Planetaire: The Grand Tour társasjáték

Angol leírás

Planetaire is a astronomy-themed educational rummy-type card game for one to four players. This description will focus on the 2 to 4 player game, but there are also variants for one player or for 4 players on 2 teams. When playing with 2 or more people, the object of the game is to be the first player to make The Grand Tour by collecting all 9 planetary suites, including Pluto as a planet since the game was published before 2006. In case of a tie (2 or more players completing The Grand Tour in the same round), the player who completed the Grand Tour who has the most points wins. A planetary suite consists of a planet and all of its moons. For the sake of not making the sets impossible, the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune each have 4 moons in this game. The moonless Mercury and Venus count as complete sets by themselves. The planets are categorized as inner or outer based on their position relative to the main Asteroid Belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The game has 92 playing cards, a pad of scoring sheets, a rules booklet, and 4 reference cards, which list all the cards needed for each of the 9 suites. The set of cards are color-coded by type, and each planet is also in a different color to make it easier to see what goes together. There are 2 of each planet and the 20 moons used in this game, and 1 each of 8 asteroids and 8 comets. There are also 10 wild cards which can serve in place of other cards, 2 each of 5 different types. The two Planet X cards will substitute for planets. The other 8 wild cards can all substitute for moons, with 4 of them also being usable for an asteroid, the other 4 for a comet. There are also 8 action cards, 4 which reverse the player order and give the person playing the card an extra turn, and 4 which discard a moon card (you can either discard one yourself, or make the next player discard one before beginning their turn, which can result in some complications if they don't have any moons or moon wild cards in their hand). Action cards are played by discarding them at the end of your turn (if you choose to use the discard moon card on yourself, you get to discard that card and one of your moons, with the moon card on top in the discard pile).

During each turn, you start by drawing until you have 10 cards in your hand (at game start, you have 9). So the smaller your hand is at the beginning of your turn, the better are your chances to draw cards you need. You can then lay down any number of comets and asteroids, up to the maximum of 2 of each, but can only lay down the planet and moon cards when you have a complete set of the same color - a planetary suite, or enough wild cards to substitute for the cards you don't have. You can use any number of wild cards in making a set but cannot play 2 of the same moon in a suite - but must have 1 of each or a suitable wild card. You can also pick up wild cards or complete planetary suites if you can replace them from your hand. You don't need to replace a Wild Card in order to pick it up if it was acting as a comet or asteroid. You can use a planet you scored in a previous round, which is called Retro-Touring. Laying down a previously scored planetary suite does not earn you more points but can serve the player doing this in several ways. You end each turn by discarding a card from your hand, whether or not you laid down any cards on the table. You can not have more than 2 asteroids, 2 comets, 1 Inner Planetary Suite, and 1 Outer Planetary Suite laid down on the table at the same time. If you have all of these in front of you, you are said to "Go Out" and the round ends immediately. When one player completes all the cards to Go Out, ending the round, all the other players are then said to be Set. "Set" players are penalized for the point value of the cards in their hand. You count up the points of all the cards you laid down, with the planets and Planet X on the table being multiplied by 10, and then everyone except the player Going Out have to subtract the point value of the cards in their hand (planets are at face value for this portion of the scoring). This can result in a negative score. Most of the wild cards have a value of 0, with the exception of the 2 Planet X cards, which are worth 10. The moons, asteroids, and comets are worth 1. Action cards in the hand of a "set" player cost them two points. The planets increase in point value from 1 to 9 based on distance from the Sun (so Mercury is 1, Pluto is 9, etc). Usually one player is designated as the scorer and writes down everyone's points at the end of each round. You only score for a completed planetary suite the first time you use that particular planet.

The rulebook suggests that a different player should be dealer in each round. The Dealer rotates counter-clockwise in each round, and the players also go in this order, with the player to the right of the dealer going first. This direction is used because it corresponds with the orbits of the planets around the sun. This brings up some of the other educational aspects of this game. Each of the cards has a photograph or art of the object, and a few interesting facts about the object pictured. The Wild Cards are named after and depict other objects in the Solar System that are not in the normal cards. There is also more information and many website links of other educational resources in the rulebook.

There is a Solitaire version of the game, in which there is no point scoring or shuffling of cards within a round, the planets have to be obtained in a specific order, you deal cards and draw to a Phantom player (which are not available until you shuffle for the next round), and there are also 9 cards permanently discarded at the beginning of the game.