The time we thought would never come in our lifetime is upon us...
The sun is prime to explode and we need to find a way to escape our demise? But how? Like MacGyyer, we need to use what is around us. A junkyard is full of parts and our best shot is to assemble a number of spaceship parts to create our own unique transport to find a new planet to inhabit. Paper Street Comics bring you their second project:
Objective: To make the best space ship before the sun explodes. You need to assemble a minimum of a front, middle and end. The ship which is complete and is the most magnificent (is worth the most points) wins the game.
Gameplay: Game play is simplistic, yet engaging. You select the number of "Solar Flare" cards dependent on the number of players and mix them with the rest of the deck and form a junkyard pile. Each player selects three "ship parts cards." If you are to pick up an "action card" or "solar flare card" during the initial draw, place them to the side until everyone has collected three ship cards. Once everyone has three initial ship pieces, shuffle any other cards drawn and mix them into the junkyard pile. You then go in order selecting cards, trying to assemble the best ship. You match your cards based on color or shape as shown below:
Notice I have a Back, Middle and Front, which is the minimum required to assemble a ship and for scoring. Also, notice that my front ships symbol doesn't match the middle X shape by color or shape, but is legal because Stars are wild. But you will have the chance to make a much more elaborate ship with connectors, changing the length and width. Each front, back card and connectors are worth 10-points and each middle card is worth 5-points. The game ends when all solar flare cards have been picked. Can you create your ship before the sun explodes?
Thoughts: There is quite a bit of variability where you can add more or less solar flare cards to change the length of the game. You can also change up the scoring to provide extra bonus points for matching multiple colors together.
Solar Flare is a basic card drafting game, simple to play, easy to teach and suitable for all ages. It is easy to transport, fits in your pocket and takes 10-30 minutes to play. It's available right now on Kickstarter.
It works to be a great introductory game for young and new gamers' alike as a stepping stone to something like Galaxy Trucker, which has similar mechanisms but more complex.
