Asteroid Mining

by Allan Stagg 1998

SCENARIO

Players control five robot miners in the asteroid belt, surveying a number of asteroids and laying claim to the mineral wealth they contain.

SET-UP

Each player assigns Wealth and Size points to four asteroids. The size of the asteroids must be 0, 1, 2 and 3. Each player has 20 Wealth points to distribute between the asteroids. The Wealth of an individual asteroid can be any number between 1 and 9, but it must be divisible by the size of the asteroid (unless the asteroid is size 0). Examples of legal set-ups would be 9/3, 6/2, 3/1, 2/0 or 8/0, 8/2, 3/3, 1/1. The GM puts all of the asteroids in a random order, and assigns an ID to each (e.g. A,B,C,D,E etc)

ASTEROIDS

The Wealth of an asteroid expresses the quantity of useable minerals it possesses, and thus how much it will score for any player who claims it. The Size of the asteroid determines how many players can own it, and share its Wealth. A 9/3 asteroid would score 3 to each owner if it was owned by three different players, but would score 9 if owned by just one player.

An asteroid with a Size of 0 is inherently unstable, and will explode if a miner lands on it. This will destroy the miner.

ACTIONS

On each turn, a miner can perform one of six actions: Scan, Probe, Land, Claim, Register or Evict. The result of each action is as follows:

Scan will tell the miner's owner the Size of a given asteroid, and evidence of other miners on the asteroid.

Probe will tell the miner's owner the Wealth of a given asteroid.

Land instructs that miner to attempt to land on a given asteroid. This will succeed as long as the asteroid has not been claimed or registered, and the number of miners attempting to land, plus the number already on the asteroid do not exceed the Size of the asteroid. If this is the case, those miners attempting to land in this turn do not succeed. All miners landing on a Size 0 asteroid are destroyed, as is the asteroid.

Claim instructs the miner that is already on an asteroid to seize and defend the asteroid. This can only be done if there are no other miners on the asteroid. Ownership of the asteroid passes to the player controlling the miner, but that miner becomes inactive and cannot be given any further orders for the rest of the game.

Register instructs the miner to register ownership of the asteroid it has landed on with the GM (Galactic Mines). This will succeed if that particular miner is still on the asteroid at the end of the turn, although ownership will be shared with any other miners who are on the asteroid at the end of the turn, including miners that have landed during the turn.

Evict A player may order a miner to evict another player's miner from an asteroid if it has not been Claimed in this turn or registered in a previous turn. Unfortunately this destroys the miner doing the evicting. The evicted miner returns to space.

Restrictions on Actions

Land and Evict can only be performed by miners in space.

Claim and Register can only be carried out by miners that have Landed on an asteroid.

Scan and Probe can be carried out by all miners, but those on an asteroid will take off and end their turn in Space.

Order of Actions

Actions are processed in the following order:

Claim, Evict, Land, Register, Probe, Scan. Similar actions by different miners are processed simultaneously. Claim and Evict take the miners performing them out of the game.

PROCESSING

Players submit orders for each of their miners (e.g. miner 1 Scan A, miner 2 Land C, miner 3 Register D, miner 4 evict Player 7's miner from H).

Players are told of the results of their individual actions. The game report lists any asteroids that have been claimed or registered in this turn, and gives the wealth of each player and the number of active miners each possesses.

WINNING

The first player whose wealth reaches a total set by the GM at the start of the game wins. This total shall normally be 2 plus (the number of achievable Wealth points divided by the number of players).

If two or more players reach or pass the total in the same turn, the player with the greatest wealth at the end of the turn wins. If two or more players have the same wealth, the game is won by the player with the greatest number of active miners. If there is still no clear winner, the player with the smallest number of asteroids wins. If that does not produce a winner, I would be tempted to call it a draw!

If it is evident to the GM that no player will achieve the total required, the GM may halt the game and declare the leading player as the winner. Alternatively, the game may be declared a draw.