Description

The year is 2137. The crew and equipment of the Time-Space Research Station, Chronomega One, have been emergency-ejected into outer space. You play one of the surviving scientists who must collect pieces of floating research tech and combine them into Electromagnetic-, Gravity-, and Time-bending tools to help bring Chronomega One back under control. You have no idea which member of the crew is responsible for the emergency protocol lock-down and crew ejection, so you can’t trust any of them!

The player's goal is to collect a full set of the three types of Computer cards (all values 1, 2, 3) to unlock the Station Key Code, and reach the central Computer portal of the station first (and in advanced play, before the station explodes).

The game utilizes a rotating space station board and transparent hexagonal tech cards that represent the four 'suits' of the game, Electromag, Gravity, Chrono, and Computer. The players get three actions each turn to move about the board or play cards. They'll want to collect the floating tech cards during their turn and utilize them for different effects. All the tech cards consist of one of the four suits and are valued 1-3.

If a player encounters another player on the board, they'll utilize their tech cards to engage in a showdown. This consists of each player bidding one of their tech cards. The bids are then revealed and winner determined based on the tech suit played. Certain types of tech defeat others: Electro defeats Grav, Grav defeats Chrono, Chrono defeats Electro. If two types of the same suit are played, higher values defeat lower. All suits defeat Computer, unless their values match (e.g. Grav 3 vs Computer 3), in which case the Computer suit player wins. The winner takes the card that was bid and may push the opposing player 3 spaces (if in outer space), or up or down one level of the space station (including out into an airlock).

All tech cards have a basic function they may be played for as an action, such as move an extra space or to force another player to discard cards. Two transparent tech cards also may be combined and over-layed to activate a catalytic effect, which grants different powers based on the combined card's values and suits. If a full three-part set of tech cards are collected of the same suit (values 1, 2, and 3 of a single suit) they form a POD. These grant the most significant abilities in the game. The more powerful card effects require the player to be standing upon an appropriate research portal to use, either one of the permanent portals within the rotating space station or from a floating portal out in space that they cobbled together from another high-value tech card of the same suit.

The space station itself is surrounded by trapped airlocks which make simply entering the station a risky endeavor. While inside, every time a player ends a turn within the space station their ring level rotates 90 degrees, lining up different portals and pathways with the inter-level Grav chutes. Furthermore, other players may cobble together Electro catalyzers from floating tech cards to try and teleport players into other areas of the station, spend Grav tech to pull cards away from other players, or utilize Chrono tech cards to cause the addition or loss of turns and actions.

Once a player with a full hand of Computer cards reaches the inner Computer Portal of the station, they deactivate Chronomega One’s self-destruct sequence and win the game.