with. Now it’s time to deliver your sewer pipes!
The flight board depicts the rewards and penalties you receive at the end of your flight.
This shows how many credits you get for completing Return all your goods to the bank, and take the
the flight. The player who is farthest ahead gets the number of cosmic credits indicated by the price list.
most credits, second gets second most, and so on.
Losses
Award for Best-Looking Ship Now you have to deliver the
This award goes to the player who finishes components of your ship to
with the best-looking ship. Count up the Corporation Incorporated. For each
number of exposed connectors on your component you lost along the way, you lose
ships. (Each exposed connector counts only once, 1 cosmic credit. (When you lost components, you
regardless of whether it is one pipe, two pipes, or placed them in a discard pile on your space ship
universal.) Whoever has the fewest exposed board, so it is easy to keep track of how many you
connectors gets the indicated credits. If there is a tie, lost.)
all tied players receive the award.
WINNING
Add up all your cosmic credits. If that number is 1 or
more, you win!
WHAT NEXT?
Once you have completed your first flight, you'll they can build ships that are better prepared for the
know the basics of galaxy trucking and you'll be specific adventures they will face. And they get alien
ready to start your professional trucking career. sidekicks! (If they can figure out how to hook up the
Professional truckers drive bigger ships and face life support systems.) To start your professional
bigger challenges. They get a route forecast so trucking career, just turn the page.
15
ADDITIONAL SHIP-BUILDING RULES
Congratulations on completing your first flight! We assume you made it all the way to the end because the
alternative – losing your ship – hasn’t been explained yet. In fact, there are several things we haven’t explained,
but now that you’ve completed your learning flight, we think you’re ready for them.
Level I is good for teaching the game to new players. It’s also the
quickest flight. Level III offers the full Galaxy Trucker challenge, and
it takes the most time. Level II, of course, is somewhere in between.
Flight Forecast
The 3 piles at the bottom of the flight board are Corp Inc’s flight forecast. Once you have added at least one
component to your ship, you can look at any pile. You can’t add components while you are looking at cards.
When you return the pile, you can resume building or look through another one. You can look at these cards
as often as you like, until you finish your ship. Keep in mind, however, that picking up a pile welds your most
recent component to your ship, just like picking up a new tile does.
16
THE TIMER
Start the timer on this space of the flight board. The player who starts the
timer should simultaneously say, “Go!”
Flip the timer to the next space. Any player may do this once
time has run out. If no one wants to flip the timer, players just
keep building until someone decides to flip it or until everyone
is done. Different boards have different numbers of flips. (On a
level I board, you skip this step and go straight to the last flip.)
Flip the timer to the last space. This can be done only
by a player who has finished building (and only after
time has run out on the previous flip).
FINISHING BUILDING
You may finish building at any time. To finish building,
place your rocket on one of the starting spaces that
no one else has taken yet. (You are allowed to choose
any empty starting space, except one with a number
higher than the number of players in the game.
However, most truckers want to start as close to the
front as they can.)
Once the timer runs out on the last space, the player
who flipped it should say, “Stop!” Everyone who
was still building must immediately stop and take
a starting space, with the best space going to the
player whose rocket reaches it first.
RESERVING COMPONENTS
While building, you can
reserve up to 2 components.
These go in the upper right
corner of your ship board. No
one can take these from you,
and you can add them to your ship at any time during
building. When you add one, you have room to reserve
a new component, but you can never have more than
SPOT CHECK two in reserve at once. You cannot return a reserved
After building, check each other’s ships. If your ship component to the table.
breaks one or more ship-building rules, remove
components until it is no longer in violation. Place If a component is reserved but not added to your ship,
these components (including any that fall off on you leave it on your board as the beginning of your
the launch pad) in your discard pile. They count as discard pile. It counts against you at the end of the
components lost along the way. flight as a component lost along the way.
If a mistake is not discovered until the ship is in flight, No one cares that the components are still lying there
the offender must immediately correct the mistake at the launch site, nor that this junk is only worth a
as described above and pay the bank 1 cosmic credit fraction of the penalty Corp Inc charges you for losing
for violating the laws of physics. it. A contract is a contract.
17
ALIENS
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS ALIEN ABILITIES
So what are those funny components Aliens are crew members and are counted as such
that we refused to explain earlier? in a Combat Zone or an Abandoned Station. You can
They are life support systems for send them away on an Abandoned Ship or give them
aliens. up to Slavers (see facing page).
In order for the life support system The disadvantage of taking an alien on board is that
to have any effect, it must be joined it takes up the space of two humans. But, of course,
to a cabin. This makes the cabin there are some advantages.
inhabitable by aliens of the corresponding color.
Purple aliens are a war-like species. If you have a
However, you cannot put an alien in your starting
purple alien, you get +2 to cannon strength. (If your
cabin. (They say the paint smells funny.)
cannon strength without the alien is 0, you don’t get
Human crew members wear space suits, so they can this bonus. It’s not going to fight a space battle with
go in any cabin, even if it has an alien life support its bare tentacles.)
system attached.
Brown aliens are good mechanics. If you have a
brown alien, you get +2 to engine strength. (If your
PLACING THE CREW engine strength without the alien is 0, you don’t get
Crew figures are placed according to the following this bonus. It’s not going to get out and push.)
rules:
• The starting cabin gets 2 humans. (Neither of these
is “you”. But they will be your close roommates on
a long voyage, so after a while you might start
thinking they are you.)
• A cabin that is not joined to a life support system
gets 2 humans.
• A cabin joined to a life support system gets
2 humans or 1 alien of the corresponding color.
• A cabin joined to one life support system of each
color gets either 2 humans or 1 purple alien or
1 brown alien.
• Your board can have no more than 1 alien of each
color.
SUPPORT SYSTEM HITS
If your ship loses a life support system and this leaves
an alien in a cabin that can no longer support it, return
the alien to the bank. (It leaves in an emergency
escape pod, of course.)
18
ADDITIONAL ADVENTURE CARDS
STRAY BIG METEORS Light cannon fire can only be stopped by a shield
oriented in the correct direction and powered by a
Meteors can come at your
battery. Heavy cannon fire cannot be stopped. (See
ship from the left, the
Hits to your ship on page 10.)
right, or even the rear!
Large meteors coming Note: When counting engine or cannon strength, you
from in front of you can can voluntarily decide to not use a battery even if you
be blown up only by a have one. However, your regular engines or cannons
forward-pointing cannon and the aliens are used automatically, you cannot
in the column from which decide to not use them to have lower strength.
they are approaching, but
large meteors from the side or the rear can MORE SPECIAL EVENTS
be blown up by a cannon pointing toward the Epidemic makes you remove
meteor in the same or adjacent row or column. 1 crew member (human or alien)
A reminder is printed on the flight board. from every occupied cabin that is
joined to another occupied cabin.
Most spacecraft are protected from meteors by
The safe thing to do is to build
autotargeting gun turrets, self-guided missiles, or
your ship so that no two cabins are
disintegration fields. Yours is protected by cannons
joined. If you do have joined
made from sewer drills.
cabins, maybe you can find an
adventure that will allow you to
ADVANCED ENEMIES empty one of them before the epidemic strikes.
On your flight, you may also encounter Pirates and Sabotage destroys a random
Slavers. When you defeat them, you don’t gain goods component on the ship with the
– you gain cold, hard cosmic credits. Move your ship smallest crew. (Among multiple
back the indicated number of empty spaces and take ships tied for smallest crew, only
the credits from the bank. If you don’t want to lose the one far thest ahead is
flight days, you can choose not to take the credits (or sabotaged.) To select the
goods in the case of Smugglers) and leave your ship component, the affected player
where it is. Either way, no other player may collect the rolls 2 dice to determine the
reward once the enemy has been defeated. column and then 2 dice to
If the Slavers defeat you, they force determine the row. If there is no component at those
you to give up some of your crew. coordinates, roll again for new coordinates. If there
You choose which humans or is no component there, roll again. If three sets of
aliens to surrender in exchange for coordinates are rolled without hitting a component,
your own freedom. the saboteurs give up and nothing happens.
If the saboteurs destroy a component, it goes to your
discard pile, as do any others that fall off as a result.
A hit to the center of the ship can be devastating.
FINISHING ALONE
If only one player is left after everyone else has given
up, that player tries to finish alone. In this case, ignore
the Combat Zone and Sabotage adventures (which
penalize the player with the fewest engines, cannons,
or crew members).
20
So you’ve flown through a few meteor swarms. And about trucks blowing up, and you will start the next
defeated a few pirates. Maybe you even slipped through flight at zero credits.)
a combat zone completely unscathed. Well, there’s one In addition to the usual ways to earn credits, you can
challenge you haven’t seen yet – the ultimate test of also profit from your reputation. In the first flight, you
skill, speed, and courage – we’re talking about the will establish a name for yourself, and then you can try
Transgalactic Trek. to build on that reputation during the next two flights.
In the Transgalactic Trek you will fly three flights –
level I, level II, and level III. For each flight, you will The Transgalactic Trek has a
build a new ship. Credits you earn on one flight carry long tradition that starts in the
over to the next, and you will accumulate more and future. To learn its secret origins,
more wealth as you fly across the Galaxy. check out the campaign in the
Galaxy Trucker app. (It’s also
(Of course, success is not guaranteed. For example,
great for playing Galaxy Trucker
you may have to give up on a flight. But even then, you
with your friends and with new
get to come back and build a ship for the next one.
truckers you’ll meet online.)
And if you somehow lose all your money, your debts
www.galaxytrucker.game
will be covered by random strangers who like stories
Tip: Battery components do not count, but it’s good to Count the number of components your ship
have enough to power all your cool stuff. has.
Hint: It’s usually simpler to count the number of empty
Xenoquartermaster spaces and see who has the least … unless the flight
Aliens like to fly with you, because you know was especially harsh.
what aliens like – privacy.
For each alien on your ship, add up its Corridorist
walking distance to the nearest cabin. You are a nonconformist – unconventional,
The nearest cabin is the one it could get to in the fewest avant-garde. Some say you’re crazy, building
steps, walking through the pipes. For example, a cabin ships with such long corridors. Some say you’re cool.
on an adjacent square is at distance 1, but only if it is Count your longest chain of corridor
joined. If not joined, it might not even be nearest. If the components. A corridor component is
alien must pass through an intervening component to one with only 1 or 2 connectors.
reach the nearest cabin, it is at distance 2. And so on. Tip: One way to get a long corridor is to build a long
Even an empty cabin could be nearest. tentacle, but it might be even better to build a looping
Tip: Ideally, you want two aliens very far away from each corridor that connects to the rest of your ship on both
other and far from other cabins. ends.
Players attempt to defend their titles as Anyone who successfully defends a gold
in the second flight. Anyone who title gets a double reward of 12 credits.
successfully defends a silver title gets
6 credits.
23
WINNING THE TREK
After the third flight, players reveal how many credits
they have. As always, players who finish with credits
can consider themselves to be winners. On top of
that, you can consider yourself to be a legendary
Whatever-Your-Title-Is if you successfully defended
the gold side of your title.
The player with the most credits is acknowledged
as the Ultimate Trucker. There are no tiebreakers.
There is enough room in the Galaxy for more than
one Ultimate Trucker.
Rough Roads Rough Roads can be added to any single flight, and
The game might be very harsh to new truckers; also to the Transgalactic Trek. Just follow this link
however, after few flights, you’ll get a handle on and then the instructions.
things and really learn how to build better ships. Ones
that usually make it to the finish line unscratched and
with big profit. Then you might get nostalgic and look
back at those funny beginnings, when meteors and
pirates could blast your ship to pieces, making you
drift slowly to the final destination with but a single
cabin component.
To take you back to these feelings, we proudly present
a free Rough Roads mini-expansion (available now,
only in a digital form).
This mini-expansion allows you to add one (or more)
Rough Road cards to your flights. These randomly
added cards not only give you new fresh challenges
– but you can bet that your ships will be falling apart
again, while tears of despair and joy return to your
cge.as/gterr
eyes.