Copyright (C) 1991 by Ken Cox. Distributed as Freeware. Permission is given to copy, modify, and distribute this material freely provided this notice is retained. This file lists the "new" (non-Eon, non-Mayfair) hexes in hex.ps, and gives some possible ways to play the hex. Not all these ideas have been playtested. WARPISH: This is the hex with five planets orbiting a Space Warp. You may use this hex when you have the Warpish Power. The hex has been introduced largely to prevent the occasional problem where tokens IN the Warp drift ONTO Warpish planet bases and vice-versa. (Of course, sometimes that's half the fun....) SPACE STATIONS: This is the hex with a central planet and six space stations connected to the planet by skyhooks. At the start of the game, place two tokens on each space station and the remaining eight on the central planet. Each station and the central planet counts as a separate planet for game purposes, and you lose the use of your Alien Power if you have tokens on less than three of them. During play, each station may have at most two tokens on it. A station may be challenged with more than two offensive tokens, but if the offensive player wins you select two of the tokens to arrive on the space station and the rest return to bases. No player (including yourself) may add tokens to a space station that already has two tokens. Whenever you attack or defend your central planet, you may count all of your tokens on the space stations toward your total as if they were your allies; however, you do not get ally rewards for these tokens, and they are not affected by the challenge outcome. In addition, provided you have a base on your central planet, before the start of each challenge you may rearrange your tokens freely among the central planet and those space stations where you have bases. You are subject only to the rule that you not add tokens to a station that already has two tokens. Comment: The central planet is very strong defensively. The stations are weaker, but the offensive player will generally not invite allies (and even if he does, they probably won't accept) so the situation is not that bad. LUNACY: This is the hex with a central planet and five crescent moons. [ Variant: Two planets and six moons. ] At the start of the game draw five Moons at random and place them on the crescents. Do not use Moon Boon, Moon Wraith, or any other Moon whose effect causes it to be moved. Place your tokens as you wish on the central planet and Moons. [ With the variant hex, draw six Moons and place tokens as you wish. ] The central planet and each Moon count as a planet for game purposes, and you lose the use of your Alien Power if you have tokens on less than three of them. [ With the variant hex, if you have tokens on less than four of them; OR, if you have no tokens on the two planets -- decide which before starting play. ] Your Moons are treated as regular Moons except for the following: 1) Bases on your Moons count as planet bases for a win, and for the use of Powers (e.g. the Plant), Flares, Edicts, etc.; 2) No Moon-related effects (Sanity, Vanish Moon, Moon Win, Wild Disease "discard a Moon", etc.) apply to your Moons; 3) All your Moons are treated as Secret; their effects do not occur until the occupying player OR YOU reveal them. Thereafter they are treated as Continuing Moons (their effect can be used only once per challenge), except that if you re-occupy a Moon you may conceal it again without its effect occuring. 4) Moons that say "discard after use" are not discarded when used, but the effect cannot be used again during the game. Note on rule 3: Only you or a player who actually occupies a Moon can invoke its effect. Thus, you can keep tokens on (for example) the Null Moon without problems, but if another player takes over the Moon you can reveal it and he suffers from the effect. You may re-take the Moon without losing your power (per the rule, you may conceal it upon re-occupying it). Also note that your Moons are challenged and occupied as Moons; i.e., no alliances are allowed in the challenge, you do not play a card to defend the Moon if it is unoccupied, any player who flips your color may challenge any other player on one of your Moons, occupancy cannot be granted in a deal, and so on. If you are playing with Moons, you get the appropriate number of additional Moons which are treated according to the Moon rules. Comment: We haven't actually tried this one. The above version of the rules is based on playtesting reported by another group, and I'm not sure I got all the details right. SINGULARITY: This is the hex with five planets and a trumpet-shaped Singularity. The Singularity is divided into ten levels. The disc- shaped portion of the Singularity has no effect on play. Set up by arranging your tokens as you wish on your planets. You lose the use of your Alien Power if you have tokens on less than three planets. Whenever a planet or Moon in your system is the target of a challenge, any tokens other than your own that are lost in the challenge go to the Singularity instead of the Warp (this includes Zombie tokens!). Your own tokens go to the Warp. The number of tokens lost determines where the tokens are placed. If one token is lost, it is placed in the level labeled 1, if two are lost they go in the level labeled 2, and so on; if five or more are lost, they go in the level labeled 5+. At the start of each player's turn all tokens in the top level (labelled 0) of the Singularity are released and go to the Warp (Zombie tokens return to bases). Tokens in the lower levels each move up one level (toward the level 0). Note that some levels are not labelled. [ Variants: do the move only when your color is flipped; do the move at the start of each challenge; tokens at the top level return to bases instead of the Warp. ] As part of a deal you may move a player's tokens up any number of levels in the Singularity, or release them to the Warp (but not to bases). Mobius Tubes and Warpbreak do not affect the Singularity. Warp-related powers such as the Healer and Zombie do not apply to tokens lost to the Singularity; tokens adhering to the Fungus continue to adhere in the Singularity. Comment: We (and other groups) have tried this with a few variants, and the above seems appropriate. Releasing tokens to bases, or moving them up once per challenge, cuts back on the fear factor; the idea is that the system should act like a short-term Void and people would be reluctant to commit a lot of tokens to the attack. ISOLATED: This is the hex with five planets whose background depicts only a few scattered galaxies. Set up with four tokens on each planet. You lose the use of your Alien Power if you have tokens on less than three planets. Whenever a challenge is made against a planet or Moon in your system, players other than yourself are restricted in placing tokens into the Cone. The main player may put at most two of his tokens into the Cone; an ally (on either side) may put at most one. You may place tokens in the Cone normally. This restriction applies to ALL placement of tokens in the Cone, including Amoebic oozing, Super Parasite, etc. In addition, whenever other players must return tokens to bases from the Cone or Warp, at most one token per player may return to a base in your system. All other tokens must if possible return to bases outside your system. Only if a player has no bases outside your system may he return more than one token to your planets. Comment: The idea is that he's WAY out there and everyone else has a great deal of trouble getting there. Defensively it's very good; also, the bases that other players get in the system are very weak and can't be reinforced rapidly, making them prime Assassin-Bully-Wrack fodder. RINGWORLD: This is the hex with a central sun encircled by a Ringworld. The Ringworld is divided into ten segments, delineated by the light-dark alternations and the dotted lines. The inner ring of shadow squares is not used for game purposes. [ Variant: the Ringworld may be divided into any even number of segments by changing a print option. Rule suggestions are not provided for these variants. ] Set up by placing two tokens on each of the ten segments of the Ringworld. Each of the segments counts as a separate planet for game purposes; you retain your Power as long as you have any tokens on the Ringworld. When you return tokens to bases, if you have a base on the Ringworld you may place tokens on any Ringworld segment, even if you have no base on that segment. This ability does not apply to other players' tokens. Whenever you are defending any segment, immediately after the Cone is pointed at the segment you may move tokens between that segment and the two adjacent segments. You may remove any or all of your tokens from the challenged segment to the adjacent segments, or you may add more tokens to the challenged segment from the adjacent segments (even if you had none there to begin with). You may also remove some tokens and add others, e.g. if you are the Fungus and your tokens have different values. Tokens belonging to other players may not move from segment to segment; each separate segment counts as a different base for other players. Comment: Combines some aspects of Space Dust (ability to return anywhere, lose power only if you lose all bases) with some of Gas Giant (the ability to choose, in a limited fashion, the number of tokens that will defend).