Liftoff!

About this board game

Liftoff! is a 1–4 player space-race board game with an approximately 300-minute playing time, in which rival nations compete to land a person on the moon and successfully bring them home.

During each activity turn, players receive income, resolve an event card, purchase new hardware, and work to improve the reliability of systems already in their program. Available development includes rockets, satellites, capsules, space suits, lunar landers, and other equipment. Players can also hire astronauts and secretly plan future missions.

The launch phase puts those plans to the test. Players carry out missions in turn, with rewards available for being first to achieve goals such as first man in space. Each mission requires the right hardware, including a rocket powerful enough to lift the combined weight of the other equipment.

Missions proceed through a series of steps, with percentile rolls checked against the safety rating of specific systems. A liftoff may test the rocket, an orbital burn may test the space capsule, and a space walk may test the space suit. In the advanced game, a failed safety roll can lead to additional outcomes ranging from a bulb failure to a catastrophic explosion, potentially resetting an item’s safety factor.

• Develop one-, two-, three-, and four-person capsules, shuttles, rockets, and lunar landers.
• Choose when to research, invest, and take risks for an income boost.
• Race opponents for mission achievements while managing reliability and equipment weight.

After missions are completed, income is adjusted according to successes and failures, and the next year begins. In Liftoff!, the central challenge is deciding whether to launch an untested rocket now or wait another year, while hoping your opponents have not planned the same mission.