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First Things First

If you haven't done so already, read the story line.  It will give you necessary background information for understanding the goal of the game.  In the story, key terms related to game-play are highlighted in yellow.

Playing the Game

Players and Factions

StarForce: 2193 is a turn-based strategy card game for 1 to 5 players.  There are 5 factions to choose from: SFC, Earth, Atakcia, ExoFaun, and the Consortium.  Each player selects one faction to play, but if you have less than 5 people, one or more people may select more than one faction, or the computer AI can play the other factions.

The factions are grouped into two "loose" teams.  SFC and Earth are "the good guys", and Atakcia, ExoFaun and the Consortium are "the bad guys".  The teams are considered "loose" because they do not necessarily win or lose together, and do not have to help each other.  But they have the same basic goals: ExoFaun and the Consortium want to use Luminite Worms, and SFC and Earth want to stop them.  (Atakcia is basically in it for themselves, but they do depend on the Consortium for Luminite.)

Resources

Each faction has 4 to 6 resources.*  Each faction starts the game with a certain amount of each resource, and gains more on each turn.  There are 6 resource types, each corresponding to an asset type (see The Playing Cards below).  Different factions can have different names for a resource that corresponds to the same asset type.

Resources are utilized by many of the missions.

* The Consortium has 5 resources, because they do not have Military Offense assets.  ExoFaun has only 4, because they do not have Military Offense or Tactical Defense assets.  The other factions each have 6 resources.

The Playing Cards

It's a card game (sort-of), so you always have cards in your hand.  There are 4 types of cards: Locations, Situations, Characters, and Assets.

Location cards represent a place where a mission may take place.  This can be your own location, the location of another faction, or an alien planet (see Alien Planets below).

Situation cards represent a condition that currently applies to you in the game.  For example, if Earth is at war with Atakcia, then both factions will have the corresponding Situation card in their hand.  SFC and Earth can see each other's Situations, as can ExoFaun and the Consortium.

Character cards represent the "heroes" of your faction.

Asset cards represent material assets that your faction currently possesses.  There are 6 asset types: Diplomatic, Beaurocratic, Economic, Military Offense, Tactical Defense, and Scientific.  Within each type, regular asset cards come in 4 levels.  There are also some special asset cards that don't fall into a level.

Situation, Character, and Asset cards increase (or in some Situations, decrease) your resources on each turn.

Character and Asset cards, when played to missions, increase the odds of the mission's success.

Each faction starts the game with 1 Character card, 3 Asset cards, and a certain number of Location cards (different for each faction) in their hand.

Alien Planets

Alien Planets are a particular type of Location Card.  They represent the other inhabited worlds with which your faction has made contact.  There are 50 Alien Planets in the game, including planet EG9-571, the planet mentioned in the story line.   The other 49 planets are named randomly at the start of the game.

Each Alien Planet has 6 numerical attributes, determined at random at the start of the game:

  • planetary infrastructure, ranging from 20 to 400.
  • civilization development, ranging from 1 to 20.
  • defensive strength, ranging from 1 to 20.
  • diplomatic affinity for Earth, ranging from 1 to 20.
  • diplomatic affinity for Atakcia, ranging from 1 to 20.
  • Luminite deposits, ranging from 1000 to 20,000.

They also have 2 status indicators:

  • Mining Operations, which can be "None", "Underway", or "Completed"
  • Civilization Status, which can be "Safe", "In Danger", "Rescued", or "Destroyed".

Each faction starts the game with a certain number of these Alien Location cards, and can gain more through missions.

Each faction shares the same 50 Alien Planets, and several factions may make contact with the same one.

Earth is an exception.  Earth cannot have any Alien Location cards, since the SFC handles all of Earth's extraterestrial exploration.

Missions

Missions are how you progress the game to achieve your goals.  Each mission has certain requirements.

All missions require a specific location card, representing the location in which the mission takes place.

All missions have 4 card slots for character and asset cards.  In general, you can play 0 to 2 character cards, and 0 to 4 asset cards to any mission, meaning all 4 slots are optional.  However, some missions may require you to play a character card, or may require one or more specific cards be played.

Some missions require you to have a certain amount of a particular resource, which may or may not be deducted from you upon mission completion, depending on the specific mission.

There are 6 types of missions.  Each type corresponds to the asset type of the same name.  When playing an asset card to a mission, you may only play an asset card of the same type as the type of the mission.  For example, diplomatic missions only accept diplomatic assets.

On each turn you may start as many missions as you wish, provided you have the cards and resources they require.

Each mission has a certain duration, expressed in hours.  Each game turn is 1 hour.  When the duration has passed, the mission will complete, and you will reap the mission's rewards, depending on it's outcome.

When a mission completes, it's outcome is determined by a d20 roll.  (That's one roll of a 20-sided die, or in this case, the server picks a random number from 1 to 20.)  When you are viewing a mission's details, the roll needed for success is displayed, along with the odds as a percentage.  For example, if your success roll is 15, you need 15 or higher for mission success.  Some missions also have a "critical success" outcome, which provides more rewards than a regular success.

The User Interface

The Play Screen

Clicking Play on the top navigation takes you to your starting point for playing.  This screen shows you your current subscription status, and has buttons to start a new game or join an existing one.  If you have recently disconnected from any game(s), those games will be shown on this screen.  If other players have invited you to join their game(s), this screen shows those games, too.  And finally, if you belong to any saved games on the server, your saved games also appear on this screen.

The Game Lobby

When you create or join a game, you are taken to the game lobby.  Everyone who joins the game gathers together in the lobby to choose their factions before starting the game.

[1]  The area at the top shows who is in the lobby, as well as other information about the game.

[2]  There is a chat window for the players to talk to each other.

[3]  Click a faction card to select the faction you wish to play.  (Click again to de-select.)  If there are less than 5 players, you may select more than one faction, but you cannot select both a blue faction and a purple faction.

[4]  When you are happy with your faction selections, indicate to your fellow players that you are ready to begin.  Your name turns green at the top of the screen.

[5]  When all players are ready, and all 5 factions are selected, the person who created the game may start it.  There is a 10 second countdown, then all players are transported to the game screen.

[6]  The person who created the game also has other game controls, such as renaming the game, inviting others to join, kicking disconnected users from the game, and making the game public or private.  (Public games are available for anyone to join.  A private game may only be joined by people you invite.)

The Game Screen

This screen is where all game play takes place.

Normal View:

Expanded View:

[1]  The top of the screen shows the same information as it does in the game lobby, except here, the players are listed by faction.  A faction that has not started its turn is displayed in amber, a faction that is currently playing is displayed in white, and a faction that has finished its turn is displayed in green.  If a player is in the game lobby for some reason, they are displayed in reverse.  A disconnected player, or a player who chose to leave the game, is displayed in red.

The top of the game area shows [2] your current resources, [3] the chat window, and [4] the name of the faction you are currently playing (especially useful if you are playing more than one faction).

[5]  The left area shows the cards in your hand, as well as the deck browser and your Espionage Log.

[6]  The deck browser shows you all cards left in your deck (not in your hand)

[7]   Your Espionage Log shows you what you have learned from any espionage missions you have done.

[8]  The right area shows your missions (available, in-progress, and completed), and [9] the details of your selected mission.

[10]  The left and right areas scroll up and down independently.

[11]  Click this to expand your view of the left and right areas to fill your browser window.

[12]  Click this to cancel expanded view, and return to the top of the game screen.

To play a card to your selected mission, select a card-slot icon [13] on the right, then select a card on the left.  Or select a card on the left, then select a card-slot icon on the right.  The card played to the selected mission turns blue [14] on the left side.  To remove the card from the mission, click the blue card.

[15]  When you're done filling card slots for the mission, you may start the mission.  The "available missions" area then reloads from the server, and the cards you played to the mission turn very dark to indicate they are no longer in your hand.  (They will return to your hand when the mission completes, unless indicated otherwise in the mission details.)

NOTE:  Do not be concerned if the game screen reloads itself every now and then.  This is by design.

Winning The Game   (or losing it)

There are 12 victory conditions which will end the game:

Notes

*.  If SFC's governmental support and private sector support are both 0 at start of turn, SFC is out of the game. The game continues without them.

*.  At any time in the game, ExoFaun may be diplomatically pressured into "switching sides", after which ExoFaun works for SFC and Earth, and cannot switch back.

Diplomatic Victories

1.  If Atakcia is convinced to shut down the Consortium, game ends in combined victory for SFC and Earth.

2.  If the Consortium is convinced to stop the Worm-Refining project, game ends in combined victory for SFC, Earth and Atakcia.

3.  If the Consortium is convinced to stop the Worm-Refining project, and ExoFaun switched sides, game ends in combined victory for SFC, Earth and ExoFaun.

Military Victories

4.  If Atakcia's planetary infrastructure is 0 at start of turn, game ends in combined victory for SFC and Earth.

5.  If Earth's planetary infrastructure is 0 at start of turn, game ends in combined victory for Atakcia and Consortium.

Economic Victories

6.  If Consortium's governmental support and economic power are both 0 at start of turn, game ends in combined victory for SFC and Earth.

7.  If ExoFaun's governmental support and economic power are both 0 at start of turn, game ends in combined victory for SFC, Earth and Atakcia.

8.  If Luminite Worm-mining operations destroy 10 alien civilizations, game ends in combined victory for ExoFaun and Consortium.

9.  If Luminite Worm-mining operations destroy 10 alien civilizations, and ExoFaun switched sides, game ends in sole victory for Consortium.

10.  If Luminite Worm-mining operations complete on 20 alien planets, game ends in combined victory for ExoFaun and Consortium.

11.  If Luminite Worm-mining operations complete on 20 alien planets, and ExoFaun switched sides, game ends in sole victory for Consortium.

12.  If the Consortium has 0 Supply of Luminite Worms (in hand or dealt to in-progress missions) and 0 planets have mining Underway at start of turn, and ExoFaun Switched Sides, game ends in combined victory for SFC, Earth and ExoFaun.

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