Karman Swap - Rules and Gameplay

Karman Swap presents itself as a scientific odyssey encapsulated within a strategy and exploration board game intended for two to four participants. This title shares its thematic universe with the previously released game, Seiders Exodus. The core objective assigned by the Empire requires players to actively explore uncharted celestial bodies, integrate novel species into new biomes, and diligently work toward balancing biological ecosystems. Throughout the game, actions involve deploying creature cards for the purpose of terraforming or utilizing ship cards to initiate fresh explorations, thereby activating potent chain reactions across the board. Every committed action advances the team along one of two primary progression metrics: either accumulating sufficient prestige or successfully attaining a state of perfect scientific equilibrium.

The game is optimally designed for four players operating in two opposing teams of two, although viable variants exist for two or three players, which are detailed later. A complete match is determined by securing two round victories, and each round offers three distinct pathways to claim success. The flow of play alternates between teams until one of these conditions is met, setting the stage for intense strategic maneuvering.

Victory can be achieved through a rapid colonization race, where a team's dome marker is the first to reach the fourth planet on the colonization counter. Alternatively, a tug-of-war mechanic involving the neutral blue dome dictates that the dome shifts toward the side that wins the contest, with the first side to pull it completely across securing the round. Should neither of these conditions materialize by the round's conclusion, the team possessing the greatest accumulation of prestige points claims the victory.

The main game board features planets situated on either side, each containing three to six colored slots corresponding to the creature card types that can be placed there, accompanied by associated point values for each slot. Along the edges of these planets, extinction symbols illustrate the direction of predation. Specifically, blue creatures prey upon red ones, red upon green, and green creatures consume blue ones, establishing a closed predatory loop.

The cards themselves come in four primary colors. Blue signifies Decomposers, red denotes Carnivores, and green represents Herbivores—these three colors form the basis of the creature ecosystem. The fourth color, violet, is reserved exclusively for ship cards. Furthermore, every card possesses a numerical value ranging from zero to eight and frequently includes a unique special ability that influences gameplay.

At the center of the playing area resides a card market zone. A critical rule involves the market: the creature card color that is most heavily represented in this market becomes the designated trump suit, which holds the power to resolve any ties encountered during extinction checks.

A round proceeds through turns taken by opposing teams facing each other diagonally. Players commence the round holding eight cards in hand, while the market displays four cards. The starting player has the option to exchange up to two cards from their hand with their designated teammate, who may reciprocate with the same number of cards. The subsequent player repeats this exchange process before the main action phase of the round commences.

During a player's turn, four distinct actions are available for execution. These include placing a creature card onto an active planet, playing a ship card to advance exploration goals, introducing a new planet to the board if conditions allow, or electing to pass the turn to the next player in sequence.

When choosing to place a creature, the player selects a card from their hand and places it onto an available slot of the matching color on an active planet. If the creature's value is greater than that of a creature already present that falls within its predation zone—for instance, a Red card exceeding the value of a Green card—an extinction event is triggered. The lower-value prey card is immediately removed from the planet and relocated to the central market.

And if neither of the two victory conditions is met, it is simply the team with the most prestige points that wins.

The Research Gems accumulated can be converted at any time; specifically, three Research Gems yield one Discovery Gem. This Discovery Gem, shared by the team, grants three prestige points at the end of the round. Alternatively, it can be spent when playing a creature or ship card to immediately increase its power level by one point for that play.

Playing a ship card is the mechanism for exploring the galaxy and discovering new planets. This action is only permitted if at least one creature card is already present on the planet intended for colonization. Upon placement, the ship card is positioned around the planet, initiating a colonization phase. The initiating player places two exploration triangles: one marking their origin and the second placed at the center of the target planet, thereby preventing further creature plays on that location.

Following successful colonization, the exploration triangles are returned to the reserve, and the winning team's dome advances one step on the colonization track; reaching the fourth step results in an immediate round victory. A dome marker matching the winning team's color is placed on the colonized planet, signifying that no further creatures can be deployed there. Prestige points are subsequently scored based on the cumulative points of creatures present, plus the power of all supporting ships, excluding the winning colonization ship.

After the colonization phase concludes, an exploration step follows, initiated by the first player of the team that lost the colonization contest. This player selects one of the visible planets and places it adjacent to one of the winning ship's exploration arrows. That player and their teammate then draw one card from the market and subsequently place a creature card on the newly active planet, applying its effects, or they may pass if unable to play.

A player may choose to introduce a new planet to the game if any ship card still possesses an available exploration arrow. This involves placing the new planet and immediately deploying a creature card onto it, activating that card's effects. The final available action is passing the turn; doing so allows the player to either exchange two cards from their hand for one card from the market or discard one card from their hand into the market before the turn moves to the next player.

Turns continue in sequence until one team achieves an objective, thereby winning the round. If neither victory condition is met, the round ends when a player exhausts their hand or the planet deck becomes depleted. At this point, the team with the highest total prestige points wins the round, and the game proceeds to the next round, remembering that each Discovery Gem held is worth three prestige points.

The rules detailed previously apply specifically to four-player matches. In two and three-player variants, participants play individually rather than in teams, and the initial card exchange between teammates is omitted at the start of each round. For the three-player mode, the main board is flipped to its alternate side; players start with ten cards and six in the market, and victory becomes a race on both colonization and extinction tracks, where an extinction can either advance the player's dome or push an opponent's dome back one step.

The two-player variant utilizes the four-player board configuration. Participants begin with eleven cards in hand and fourteen cards forming a pyramid-shaped market structure. This market features a base of five cards, with alternating visible and hidden rows. Players can claim any face-up card, and once a hidden card is uncovered, it is flipped face-up. For tie-breaking purposes, only uncovered cards count toward the market trump suit, while all other rules remain consistent with the standard game.

The gameplay demonstration illustrates the four-player setup, featuring the Red team and the Green team positioned diagonally across from each other. Every player has drawn eight cards, and four cards have been randomly placed into the central market. The turn order begins with the player situated in the bottom-left position, who initiates the round by deciding on potential card exchanges with their teammate before proceeding to the main action phase.

The first player selects one of the visible planets, places it into play, and then deploys a creature card onto it, activating that card's inherent ability. In this example, playing a Red creature triggers its ability, allowing the player to immediately place a second creature onto another planet. A Blue creature, valued at eight, is then played, which successfully preys upon the existing Red creature because the Blue type consumes Red, and the Blue value exceeds the Red value.

And here, the blues can eat the reds, and the value of the blue is higher than the value of the red. This latter one is destroyed.

The destroyed Red card moves to the market, causing the Red color to become the most represented, thus establishing Red as the current trump suit. The blue dome advances one step toward the Red team's side, and the acting player collects five Research Gems. Three of these Research Gems are immediately converted into one Discovery Gem, concluding the player's turn.

The next player, belonging to the Green team, decides to play a ship card, which is placed around the planet. This ship's ability permits an exchange of one planet card with one market card. Following this, the player places a new creature, causing Blue cards to prey upon the remaining Red cards due to the superior value of the newly introduced Blue creature, resulting in another extinction and the advancement of the blue dome toward the Red team's side.

Since the Red team played the most powerful ship, the Green team concedes the colonization. The Green team earns prestige points based on the creatures and supporting ships remaining on the planet, totaling ten prestige points. The colonization dome advances one step for the Green team on the exploration track. The contested ship card is moved to the market, and a Green dome marker is placed on the planet, locking it from further creature deployment.

The subsequent exploration phase sees the first player of the losing team place a new planet and draw cards. A creature is immediately played, followed by another player placing a new planet using a ship that still has an available exploration arrow. This player then transfers an existing creature from one planet to another. The demonstration continues by showing a player spending accumulated gems to boost a Red creature's value from six to seven, leveraging the Red trump suit status to resolve a tie against an opposing creature.

Further chaining occurs as the boosted creature's ability allows the player to play another card, followed by playing a fifth Blue creature, which is boosted using gems to an effective value of eight, leading to the extinction of a competing creature. This sequence results in another dome advancement toward the Red team's side and the acquisition of more gems. The demonstration concludes by showing the final action of playing a ship card to initiate a new colonization contest, emphasizing that turns continue until one of the primary round-ending conditions is met.