Designers: Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison, Max Anderson

Artist: Lunar Saloon (Alex & Meg Griendling)

Publisher: IV Studios

Genre/Mechanisms: action point allowance system, deck building, hand management, partnerships, trading

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Moonrakers is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 7x the initial funding goal with 7 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: high

What It’s About:  Negotiate alliances, hire your crew, build ships, and fulfill contracts in this competitive, space-themed deck builder.

How It Works: In Moonrakers, players are part of a loose band of space mercenaries, competing to become the group’s new leader. Players begin the deck building game with the same hand of 10 starting cards: 2 Damage 1 Cards, 3 Reactor cards, 2 Shields cards, 2 Thrusters cards, and 1 Miss card. Like most deck builders, players shuffle their decks, draw a certain number of cards (in this case, 5), and the remaining cards become their draw deck. Whenever their draw deck runs out, players shuffle their discard pile to form a new draw deck. Players also begin the game with 2 Credits and 2 Objective Cards. The first player to 10 Prestige Points wins the game; Prestige Points are accumulated by completing Contracts and fulfilling Objective Cards.

Players take turns in the role of Mission Leader. Each round is comprised of the Planning, Execution, and Buying Phases. During the Planning Phase, the the Mission Leader will either Choose a Contract or elect to Stay at Base. If they Stay at Base, they’ll 1) draw 2 Objective Cards, keeping 1, 2) collect 1 Credit, 3) Discard their Active Hand of 5 cards and redraw to 5, 4) Skip the Execution Phase, and 5) if they so wish, discard 1 Contract Card and replace it with the one from the top of the Contract Deck. If, however, they Choose a Contract, they’ll select one from the 8 face-up Contract Cards. They’ll analyze the requirements printed on the bottom left of the Contract Card and compare it with their current hand; decide which of the 3 rewards on the card benefits them the most, and weight the risk of the Hazard Dice. If the Mission Leader doesn’t think they can fulfill the contract alone, the can form alliances with other players, offering some share of the rewards.

The Execution Phase involves rolling the Hazard Dice and trying to complete the Contract using Action Cards. Upon completing it, players will receive some combination (depending on what was negotiated) of Prestige Points, Credits and Bonus Cards. Any players involved in attempting the Contact discard all cards from their hands to their discard pile, as well as the cards they played during the round. Then, during the Buying Phase, the Mission Leader (and only the Mission Leader) may use their credits to buy as many Ship Parts and Crew Cards from the Armory as they so choose. The Mission Leader then passes to the next player for the following round.

Again, the first player to gain 10 Prestige Points wins, with ties broken by the player with the higher overall value of Ship Parts, Crew, and Credits.

Comparisons: Thematically there’s a bit of Galaxy Trucker present, but the gameplay functions more like The Resistance (with players taking turns as mission leader, and choosing from players who may or may not want to help them) but with a central deck-building mechanic.

What Should I Pledge?:
$55 Moonrakers Base Game: also includes the Moonrakers graphic novel.
$65 Kickstarter Exclusive Edition: the Base Game, the graphic novel, the Kickstarter Exclusive Box, and the First Encounter Exclusive Expansion.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
The KS Exclusive Box and First Encounter Exclusive Expansion.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $65 for the KS Exclusive Edition plus $14 in shipping for a total of $79.

Moonrakers completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, October 1st and tentatively ships in July 2020 .