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Terraforming Mars rules

Corporations racing to terraform Mars.

Players
1–5
Time
about 2 hours
Ages
12+
Goal
Run a corporation terraforming Mars. When temperature, oxygen and oceans are all maxed, the game ends and the most Victory Points wins.

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How to play Terraforming Mars

Setup

  1. Give someone the first-player marker (e.g. whoever won last time), and put the generation marker on 1.
  2. Each player picks a colour and takes its markers and a player board. Put every player's TR marker on 20 and each production track on 1, all other resources at 0.
  3. Corporate Era (optional, not for first games) starts everyone at 0 production and adds cards marked with its icon; standard games remove those cards from both decks.
  4. Set temperature to −30°C, oxygen to 0%, oceans to none.
  5. Decks & supply: shuffle the project cards into a deck beside the board, leaving room for a discard pile. Put the resource cubes and remaining tiles where everyone can reach them.
  6. First game: take a Beginner Corporation — 42 M€ and all 10 starting cards free.
  7. Otherwise: secretly pick 1 of 2 dealt Corporations and which of 10 dealt cards to keep. Reveal your corporation, take its starting M€/production, then pay 3 M€ per card kept; discard the rest face down (unchosen corporations go back in the box).
  8. Solo: always use Corporate Era. Start at TR 14 with 0 production except what your corporation gives.
  9. Solo neutral tiles: before picking your cards, reveal and discard the top 4 deck cards. City 1: count the 1st card's cost in land spaces from the top-left, left-to-right then row by row (skip illegal spaces).
  10. City 2: count the 2nd card's cost the same way, but backwards from the bottom-right.
  11. Solo neutral greeneries: using the 3rd and 4th cards' costs, count that many spaces clockwise around each city from its top-left neighbour (skip illegal spaces) to place its greenery. Neither city nor greenery raises oxygen, and neither is yours.
  12. Solo game length: skip Milestones/Awards and play exactly 14 generations. After gen 14 you may still convert plants to greeneries for VP (still no oxygen gain), but you must have finished terraforming by then or you lose.

Each generation

  1. Player order: the first-player marker moves one seat clockwise and the generation marker moves up 1 (skip in generation 1).
  2. Research: draw 4 cards; buy any at 3 M€ each (skip in generation 1).
  3. Actions: clockwise, take 1 or 2 actions a turn until everyone has passed. Taking no action is passing.
  4. Production: energy becomes heat; gain M€ equal to TR + M€ production, plus every other resource you produce.

Actions you can take

On your turn, take 1 or 2 of these (or pass for the rest of the generation):

Steel pays 2 M€ toward Building-tag cards, titanium 3 M€ toward Space-tag cards.

Terraforming

Placing tiles

Example: Your city has three greeneries around it, two yours and one an opponent's. The city scores you 3 VP; each greenery also scores 1 VP for its owner.

Game end & scoring

Once all three parameters are maxed, finish the generation, then everyone may convert plants one last time.

Early on, production is worth more than points: it pays out every generation.

Expansion rules

Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.

Prelude Prelude

Every player gets a fast start from two Prelude cards, played before the game proper begins.

  1. Setup: shuffle the 7 new project cards into the project deck and the 5 new corporations into the corporation deck. The 35 Prelude cards form their own deck.
  2. Setup: deal 4 Prelude cards to each player, who keeps 2 (free) when choosing their corporation and cards.
  3. Setup: once corporations are played and cards paid for, each player in turn plays their 2 Preludes and discards the others.

Venus Next Venus Next

Venus adds a fourth track, floaters and a Solar Phase after Production. Venus gives TR but isn't an end condition in multiplayer.

  1. Setup: shuffle the new cards and corporations into their decks before dealing. Put the Venus board beside the main board with the marker on 0%. Put the Hoverlord tile over the Milestones headline and the Venuphile tile over the Awards headline.
  2. Solar Phase: if temperature, oxygen and oceans are all maxed, the game ends. Otherwise the first player, as the World Government, raises one parameter a step, with no TR.

Colonies Colonies

Settle moons and planets with colonies and visit them with trade fleets for resources.

  1. Setup: shuffle the new project cards and corporations into their decks. Draw Colony Tiles equal to the players plus 2, except 5 in a 2-player game (solo: draw 4, keep 3, and start with M€ production 2 steps lower). Put them beside the board.
  2. Setup: put a white cube on the highlighted second step of each track. Titan, Enceladus and Miranda start on the moon picture instead, closed until a card in play can collect their resource.
  3. Setup: place the Trade Fleets Tile beside the board; each player puts one trade fleet on it.
  4. Build a colony: a 17 M€ Standard Project.
  5. Trade: an action costing 9 M€, 3 energy or 3 titanium; move your fleet to a free Colony Tile.
  6. Solar Phase: fleets come home and each white marker moves up a step.

Turmoil Turmoil

Send delegates into six parties; the leading party rules each generation, and a Global Event hits everyone.

  1. Setup: put the Terraforming Committee and Global Event boards beside the main board. Pile the six Policy tiles on the committee board, Greens on top and ruling. Shuffle the 16 new project cards into the project deck and the 5 new corporations into the corporation deck.
  2. Setup: each player puts one delegate in the Lobby and six in their reserve. A neutral delegate takes the Chairman seat; the other neutrals go to the Neutral Reserve.
  3. Setup: turn up the Coming Global Event and put a neutral Party Leader in the party at its top left, which becomes Dominant. Turn up the Distant Global Event and add a neutral delegate to its top-left party.

The Turmoil phase Turmoil

The last step of the Solar Phase. It isn't performed when the game ends.

  1. TR revision: everyone loses 1 TR.
  2. Global Event: resolve the Current Global Event, adjusted by influence.
  3. New Government: the Dominant party becomes ruling; its leader becomes Chairman (+1 TR).
  4. Changing times: each Global Event moves along one place and a new Distant event is turned up.

The ruling Policy tile is active only during the Action phase.

Hellas & Elysium maps Hellas & Elysium

Two alternate boards.

Prelude 2 Prelude 2

More corporations, Prelude cards and project cards.

Milestones & Awards Milestones & Awards

Replaces the printed Milestones and Awards.

Turmoil at game end Turmoil

All Terraforming Mars rules (89)

General

Clarification

Variant

Scoring

Prelude expansion

Venus Next expansion

Colonies expansion

Turmoil expansion

Hellas & Elysium expansion

Prelude 2 expansion

Milestones & Awards expansion

Expansions covered

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