RULEBOOKOFF TO STARCADIA!
A thousand years ago, citizens of The World launchedtheir first QTL-capable starship. Its Quicker-Than-Lightdrive instantly hurled it across the vast gulf between
the stars, and found itself orbiting a frigid, snowy world.
The crew scanned the snowball, and found: People!
Citizens of Baccahlanche welcomed the Worldians withcelebrations, bobsledding, and ice cream! (Lots and lotsof ice cream, which is pretty much the only food available
on Baccahlanche.) The Worldians introduced the woolly
Baccahlanchians to movies, hair brushes, and Taco
Tuesdays (a delicious, if somewhat odoriferous, weekly
celebration of the finest food ever invented).
The two civilizations became instant friends, andtogether founded the Starcadian Alliance, a loose

2

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

federation of planets allied for mutual defense,
assistance, and general goodwill. In time, their member
worlds expanded to include swampy Glomp, spectacular
Melodram, and the easily impressed people of Amazeonia. Today, from the wild Frontier to The World itself,
the Starcadian Alliance keeps the spaceways safe andstable, owing its thanks to the Navy, Marines, andExpeditionary Corps.
And all was right with the Galaxy!
… For a time.
Rising through the Navy’s ranks with a record-shatteringpromotion every week was the man who would shake theAlliance to its very core: Supreme Commander Thorne.

As an ensign, Thorne seized command of his ship tolead a Starcadian task force against the Scolan Armada.
The next week as a lieutenant, Thorne seized commandof his ship to capture the notorious Space Pirate Captain
Wet Willy. The next week as a lieutenant commander,
Thorne seized command of his ship to defeat theenormous planet-eating world of Paccusmaann. The
next week the Starcadians just gave him command of
the entire Navy, because things were getting ridiculous,and courts-martial for his various mutinies were simply
a waste of time. Thorne always got results, and his
extreme logic was unassailable.
Indeed, as Supreme Commander, Thorne kept the peace.
ALL the peace. ALL the time. There was much disorder inthe galaxy, disorder which only he, Supreme CommanderThorne, could anticipate and prevent. Supreme
Commander Thorne’s infallibility was in itself infallible.
In fact, if any fallibility existed, it was among his
imminently fallible subordinates. On rare occasion, one
might not reload their weapon precisely when ordered,or miss a shot at precisely the wrong time despite thevery best odds to hit their target.
Supreme Commander Thorne was not an unreasonable
man… actually scratch that, he’s insanely unreasonable,
but one can understand his frustration when a minion
has a 95% chance to eliminate an enemy and misses!
It’s as if the laws of probability themselves refused tostick to their averages! Can you imagine??

The Navy became a sleek, efficient machine, capable ofstopping any threat before it began! In fact, so efficientwere they that Supreme Commander Thorne foundhimself with plenty of time to spare, and began handingout his schedules to planetary governors and civilian
leaders across known space. So long as they followed
his instructions to the letter, peace and quiet would
reign, and all was right with the Galaxy!
… Well, not exactly.
Supreme Commander Thorne’s power and influence
grew and grew. Indeed, who could stop him? Heforesaw any resistance and squashed it immediately
with precision squashing. He countermanded changes
to his orders by the civilian government with extreme
logic and a flawless uniform. He even went so far as tocancel Taco Tuesdays, a disruptive ritual resulting inunanticipated odors and far too much laughter.
And that was the last straw!!
Even for those in the Navy, fully accustomed toprecision, timing, and a sense of extreme order, thislatest grand directive was too much. Taco Tuesdays
were a long-standing, vital backbone of Starcadianculture. Indeed, the entire Alliance had formed on thestrength of that tasty, hilarious day!
Supreme Commander Thorne was relieved of duty…
exactly as he had foreseen!

Supreme Commander Thorne imposed a series ofreforms in the Navy to reduce such inconsistencies
to zero. All officers would receive their tactical plans
direct from Supreme Commander Thorne. All crewmen
would go about their duties as ordered by Supreme
Commander Thorne’s master schedule, extended tocover time on-duty, off-duty, and even on shore leave.
Nothing was left to chance, from logistics trains to firecontrol calibrations, right down to how many times one
chewed their tacos and what flavor of ice cream theyshould order on leave. (Vanilla. Always. Chocolate andstrawberry are too unpredictable, obviously, and don’teven think about slurping it down quickly, or you’ll havea court-martial in addition to your ice cream headache.)Now, at the edge of known space, on the machine worldof Teklawn, Supreme Commander Thorne masses his
fleets to strike back at the very Alliance which casthim aside to bring them order and timing, all for theirown good, of course. A new Empire shall be formed,
with Supreme Commander Thorne at its head. His fleet
of precisely 1337 ships (a number not even the mostelite of strategists can fathom) will sweep aside theStarcadian Navy, and deal with their pesky Freelancers
according to a timetable of Supreme CommanderThorne’s personal design!

Such measures may have seemed harsh, overbearing,
micro-managing,
dictatorial,
dogmatic,
stuffy,oppressive, and even a teensey-tiny bit bossy. But they
got results, precisely as Supreme Commander Thorne
had foreseen.

We shall now indulge in megalomaniacal laughter for
precisely 5.42 seconds! Muahaha! Muahahaa!

Order shall come to the galaxy under his steely, glowing
red gaze!

MAUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

3

CONTENTS
OFF TO STARCADIA....................................... 2
GAME COMPONENTS...................................... 5
GAME OVERVIEW............................................. 7
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THORNE...................... 7
CREW SETUP.................................................. 8

THE MONSTERS◊ Monster Activation............................................... 20
Activated by an Event Card........................................ 20
Activated by a Guard Reaction.................................. 20
Activated by a Payback Reaction............................. 22◊ Monster Attack...................................................... 22◊ Monster and Monster Dashboard...................... 22
Anatomy of a Monster Card....................................... 22
Anatomy of the Monster Dashboard.......................23◊ Choosing Heroes......................................................8
Advanced: Drafting Heroes........................................... 8◊ Anatomy of a Hero...................................................9◊ Overkill.................................................................... 23◊ Starting Equipment..................................................9

QUESTS.......................................................... 24

SCENARIO SETUP.......................................... 10
THE GAME BOARD......................................... 13
THE PLAYER TURN....................................... 14◊ Hero Activation.......................................................15◊ Movement...............................................................15
Move.................................................................................... 15
Hatches............................................................................... 15
Portals................................................................................. 15
Doors................................................................................... 15
Full Spaces......................................................................... 16◊ Attack.......................................................................16
Select Weapon Upgrade............................................... 16
Select Boost Upgrade(s)............................................... 16
Confirm Target.................................................................. 16
Line of Sight...................................................................... 17
Exhaust Attack and Boost Upgrades.......................18
Attack Dice Pool...............................................................18
Defense Dice Pool...........................................................18
Rolling Dice........................................................................18
Attack Results...................................................................18
Special Effects.................................................................. 19
Kills and Rewards............................................................ 19◊ Rest...........................................................................19
Unexhaust Upgrades..................................................... 19
Reorganize Upgrades.................................................... 19
Resurrect Heroes............................................................ 19◊ Event Deck.............................................................. 20

Quest Rewards................................................................ 24
Scenario Rewards.......................................................... 24

VICTORY TOKENS......................................... 24
UPGRADE PHASE.......................................... 24◊ Upwards!................................................................ 25◊ Onwards!................................................................. 25

EXPLORATION TOKENS............................... 25◊ Gadgets................................................................... 26◊ Victory Tokens....................................................... 26◊ Quest Tokens.......................................................... 26

UPGRADES..................................................... 26◊ Anatomy of an Upgrade Token........................... 27◊ Weapons................................................................. 27◊ Boosts...................................................................... 28◊ Passives.................................................................. 28◊ Reactions................................................................ 28◊ Special Effects....................................................... 28
Extra Defense.................................................................. 28
Extra Life........................................................................... 28
Reroll Pool......................................................................... 28
Self Sacrifice.................................................................... 29
Huge Characters............................................................. 29
Daze.................................................................................... 29
Shove.................................................................................. 29

THE CAMPAIGN SHEET................................ 29◊ Campaign Finale.................................................... 30

OPTIONAL: EPISODIC MODE......................... 30

Drafting.............................................................................. 30

INDEX.............................................................. 31
CREDITS.......................................................... 31
RULES SUMMARY......................................... 32

4

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTGAME COMPONENTS
10 GAME TILES

4 SHUTTLES

1 RULEBOOK

1 MONSTERDASHBOARD

1 CAMPAIGNSHEET PAD

8 HERO CARDS

4 CREWDASHBOARDS

8 MONSTERCARDS

31 QUESTCARDS

30 EVENTCARDSSTARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

5

6 PORTAL
TOKENS

40 VICTORYTOKENS

30 WOUNDTOKENS

10 DOORTOKENS

8 HOVERBOARD
TOKENS

11 QUESTTOKENS

10 RECHARGETOKENS

12 STIMPACKTOKENS

30 FIGURES

99 UPGRADETOKENS

8 COUNTERBASES
8 HEROES

4 SCUTTLEBUTTS

4 WEEBLES

4 OCTOCOLDS

2 OCTOCRUELS

1 ICEHEART

4 PEEK-A-BOOMS

2 PEEK-A-ROUNDS

10 DICE

6

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

1 SUPREMECOMMANDER
THORNEGAME OVERVIEWCAMPAIGN
AGAINST THORNE

Starcadia Quest is a campaign game for 2 to 4 players,in which each player controls a Crew with two unique
Heroes, adventuring inside different space stations in aquest to defeat the Supreme Commander Thorne andhis army. But these Crews are not quite in league witheach other: they are bitter foes who compete against
each other even as they pursue the same goals!

In order to stop Supreme Commander Thorne fromassuming command, the Heroes will need to make their
way throughout the galaxy. As they progress, theydiminish the authority of the Supreme Commander,
while gaining more power themselves. Only after muchadventuring will they be ready to face the Supreme
Commander in the flesh.

The players will choose the path their campaign takes,
following the game’s branching campaign system. As
they navigate their way through the campaign, theplayers must choose which opportunities to pursue,
and which ones to leave behind—a decision that canhave serious consequences later in the campaign.

The Starcadia Quest campaign is unlike anything everseen before. It contains a total of 7 Scenarios. From
those, players will forge through a series of 4 Scenarios.
The first and the last Scenarios will always be the same,no matter the choices made. Once Scenario 1 is playedand conquered, the winner will be able choose between
Scenarios 2A or 2B. Similarly, Scenario 2A will lead to
Scenarios 3A or 3B, while Scenario 2B will lead to 3B or
3C. All campaigns end with the final showdown against
Thorne in Scenario 4!

In each Scenario, players pit their two Heroes against
the Heroes of the other players and the nasty Monsters
that swarm over the station. By fulfilling specific Quests
and killing their enemies, the Heroes will be able to findever-more-powerful items and weapons.

1
2A
3A

2B
3B

3C

4
STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

7

CREW SETUP
The first thing players starting a new Starcadia Quest
campaign need to do is to create their Crews. Players
get to choose from four different Crews: Yellow (Lion),
Blue (Eagle), Red (Fox) and Green (Panda). Each player
receives the Crew Dashboard and Shuttle for theirchosen Crew, which will help them organize their
Heroes and starting Upgrades.

CHOOSING HEROES
The players now have to carefully pick the 2 Heroes thatwill defend their Crew throughout the campaign. Having
the right team can be a decisive factor in the upcoming
adventures. The players look through the Hero cards
and each chooses 2 of them to form their Crew.
The players then place their Hero cards face up in the
Hero card slots of their Crew Dashboard (the orderdoes not matter). They also take the corresponding
figures for their Heroes and carefully attach them to thecounterbases in their Crew’s color to help identify them.
These are the 2 Heroes that will defend each Crew
through the entire campaign, it is not possible to change
Heroes unless a new campaign is started.

ADVANCED:
DRAFTING HEROES
Once players are more familiarized with thegame and each Hero’s capabilities, they may
want to pick their Heroes in a more structured
fashion. If all players agree, they can choose
their Starcadia Quest Heroes at the start of a
campaign by using the drafting method. Place
all Hero cards faceup at the center of the table.
Then, starting with the first player, players will
pick 1 Hero from the cards shown, in clockwiseorder until it reaches the last player. Once the last
player picks their first Hero, they pick anotherone and in counterclockwise order players will
pick their last hero in order to finish their crew.
Any remaining Hero cards are removed fromthe game and returned to the box.

8

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTANATOMY OF A HERO

A

B

C

Every Hero in Starcadia Quest is unique with different
traits and special abilities; players should take these
into consideration when picking their Heroes. The Herocards all display the following characteristics:
A. Defense - This tells you how many dice this Herocan roll for Defense to try to prevent an Attack frominflicting Wounds.
B. Life - This number indicates how many Wounds arenecessary to kill this Hero.
C. Name - This is the name of the Hero.
D. Ability - This is the Hero’s Natural Ability, a special
characteristic that truly sets them apart from everyoneelse. These Abilities are always in effect, following theparameters of their descriptive text.

D

STARTING EQUIPMENT
Before starting the campaign, each Crew receives 7
Upgrade tokens from the Starter Deck (see Upgrades on
page 26) as starting equipment: Pulse Blade, Repeater
Pistol, Blaster Rifle, Iron Fists, Red Dot Sight, Kitty
Primed and Red Shirt. Each player can distribute their 7
Upgrade tokens among their 2 Heroes in any way theychoose.
On the Crew Dashboard, each Hero has an inventoryof 6 Upgrade slots, located under their Hero card. Each

Hero can only use the tokens in their inventory, not thetokens of the entire Crew. Return any unused Upgrade
tokens to the game box.
Example: The player controlling the Red Crew has chosen
Edge and Hannah Lone as their Heroes. They decide togive their Pulse Blade, Iron Fists and Red Shirt to Edge,and their Repeater Pistol, Blaster Rifle, Kitty Primed, andRed Dot Sight to Hannah.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

9SCENARIO SETUP
Setup cards - The Setup Card in each Scenario instructs
players how many Game tiles, which Monsters, Doors,and other components will be used.
A

Tiles – There are 10 Game Tiles. Each depicts a specificroom of a space station on one side, and all tiles share
a common back. Randomly take the amount of Tiles
required by the Setup card, shuffle them facedown andplace them according to the Tile Placement diagram.
Make sure the positions of the Hatches on each Tile
match the layout of Hatches on the Quest Setup. If a
Tile's Hatches are not in the correct position, simply turnit 90 degrees in either direction.

B
C

G

D

H

E

F

ANATOMY OF A SETUP CARD
A - Scenario Title: The title of the Scenario.
B-S cenario Number: The order in which the Scenario
appears in the campaign.
C-T ile Placement: Indicates the amount of tiles andhow to position them. (Some tiles display the number
sideways to indicate that their orientation is different
from the others.)

Gadgets – There are 3 types of Gadgets that Heroes
can collect while exploring: Stimpack, Hoverboard, andRecharge tokens. Place the corresponding Gadgets inthe printed indications on the Tiles (if any).

D - Shuttle slot: Indicates the available positions for Shuttles.
E-R ules: This area lists any setup and special rules for
the Scenario.
F-O rder: Indicates quantity and order of Quest cards
that the Scenario is comprised of.
G - Monster Designation: Indicates both the Class of
Monster (Trooper, Officer, or Villain) and which specific
Rank position it occupies on the Monster Dashboard.
H - Monster Assignment: Indicates whether a specificor a random Monster of the indicated Class should
be added to the Monster Dashboard.

10

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

Victory Tokens – In addition
to Gadgets, some tiles may
also have printed indications
for Victory tokens. Place 1
Victory token in each.

Doors – Place Door tokens as indicated on the Setup
card. All Door tokens start with the “Closed” side up
unless otherwise specified.

OPEN DOOR

Event Deck – Shuffle all Event cards to create the Event
deck and place it facedown within reach of all players.

CLOSED DOOR

Portals - Portals of the same color connect different
Spaces enabling Characters to teleport between them,whether they're printed on the board or tokens (SeePortals on page 15). You will find 6 Portal tokens thatyou can set aside in the general reserve.

Monster Dashboard – The Monster Dashboard is usedin every Scenario to indicate which Monsters are being
used and list their relevant information.

Quest tokens - Most Scenarios request that one ormore Quest tokens are placed faceup on the board to
track progression on Quests. Take the requested Quest
tokens and place them in the indicated Spaces.

Common Area - Place in a common area near the gameboard, within reach of all players, the piles of Wound,
Quest, Portal, and Victory tokens as well as the dice.
Return any unused Door, Recharge, Stimpack, andHoverboard tokens to the game box.

Monsters – The back of each Setup Card lists the
Designation of Monsters that take part in the scenario.
Gather the requested Monster figures and place themin the Spaces indicated in the Rules portion of the
Setup card. Arrange the Monster cards in the Monster
Dashboard according to the indicated Designation.
Note that many Quests won't assign Monsters to all
spaces of this dashboard.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

11

Shuttles - Indicated in the Setup card are the 4 available
Shuttle slots. Beginning with the player who won thelast Scenario and going clockwise, each player chooses
1 of the available Shuttle slots to claim and places their
Shuttle there, with the 2 Heroes from their Crew placedin any of the Spaces on their Shuttle. When playing thefirst Scenario, randomly choose a player to start claiming
Shuttle slots. If there are fewer then 4 players on thegame, the remaining Shuttles are returned to the box.

Quest cards – Each Scenario has a set of PvE (Player
vs Environment) Quest cards that list the achievementsthat must be fulfilled in order to complete it. Take the PvEQuest cards associated with the Scenario and arrange
them in ascending order (Quest card 1, Quest card 2,etc) next to the game board, so all the players can see
them. Then, take the PvP (Player vs Player) Quest cards
related to the Crews that are being used and place themnear the PvE Quest cards.
Once all the setup has been executed, your gaming tableshould look like the picture below. You are now ready tostart your adventure!

PLAYER 1
STARTING AREA

PLAYER 3
STARTING AREA

12

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTPLAYER 4
STARTING AREA

PLAYER 2
STARTING AREA

THE GAME BOARD
Starcadia Quest is played on a game board consisting ofseveral tiles arranged randomly together according to
the Scenario's Setup Card. These Tiles represent various
rooms of a space station. Each Tile is divided into 16 equalSpaces, each with a dot marking its center. These Spaces
can be occupied by a maximum of 2 Characters each. A
Space without a central dot is considered a Blocked Space.
Some Spaces are divided by walls which block Movementand Line of Sight (see more on page 17). These blocking
elements are identified by solid gray shapes.

IMPORTANT TERMS
CHARACTER - A Hero or a Monster.
ALLY - For a Hero, this is another Hero of the same
Crew. For a Monster, this is any other Monster.
ENEMY - For a Hero, this is any Hero from adifferent Crew and any Monster. For a Monster,
this is any Hero.

• Spawn Points: These slots indicate the Spaces inwhich Monsters may appear.

The Game tiles also feature several other elements that
affect gameplay:• Gadget & Victory slots: These slots indicate where
players must place the corresponding Gadget andVictory tokens during Setup. There are slots for Stimpack
tokens ( ), Hoverboard tokens ( ), Recharge tokens( ), and Victory tokens ( ). For more information on
Gadgets and Victory tokens, see page 26.
• Portal Spaces: Portal Spaces are printed directly on
the Tiles and come in 3 colors. For more information
on Portals, see page 15.

Armory Slot: The Armory Tile, if present, comes with aslot for a specific Upgrade from the Armory Deck (seeUpgrades on page 26) to be placed during Setup. During
the game, if a Hero is standing in the same Space as theUpgrade, and there are no Enemies in that same Space,
the Hero may collect the Upgrade. Only one Upgrade
may be collected this way per Scenario.

• Computer Terminals: Each Tile has 1 Computer
Terminal printed on it. Various game effects may
interact with these (ie. Setup cards, Quest cards,
Event cards, etc). Unless stated otherwise, treat these
Spaces as normal Spaces.

• Hatch: Each tile has 4 printed Hatch spaces. Whentiles connect Hatch Spaces, an opening is created,allowing characters to Move and draw Line of Sight
normally through it. Hatches also allow Movementand Line of Sight when connected to Shuttles. Notehowever that when a Hatch Space is met by a Wall on
the other side, there is no opening between them.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

13

CLOSETHIS ISA HATCHTHIS ISA SPAWN
POINT

THIS ISA GADGETSLOTTHIS ISA BLOCKING
WALL

THIS ISA DECORATIVEELEMENT

Many rules and cards in the game refer tosomething being Close to something else.
To be Close to something means to be either
sharing the same Space, or to be on any of
the four orthogonal Spaces that share an openedge with it.
Spaces that are diagonal from it are not Close.
A Space that shares an edge that is blocked bya wall or a Closed Door is not Close.

THIS ISA COMPUTERTEMINAL

THIS ISA PORTAL

THE PLAYER TURN
A game of Starcadia Quest is played over a series ofPlayer Turns, in clockwise order. The first player takes
their turn, then the player to their left takes their turn,and so on. This sequence goes on uninterrupted until
the scenario is completed, ending that game.
The first player to take their turn at the start of a Scenario
is the one who won the last Scenario. For the very first
Scenario of a campaign, however, the first player ischosen randomly.
When a player takes their turn, they may do one of
two things:• ACTIVATE a Hero.
OR• REST their Crew.
Example: The green Spaces and any
characters in them are considered to be Close
to Digits, while the red Spaces are not.

14

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

Each turn, the player can only do one or the other, neverboth. After either activating a Hero of Resting theirCrew, the player must then draw the topmost cardfrom the Event deck and play it.

HERO ACTIVATION
The player chooses one of their Heroes to activate(activating the same Hero every turn is allowed). That Hero
is now considered “active” and may perform, in any order,
its Movement and one Attack. The Movement can’t beinterrupted by the Attack and then resumed afterwards,
it must be performed all at once either before or after the
Attack. The Hero may also choose to perform just its Attack
or just its Movement.
Note: If an ability allows a player to activate an extra
Hero during its turn, it must be used on a Hero that has
not yet been activated this turn.

•

MOVEMENT
All Heroes have 4 Movement points available to use
on each activation. By spending its available Movement
points, a Character is able to Move around the board.
The Character can spend 1 Movement point to:

immediately take his figure and teleport to any other Space
containing a Portal of the same color. If the destination
Space is Full (see Full Spaces on page 16) the portal canstill be used, but the Character must be able to end their
Movement in a free Space (a Space with at most 1 Characterin it). Using a Portal does not trigger a Guard Reaction froma Close Monster. If a Portal is deactivated, it cannot be usedas either the start or end point of a teleportation.
Doors
Door tokens can be flipped between their Closed or Openpositions by spending one Movement point. The Door mustbe at the edge of the Space occupied by the active Character.
Closed Doors work just like a wall, blocking Movement andLine of Sight. Open Doors create a passage between two
Spaces, allowing Movement and Line of Sight.
Example: Below we see Edge performing three possible
Movements:• Move one Space.
• Use a Portal.
• Open or close a Door at the edge of the Space it iscurrently occupying.
The Character doesn’t have to use all of its available
Movement points, but any remaining points do notcarry over to its next activation.
Move
Moving one Space means taking the active Characterfrom its current Space to one of the 4 Close spacesthat share an edge with it. Diagonal Movement is notallowed. If there is a wall or a closed door between
the Character and the Space they wish to enter, that
Movement is not possible.

A: 1 - Move one Space; 2 - Move one Space across anOpen Door; 3 - Use a Portal to go to a different part of theboard; 4 - Move one Space.
B: 1 - Move one Space; 2 - Flip a Door to its Open side;
3 - Move one Space across the now Open Door.

Hatches
Each room has 4 Hatches in its outer walls. Hatches
that line up against other Hatches connect the Tile toan adjacent Tile, allowing Characters to Move and draw
Line of Sight through them. When a Hatch meets a wall,
neither Movement or Line of Sight are allowed.
Portals
Portals allow Characters to teleport over large distances
very quickly during their Movement. A Character standing
in a Space that contains a Portal (whether printed on
the board or a token) can spend one Movement point to

C: 1 - Flip a Door to its Open side; 2 - Move one Space
across the now Open Door; 3 - Flip the door back closed.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

15

FULL SPACES
Each Space can contain a maximum of two
Characters at a time. A Space with up to one
Character in it is still considered to be free, andother Characters, Enemy or Allied, can enter itand shoot through it normally.

Select Boost Upgrade(s)Boost Upgrade tokens are used to increase the effectof a Weapon in different ways. The player chooses any
number of Unexhausted Boost Upgrades that matchthe type of the chosen Weapon to add up any benefits
they give. Boost Upgrades have a green background.

Full - A Space with two Characters in it isconsidered Full, and nobody else can end their
Movement in it. Characters can move through theFull Space, and Full Spaces do not block their Lineof Sight.

Example: Red will perform an Attack and decides to use
the Pulse Blade. To improve her chances, she decides touse her Iron Fists along with her Pulse Blade, which will
grant her an extra die.

Example: Edge (a Blue Crew Hero) is the active
Character. He can end his movement in any of
the green Spaces, but can’t end his Movementin the red Spaces (either because they’re Full or
because he can’t reach them with 4 Movement
points).

•ATTACKThe active Hero may attempt to Attack an Enemyof their choosing, be it a Monster or an Enemy Hero.
There are several different kinds of Attacks that Heroes
can obtain throughout the game, with a variety ofcapabilities and special effects. To perform an Attack,the player executes the following steps:
Select Weapon Upgrade
The player chooses one Unexhausted Weapon Upgrade
token located in the active Hero’s inventory to use. Thereare 3 types of Weapons: Melee, Ranged, andSpecial. Weapon Upgrades have a red background.

16

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTExample: If the only available Boost Red has is her Red
Dot Sight, she cannot choose to use it along with her Pulse
Blade because their types are not compatible.
Confirm Target
The player selects their target, making sure the Weapon
Upgrade they chose is able to reach it. There are twobasic types of Attack: Melee or Ranged. The type of an
Attack is indicated by the symbol on the token being
used to perform it.
Melee - A Melee Attack can only target
Enemies situated in a Space Close to the active
Character (see Close rules on page 14).
Ranged - A Ranged Attack can target Enemies
on any Space on the board, as long as theactive Character has a clear Line of Sight to it(see Line of Sight on page 17).

Line of Sight
When using Ranged attacks, it is necessary to check
whether or not the active Character has a clear Lineof Sight (LOS) to their target. A Ranged Attack has nolimitation in regards to distance - the only requirement
for it is that there be a free Line of Sight to the target(LOS to the same Space is always free).
To check LOS, draw an imaginary line from the centerof the active Character’s Space to the center of theirtarget’s Space. There is a clear LOS if this line is notinterrupted by any blocking element: a wall or a Closed
Door.

SPACE WITHOUTTHE CENTRAL DOT

Finally, LOS can never cross an area that is not part of theboard. If it ever leaves the Tiles, it is blocked.
Example: Hannah intends to use her Repeater Pistol tomake a Ranged Attack:

FULL SPACEDOESN'T
AFFECT LOS

LOS is not blocked if it only skims a blocking corner,
passing at an angle exactly through the intersection offour Spaces where only one side is blocked.

1 - She has LOS to Scuttlebutt through the open Hatch,even though it skims the edge of the opening.
2 - She has LOS to the Octocold in a straight line across theempty hallway. The distance is irrelevant.
3 - She has LOS to the Peek-a-boom through the corridor,
even though it skims the edge of the opening and crosses
a Full Space.
4 - She does not have LOS to Edge because the line
crosses a wall.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

17

Exhaust Attack and Boost Upgrades
Before resolving the Attack, the player must Exhaust
the Weapon Upgrade and any Boost Upgrades being
used by turning them all facedown, showing that they
have been used. An exhausted token cannot be used
to perform an Attack or boost an Attack again until it isUnexhausted.
Attack Dice Pool
The attacking player gathers a number of dice equal to
the number indicated on the Weapon Upgrade being
used. If they are using any bonuses granted by Boost
Upgrades, those extra dice are also added to the pool.
Defense Dice PoolIf the targeted Character has any Defense listed on theircard, the player controlling them gathers a number ofdice equal to that Character’s Defense. If a targeted
Hero possesses any Upgrades with extra Defense
icons, those dice are added as well.
Rolling Dice
Dice are rolled to determine the effectiveness of the Attackand Defense. Different symbols constitute a success on adie roll depending on the type of roll being made:
These symbols score a successful Hit
in a Melee Attack roll.
This symbol scores a successful Hit in a
Ranged Attack roll.
This symbol scores a successful Save in a
Defense roll.
This symbol is a CRIT, and always counts as a
success, no matter the type of roll.

Besides being a success itself, each CRIT result allows
an extra die to be rolled, adding its result to the total. If
that roll also results in a CRIT, another extra die is rolled,
and so on. In some cases, rolling a CRIT also activates a
special effect listed in the Upgrade tokens being used.
Example 1: Bahbaka rolls 3 dice for his Attack with a Pulse
Blade with no Boosts, getting,and. Since it’s aMelee Attack, that scores 2 misses and 1 Hit. He rolls an
extra die because of the CRIT and gets a, for a final
result of 2 Hits!
Example 2: Hannah rolls 2 dice for her Attack with a Repeater
Pistol with no Boosts, getting
and . Since it’s a Ranged
Attack, that scores 2 Hits. She rolls an extra die because of
the CRIT and gets another! That’s 1 more Hit and anotherextra die, which rolls a , which is a miss, for a total of 3 Hits.
Example 3: Edge is being attacked, he has 2 Defense, but
the Red Shirt Passive Upgrade in his inventory gives him+1 Defense and + 1 Reroll for a total of 3 Defense.
At first, he rolls 3 dice for his Defense, getting,and, scoring 1 Save. He decides to use his Reroll and rolls a, for a total of 2 Saves. He rolls an extra die because of
the CRIT and gets a, which is a miss, so his total ends
with 2 Saves.
Attack Results
Once all dice have been rolled, compare the number of
Hits scored by the attacker with the number of Savesobtained by the target’s Defense (if they had any). Each
Save blocks one Hit. If there are still any Hits remaining,
the target suffers a number of Wounds equal to thenumber of exceeding Hits. Place that number of Woundtokens on the targeted Hero’s card, or in the case of a
Monster, next to its figure.
Example: Col. Blaze McGunner attacks Digits, scoring 3
Hits, while Digits gets 2 Saves. The attack results in Digits
suffering 1 Wound.

18

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTSpecial Effects
Some Upgrade tokens have special effects listed onthem. These take effect following the parametersdescribed on the token. Some effects always happen,
whenever they are used, while others need to be
triggered by specific circumstances. The timing of whenthese special effects take place can be very important attimes. Unless stated otherwise, each special effect takes
place immediately when its triggering event happens. If
two effects would happen simultaneously, the active
player decides the order in which they are executed.
Multiple Targets: Some special effects may allow
your attack to affect other Characters in addition to
your primary target. No matter how many secondary
targets an attack affects, you always make only asingle attack roll, and it applies to all targets. If any
special effects change the amount of dice you shouldroll against a specific target, the amount is determinedby your primary target only, and is not affected by yoursecondary target(s).

REST
Instead of activating a Hero, the player can choose tospend their turn allowing their Heroes to Rest. Whena Crew Rests, none of its Heroes are activated, they
are not allowed to perform any Movement or Attacks
whatsoever during this turn. The resting player may
perform all of the following:•

UNEXHAUST UPGRADES
Flip all Upgrades on the Crew’s dashboard faceup
Unexhausting all of them. The Upgrade tokens areready to be used once again in the following turns.

•

REORGANIZE UPGRADES
The player may reorganize their Upgrade tokens,moving any number of them between their Heroes.

Kills and Rewards
As soon as combat is fully resolved, if a Character has
suffered a number of Wounds equal to their Life, they
are killed. A killed Monster is removed from the board
and placed in the common area, while a killed Hero isplaced on their Hero card.
When a Hero kills a Monster, their Crew immediately getsthe corresponding number of Victory tokens
listed on
the Monster Dashboard. When a Hero kills an enemy
Hero, their Crew gets 1 Victory token. When a Monster
kills a Hero, all the other Crews each gets 1 Victory token.
If a Hero is killed by any other game circumstances, all
the other Crews also get 1 Victory token.
The credit for killing a Character goes to the Character
that inflicts the last Wound responsible for removing theCharacter from the board. It does not matter if someone
else inflicted more Wounds to the killed Character, all
the credit goes to the one who scores the final blow!
When a Hero is killed, any Gadget tokens or Quest
tokens they were carrying are dropped on the Space
they were occupying, and they can then be picked up byother Heroes. If the Hero was killed by an enemy Hero
who's Close to them, the enemy Hero can automaticallytake one of those tokens and place it on their Hero card.

•

RESURRECT HEROES
Any of the player's Heroes that were killed are
resurrected and brought back into the game. Remove all
Wound tokens from those Heroes only and place theirfigure back on the board. The resurrected Hero can beplaced either in that Crew’s Shuttle or Close to any allied
Hero that was already on the board at the beginning of
the turn.
Note: Heroes resurrected by special effects, instead of
Resting, are also always fully unexhausted.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

19

EVENT DECK
Event cards are an important aspect of Starcadia
Quest, as they bring unexpected effects each turn,
representing various activities taking place around thespace station. Event cards request players to activate or
spawn monsters and resolve different types of effects.

Once both effects on the Event card are resolved, theactive player discards it faceup next to the Event cards
pile, forming an Event discard pile.
Note: If the Event deck runs out of cards, shuffle all
Event cards in the discard pile to form a new Event deck.

After activating a Hero or Resting their Crew, the active
player must draw and play the topmost card of the
Event deck. To do so, the active player follows these two
steps in order:

THE MONSTERSMONSTER ACTIVATION
There is no “Monster turn” in the game. However, theMonsters lurking around the station are voracious andcan be activated in 3 manners:

1• by an Event card2

• by a Guard Reaction• by a Payback Reaction•

1 - The top half of the Event card shows the Designationof the Monster being activated. Check the Monster
Dashboard to see what Monster card is in that
Designation space:• If there are any matching Monsters on the board, theactive player chooses one of them to activate (seeMonster Activation on the next chapter).
• If there are no matching Monsters currently on theboard, Spawn one of them on a Spawn Point of theactive player’s choosing instead. In the event that all
Spawn Points are Full, Spawn the Monster on a Space
Close to a Spawn Point instead.
• If there is no Monster card in the indicated Designation
space of the Monster Dashboard, ignore this step andcontinue to the next one.
2 - The player now reads and resolves the effect listedon the bottom half of the Event card. Some effects might
trigger another Monster spawn or add more tokens tothe board, among other effects.

20

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTACTIVATED BY AN EVENT CARD
A Monster that gets activated by an Event card iscontrolled by the active player and generally follows
the same rules as a Hero being activated: they get toperform, in any order, its Movement and one Attack.
The amount of Movement points a Monster has is listedon the Monster Dashboard (or in the case of a Villain,on their card), which they can spend normally to Move,
use Portals and manipulate Doors. Activated Monsters
don't use Upgrade tokens, Rest, nor pick up and use
Exploration tokens from the board, unless otherwise
specified. Note that the active player controlling theMonster’s attack may choose any Hero as its target.
Monsters do not trigger other Monsters' Payback or
Guard Reactions (see below).

•

ACTIVATED BY A GUARD REACTION
Every Monster in the game guards all Spaces Closeto themselves only (see Close Spaces on page 14),regardless of the Monster's Attack type and will Attack
any Close Hero that lowers their guard by trying tomove past them. A Hero standing Close to a Monster isconsidered to be actively fending it off, until they decideto move.

Entering a Space Close to a Monster does not trigger its
Guard Reaction, it is only triggered by moving from a
Close Space to the Monster, no matter the direction of
the Movement. When a Guard Reaction is triggered, it
causes the Monster to immediately Attack the active
Hero with its listed attributes and abilities. The Monster
does not Move, it can only Attack.
Whenever a Hero’s Movement would trigger a Guard
Reaction in one or more Monsters, the player to theright of the active player must perform the Attacks ofall triggered Monsters before the Hero executes his
Movement. After all Attacks are resolved (including the
Hero’s Defense rolls), the Hero can then Move.
It is possible to trigger several consecutive Guard
Reaction attacks from the same or combination of
Monsters in the same turn, if each move the Hero makes
leaves a different Space guarded by the Monster(s).
Keep in mind that using a Portal or manipulating a Door
does not trigger Guard Reactions.
Example: Red is moving heedlessly across the board andtriggering Guard Reactions from several Monsters.

1 - On the first move she triggers Iceheart’s Guard Reaction,
since she’s leaving a Space Close to her. The Octocruel is
not triggered since a wall isolates it. Since Red is entering
a Space Close to the Weeble, that does not trigger a Guard
Reaction from it.

2 - On the second move, Iceheart’s Guard Reaction is nolonger triggered, but the Weeble’s is.

3 - On the third move, Red triggers Guard Reactions not
only from the Weeble, but from the Peek-a-round as well.
She suffers two simultaneous attacks. If she moves awayfrom that final Space, she’ll trigger Weeble’s one more time.
Note: Some special effects might cause a Hero to beplaced in a specific Space. As this is not a Move, it does
not trigger Guard Reactions.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK21

•

ACTIVATED BY A PAYBACK REACTION
Whenever a Hero attacks a Monster (even if their
attack roll completely fails), the Monster is triggered
and immediately attempts to strike back at its attacker.
The difference with a Payback Reaction is that thetriggered Monster may perform its Movement first
before attacking. The player to the right of the active
player controls the triggered Monster and may choose
how best to employ it.
After fully resolving the Hero’s Attack, the Monster may
Move and then attempt an Attack against the Hero who
attacked it, but cannot Move after if it wishes to Attack
first. A moving Monster may choose to manipulate
Doors, use Portals and Move in any direction it wishes,
following the same Movement rules and restrictions
as Heroes. The player controlling the Monster doesn’t
have to Move it or even perform its Attack, if they sodesire, but any Attack made by the Monster must have
only the active Hero as the primary target.
If a Hero’s Attack targets more than one Monster atonce, only one of the targeted Monsters is triggered;
the player to the right chooses which one. Even if a
Monster is killed, it may perform its Payback Reaction
before being removed from the board, unless it has
been Overkilled (see page 23).

MONSTER AND
MONSTER DASHBOARD
At the beginning of each Scenario, the back of the Setup
card determines a set of Monsters (either specific or
random) to enter the game. Each Monster has theirown Monster card, which contains valid information
exclusive to that particular Monster. The cards are thenplaced on the Monster Dashboard, which contains
information regarding the entire group of Monsters forthe scenario.

• ANATOMY OF A MONSTER CARD

A - Name - The Monster’s name.

B - Defense - How many dice the Monster rolls for Defense
to try to prevent an attack from inflicting Wounds.
C - Attack Dice - The number of dice rolled by the
Monster’s Attack. The die symbol corresponds to the
Attack Type.
D - Attack Name - The name of the attack the Monster
performs.
E - Ability - Monsters have a special Ability that isalways in effect. They work very much like a Hero’s
Natural Ability or that of an Upgrade token.
F - Attack Type - Whether the Monster executes Meleeor Ranged attacks.
A

MONSTER ATTACKA Monster’s Attack follows most of the same rules
as a Hero’s Attack. Since all of a Monster’s Attack
information is contained on the Monster card andMonster Dashboard, they don’t exhaust any tokens toperform an Attack and are always ready for combat.
Monsters can perform either Melee or Ranged Attacks
and are subjected to the same rules for proximity andLine of Sight in order to be executed just like a Hero’s
Attack, that also includes any Abilities the Monster
may have. A Monster’s Attack is executed by the active
player (when activated by Event cards) or by the player
to the right of the active player (when triggering Guard
or Payback Reactions).

22

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

B

C

D

F

E

•

ANATOMY OF THE MONSTER DASHBOARD
The Monster Dashboard holds 3 Classes of Enemies:
Troopers, Officers, and a Villain. Troopers and Officers
each have a shared set of characteristics among themonsters of their group, while the Villain’s stats are
dictated entirely by its cards.

Enemy Rank – A classification of the Monster,
referenced in the Event cards.

Life - The number of Wounds the Monster has tosustain in order to be killed.

OVERKILL

Overkill - The number of Wounds a single attack must
inflict in order to eliminate the Monster instantly.
Movement Points - The number of points the Monster
can use to Move, manipulate Doors or use Portals.
Reward - How many Victory tokens are immediately
awarded to the Crew that kills the Monster.
ENEMY
RANK

CARDS
SLOT

Card Slots – Place Monster cards in these slots
according to the back of the scenario’s Setup card.

If the Hero's Attack is so powerful that it deals a numberof Wounds equal to or higher than the Monster’s Overkill
rating, the Monster is immediately killed and removed
from the board without getting the chance to execute
its Payback Reaction. Note that it doesn’t matter how
many Wounds the Monster already has: in order toOverkill it, a single Attack must beat its Overkill rating.

TROOPER
AREA

LIFE

OVERKILL

MOVEMENT
POINTSREWARD

OFFICERAREAVILLAIN
AREA

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK23

QUESTS
Each Scenario includes a number of Quests that the
Heroes must accomplish in order to be victorious. The
specific Quest cards for each Scenario are listed in theirdescription, and they’re divided into two kinds: Player
vs. Player (PvP) and Player vs. Environment (PvE).
PvP Quests relate to defeating enemy Heroes of thecompeting Crews. PvE Quests are specific feats related
to the Scenario at hand, such as defeating Monsters or
performing a specific task. During a Scenario, as soon
as a player accomplishes the task described in one of
the Quest cards, they fulfill that Quest. Turn that Quest
card facedown to mark its completion. Each Quest
can only be fulfilled a single time per Scenario. Notethat PvE Quests must be resolved in order: a player
cannot resolve Quest card 2 until Quest card 1 has been
completed and so on.
When playing Scenario 4 of branching campaigns, thefirst Quest is determined by the last Scenario completed.
For example, if the last Scenario completed was 3B, thefirst Quest in Scenario 4 would be Quest 1B.
Note: It is impossible for a player to accomplish the PvP
Quest related to killing a Hero of their own Crew.
Note: When a Quest card instructs players to place
Monster figures and the specified Space is Full, place
the figure Close to it instead (the active player chooses
which Close Space).

•

QUEST REWARDS
Every Quest card lists Victory tokens that are awarded
to players who complete them. These rewards are
assigned immediately upon completion of the Quest.

•

SCENARIO REWARDS
The first player to complete a PvP Quest every Scenario
is awarded with a corresponding Upgrade token fromthe Scenario Reward Deck (see Token ID on page 27).
As soon as all the PvE Quests and at least 1 PvP Quest iscompleted the game ends and all players count up their
Victory tokens. The player with the most Victory tokens
wins the Scenario, and is awarded 1 Badge! If it was the
final Scenario, the winning player is awarded 3 Badges
instead.

24

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

In case of a tie, the tied players each roll 1 die. Whoeverrolls a CRIT, wins! If nobody rolls a CRIT, or in case of atie, roll again.
In addition, players check the amount of Victory tokens
they have earned so far. For every milestone of 7 Victory
tokens reached, the player earns a Badge. Previously
reached milestones do not grant additional Badges atthe end of future Scenarios. Badges are tracked on theCampaign Sheet (see Campaign Sheet on page 29).

VICTORY TOKENS
During their adventures, heroes accomplish many
deeds that earn them not only renown, but also wealthand power. They gather Victory tokens for their Crew
that will help them acquire new equipment, weapons
and abilities to help them in their ongoing campaign. A
player’s Crew can earn Victory tokens in several ways:• Every time a Hero kills a Monster, its Crew gets thecorresponding number of Victory tokens listed on the
Monster Dashboard.
• Every time a Hero kills an Enemy Hero, its Crew gets
one Victory token.
• Every time a Hero is killed by a Monster or otherneutral game elements, all Crews - except the one towhich that Hero belongs - each get one Victory token.
• Every time a Hero completes a Quest, their Crew gains
the correspondent amount of Victory tokens.

UPGRADE PHASE
Once the current Scenario is over, before the next one
begins, the Upgrade Phase takes place. During this lullin the action, the Heroes improve themselves, get better
equipment, lick their wounds, and decide where they
will go next.

UPWARDS!

ONWARDS!

In the course of the Heroes’ adventures in Starcadia,
they gradually become more powerful, learning
new tricks and getting hold of better weapons andequipment. The better a Crew performs in a Scenario,
the more resources it has to improve its Heroes for the
coming Scenarios.

For the next Scenario to begin, remove any Exploration
tokens from the Heroes (Wound, Gadgets, etc). The
player who won the previous Scenario chooses thenext Scenario that will be played, obeying the campaign
progression rules (see page 7).

THIS IDENTIFIES THE
BOX IT'S FROMTHIS IDENTIFIES THE
TOKEN'S UNIQUE ID
THIS INDICATES
THE TOKEN'S DECK (SEE
TOKEN ID ON PAGE 27)

Take the Deck of Upgrade tokens corresponding to
the number of the Scenario that’s just been completed(Level 1 Upgrade token Deck after the first Scenario,
Level 2 Upgrade token Deck after the second Scenario,
and so on). Place all the tokens of that level in the centerof the play area. The player who won the Scenario
gets to pick any 2 Upgrade tokens of their choice.
Then, the player with the second most Victory tokens
gets to pick 2 Upgrade tokens and so on until the last
player gets their 2 tokens. Then, the last player gets 2
additional tokens, followed by the player with the third
most Victory tokens and so on until it’s back again to
the player who won the last Scenario to pick 2 Upgrade
tokens. Thus, with every Upgrade Phase each player
will have acquired 4 new Upgrade tokens for their Crew.
Once all players have taken their 4 Upgrades, eachplayer gets to pick an additional Upgrade for each Badge
they just scored. Players that haven’t scored any Badges
aren’t eligible to receive these additional Upgrades.
In the same order as above, each player gets to pick 1
Upgrade token provided they have the required Badges.
Continue this process until all players have taken the
Upgrades they’re eligible for or until all Upgrade tokens
are distributed.
Each player then freely distributes their new Upgrade
tokens among their Heroes and may completely
rearrange all their tokens. If a Crew has more than 12
Upgrade tokens, it will have to discard any excess.

EXPLORATIONTOKENS
During setup, several Exploration tokens are scatteredaround the board. These tokens represent useful things
the Heroes may find while exploring the station, andeven some important objectives they are trying toachieve on their Quest! Collecting an Exploration token
does not require a Movement Point or any other action,and you don’t need to end your Movement on the token
in order to take it. Whenever an active Hero is standing
in the same Space as an Exploration token, and there
are no Enemies in that same Space, the Hero must
automatically collect the token.
A killed Hero drops all of their Exploration tokens on
the Space they occupied. For more information, see
Kills and Rewards on page 19. Any Exploration token inpossession of a Hero at the end of a Scenario is returnedto the game. Nobody starts a Scenario in possession of
Exploration tokens.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

25

UPGRADESThe Upgrades acquired by each Crew as the campaign
progresses are what will truly set them apart from therest. Through the use and combination of different
Upgrades, Heroes are able to use their naturalcharacteristics to their full potential or build up a whole
new unique role for themselves in the game. There are
four basic categories of Upgrade tokens:
There are 3 types of Exploration tokens:
Gadgets
Gadget tokens can be freely exchanged among a Crew’s
Heroes whenever that Crew Rests.
 timpack: An active Hero may freely
S
discard this token during their turn torecover all their Life, discarding any Woundtokens they may possess. This token can’t
be used while an Attack is being resolved.

Weapons

BoostsPassives

Reactions

Recharge: An active Hero may freely
discard this token during their turn tounexhaust all of their Upgrade tokens,
flipping them all faceup.
Hoverboard: The active Hero may freely
discard this token during their activation
to grant an Ally 4 Movement Points to
use immediately.
Victory Tokens
Victory Tokens: When collected, Victory
tokens belong to the Crew, not a single
Hero (place on the center area of the
Crew Dashboard). Each Victory token is
worth 1 Victory Point.
Quest Tokens

Quest Tokens: These are special Exploration tokens,used in a multitude of ways. Their purpose is explainedin on the Scenario and Quest cards.

26

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

Through the combination of these Upgrades, players
can create some powerful and unexpected attacks andstrategies!

WEAPONS

ANATOMY OF AN UPGRADE TOKEN
A

D

B

E

C

F

Weapons allow a Hero to make an Attack against an
Enemy. A Hero with no Weapon in their inventory
is generally incapable of executing an Attack when
activated. Heroes can only use one Weapon during an
Attack. However, since a Weapon is exhausted when
it is used (by flipping it facedown), having multiple
Weapons available in the Hero's arsenal gives themnot only more options, but also the ability to attack for
multiple turns before needing to Rest and Unexhaust
their Upgrades.

A. Name - The name of the Upgrade.
B. Type - The type of Upgrade (Melee/ Ranged/ Special) typically found on Weapons and Boosts.
C. Dice/Bonuses - Each Upgrade may offer different
combinations of dice and other bonuses to the Hero.
Weapons always have a base dice value that includes
symbols to indicate whether it is Melee or Ranged.
Boosts may offer extra dice and other bonuses like
Rerolls. Passives may grant extra dice for Defense andextra Life, etc.
D. Category – Upgrade tokens are categorised
depending on whether it is a Weapon (Red background),Boost (Green background), Passive (Blue background),or Reaction (Yellow background).
E. Token ID - The code to identify the player's Upgradeson the Campaign Sheet. The first alphanumericcharacter, in bold, indicates the Deck the Upgrade
belongs to:• S: Starter Deck, used while setting up the first Scenario• 1/2/3: Level 1/2/3 Deck, used during the Upgrade
Phase• R: Scenario Reward Deck, followed by the Scenario
numberRANGED

MELEE

All Weapons are able to make either Melee or Ranged
Attacks. This is indicated by the icon shown on theirDice value.

SPECIAL
TYPE

Weapons with the ‘Special’ type may be able to perform
Melee or Ranged attacks. The Dice icon will indicate
whether its attack is Melee or Ranged.
While some Weapons offer only a simple attack, many
have some form of special effect listed that enhances
their attack. This effect is only triggered when the
Weapon is used and the parameters stated in it are met.

• A: Armory Deck, placed during setup if there's anArmory slot in a Tile used
F. Ability: Any special abilities the Upgrade offers.

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

27

BOOSTSSPECIAL EFFECTS

Boosts are attachments to Weapons. While they cannever be used without a Weapon, they might be able
to greatly improve the power of a Weapon being used.

Upgrade tokens offer a multitude of new resources tothe Hero who possesses them. Here are some of them:

When a Hero is declaring their Attack (before rollingdice), they may choose to also use one or more Boosts
in their inventory. They Exhaust the Weapon and also
any Boost(s) used along with it. The special effects
offered by the Boost tokens are then added to the
Attack being executed. Note that Boosts only workwith Weapons of the same Type. As is the case with
Weapons, an Exhausted Boost cannot be used again
until it is Unexhausted.

Tokens with this Extra Defense icon grant the
Hero who owns them the number of extra dice+listed. Whenever the Hero needs to make a
Defense roll, add together their basic Defense and all
the Extra Defense their Upgrades might grant them.
Extra Defense is always added to the Hero’s Defense,
even if the token that offers it is Exhausted.

Note: Special-type Weapons can come in either Meleeor Ranged forms, so Special-type Boosts feature a Blank
die instead and will power up both Melee or Ranged
Special-type Weapons!

• EXTRA DEFENSE

2• EXTRA LIFE

Items with this Extra Life icon grant the Hero
who owns them the ability to sustain more+
Wounds before being killed. Add together
the Hero’s basic Life and any Extra Life their Upgrades
might grant them. It doesn’t matter whether the token is
Exhausted or not. This is their total Life, the number ofWounds necessary to kill them.

4• REROLL POOLPASSIVES

Items with this Reroll icon allow the Hero who
owns them to reroll the indicated number+of dice after their dice pool has been rolled.
The result of this new roll replaces the original result.
All of a Hero’s Upgrades with Reroll icons always add
to their Reroll pool, whether they are Exhausted ornot. Whenever a Hero makes a roll (be it an Attack or
a Defense roll) they have their full Reroll pool at theirdisposal to use in any order they’d like.

Passives work exactly like the Heroes’ Natural Ability:
they give the Hero that possesses them bonuses andspecial abilities that are always in effect, according to
the parameters of the token’s text. Unless otherwise
stated, Passives are never Exhausted, so their abilities
are always at the disposal of the Hero who has it in their
Crew dashboard.

Example: Hannah has a Combat Exosuit which grants her+2 Rerolls. Her total Reroll pool is 2. She makes a Ranged
Attack against Iceheart with her Repeater Pistol, rolling
two Attack dice which result inand: two misses.
She uses 2 Rerolls to reroll both dice, resulting inand: 2 Hits. She rolls the extra die granted by the CRIT,
which results in: a miss, for a grand total of 2 Hits.

1

REACTIONS
When a Hero is being attacked, they may use a Reaction
Upgrade to immediately gain its ability. Reactions usually
weaken the incoming attack or allow Heroes to react toit in some form. The Hero must choose whether to use a
Reaction before dice are rolled, exhausting the Upgrade.
Only a single Reaction can be used for each Attack.

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RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUEST

Iceheart strikes back at Hannah with its Melee attack rolling, , , and : 1 Hit. Hannah rolls her 2 Defense dice,getting aand: no Saves. She uses her Rerolls on
the two misses and getsand: 2 Saves. The attack
hit has been blocked!

••SELF SACRIFICE
Some abilities require the active Hero to suffer a numberof Wounds in order to use them. The Hero must take therequired number of Wounds before rolling any dice forthe ability. However, a Hero cannot use such an ability
if the Wounds taken would cause them to die. If they
don’t have enough Life left, they cannot activate theability. Likewise, if a Hero is being kept alive by the Extra
Life granted by an Upgrade token, they cannot willingly
move that token to a different Ally, thus killing that Hero.

DAZE
Some abilities or effects are able to Daze a target, leaving
them open to future Attacks. When a Character is Dazed,
lay its figure on its side to indicate their condition. A Dazed
Character is not allowed to roll any Defense dice against
Attacks. Other than that, they may act normally, Moving
and Attacking as usual. When a Dazed Hero Rests they
recover from the Daze effect. Place its figure back up to
indicate that. Monsters can't recover from Daze until killed.

•

If an ability causes a Character to be Shoved, the Character ispushed into a Close Space chosen by the Shoving Character.
In the event that there are no Spaces for a Shoved Characterto be pushed into, leave them where they were but they arestill considered to be Shoved. Heroes being displaced by a
Shove do not trigger Guard Reactions from Close Monsters.

HUGE CHARACTERS
Some Monsters have a base so large that they occupy awhole Space all by themselves. These Huge Characters
count as two Characters on the board, and as such resultin their Space being Full. These huge Monsters Shove all
Characters out of each Space they enter.

• SHOVE

THE CAMPAIGN SHEETThe Campaign Sheet is a two-sided document that
players use during the campaign to keep track of gamedevelopment and record important information.

the tokens). During a campaign, after each Scenario isfinished (but before the Upgrade Phase), players record
what they have just played.

One side is used to record the campaign itself. To theleft, white spaces over each scenario allow players towrite down the order in which they were played. On theright, a more detailed list allows players to record what
happened during each scenario, indicating how many
Victory tokens each Crew earned in the respective
scenario.

After players execute the Upgrade Phase for the
Scenario that has just been played, the next step is toturn the Campaign Sheet over and update the Crews'
inventories. Players will write down the Upgrade tokens
their Crew possesses at this point. Note that the players
do not record new Upgrade tokens as they acquirethem, only Upgrade tokens currently in possession of
their Heroes after the Upgrade Phase. Finally, players
should also record any Badges they might have wonat the end of the Scenario, by marking the appropriate
amount of squares as well as listing the grand total of
Badges they have.

The reverse side of the Campaign Sheet is used to keep
track of the Crews, indicating which Heroes each player
chose and their current inventory of Upgrade tokens(using the codes found on the bottom right corner of

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

29

CAMPAIGN FINALE
When the fourth and final Scenario of the campaign
has been completed, Starcadia is finally free fromThorne’s grasp and all is good with the Galaxy! Well, atleast for now…
While destroying Thorne’s Missile Base is a lauded
victory which earns the Crew that won the last scenario
some well-deserved publicity, the true Savior of the
Galaxy is the player who accumulated the most Badges
by the end of the entire campaign!

OPTIONAL: EPISODIC MODE
Starcadia Quest is intended as a campaign game, withthe scenarios being played from the beginning all theway to the final showdown at Thorne’s base, with youraccomplishments in one scenario affecting the game in the
next, and with your group of Heroes becoming graduallymore powerful. However, if a group of players desires
to simply have some fun in a disconnected way, justgathering some Heroes and playing a Scenario without
greater repercussions, they can play in Episodic Mode.
In Episodic Mode, players quickly set up their Crews,
with Heroes and Upgrade tokens in any level of theirchoice and tackle any Scenario. To play in Episodic
Mode, follow these steps:
1 - Create your Crew: This is done in the normal way,
as detailed on page 8. Each player picks a Crew, two
Heroes, and the starting equipment from the Starter
Deck is distributed.

30

RULEBOOK • STARCADIA QUESTDRAFTING
When drafting items for Episodic Mode,randomly split all Upgrade tokens as equally as
possible among players. From the initial handof tokens received, each player must choose
and reserve 2 tokens for their Crew, and pass
the remaining tokens to the player to the left.
From the newly received hand of tokens, eachplayer again chooses and reserves 2 tokens for
the Crew. Any remaining tokens are discarded
and the draft is completed for that Level. Once
all necessary Levels have been drafted, eachCrew must have no more than 12 Upgrades,
discarding any excess.

2 - Draft Upgrade tokens: After choosing a Scenario,
players will draft from the Level Decks up to the
Scenario's number minus one. If players choose to playscenario 3A for example, they would draft from Level
Decks 1 and 2.
3 - Play a Scenario. Any Scenario can be played inthis mode. Alternatively, you may want to create yourvery own Scenarios, using the modular game Tiles andcoming up with custom Quests!
4 - Determine the Winner. Victory in Episodic Mode isdetermined exactly like in a normal Scenario: the winneris the player whose Crew has the most Victory tokens at
the end of the game!

INDEX
Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 22
Ally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Armory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,27
Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Boosts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Campaign Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
Campaign Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Character  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Computer Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Crew Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Critical (CRIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Daze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 18, 22
Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Doors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 15
Drafting Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Enemy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Episodic Mode  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
Event Card  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
Exhaust Upgrades  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Exploration Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
Extra Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Extra Life  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Full Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Gadgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10, 13, 26
Guard Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Hatch  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13, 15
Hit  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hoverboard Token  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
Huge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Kill  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9, 22, 23
Line of Sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Melee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18
Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
Monster Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
Monster Card  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11, 22
Monster Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . .  11, 23
Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Movement Points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 23
Multiple Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Overkill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Passives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Payback Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
Player Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 13, 15
Quest  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
Quest Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Quest Reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
Quest Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11, 26
Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18
Reactions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Recharge Token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
Reorganize Upgrades  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Reroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
Rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Resurrect Heroes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Save  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Scenario Reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
Setup  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 11, 12
Shove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
Shuttle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Spawn Points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 13

Stimpack Token  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10, 13
Unexhaust Upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Upgrade Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Upgrade Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
Upgrades  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
Victory Token  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10, 13, 26
Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Winning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
Wounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9, 22, 23

CREDITSGAME DESIGNFred Perret, Eric M. Lang,
Guilherme Goulart, andThiago Aranha
ADDITIONAL GAME DESIGN& DEVELOPMENT
Leo Almeida
PRODUCTION
Aaron Lurie (Lead),
Thiago Gonçalves, Thiago Aranha,
Guilherme Goulart, Isadora Leite,
Patricia Gil, Marcela Fabreti,
Safuan Tay and Rebecca HoART
Andrea Cofrancesco,
Giovanna Guimarães,and Nicolas Fructus

GAME DESIGN DIRECTOR
Eric M. Lang

GRAPHIC DESIGNLouise Combal and Marc Brouillon

PUBLISHERDavid Preti

SCULPTING
Benjamin Maillet
MINIATURES DIRECTING
Vincent Fontaine
MINIATURES PHOTOGRAPHY
Jean-Baptiste Guiton
WRITING
Eric Kelley

ART DIRECTOR
Mathieu Harlaut

PLAYTESTERS
Luiza Pirajá, Ricardo Kuma,
Fabul Henrique, Pedro Ivo Costa,
Lucas Abreu, Violeta Bafile,João Vitor Gonçalves, João José
Gois, Bruna Petrocelli, Daniel Silveira,
Caio Teixeira da Quinta, Daniel
Passos, Felipe Vergili, Pedro Vinicius
and Fernando Costa

STARCADIA QUEST • RULEBOOK

31

RULES SUMMARY
PLAYER TURN
1. Activate a Hero or Rest the Crew

MONSTER ACTIVATION• Event Card: (Controlled by the active player)

Hero Activation (in any order):Perform in any order:• Movement (4 Movement Points – To move 1 Space, use
Portal or open/close Door)• Movement (use Movement Points listed on the Monster
Dashboard to move 1 Space, use Portal, or open/close Door)• Attack (Select Weapon and Boosts, Exhaust Weapon andany Boosts, roll Attack dice pool vs target’s Defense dice)• Attack (roll Attack dice pool vs target’s Defense dice pool)

Rest:

Reaction: (Controlled by the player to the•rightGuardof the active player)• Unexhaust all Upgrades

Attack any Hero Close to them that Moves out of their Space.

• Reorganize Upgrades

Reaction: (Controlled by the player to the•rightPaybackof the active player)• Resurrect killed Heroes

2. Draw an Event Card:• Activate one Monster of the Designation shown. If noneon the board, Spawn that Monster on any Spawn Point of
your choice. Ignore if the Designation has no Monster card.
• Resolve the card’s effect.

OTHER RULES• Exploration tokens:

An active Hero must pick up all Exploration tokens in their
Space if there are no Enemies there (except Quest-specific
Quest tokens).

• Close:

To be Close to something means to be either sharing thesame Space or in a Space that shares an edge with it, aslong as that is not blocked by a wall or Closed Door

When attacked, may move and attack Hero who attacked it.

QUESTS• Quest Rewards:

The player who completes a Quest is rewarded with Victory
tokens listed on the Quest Card.

• Scenario PvP Reward:

The first player to complete a PvP Quest gets a special
Upgrade from the Scenario Reward Deck.

• End of a Scenario:

When all PvE Quests and at least 1 PvP Quest are completed,
the Scenario ends.
The Scenario is won by the player who accumulates themost Victory tokens during that Scenario.

• Line of Sight:

Ranged Attacks need a clear LOS to the target. Draw a linefrom the center of the active Character’s Space to the centerof the target’s Space. There’s LOS if the line does not crossa wall or Closed Door

• Full Space:

A Space with two Characters is considered Full, and nobody
else can end their Movement in it. Characters can movethrough the Full Space, and it does not block LOS.

CAMPAIGN• Starting with Scenario 1, leads to either 2A or 2B• From 2A, leads to either Scenarios 3A or 3B• From 2B, leads to either Scenarios 3B or 3C• From all Level 3 Scenarios, leads to Scenario 4

UPGRADE PHASE• Draft Level Deck:In descending and then ascending order of most VP gainedin that Scenario, players pick first 2 and then another 2Upgrades from the current Level Deck. Then in the sameorder players pick 1 Upgrade at a time for each Badge theygained (1 for every 7VP).

• Remove all Exploration tokens from Heroes (Wounds,

Gadgets etc.)• Record Progress on Campaign Sheet• Winner of the last Scenario chooses the next Scenario