ISS Vanguard

In 2028, we discovered data encoded in a small part of genetic code shared by all life on Earth and inherited from our Last Universal Common Ancestor. Every cell on our planet contained a star map, pointing to a location within our arm of the galaxy.

It took another generation and the largest construction project in human history to create ISS Vanguard – our first ship capable of interstellar travel, based on the core of an alien wreckage, found deep in Siberia.

Now, carrying the best crew and the most advanced technology Earth could muster, ISS Vanguard departs for the destination marked on the star map. I’d like to think we’re ready for everything. Instead, I can’t shake the ominous feeling that the mission will be much longer, and harder than we ever anticipated…

Captain Morgan Wayman,
Commanding Officer of ISS Vanguard

Space Ranger

• Type: Transport, Reconnaissance, SAR
• Crew: 1–4
• Length: 22 meters
• Height: 5.8 meters
• Weight: 72 tons

Service History:

The Vanguard Initiative spent ten years developing a universal lander craft that could deliver exploration teams to even the most hostile worlds. Tested extensively on Venus, Mars, and the Moon, Space Rangers proved reliable and safe – if a little cramped. In preparation for a mission of unknown duration, ISS Vanguard’s production complex was tooled to manufacture every Space Ranger component aboard, provided enough raw materials were available.

Read the official ISS Vanguard Introduction comic book to learn more about the ISS Vanguard’s mission!

Welcome to ISS Vanguard

Welcome to ISS Vanguard: A cooperative campaign board game for 1-4 players that allows you to explore a vast galaxy, command and upgrade your ship, conduct research, manufacture equipment, and land on countless worlds – all while solving the great mystery of the eons-old starmap, embedded in our DNA.

Rulebook Structure

This Rulebook is divided into four chapters:

• Chapter I: Introduction — The first chapter of the Rulebook introduces you to the components of the game, some steps that need to be followed before your first game, and provides some essential information. Make sure you read through it carefully.
• Chapter II: Tutorial — This chapter details the Tutorial mission, an introductory scenario which teaches you how to play the game. At least one player in the group should play through the Tutorial to learn the game.
• Chapter III: Campaign — This chapter contains the entire, detailed rules of the game. We do not recommend reading through all of them right now. The Tutorial mission will teach you all of the basic rules. Only refer to the full rules when you have a specific question, or need a detailed breakdown of a certain procedure.
• Chapter IV: Glossaries — The last chapter of the Rulebook contains detailed Glossaries of all icons and terms in the game. Refer to this whenever you find an icon or keyword you don’t remember the rules for.

Game Structure

The ISS Vanguard Campaign is played by repeating two separate parts of the game:

• Planetary Exploration — An Away Team lands on one of the many planets to explore, completing Missions, and gathering Discoveries.
• Ship Management — All players manage the crew of the ship, conduct research, fly to other planets, and deal with ship situations.

Because ISS Vanguard is a campaign game, played over multiple sessions, you will need to regularly save your progress. This is best done at the end of the Ship Book. In a single game session, you should aim to complete at least one Planetary Exploration followed by the final Ship Book pages that clean up your table and save your game. However, if you have time, you may choose to play more.

Number of Players & Section Control

There are four specialized Sections of ISS Vanguard: Engineering (), Recon (), Science (), Security (). Each has its own roster of Crewmembers, Section-specific cards, Equipment, and decisions to make. Each Section is controlled by 1 player; if there are fewer than 4 players, some players must control more than one Section.

Notes:

• Planetary Exploration requires an Away Team of at least 2 Crewmembers from different Sections.
• It is not required to have the same number of players (or even the same players) each time you play.

Game Modes: Starting Your Game

ISS Vanguard offers a Tutorial, a Campaign, and several Operations (one-off scenarios).

>> TUTORIAL

• Estimated Playtime: 3-4 hours
• Players: 1-4 (1 recommended)

For your first time playing, it is highly recommended to play through the Tutorial using either the text version in this Rulebook or the Tutorial Video linked in Chapter II. This Tutorial is designed to be the best way to learn how to play, as it will teach you most of the rules of the game while playing through the first, simplified, Planetary Exploration. You do not need to read the whole Rulebook before playing the Tutorial. After playing, you may continue with the Campaign using the same Crewmembers. To limit player downtime as you learn the rules, you may play through the Tutorial alone and then start the Campaign with other players using the Quickstart rules.

To start the Tutorial, go to Chapter II (page 10).

>> CAMPAIGN

• Estimated Playtime: 20-60 hours
• Players: 1-4

The ISS Vanguard Campaign is the main mode of the game, taking players on an unforgettable, replayable adventure across the stars. The Campaign consists of playing through the process in the Ship Book from start to finish, that usually includes a Planetary Exploration. You can then continue playing or save your game and continue later. Each play through the Ship Book should take 2-4 hours. Once you know how to play the game, you can begin a new Campaign without replaying the Tutorial, using the Quickstart rules.

To start the Campaign, go to Chapter III (page 27).

>> OPERATIONS

• Estimated Playtime: 2-3 hours
• Players: 1-4

Operations are single Planetary Exploration missions that may be played as a part of the Campaign, or separately as stand-alone scenarios. These scenarios require full knowledge of the rules of the game. We do not recommend playing them before you open the Secret envelope during your Campaign playthrough.

To start an Operation, go to its setup rules in the Operations book.

Ultimate ISS Vanguard Experience: Video Tutorial, Official App, Downloadable Resources

• Jump Right Into Play With ISS Vanguard Video Tutorial! Don’t want to read through pages of rules? Instead of playing through the text version of the tutorial, follow the link and use our official Tutorial Video: issvanguard.com/learn
• Get the Full ISS Vanguard Experience! Amazing original soundtrack and full voice-over are ready for you. To get the best story experience, download the official ISS Vanguard iOS / Android APP and enjoy a fully voiced campaign. We’ve spent a lot of time and resources to create it, so give it a try! issvanguard.com/app
• Stay Current With Downloadable Logbook, FAQs and Other Resources: Our Resources page contains up-to-date print & play copies of the Logbook, Operations book, Planetary Record Sheets, as well as the official FAQ and other helpful documents. issvanguard.com/resources

Credits

• Game Concept by: Marcin Świerkot, Krzysztof Piskorski
• Game Design: Krzysztof Piskorski, Paweł Samborski, Andrzej Betkiewicz
• Internal Tests & Development: Krzysztof Piskorski, Paweł Samborski, Andrzej Betkiewicz, Krzysztof Belczyk, Ernest Kiedrowicz, Adrian Krawczyk, Michał Lach, Konrad Sulżycki, Jan Truchanowicz, Wiktoria Ślusarczyk
• Additional Testing: Bernhard Berger, Carolin Berger, Christian Grewel, Thorsten Kilimann, Andrew Harrison, Kami Harrison, Elanor McCaffery, Lisa Hayward, Bradley Harris, Sean Hanson, Leonardo Santoso, Andrew Parsons, Erin “Ed” Donahue, Justus “JT” Ehlert, Lance Swanson, Joshua Tallent, Nathan Lindblom, Aleksandra Otremba, Mariusz Nowak, Mateusz Bral, Adam Piechula, Alicja Wojciechowska, Katarzyna Dabiach, Ziemowit Żwirbliński, Magdalena Kazuń, Mateusz Kownacki, Szymon Sobczak
• Rulebook: Paul Grogan, Paweł Samborski, Krzysztof Piskorski
• Art Direction: Dominik Meyer, Patryk Jędraszek, Marcin Świerkot
• Illustrations: Dominik Meyer, Patryk Jędraszek, Ewa Labak, Pamela Łuniewska, Jakub Dzikowski, Piotr Orleański, Piotr Foksowicz, Rafał Górniak, Ingram Shell
• Graphic Design: Adrian Radziun, Dominik Mayer, Klaudia Wójcik, Karolina Łaski, Michał Lechowski
• DTP: Rafał Janiszewski, Patrycja Marzec, Jędrzej Cieślak, Maria Pinkowska-Porzycka, Angelika Wierzba
• 3D Graphics: Jędrzej Chomicki, Piotr Gacek, Mateusz Modzelewski, Jakub Ziółkowski
• Narrative Design: Krzysztof Piskorski
• Writing: Krzysztof Piskorski, Andrzej Betkiewicz, Łukasz Orwat
• Editors: Matt Click, Tyler Brown
• Proofreading: Tyler Brown, Dan Morley, Wiktoria Ślusarczyk, Konrad Sulżycki, Bruce Fletcher
• Production: Adrianna Kocięcka, Dawid Przybyła, Michał Matłosz, Jacek Szczypiński, Olga Baraniak
• Special Thanks: Ken Cunningham and CodedCardboard for making us a TTS prototype we could work with during isolation!

Planetary Exploration Components

Some cards and components are located in sealed Tutorial decks or the Secret envelope at the start of the game. For more details on what these cards and components are, see ‘Spoilers’ on page 41.

• Rulebook
• Planetopedia
• Logbook and Operations Book
• 4 Crew boards
• 16 Red Section dice
• 16 Blue Section dice
• 16 Green Section dice
• 1 D10
• 4 Turn tokens
• 16 Success tokens
• 8 Time tokens
• 2 Danger dice
• 30 Universal markers
• 12 Injury dice
• 23 Mission Equipment tokens
• 20 Lead tokens
• 1 Start token
• 22 Threat standees
• Card Tray A
• 8 Card Tray A dividers
• 1 Mission Failed token
• 6 Lander standees
• Section Compartments
• 8 Section compartment dividers
• 1 double-sided Actions token
• 4 Colored base rings
• 8 Crewmember models
• 8 Standee bases
• Lead bag

Planetary Exploration Cards

Small Cards:

• 39 Unique Discovery cards
• 65 Discovery cards
• 40 Event cards
• 19 Rank-Up cards
• 48 Injury cards
• Tutorial Deck B

Standard Cards:

• 249 Point of Interest cards
• 57 Mission cards
• 42 Global Condition cards
• 120 Section cards
• Tutorial Deck A

Other Cards:

• 6 Reference cards
• 23 Threat cards

Ship Management Components

• System Maps
• 1 Ship Book cover
• 9 Ship Book cardholders
• 14 Ship Book pages
• 20 double-sided Planet Record sheets
• Secret envelope*
• “Awaiting…” envelope
• 3 double-sided Lander boards
• Card Tray B
• 36 Rank sleeves
• 1 Planetary Scanner
• 14 Card Tray B dividers
• 6 Command tokens
• 8 Energy tokens
• 1 Token bag
• 1 Penalty token
• Current System bookmark

* the content of this envelope may be considered a spoiler, if you want to check its contents see page 41 of this Rulebook.

Ship Management Cards

Small Cards:

• 41 Bridge cards
• 31 Lander Mod cards

Standard Cards:

• 86 Crewmember cards
• 18 Landing cards
• 23 Research Project cards
• 27 Production Project cards
• 26 Situation cards
• 6 Facility Upgrade cards (3 Medbay, 3 Production)

Other Cards:

• 101 Equipment cards
• 6 Lander cards

Before Your First Game: Initial Preparation

Before you can enjoy ISS Vanguard, there are several preparation and unpacking steps you must complete. Since all of these steps can take some time, we recommend performing them in advance of your first play session. If your copy of the game has already been played, it is recommended to follow these steps to make sure it is ready for a new playthrough.

1) Prepare Card Trays A & B

First, unpack all card packs found in the Card Trays, except for two sealed Tutorial decks (A and B). If the Tutorial decks were already open, go to Log 720 in the Logbook in order to recreate them.

Card Tray A is used during Planetary Exploration. Fill it with dividers and cards as shown here.

Card Tray A dividers:

1. Points of Interest (POI)
2. Missions
3. Global Conditions
4. Discoveries
5. Unique Discoveries
6. Rank-Ups
7. Injuries
8. Events

Cards:

• Put all Point of Interest cards behind the “Points of Interest” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Mission cards behind the “Missions” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Global Condition cards behind the “Global Conditions” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Discovery cards behind the “Discoveries” divider grouped by type.
• Put all Unique Discovery cards behind the “Unique Discoveries” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Rank-Up cards behind the “Rank-Ups” divider in any order.
• Put all Injury cards behind the “Injuries” divider in alphabetical order.
• Put all Event cards behind the “Events” divider in any order.

Note: Since at first some cards are located in pre-sealed Tutorial decks, the numbering for some decks may not start at 1.

Card Tray B is for cards used during Ship Management. Fill it with dividers and cards as shown here.

Card Tray B dividers:

1. Armory
2. Unavailable Equipment
3. Resting Crew
4. Recruits
5. Landing Cards
6. Recorded Planets
7. Facility Upgrades
8. Possible Situations
9. Future Situations
10. Research Projects
11. Production Projects
12. Gathered Discoveries
13. Lander Mods
14. Bridge Cards
15. Removed from the Game (separate slot without a divider)

Cards:

• Put all Equipment cards behind the “Unavailable Equipment” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Crewmember cards behind the “Recruits” divider in any order.
• Put all Landing cards behind the “Landing Cards” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Facility Upgrade cards behind the “Facility Upgrades” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Situation cards numbered S01–S10 behind the “Possible Situations” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Situation cards numbered S11 and higher behind the “Future Situations” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Research Project cards behind the “Research Projects” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Production Project cards behind the “Production Projects” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Lander Mod cards behind the “Lander Mods” divider in ascending order.
• Put all Objective, Secondary Objective, Bridge Upgrade and Tech Level cards behind the “Bridge Cards” divider in ascending order.

2) Prepare Section Compartments

Take the Section Compartments. This is where each of the four Sections will keep their dice and cards. For each Section, there will be:

Dividers:

• Rank sleeves
• Section cards

Cards and Sleeves:

• Put the Rank sleeves behind the “Rank sleeves” divider of each Section.
• Put the Section cards behind the “Section Cards” divider in order of Rank (Rank 1 first, then Rank 2, then Rank 3).

3) Prepare the Ship Book

1. Place all cardholder and cardboard divider pages in the Ship Book in ascending order with page 1 (Resuming a Saved Game) at the front and page 39 (Save Point) at the back.
2. Find the following starting cards and place them into the cardholders as follows:

Cardholder page 3:

1. Objective O01 (The Next Step)
2. Tech Level 1
3. Medium Morale (insert the Morale card so that only its “Medium” part is visible)

Cardholder page 9:

1. Research Project R04 (Biomedical Enhancements)

Cardholder page 13:

1. Production Project C01 (Section Tools)
2. Production Project C02 (Improved Vanguard Systems)
3. Production Project C03 (Heavy Mission Equipment)
4. Production Project C06 (Pelican Lander)

Cardholder page 19:

1. Space Ranger Lander card

Once all the above steps are finished, return the Card Trays and the Ship Book to the game box.

This chapter contains a walkthrough that will teach you all the fundamental rules of the game. The first part (Planetary Exploration) focuses on exploring an alien world with your Away Team. Then, the second part (Ship Management) takes you to ISS Vanguard and teaches you how to fly your ship to other explorable worlds, manage your crew, conduct research, production, and more.

If you prefer to learn the game by watching a video, you do not have to read the rest of this Chapter. Instead, just follow the link to the left.

Important: You should follow the Tutorial at least once before playing the Campaign! After that, as long as one player knows how to play and is happy to teach the others, you do not have to replay it.

Playing through the text version of the Tutorial teaches you the game gradually as you play, replacing the need for you to read the whole Rulebook before starting the game. Because of this, there will be a lot of reading of new rules as you play through it, including some scripted sequences. To avoid player downtime, if you use the text version of the Tutorial, consider playing it solo and then restarting the Campaign with your entire group.

Read the Starting Log on the second page of the Logbook.

Tutorial Setup

1) Gather components:

Place the following components on the table:

• A. Tutorial deck A (34 large cards)
• B. Tutorial deck B (13 small cards)
  Note: If either of your Tutorial decks accidentally gets shuffled, Log 720 in the Logbook tells you how to put them back in order.
• C. 1 Danger die Reference card
• D. 1 Game Round / Dice Check Reference card per player
• E. 4 Crew boards
• F. Card Tray A (Planetary Exploration) and Card Tray B (Ship Management)
• G. Section Compartments (or the 4 Section boxes if you have the Section Box add-on)
• H. Planetopedia
• I. 1 Start token, 1 Actions token, all of the Turn tokens, all of the Success tokens, all of the Time tokens, and the universal markers.
• J. 12 Injury dice
• K. 2 Danger dice
• L. 4 “Rank 1” card sleeves (one for each section, found in the Section Compartments)

Important: Ensure that all components other than the ones listed above are placed back in the box.

2) Choose Sections:

There are four specialized Sections of ISS Vanguard: Engineering (), Recon (), Science (), and Security (). Each has its own roster of Crewmembers, Section-specific cards, Equipment, and decisions to make. Each Section is controlled by 1 player, but all four Sections must be represented in the game. Therefore, if there are fewer than 4 players, some players must control more than one Section.

Players should discuss between themselves which Sections each of them will control during the game. Since this is a cooperative game, make sure each player is happy with their choice. Each player then takes the Crew boards for the Sections they control. The player who controls a Section is referred to as the “Section player.”

For example: The player who controls a Security Section is called a Security Section player.

Logbook or App: Any time you are instructed to go to a Log, either read that section of the Logbook or use the ISS Vanguard App.

Go to Log 1.

Prepare the Away Team

Read this section after reading Log 1.

1. Remove from the game the “This Side Up” card from the top of Tutorial deck A.
   Note: Anything that is removed from the game should be placed in the “Removed from the Game” compartment in Card Tray B.
2. Take the top 4 cards from Tutorial deck A (your starting Crewmembers) and give the Crewmembers to the following Section players:
   • Riku Hashimura – Security
   • Amir Zaynab – Science
   • Joppe Ulrich – Recon
   • Cho Jae-yong – Engineering

   Place each of these Crewmembers in a Rank 1 sleeve () matching their Section.

3. Select which Crewmembers will be in the Away Team:
   Note: For this tutorial, Amir Zaynab from the Science Section must be chosen as part of the Away Team.
   • In a 1-player game, the Away Team has 2 Crewmembers; the player chooses which two Sections to include.
   • In a 2-player game, the Away Team has 2 Crewmembers; each player chooses which of their two Sections to include.
   • In a 3-player game, the Away Team has 3 Crewmembers; the player who controls two Sections must choose which Section to include.
   • In a 4-player game, the Away Team has 4 Crewmembers, one from each Section.
4. Place the Crew boards for the Sections included in the Away Team in front of their controlling player. Place the Crewmember (in their Rank sleeve) onto the matching Crew board.
5. Place any unused Crew boards back in the box and place any Crewmembers not in the Away Team in “Resting Crew” (Card Tray B).
6. Each player chooses a mini to represent their Crewmember(s), puts it in colored ring representing their Section and places it on their Crew board. There are eight available minis; it does not matter which mini is used.

Go to Log 5.

Important: ISS Vanguard Logs are not resolved in consecutive order — even though you read Log 1 previously, you should go to Log 5 now, not Log 2. If you ever read any narrative in the Logbook that feels out of place, double check that you are reading the correct Log.

Prepare Section Dice

Read this section after reading Log 5.

Take the Section dice for each Crewmember as per the images on the right, placing the dice into the Available dice slots of the Crew board as shown. If a Crewmember is not in the Away Team, place their dice in their Section Compartment instead. Ensure that you take exactly the dice shown in the Crew board images on the right (the markings in the 4 corners on some of the sides of a die help you identify it). Return any dice not used to the box.

Dice Identification – Brackets

Each die has two or more sides with markings (called brackets) in the four corners. These markings are used to identify the type of die and also indicate the most common result. When placing a die into a slot of a Crew board, place it so that the side with the markings faces up; this makes it easier to find the right dice during the game.

Prepare Section Cards

Take the top 12 cards from Tutorial deck A (3 Section cards for each Section). Keeping them face down and not changing the order, give each Crewmember in the Away Team the 3 cards corresponding to their Section. Players place these cards face down in the Section deck slot indicated on the left side of their Crew board.

Remove the Section cards for Sections not in the Away Team from the game.

Each player draws the top 2 cards from their Section deck into their hand.

The players should now have the following cards in hand:

• Riku Hashimura – Endurance, Backup Plan
• Amir Zaynab – Trial and Error, Improvised Treatment
• Joppe Ulrich – Born Lucky, Athletics
• Cho Jae-yong – Specialist Toolkit, Emergency Shelter

Note: If playing solo, you must keep the hands of the 2 Crewmembers separate. It is recommended that the cards be placed face up near the Crewmember’s Crew board.

Section cards

These cards represent the unique training of Crewmembers and various special feats they can perform.

• The top part of the card contains its main effect. Each effect specifies when the card can be played. For example: “During a Dice Check” means this effect can only be used when making a Dice Check.
• The bottom part of the card depicts a Dice Combination effect which will be explained later on.

Prepare the Planet Board

1. Open the Planetopedia at pages 2-3 and place it in the middle of the table. This is the Planet board for the Tutorial: The Eye of the Void, the object you have crash-landed on.
2. Remove from the game the “This Side Up” card from the top of Tutorial deck B.
3. Take the top card from Tutorial deck B (Rank-Up card). Place it “Incomplete” side up in the space indicated on the top edge of the Planet board. All players should familiarize themselves with what is written on the card.

Note: When playing the Campaign, you would draw 2 Rank-Up cards and choose one to keep, but for this Tutorial, the one you have is already chosen for you.

Rank-Up cards

These cards contain an additional goal that Crewmembers should try to achieve during Planetary Exploration. Doing so will mean the Crewmembers in the Away Team have an opportunity to increase their Rank during Ship Management.

4. Take the next card from Tutorial deck B (Unique Discovery 1) and place it face down in the Unique Discovery space in the top right of the Planet board. This slot is used to hold special samples, specimens, and artifacts you may find.
5. Take the next card from Tutorial deck A (M01) and place it face up in the Mission space below the Unique Discovery space. However, do not read it yet; this is your first Mission which will be read later in this Tutorial.
6. The space in the bottom right of the Planet board is for a Global Condition card. The starting Global Condition card is already printed on the board, but you may be instructed at some point to place another card there, replacing the pre-printed Condition. Global Conditions represent planet-wide events and also determine the effect of Travel icons. This will be explained in more detail later.
7. Take a look at the Sectors on the Planet board (the number of a Sector is shown in the bottom right of the Sector space). Some Sectors (1, 2, 6, and 7) contain a pre-printed Point of Interest (POI) card, Sector 3 contains an empty space for a Point of Interest card, and other Sectors (4, 5, and 8) contain a Log entry to read as soon as you enter that Sector. The lines connecting some of the Sectors represent available Travel Paths.
8. Take the top 11 cards from Tutorial deck A (Points of Interest P101, P102, P103, P105, P106, P107, P108, P109 and 3 P000 cards). Place them face down next to the Planet board.
9. Take the top 4 cards from Tutorial deck B (Injury cards) and place them face up next to the Planet board.
   Note: Whenever you are instructed to gain a “Just a Scratch” Injury in this Tutorial, refer to the “Injuries” section in the “Continuing the Tutorial” part of this Tutorial on page 22.
10. Place the mini for Amir Zaynab in Sector 1 (Twisted Wreckage). The player to the left of Amir (or the other Crewmember if playing solo) places their mini in Sector 2 (Crash Site). The player to their left (if any) places their mini in Sector 1, and if there is a 4th player, they place their mini in Sector 2.
    Note: Always place minis and other components so that they do not obscure any relevant information on the Sector. The base of the miniature does not have to fully fit within the Sector’s borders.
11. Place a Turn token next to each Crew board so that the “Turn Available” side is showing. Give the Start token to Amir Zaynab.
12. Read Mission card M01 aloud. Your team is scattered across the surface of this strange, alien structure, some trapped in the broken tail of the crashed lander, and some scattered around the burning front half. Your first mission is to regroup in Sector 4.

Go to Log 20.

Amir’s First Action

Read this section after reading Log 20.

Planetary Exploration is divided into a series of rounds. In each round, starting with the Crewmember with the Start token and going clockwise, each Crewmember takes a turn to perform two Actions. Since Amir Zaynab has the Start token, he takes the first turn of the game. Give each player a Reference card.

You may use the Actions token to keep track of how many Actions you have remaining.

A Crewmember’s turn consists of the following two steps:

1. Actions Step: Perform two Actions.
2. End Turn Step: Flip Turn token, draw and resolve an Event card.

There are five different Actions you can perform:

• Travel
• Rest
• Prepare
• Lift-Off
• Special Action (once per turn)

Amir would like to perform the Travel Action to move to Sector 5. However, the icon in the top right of the POI indicates that Travel from this location is not allowed.

Instead, he decides to perform the Special Action also printed on the POI (Force the Bulkhead Open). This is a Special Action that involves a Dice Check, indicated by the two icons to the left of the name ( ).

Dice Checks are one of the main mechanisms of ISS Vanguard and are fully explained later. To resolve this Dice Check, follow the scripted instructions below which will go through the process step by step. Don’t worry, you will be making your own choices soon!

The steps to resolve a Dice Check are summarized on the Reference card.

Step 1: Choose dice

At the start of a Dice Check, the Crewmember performing the Check takes any number of dice from their Crew board into their hand.

To estimate the number of dice you need to get the desired result, look at the rows below the name of the Special Action. A row marked in green is a positive Outcome and results in the Action being successful. A row marked in red usually indicates the Action has been unsuccessful.

To help with color blindness, each different color of row also has a different style: Yellow row, Green row, Red row.

However, in this case, the red Outcome space has an arrow pointing to the green Outcome space. This means that even if the Action fails, after resolving the red Outcome space, you then resolve the green Outcome space.

Looking at Amir’s Available dice on his Crew board, he has no dice with any of the icons needed to get the green Outcome (the three depicted to the left of the green Outcome), so he could choose to roll no dice and just accept the red Outcome. However, Amir doesn’t like the idea of rolling the Danger die (the red Outcome).

Take the red and blue die as indicated in the image below from Amir’s Crew board into your hand.

Although these dice do not have any of the icons needed for the green Outcome, each die has a Vanguard icon () which counts as any other icon; if you roll at least one Vanguard icon, you will succeed.

Note: Usually, other Crewmembers in the same Sector may Assist by choosing 1 of their dice to be included in the Dice Check. This will be explained later in the Tutorial. For now, any other Crewmember in Sector 1 (if any) chooses not to Assist.

Step 2: Add Injury & Danger dice

This step can be skipped for now, as Amir has no Injury dice and the Special Action does not indicate that a Danger die must be rolled.

Step 3: Roll dice

At this point, you would normally roll all of the dice in your hand. Together, all dice rolled by the player and any assisting players form a single Roll Pool. For this Tutorial, instead of rolling the dice, place them in your Roll Pool, above your Crew board so that they show the result depicted in the image below.

The icon on the red die is an Accident (). Often, this will result in a negative effect as indicated by the Special Action, but this is not the case here (no Accident icon appears in this Special Action).

The icon on the blue die is a Basic icon (). This result has no effect on its own, but could still be useful in some situations.

Section dice locations

Your Section dice will either be:

• In Section dice slots on your Crew board, to the left of your Crewmember card (referred to as your “Available dice”).
• In your hand, when you are about to roll them during a Dice Check.
• In your Roll Pool, an area above your Crew board.
• In your Spent Pool to the right of your Crewmember card.

Dice are taken from your Section dice slots into your hand, rolled and placed in your Roll Pool, and then moved to your Spent Pool when used (or at the end of a Dice Check). Dice are moved back to your dice slots by Resting or other effects which Refresh dice.

Step 4: Modify the results

During this step, the Crewmembers play Section cards and use other dice modifier effects (such as certain Equipment cards) to change the results of their dice and meet the requirements of the desired Outcome.

You choose to play your “Trial and Error” card. Read aloud the effect of the card. It allows you to move 1 from your Roll Pool to your Spent Pool to turn 1 other to a chosen result. Amir chooses to move the red die with to his Spent Pool to change the result of the blue die to . You can treat the Vanguard icon as any of the three icons required to obtain the green Outcome (, , or ); it doesn’t matter which one, any of them will do!

Note: The Vanguard icon can be treated as any icon, even one that is not present on the die itself!

After resolving your Section card, place the card face up in your Discard pile to the right side of your Crew board.

Note: Other Crewmembers in the same Sector may Assist by playing 1 Section card from their hand (even if they didn’t choose a die during Step 1). You already have the result you need, so no Assist is required.

Step 5: Check for Dice Combinations

Skip this step for now. Dice Combinations will be explained later on in this Tutorial.

Step 6: Resolve Injury & Danger dice

This step can also be skipped because no Injury dice or Danger dice were rolled. However, it is important to know that this step comes after you have had a chance to modify your results.

Step 7: Resolve Special Effects

Skip this step for now. Special Effects will be explained later on in this Tutorial.

Step 8: Mark Outcomes

During this step, you determine the Outcome of the Action and indicate it with a marker. It will be resolved later in the procedure.

There are various types of Special Actions. “Force the Bulkhead Open” is a type of Special Action with various Outcomes based on the result of a Dice Check, each on its own row. This Special Action has two Outcomes: green and red.

Starting from the top row and proceeding down, check to see if you meet the requirements as depicted to the left of the Outcome space with dice in the Roll Pool. If you do, move those dice to your Spent Pool and place a marker on the Outcome space. If a marker was placed, proceed to Step 9 (only one marker can be placed on a card during this step). If a marker was not placed, check the next row.

Amir meets the requirement for the green Outcome, moves the blue die with the Vanguard result to his Spent Pool, and places a marker in the green Outcome space.

If Amir chose not to play his Section card in step 4, he would not have met the requirements for the green Outcome and would have marked the red Outcome instead.

Step 9: Spend remaining dice

In this step, you would move all remaining dice in your Roll Pool to your Spent Pool. You don’t have any dice left in your Roll Pool, so this step is skipped.

Step 10: Resolve Outcomes

During this step, remove the marker from the marked Outcome space and then apply the effect of that Outcome — in this case, the green Outcome.

The first effect of this Outcome is “Gain 1 ”: Place 1 Success token above the indicated space on the upper edge of the Planet board. Success tokens will be explained later on.

The second effect of the green Outcome replaces the current Point of Interest card with a new one. Find card P101 (Outer Surface) in your POI pile and place it face up in Sector 1, over the top of the “Twisted Wreckage” POI. Congratulations! You’ve freed yourself from the wreckage.

Connected Outcomes

If the red Outcome had been marked instead, that effect would have been applied (roll 1 Danger die). However, since there is an arrow from the red Outcome to the green Outcome, the green Outcome would have also been applied after the red Outcome.

This ends Amir’s first Action. The basics of a Dice Check has been explained. Injury dice, Danger dice, Assisting, and Special Actions with tracks will be explained later in the Tutorial. But for now, let’s move on to Amir’s second Action.

Amir’s Second Action

Amir now finds himself on the “Outer Surface” card. This POI has another Special Action printed on it. However, even though each Crewmember performs two Actions per turn, they can only perform one Special Action (an Action indicated by the icon). Therefore, Amir must choose a different Action.

Unlike the previous POI, this card does not have the icon, which means he can perform the Travel Action and move to another Sector. This is what he chooses to do next.

The Travel Action allows you to move your Crewmember from one Sector to another Sector along a connecting Path. Looking at the Planet board, you can see that there is a Path between Sectors 1 and 5 and there is an arrow pointing in both directions. This means that Travel is possible in both ways.

Each Path depicts one or more icons along the Path. You must resolve each of them when you Travel along a Path. In this case, the icon is the Travel icon () which indicates you must look at the current Global Condition in the bottom-right corner of the Planet board.

The Global Condition instructs you that to resolve a Travel icon, you must Spend 1 die (move it from Available dice to your Spent Pool) or roll a Danger die and look up the result on the Danger die Reference card.

Note: All the icons can be found in the Icon Glossary (page 46).

For the purposes of this Tutorial, let’s say that Amir decides to take the risk of rolling a Danger die instead of Spending a die. Roll 1 Danger die and compare the result to the entry on the Danger die Reference card.

If your result is listed, apply its effects. If your result is not listed, there is no negative effect. In either case, complete your move.

is used only in this Tutorial and the only two effects possible are as follows:

• : To resolve this effect, choose a die from your Available dice on your Crew board and place it in your Spent Pool. In this case, the image of the die shows all 3 colors, so you can choose any die.
• Gain “Just a Scratch” Injury: There are a number of ways you can become injured during a Mission. See the Injuries section on page 22 for the full details of this.

Regardless of the result, move Amir to Sector 5. Since there is a Log number listed in this Sector, resolve it right now.

Go to Log 227.

End of Amir’s Turn

Read this section after reading Log 227.

Amir’s turn is now over. Flip his Turn token to the “Turn Ended” side. Normally, at this time, the Crewmember must draw and resolve an Event card. However, Event cards will be introduced later in the Tutorial, so skip that for now.

Go to Log 50.

Second Crewmember’s Turn

Read this section after reading Log 50.

Any Crewmember in Sector 2 also faces a difficult situation. The melting hull is endangering volatile oxygen tanks. The POI also depicts the icon meaning no Travel from this Sector is possible until the emergency is dealt with.

The second Crewmember should choose the “Save the Supplies” Special Action visible in Sector 2. This also requires a Dice Check, but this is resolved in a different way to the one we saw on Amir’s turn. Instead of Outcomes with requirements, each Outcome has a track associated with it.

This type of Dice Check represents various activities with progress that can be measured. Instead of trying to roll a fixed requirement, each of your dice will give a chance of progressing one of the tracks. The first time you progress on a track, place a universal marker on the leftmost space of the track. Each subsequent progress moves the marker 1 space to the right. When the marker moves onto the Outcome space (the large space on the right with the effect), progressing it again will not move it farther. The effect of that space is applied at the end of the Dice Check procedure.

For both tracks on this POI, 4 progress is needed to apply the effect of the Outcome space.

Progress on a track is saved from one turn to the next, i.e., one Crewmember could progress a track on their turn, and another Crewmember progress more later on. You can even make some progress, Travel elsewhere, come back, and continue.

The two Special Effects of this Action are resolved from left to right. First, any Accident icons you roll will progress the red track and then those dice will be moved to your Spent Pool ( = ). Then, each Section die you have remaining in your Roll Pool will progress the green track ( = ).

Note: Some later Actions have Special Effects on two or more rows. Always resolve the top row first, from left to right, then the next row, and so on.

Special Effects

Some Dice Checks have Special Effects listed in a black frame between the name of the Action and its Outcomes.

Accidents

An Accident result means that something has gone wrong and usually leads to some negative effect.

The process for resolving this Dice Check is the same 10 steps, so let’s go through them again.

Step 1: Choose dice

To maximise your chances of making as much progress as possible, take all 5 dice from your Crew board and place them into your hand. Any other Crewmember present chooses not to Assist you.

Step 2: Add Injury & Danger dice

As before, this step can be skipped.

Step 3: Roll dice

Roll all of the dice in your hand. This time, use the actual results you rolled. However, if you roll 3 or more Accidents, reroll all of your dice until you roll fewer than 3 Accidents (this is only for this specific roll and only during this Tutorial).

Step 4: Modify the results

If you rolled no more than 1 Accident result, all is good! Skip to Step 5. Otherwise, read on.

If you roll 2 Accidents, you are in trouble! Why? Because when you come to Step 7 (below), those Accidents will progress the red track and then the dice are moved to your Spent Pool. This means that when you come to resolve the second Special Effect, you will not have the 4 dice needed to progress the green track all the way to the end.

Decide whether or not you want to Modify the results of your dice by playing Section cards from your hand. After resolving the effect of a played Section card, place it face up in your discard pile.

For example: If you rolled 2 Accidents and are playing Cho Jae-yong, you could play “Emergency Shelter” to reroll one of your Accident dice, hoping to not roll another Accident and/or you could play “Specialist Toolkit” to turn one of your blue dice to any result.

Step 5: Check for Dice Combinations

Skip this step again. Dice Combinations will be explained later.

Step 6: Resolve Injury & Danger dice

Skip this step as no Injury or Danger dice were rolled.

Step 7: Resolve Special Effects

This Special Action has two Special Effects. They must be resolved from left to right.

1. First, for each Accident you have in your Roll Pool, progress the red track once and then place that die in your Spent Pool. Remember, the first progress places a marker at the start of the track, and each other progress moves the marker 1 space to the right.
2. Then, for each remaining die in your Roll Pool, progress the green track and then place that die in your Spent Pool.

Step 8: Mark Outcomes

This step is skipped for Dice Checks with tracks.

Step 9: Spend dice

Move all dice from the Roll Pool to the Spent Pool.

Step 10: Resolve Outcomes

Check each track from top to bottom. If the marker is in the Outcome space, remove the marker and apply the effect of that Outcome.

If you’re applying the green Outcome, first gain 1 . Then, replace the POI in this sector with P102 (Recovered Supplies), removing all markers on the previous POI card back to the supply.

If you did not make enough progress to reach the end of the green track, try again next turn (or another Crewmember could try).

Note: In the rare case that you progress both tracks to the end, because they are resolved from top to bottom, the Outcome of the green track would replace this POI with another card. The red track would then not be resolved.

Your Crewmember is now out of dice, and as you have seen, dice are required to perform most of the Special Actions. One way to Refresh your dice is the Rest Action, so that is what you should do now.

The First Rest Action

As you will see on the Reference card, performing a Rest Action reduces the number of Supplies you have. Supplies are your most vital resource, representing oxygen, filters, water, and everything else you need to explore alien worlds. However, in this Tutorial Mission your Supplies are unlimited as can be seen on the Global Condition card.

When you Rest, you Refresh half of your total number of Section dice, rounding up. You currently have 5 dice in total. In this case, all your dice are in your Spent Pool, but in future, you may have some still in Available dice slots. You count the total number of dice on your Crew board. Half of 5 rounded up is 3, so you Refresh any 3 of your dice.

To Refresh a die, move it from your Spent Pool back into a matching colored dice slot on the left side of your Crew board. Remember to place them with the side with the markings in the four corners facing up, so that you can identify them easily.

Finally, as the last step of the Rest Action, draw 1 Section card from your deck into your hand. At Rank 1, the maximum number of Section cards a Crewmember may have in hand is 2 (as shown on your Crew board). If you now have 3 cards, you must discard 1 card from your hand to your discard pile on the right side of your Crew board. The next time you need to draw a card, if your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck and place it to the left of your Crew board.

The second Crewmember’s turn is now over. Flip your Turn token to the “Turn Ended” side. Again, normally, you would draw and resolve an Event card at this time, but skip this at this point in the Tutorial.

Exertion

Another way to Refresh your dice is the Exert mechanic outlined under the Spent Pool on your Crew board. However, you should not use it in this Tutorial, as it comes at a cost of Sacrificing a die.

Success tokens

Whenever you gain a , place 1 Success token above the indicated space on the upper edge of the Planet board.

Empty Section card deck

Whenever you need to draw a Section card and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, and then draw. Important: You only create a new deck when you need to draw a card and your deck is empty, not just when your deck runs out of cards.

Remaining Crewmembers

Depending on the number of Crewmembers in the Away Team, there may be other Crewmembers who have not yet taken a turn. If you have three or more Crewmembers, they should follow the steps below. Once all players have taken their turns, move on to the “Round Completed” part at the bottom of this section.

PLAYER 3

• Action 1: Perform the “Take the Surface Samples” Special Action shown on the POI card in your current Sector. This Special Action is similar to the one that Amir performed on his turn, but there is a third Outcome (yellow). Refer to the section on “Bonus Outcomes” on page 21 of this Rulebook before performing this Action. The green Outcome of this Special Action instructs you to gain Unique Discovery 1. Whenever you gain a Unique Discovery, check the “Unique Discovery” rules on page 24 of this Rulebook. The green Outcome also tells you to replace P101 with P000, but there are several P000 cards in the pile. Because there are multiple copies of that card available, choose one at random.
• Action 2: Travel to Sector 5, choosing to either Spend a die, or roll a Danger die. At the end of your turn, flip your Turn token over. Do not draw or resolve an Event card.

PLAYER 4

• Action 1: Travel to Sector 4. This requires Spending a die. Sector 4 contains a Log entry. As soon as you enter this Sector, go to Log 311.
• Action 2: Perform the Prepare Action. This Action is explained on page 22 of this Rulebook but for now, just draw 1 Section card. Skip the part about Dice Combinations. At the end of your turn, flip your Turn token over. Do not draw or resolve an Event card.

Round Completed

One full round is now completed! Go to Log 59.

Continuing the Tutorial

Read this section after reading Log 59.

Once you have completed the first round of the Tutorial, you are then on your own! However, there are a number of additional rules you need to understand before continuing, which are listed below. Ensure you are aware of these before continuing but many of them only need to be read when you need them. Depending on what has happened in the Tutorial so far, you may have already read some of these sections. Also, refer to the Icon Glossary at the back of this Rulebook for any new icons that haven’t been explained yet.

Please note: During the Tutorial, Crewmembers do not draw Event cards at the end of their turn until Mission M02 has been revealed.

Reference cards

As mentioned earlier, the Reference cards contain a summary of the turn structure on one side, along with a list of possible Actions, and the Dice Check procedure on the other side. Now that the “scripted” part of the tutorial is complete, you will need to refer to both sides of this Reference card during the game. A number of things shown on this card that were skipped over during the first round are explained below in their own sections.

Turn Order

At the start of each round, the Crewmember with the Start token chooses any Crewmember (including themselves) to receive the Start token. Crewmembers take turns beginning with the Crewmember with the Start token and continuing clockwise. Each Crewmember flips over their Turn token at the start of the round.

Convert Abilities

Each Crewmember has a Convert Ability depicted in the top left of their Crewmember card. During a Dice Check, you may use your Convert Ability whenever you Spend a die to treat Basic results of the color shown as if they were the depicted icon. The color of the die is unchanged.

Travel Effects

The Travel icon has already been explained, but there are other icons on Travel Paths. These are all explained in the Icon Glossary, but the ones on this Planet board are repeated here for convenience:

• To resolve this effect, choose a die from Available dice on your Crew board and place it in your Spent Pool. In this case, the image of the die shows all 3 colors, so you can choose any die.
• Roll a Danger die and look up the result on the Danger die Reference card.

Immediate Special Effects

Read this section the first time a Crewmember performs a Special Action that has an Immediate Special Effect.

A Special Effect that depicts one of the following icons is known as an Immediate Special Effect: .

If you meet the conditions for this Special Effect, end the Dice Check immediately. Move all rolled dice from the Roll Pool to their owner’s Spent Pools and resolve the depicted Outcome.

For example: During this Dice Check, if you do not have a icon in your Roll Pool, immediately resolve the red Outcome and end the Dice Check.

Cards with 2 Special Actions

Some cards depict more than 1 Special Action. You must choose which Special Action you are performing before starting the Dice Check.

Bonus Outcomes

Read this section the first time a Crewmember performs a Dice Check which has a Bonus Outcome.

Some Dice Checks have a bonus yellow Outcome in addition to the green and red Outcomes. A bonus Outcome usually gives you something in addition to the standard positive Outcome.

In the case of the “Take the Surface Samples” Special Action, the bonus Outcome gives you a Success token and then you apply the effect of the green Outcome. This is indicated by the yellow arrow pointing from the yellow Outcome to the green Outcome.

Note: For this particular Action, you could choose to roll only 1 die. If you are lucky and roll a or or result, you will get the yellow Outcome and then the green one. But, if you do not roll any of these results, one die alone is not enough to get the green Outcome.

Note: Unlike the “Force the Bulkhead Open” Special Action, a red Outcome here does not then also result in the green Outcome being applied. It is simply a failure and a wasted Action.

Multiple POI Cards

Read this section the first time you are instructed to take a P000 card.

Whenever you are instructed to take a POI card and there are multiple copies of that card available, choose one at random.

Rank-Up Card

Read this section when you have 3 Success tokens.

As soon as you meet the requirements listed on the current Rank-Up card, flip the card over to the Completed side. This indicates that you have completed this additional goal and will gain the benefits of this during Ship Management. For the Tutorial, flip the card over as soon as you have 3 Success tokens in the space above the Planet board. Continue to collect Success tokens as normal.

Injuries in the Tutorial

Read this section the first time a Crewmember gains an Injury.

At various times during the Tutorial, you will be instructed to gain “Just a Scratch!” Injury (the only type in the Tutorial game. If you are instructed to gain any other type of Injury during the Tutorial, ignore that instruction). To do this, first, take an Injury card (all of them in the Tutorial are “Just a Scratch!” Injuries) and place it face up in the leftmost Injury slot on the bottom of your Crew board. Then, place 1 yellow Injury die in the top dice slot of any column of your Crew board, moving all other dice in that column down 1 slot if the top slot has a die in it.

Note: For the Tutorial, it doesn’t matter which column you place the die in, but it might when playing the Campaign.

For example: During a Travel Action, you are instructed to roll the Danger die, and you roll the result that means you gain ”Just a Scratch!” Injury. First, you place the Injury card in your leftmost Injury slot. Then, you take 1 Injury die and choose to place it in the green column. Each of your green dice are moved down 1 slot.

Note: For the Tutorial, each Crewmember can only gain 1 Injury. If you already have an Injury card, ignore any effect which would make you gain another Injury card. This is not the case during the Campaign.

Dice Checks When Injured

Whenever you make a Dice Check, any Injury dice you have must be rolled during Step 2 along with any Section dice you choose. During step 6, if the result of an Injury die in your Roll Pool matches the icon on your Injury card, place the Injury die on the card and apply the effect of that icon as listed on the card. If the result of the die does not match an icon on any of your Injury cards, leave it in your Roll Pool.

Note: In the Tutorial, there are no effects which can modify these dice, but there are in the Campaign.

For example: After crawling through a tight space, you gained an Injury card and an Injury die. During a Dice Check, you roll your Injury die in addition to any other dice you roll. The result of the Injury die is a . During step 6, you place that die on the Injury card and must Spend a die.

Injury dice are returned to your Section dice slots at the end of step 6 of the Dice Check. Place the die in the top slot of any column (it does not have to return to the same column it came from), moving other dice down, if required.

Removing an Injury

In the Tutorial, some effects allow a Crewmember to remove an Injury die and an Injury card. To do this, simply take the die and place it back in the supply and place the card back with the other Injury cards.

Prepare Action

Read this section the first time a Crewmember wants to perform the Prepare Action.

To perform the Prepare Action, do one or both of the following (in any order):

• Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now have 3 cards in hand (more than your Section card limit), you must immediately discard 1 card.
• Make a Dice Check to try and match the icons on your rolled dice to Dice Combinations of Section cards in your hand (Dice Combinations are explained on the next page). This follows the normal process as described on page 15 (you must include any Injury dice, other players may Assist you, and you may play the top effects of Section cards to modify its results).

Not enough dice to Spend

If you have to resolve a Spend effect and you don’t have enough Available dice, you will need to Sacrifice a die instead – see Sacrifice in Game Terms Glossary at the back of this Rulebook.

Dice Combinations

Read this section the next time a Crewmember resolves a Dice Check.

During Step 5 of a Dice Check, you may use the Dice Combination effect of any Section cards in your hand if you meet the requirement with dice in the Roll Pool.

Note: In the Campaign, there may also be Dice Combination effects on the current Global Condition card.

If the results of dice in the Roll Pool (including dice from Assisting Crewmembers) match the Dice Combination requirement on a Section card in your hand, you may move the matching dice to their owner’s Spent Pools to activate the effect described on the card. After doing so, discard that card face up to your discard pile. It is possible to activate the effect of more than 1 Section card in this way, but dice used to activate an effect are moved to their owner’s Spent Pool immediately and cannot be used to activate another card or an Outcome.

Note: In the Tutorial, there are only two different Dice Combination icons. There are many more in the Campaign:

• Any die showing a Basic result
• 2 dice showing the same icon. Remember that the Vanguard result counts as any icon
• Accident results cannot be used for Dice Combinations

For example: You perform a Dice Check and roll 2 dice (1 red and 1 blue). Another Crewmember Assists you and rolls 1 green die. You roll 1 Physical and 1 Basic. The other Crewmember rolls a Vanguard. No reroll effects happen, so these are the final results of the dice after Step 4 of the Dice Check sequence. During step 5 of the Dice Check, these dice may be used to activate the Dice Combination effect of any Section cards in your hand.

You have 2 Section cards in hand (Athletics and Dash). You could use your blue Basic die to activate the effect of the Dash card (moving to another Sector), moving the blue dice to your Spent Pool and discarding the Dash card. Since the Vanguard result counts as any icon, you then use your red Physical result and the Assisting Crewmember’s die to activate the effect of the Athletics card. The red die is moved to your Spent Pool and the green die is moved to the Spent Pool of the Assisting Crewmember.

Assisting

Whenever a Crewmember is making a Dice Check, each other Crewmember in the same Sector may choose to Assist. The Crewmember making a Dice Check is known as the Active Crewmember.

Read this section the first time a Crewmember chooses to Assist.

Crewmembers can Assist in one or both of the following ways:

• During Step 1 of the Dice Check, another Crewmember may Assist by choosing 1 die from their Available dice. This die is rolled during Step 3 and may be used by the Active Crewmember as if it was in their Roll Pool. When it is moved to the Spent Pool, place it in the Spent Pool of the owning Crewmember instead of the Active Crewmember.
• During Step 4 of the Dice Check, another Crewmember may Assist by playing 1 Section card from their hand that has a During a Dice Check effect. Resolve the effect of the card as if the Active Crewmember played it.

For example: Amir, Cho, and Riku are all in the same Sector. Amir performs a Special Action which involves making a Dice Check. Cho Assists by adding one of her dice to the Roll Pool. Riku doesn’t add any dice, but plays a Section card during Step 4.

Convert Abilities when Assisting

Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Convert Abilities. Only the Convert Ability of the Crewmember performing the Dice Check may be used. However, this Crewmember can use it also on dice from Assisting Crewmembers.

Collective Roll Pool

Each player has their own Roll Pool in order to keep track of who owns each die. However, all dice in all Roll Pools are considered to be in the same Roll Pool and can be used by the Active Crewmember.

Danger Dice in Dice Checks

Read this section when performing the “Squeeze Through” Special Action.

Some Special Actions are dangerous to perform, represented by the Danger die icon depicted to the left of the Special Action’s name. During a Dice Check, a Danger die must be rolled at the same time as your other dice. During Step 5, resolve the Danger die as you normally would when rolling it (look up the result on the Danger die Reference card). Then, place the Danger die back in the supply.

Unique Discovery

Read this section only when instructed to gain Unique Discovery 1.

Unique Discoveries are found on certain planets and are placed face down on the Planet board during setup. When you are instructed to gain a Unique Discovery, flip the card over. Unique Discoveries are normally stored on your Lander, but for the Tutorial, place it above the Planet board in the indicated space.

If you are instructed to gain Unique Discovery 1 and you already have it, gain 1 instead (as printed on the Unique Discovery space in the top right of the Planet board).

Events

Read this section after reading Log 298.

As mentioned earlier, when a Crewmember ends their turn, they reveal the top Event card and resolve it. The process is as follows:

1. Reveal the top Event card from the Event deck. If the Event deck is empty, shuffle the Events discard pile to form a new deck before revealing the top card.
2. If none of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector (including icons on a POI card), follow the secondary effect of the card, printed at the top of the card. In the Tutorial, the secondary effect of all Event cards is to progress all Time Tracks by 1. Ignore this effect if Global Condition card G01 (Flickering Lights) is not in play. If it is in play, read the section below on Time Tracks.
3. If any of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector, resolve the main effect of the card, printed in the lower part of the card. Unless specified otherwise, this effect only applies to the player who revealed the card.
4. Discard the card face up to the Event cards discard pile.

For example: You end your turn in Sector 6 and reveal an Event card. The Biome icon on the card matches the Biome icon in your current Sector, so the main effect of the Event is resolved (Eerie Voices) and you must Spend a die. If the Event icon on the card was not visible in your current Sector, the secondary effect is resolved instead (progress all Time Tracks by 1).

Time Tracks

Read this section only when instructed to do so.

At various times during the game, you will be instructed to progress all Time Tracks. In the Tutorial, this only becomes relevant once card G01 is in play (G01 is the only Time Track in the Tutorial).

Time Tracks work in a similar way to tracks on Special Actions: Whenever you are instructed to progress all Time Tracks, if there is no Time token currently on the track, place one on the leftmost space. Each subsequent progress moves the token one space to the right. Once it reaches the rightmost space (the one with details of the effect), resolve that effect.

Whenever you are instructed to reset the Time Track remove the Time token from it.

For example: The Time Track on G01 requires 4 progress: The first progress places a Time token on the track and when the token reaches the final space, you go to Log 505.

Tutorial Cleanup & Transition to Campaign

Read this section after reading Log 204.

As your Away Team leaves the planet, it is time to perform some quick clean up steps:

1. CLEAN UP CARDS & DICE: Move any Section dice from the table to their appropriate Section Compartments. Return all Turn tokens, Time tokens, Start token, minis, markers, Injury dice, and Danger dice to the game box.
   • Remove all Section cards that were used in the Tutorial, along with Tutorial Event cards, Tutorial Injury cards, Tutorial Mission cards, and the Tutorial Global Condition card from the game.
   • Place all P000 cards – “Nothing Interesting” (both from the Planet board and the POI pile) to “Points of Interest” (Card Tray A). Remove all other POI cards from the Planet board and POI pile from the game.
2. COMPONENTS CHECK: At this point, the only components on your table should be the open Planetopedia with your Success Tokens, Discoveries, Rank-Up card, Crew boards with Crewmember cards, and your Reference cards.
3. PROMOTE CREWMEMBERS: Since the Rank-Up card was flipped to the completed side during Planetary Exploration, all Crewmembers in the Away Team Rank-Up. Replace their Rank 1 sleeve with a Rank 2 sleeve, placing their card back on their Crew board. Place the Rank 1 sleeves back in the appropriate Section Compartments. Then, remove the Tutorial Rank-Up card from the game.
4. BUY DICE: You can use your Success tokens to buy additional dice for each Section. The cost to do this is 1 Success token for each die a Section currently has (all Sections will always have the same number of dice). Buying dice in this way adds 1 new die to each Section. Because each Section currently has 5 dice, the cost is 5 Success tokens. If you have that many, return 5 Success tokens to the box and add the following dice from the game box to the corresponding Section Compartments: Security, Engineering, Science, Recon. These dice are known as Wild dice and give you a higher chance of rolling a Vanguard result, but also a higher chance of rolling an Accident. Use them carefully! For now, leave any remaining Success tokens on the table.

Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of the ISS Vanguard tutorial. Please remember that additional rules and elements of the game, such as Ship Management, Leads, Discoveries, Threats, Landers, and more, will be revealed as your campaign progresses. Whenever you wish to review their rules, use the “Full Rules” part of this Rulebook (Chapter III).

If you wish to continue your campaign immediately after this Tutorial, go to the next section (Continuing the Campaign). Otherwise, go to “Resetting Your Game” procedure on page 41 to prepare your game for future playthroughs.

Good luck on your voyages!

Continuing the Campaign after Tutorial

You are now ready to perform your first Ship Management. During this part of the game, you will travel to new alien worlds, research technologies, manufacture new equipment, and improve your Sections and Crewmembers. The various steps of Ship Management are performed using the Ship Book. Place the Ship Book on the table and ensure adequate space for three token pools along its left edge.

The Ship Book was already filled with your starting cards during “Before Your First Game” steps.

Now, perform the following steps:

• Place the “Awaiting…” envelope on the table. During Ship Management, you will sometimes be instructed to place cards in this envelope and when you reach the part of the Ship Book where they are used, you will be instructed what to do with them.
• Open the Ship Book at pages 28 and 29. Move Unique Discovery 1 from the “Found Discoveries” slot on the Planet board to the card slot numbered “1” on page 29.
• If you have any Success tokens remaining on the table, place them in the Token bag. This ziplock bag is used to save your current pool of various tokens.
• Each Section’s player moves any Crewmembers on their Crew boards to “Resting Crew” (Card Tray B).
• Each Section’s player takes 2 random cards from “Recruits” (Card Tray B) and places them face up on the table. Each player picks one new Crewmember for each of their Sections. Insert these Crewmembers into Rank 1 sleeves, found in Section Compartments. Return the rest of the Crewmember cards to “Recruits” (Card Tray B) and shuffle all cards there.
• Each player takes these new Crewmembers into their hand. Crewmembers in a player’s hand are known as Available Crewmembers. Players who control more than one Section keep their Available Crewmembers from all their Sections together, in one hand. During Ship Management, you will be able to assign Available Crewmembers to various tasks. However, you can never assign your last Available Crewmember of each Section, as you need them for the next Planetary Exploration.
  Note: This means that you may not be able to perform any Assignments on your first Ship Management unless you decide to use Barracks to recruit more Crewmembers.
• Take the Planetary Scanner and the Systems Maps Book from the box and place them nearby.

You are now ready to begin Ship Management. This uses procedures found in the Ship Book, some of which reference components you have not yet gained in your campaign. If a procedure refers to a component you don’t have, ignore these steps until later Ship Managements.

Hint: As you go through the Ship Book, it will present you with many options – don’t worry. At this point of the Campaign, no choice is bad. However, we suggest that once on the “Ship Facilities” step, you should activate the Barracks and Production Complex. This will allow you to gain some Equipment before your next mission. However, other combinations are also possible!

Now, go to Log 750.

Before playing the Campaign, at least one of the players (and ideally everyone) must have watched the tutorial video (see page 10) or played through the Tutorial as that teaches you the main rules for the game.

You have two options for starting the Campaign:

1. Continue from the Tutorial: This is the recommended option if you have just played the Tutorial. You do not have to perform any additional setup or procedures. Simply continue your game where the Tutorial left off. To do this, skip the rest of this page and page 28. Page 29 onwards contains the detailed rules for Planetary Exploration.
2. Quickstart: Choose this option if you want to either start the Campaign with different Crewmembers than were used in the Tutorial, or if you are playing the Campaign for a second time, or third, or…

Campaign Quickstart Procedure

The following procedure explains how to set up and start the full ISS Vanguard campaign without playing through the Tutorial.

1) Check Card Trays & Ship Book

Make sure the Card Trays and Ship Book are organized as described in the “Before your First Play” section. If you have remade the Tutorial decks, move the following Tutorial cards to the Card Trays listed here:

• Point of Interest cards P101, P102, P103, P105, P106, P107, P108, P109, P000, P000, P000 to “Points of Interest” (Card Tray A)
• Mission card M01, M02, M03 to “Mission Cards” (Card Tray A)
• Global Condition card G01 to “Global Conditions” (Card Tray A)
• Unique Discovery 1 to “Unique Discoveries” (Card Tray A)
• 4 “Just a Scratch” Injury cards to “Injuries” (Card Tray A)
• Place 5 Tutorial Event cards and a Tutorial Rank-Up card on the table
• 4 Tutorial Crewmember cards to “Recruits” (Card Tray B)
• Research Project card R01 to “Research Projects” (Card Tray B)

2) Gather Components

Place the following components on the table:

• A. 1 Game Round / Dice Check Reference card per player
• B. 1 Danger Die Reference card
• C. 4 Crew boards
• D. Card Tray A (Planetary Exploration)
• E. Card Tray B (Ship Management)
• F. Section Compartments (or the 4 Section boxes if you have the Section box add-on)
• G. Planetopedia
• H. 1 Start token and all Turn tokens, Success tokens, Time tokens, and markers
• I. 12 Injury dice
• J. 2 Danger dice
• K. 5 Tutorial Event cards
• L. 1 Tutorial Rank-Up card

Important: Ensure that all components other than the ones listed above are placed back in the box.

3) Read the Starting Log

Open your Logbook or App and read the Starting Log (The very first Log in the Logbook) that begins Vanguard’s story.

4) Choose Sections

Players should discuss between themselves which Sections each of them will control during the game. Since this is a cooperative game, make sure each player is happy with their choice. Each player then takes the Crew boards for the Sections they control. The player who controls a Section is referred to as the “Section Player.” Each of the four Sections must have a controlling player!

5) Draw initial Crewmembers

1. Each Section’s player takes 3 random cards from “Recruits” (Card Tray B) and places them face up on the table.
2. Each Section’s player picks two starting Crewmembers for each of their Sections. Insert these Crewmembers into Rank 1 sleeves, found in their Section Compartment. Place one Crewmember of each Section on a matching Crew board, and the other in “Resting Crew” (Card Tray B).
3. Return the rest of Crewmember cards to “Recruits” (Card Tray B) and shuffle all cards there.

6) Prepare Section Dice and Cards

Take the Section dice for each Section as per the images below, placing the dice into slots of the Crew board as shown. Ensure that you take exactly the dice shown in the images below (the markings in the 4 corners on some of the sides of a die help you identify it). Return any dice not used to the box.

7) Choose the Away Team

Each player who controls more than one Section picks only one Section to take part in the first mission. If playing solo, choose two Sections instead. For any Section that will NOT take part in the first mission:

1. Move this Section’s Crewmember card from the Crew board to “Resting Crew” (Card Tray B).
2. Move this Section’s dice from the Crew board to that Section’s Section Compartment.
3. Return this Section’s Crew board to the box.

8) Prepare Section Cards

For each Crewmember in the Away Team, take the 10 x Rank 1 Section cards that are marked with a white bar next to their Rank from that Section Compartment. Each Crewmember shuffles their Section cards and places them face down in the indicated Section deck slot to the left of their Crew board.
Please note: The starting planet doesn’t use all rules and components of the game, such as Threats, Discoveries, Leads, Equipment, Crew Abilities, and Charges. This means not every card ability will be useful for now.

9) Set up the Planet Board

1. Open Planetopedia at pages 02-03 (Eye of the Void) – this is your Planet board.
2. Place the Tutorial Rank-Up card “Incomplete” side up in the indicated slot along the top edge of the Planet board.
3. Take Mission card M01 from “Missions” (Card Tray A) and place it face up in the Mission space below the Unique Discovery space.
4. Place Unique Discovery 1 in the designated space face down.
5. Shuffle 5 Tutorial Event cards and place them next to the Planet board.
6. For each Section taking part in this Planetary Exploration, players choose one of eight available minis to represent the Crewmembers in the Away Team and place them in colored rings representing their Section. Players place these minis in Sectors 1 and 2 any way they wish – at least one mini per Sector.
7. Place a Turn token next to each Crew board so that the “Turn Available” side is showing. Give the Start token to the Recon Section player (even if the Recon Section is not a part of the Away Team).
8. Leave the Charges slot empty. Due to their sudden awakening, Away Team Crewmembers do not gain any Charges at the start of this Exploration!
9. Read the Mission card aloud.
10. Each Section’s player draws two cards from their Section deck.

10) Begin your Exploration!

Go to Log 1.

Round Structure & Turn Flow

At the start of Planetary Exploration, follow these steps:

1. Each player takes 1 Turn token for each Crewmember on the Planet and places it on their Crew board, showing “Turn Available.”
2. The Recon Section player chooses which Crewmember receives the Start token.

Planetary Exploration is divided into a series of rounds. In each round, starting with the Crewmember with the Start token and going clockwise, each Crewmember takes a turn to perform two Actions. At the end of a Crewmember’s turn, they flip their Turn token to the other side. Once all Crewmembers have taken a turn, the round ends. Each Crewmember flips their Turn tokens back to the “Turn Available” side.

At the start of the next round, the Crewmember with the Start token chooses any Crewmember (including themself) and gives the Start token to them. The Crewmember with the Start token takes the first turn, followed by all other Crewmembers in clockwise order.

On your turn, perform the following steps:

1. Perform two Actions – Choose one of the Actions listed below and resolve it fully. Then, choose a second Action and resolve it fully. With the exception of the Special Action, you may perform the same Action twice.
   • Special Action (once per turn)
   • Travel
   • Prepare
   • Rest
   • Lift-Off

   To help you remember whether you have one or two Actions left, you may use the optional Actions token to track this.
   Using an effect of your Crew board, Lander board, Crewmember card, Equipment, Section card, etc. does not count as an Action unless it is identified as a Special Action, or its text states that using it counts as an Action.

2. End of Turn:
   • Flip your Turn token face down, so that the “Turn Ended” side is visible.
   • Draw and resolve an Event card (see page 37).

When all Turn tokens are showing “Turn Ended”, the round is over: Begin a new round.

This sequence repeats until any of the following happens:

• A Crewmember performs the Lift-Off Action.
• A Crewmember receives a fourth Injury card.
• A Log or a Mission card tells you to end Planetary Exploration.

Then, refer to the ‘Ending Planetary Exploration’ section on page 41.

Actions Available

1) Special Actions

Special Actions include anything from taking samples of a dangerous substance to negotiating with an alien life form. They are identified by before the name of the Action.

On your turn, you may perform one Special Action that is visible:

• On the Planet board, depicted in your Sector.
• On a POI card in your Sector.
• On the Global Condition card.
• On a card that represents any Threats in your Sector.
• On a revealed Mission card.
• On a Lander Mod or Rank-Up card.

Most Special Actions involve making a Dice Check (see page 31). Other Special Actions simply involve following the text shown below the Action.

2) Travel

The Travel Action is the main way in which Crewmembers reach new Sectors of the planet.

Note: If there is a icon visible anywhere in your Sector, you cannot perform this Action.

Whenever you perform the Travel Action, follow these steps:

1. Choose a Path (a line connecting the Sector you are currently in with the Sector you want to Travel to). Some Paths are one way; you can only choose a Path if there is an arrowhead at its start. I.e., you can only move in the direction indicated by the arrowheads. All Sectors you can Travel to from your Sector are called Connected Sectors.
2. Resolve each icon depicted on the Path. If the Path depicts a Travel icon , skip step 3 of this Action and resolve the effect of the Travel Action listed on the Global Condition card in the lower-right corner of the Planet board.
   Note: Until the Travel Action is completed (all Path icons have been resolved), your Crewmember is considered to be in the Sector you started your Travel from. This means Crewmembers in your starting sector can Assist you, but those in your destination Sector cannot.
3. Place your Crewmember mini in the Sector on the other end of the Path. If you arrive in a Sector that contains a Log number, immediately read this Log.

Lander Sector

Some Sectors depict a Lander icon, indicating a possible Sector where you can land. The Sector with the Lander in it is referred to as the Lander Sector. At the end of most Planetary Explorations, you will have to go back to the Lander Sector to Lift-Off.

Log numbers on the Planet board

During your turn, if you arrive in a Sector that directs you to the Logbook (says “Go to Log XX”), immediately read that entry in the Logbook.

3) Prepare

Whenever you perform the Prepare Action, do one or both of the following (in any order):

• Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now have more cards than your Section card limit (2 cards for Rank 1, 3 cards for Rank 2, and 4 cards for Rank 3), immediately discard down to your limit.
• Perform a Dice Check to try to match the rolled dice with a Dice Combination of a Section card in your hand or on the current Global Condition card. This follows the normal process as described on page 31 (you must include any Injury dice, other players may Assist you, and you may play the top effects of Section cards to modify its results).

4) Rest

Resting is the main way in which Crewmembers Refresh their Section dice (move them from their Spent Pool to Available dice slots on the left side of their Crew board).

Whenever you perform the Rest Action, follow these steps:

1. Reduce your Supplies by 1 (tracked by the marker on the Supplies track of your Lander). If you are unable to do this (the track is already at zero), you cannot Rest.
2. Refresh half of your total number of Section dice, rounding up. To do this, count both the Available Section dice, and the dice in your Spent Pool. For example: If you have 2 Available Section dice and 5 dice in your Spent Pool, you Refresh 4 dice.
3. Draw 1 Section card from your deck to your hand. If you now have more cards than your Section card limit (2 cards for Rank 1, 3 cards for Rank 2, and 4 cards for Rank 3), immediately discard down to your limit.

Refreshing dice

To Refresh a die, move it from your Spent Pool back into a matching colored slot of your Crew board. Remember to place them with the side with the brackets in the four corners facing up, so that you identify them easily.

5) Lift-Off

This Action may only be performed by a Crewmember in the Lander Sector, and only if all other Crewmembers unanimously agree. Performing this Action ends Planetary Exploration immediately (see page 41).

Important: Lifting off without all Crewmembers in the Lander Sector will cause the abandoned Crewmembers to die. Lifting off with an incomplete mission will apply Mission Failed penalties in the Ship Book.

Exertion

You may Exert your Crewmember at any time (this includes Landings). Exerting does not count as an Action.

To Exert your Crewmember, Sacrifice 1 die (from Available Section dice or Spent Pool) to Refresh 5 of your Section dice. If you have a total of 3 or fewer Section dice in play (Available Section dice, in your Spent Pool, and in your Roll Pool), you must gain an “Exhausted” Injury instead of Sacrificing a die.

For example: You are about to make an important Dice Check but only have 1 Section die on your Crew board. Since time is a critical factor on the current Mission, you don’t have the luxury of performing a Rest Action to Refresh your dice before making the Dice Check. You decide to Exert yourself, Sacrificing a die from your Spent Pool to Refresh 5 of your Spent dice. Now, you can make the Dice Check with plenty of dice.

Note: Exerting is not an Action and can be done during any player’s turn. It can even be done in response to an effect, or even after drawing an Event but before resolving it.

Sacrifice

Move a Section die from your Crew board or Spent Pool back to your Section Compartment.

Many of the Actions you perform during the game involve making a test with your Section dice to determine the Outcome. These are called Dice Checks and are identified by this icon . Use the following rules only if you are instructed to perform a Dice Check. If you are instructed to roll a specific die (e.g. a Danger die or D10), the following rules do not apply; that is not a “Dice Check.”

Some Dice Checks show one or more colored rows. Each row is a possible Outcome, depending on the result of your roll. The green Outcome is a success. A yellow Outcome (if any) is a better success. The red Outcome is a failure, but could lead to something…

Other Dice Checks contain one or two tracks that you progress a marker along by rolling the appropriate dice. Once the marker reaches the Outcome space, its effect is resolved in the last step of the Dice Check. Usually, a green track leads to something beneficial, a red track leads to something bad.

Dice Check Procedure (10 Steps)

1. Choose dice: Take any number of Available Section dice from your Crew board (not your Spent Pool) and place them into your hand. It is not required to choose any of your own dice. Each other Crewmember in the same Sector may choose to Assist you by choosing and taking one Available Section die from their Crew board into their hand.
2. Add Injury & Danger dice: If you have any Injury dice on your Crew board, also take them into your hand. Crewmembers who Assist you do not add their Injury dice to the Dice Check. Also take the number of Danger dice depicted to the left of the Action’s name, if any.
3. Roll the dice: Roll all of the dice. Once rolled, they now form a Roll Pool. Any Crewmembers who Assisted you also roll the die they Assisted with. Dice from other Crewmembers should be kept separate but count as being in the Roll Pool.

Collective Roll Pool

Although each player has their own Roll Pool to keep the dice separate, all dice in all Roll Pools are considered to be in the same Roll Pool.

“Any” Symbols

This symbol () means that any icon may be used. If there is more than one of these symbols in the requirement, the same icon must be used for each.

• Vanguard icons count as any icon.
• Accident results cannot be used for Dice Combinations.

For example: This Dice Combination effect requires two of the same icon.

4. Modify the results:
   • You may use 1 or more Equipment cards that you are carrying that have a “During a Dice Check” effect. Follow the text on the card. Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Equipment cards unless their effect says otherwise.
   • You may play 1 or more Section cards from your hand that have a “During a Dice Check” effect (printed at the top of a card). After the effect of a Section card is resolved, discard it to its owner’s discard pile.
   • Other Crewmembers in the same Sector may Assist by playing up to 1 of their Section cards to affect the roll. Resolve the effect of the card as if the active Crewmember played it.
5. Check for Dice Combinations: You may activate any Dice Combination effects of cards in your hand and/or any Dice Combination effects of the current Global Condition card.

Section card Dice Combinations

If you have icons in the Roll Pool that match the Dice Combination requirement of a Section card in your hand, you may move the dice with these icons to their owner’s Spent Pool to apply the Dice Combination effect of the card. After doing so, discard the card.

You may apply the effect of more than 1 Section card in this way, but must use different dice for each one.

Dice added to the Roll Pool by Assisting Crewmembers may be used, but Assisting Crewmembers cannot use Dice Combination effects of their own cards.

Global Condition Dice Combinations

If you have icons in the Roll Pool that match the Dice Combination requirement on the current Global Condition card, you may move the required dice to their owner’s Spent Pool to apply the effect. This may be done multiple times, using different dice for each time you apply the effect.

Convert Abilities

Each Crewmember has a Convert Ability depicted in the top left of their Crewmember card. Some Equipment also have Convert Abilities. During a Dice Check, the player making the check may use their own Convert Ability and that of any Equipment they are carrying whenever they Spend any dice. A Convert Ability allows you to treat Basic results of a certain color as if they were another icon, specified by the Convert Ability. The conversion only applies as the die is being spent; you cannot use a Convert Ability to simply “change” a die in your Roll Pool. If more than one Convert Ability can convert the same die, you may choose to use only one of them (or not use any). Assisting Crewmembers may not use their Convert Abilities. However, the player performing the Dice Check may use their Convert Abilities on dice from Assisting Crewmembers.

Dice with multiple icons

If a result depicts two icons, each icon is treated separately.

• If the Dice Combination requires 2 of the same icon, these two dice could be Spent to apply the effect. Or even just one die with two of the same icons on it.
• If the Dice Combination requires a Defense and a Gathering icon, this one die could be Spent to apply the effect.

6. Resolve Injury & Danger dice: If you have no Injury or Danger dice in your Roll Pool, skip this step. Otherwise, choose one of your rolled Injury dice. If the result of the die matches an icon on one of your Injury cards, place the Injury die on the card and apply the effect of that icon. Check your Injury cards in order, starting with the leftmost one and proceeding right. Repeat this process for each rolled Injury die. If the result of the die does not match an icon on any of your empty Injury cards, move the die to your Spent Pool. Each Injury card may only have one die placed on it during this step.
   After resolving your Injury dice, look up the result of any Danger die rolled on the corresponding table of the Danger Die Reference card, and apply that result. Then, return the Danger die to the supply.
   At the end of step 6, move any Injury dice from Injury cards and your Spent Pool to Available Section dice slots on your Crew board. Place the die in the top slot of any column and push all other dice down. Injury dice do not need to return to the same column they came from, but there can only be 1 Injury die per column.
7. Resolve Special Effects: Special Effects are located in a black frame below the name of the Special Action and above the Outcomes. Resolve the effects on each row from top to bottom. If a row has more than one effect, resolve them from left to right. If there are icons in the Roll Pool that match the requirement of the Special Effect, move the dice with those icons to the Spent Pool and apply the effect once for each time the requirement is met. Each Special Effect must be resolved as many times as it is possible to do with the dice rolled. Dice moved to a Spent Pool when resolving one Special Effect cannot be used to resolve another Special Effect (even if not all the icons on the dice were used).

Global Condition’s Special Effect

If the current Global Condition card depicts a Special Effect, that Special Effect applies to all Dice Checks in the game, and must be resolved before any other Special Effect.

Outcome requirements

• The ‘+’ icon indicates you must have all of the things depicted.
• The ‘/’ icon indicates alternative requirements. You only need to have all of the things before or after the ‘/’.

Dice with two icons

When resolving a Special Effect, each icon on a die is treated separately. It is therefore possible that one die resolves a Special Effect more than once.

For example: You roll 2 dice and get the results shown. You use the 3 Gathering icons to resolve the first Special Effect three times. Even though the Defense icon was not used, the dice are moved to the Spent Pool. Therefore, the second Special Effect is not resolved as there are no dice remaining in the Roll Pool.

Track progression

All tracks on cards (both POI tracks and Time Tracks) start with no marker on them. The first time you make progress on a track, place a marker in the leftmost slot. After that, each time you make progress, move the marker one space to the right. When the marker moves to the Outcome space, its effect is applied in step 10.

8. Mark Outcomes: This step is skipped if the Special Action has one or more tracks. Starting from the top row and proceeding down, check to see if you meet the requirement for that row. If you do, move those dice to their owner’s Spent Pool and place a marker on the Outcome space. Otherwise, proceed to the next row and check to see if the requirement is met. A maximum of one marker can be placed on one row; once a marker is placed, skip to the next step. The red row always has no requirement. Therefore, mark that Outcome if you haven’t marked any of the other rows.
9. Spend dice: Move all Section dice from all players’ Roll Pools to their Spent Pools.
10. Resolve Outcomes:
    • If your Action has one or more tracks, starting from the top track and proceeding down, if the marker has reached the Outcome space, remove that marker and apply the effect of that Outcome.
    • If your Action has no tracks, remove the marker from the marked Outcome space and then apply the effect of that Outcome.

    Unless stated otherwise, the effects of an Outcome space only apply to the Crewmember performing the Action.

Connected Outcomes

After you apply the effect of an Outcome, also apply the effect of any other Outcome that is connected to it with an arrow. Outcomes are only connected in the direction of the arrow.

Dice Check Examples

Example 1

You choose to perform the Special Action “Take the Surface Samples.”

• In step 1, you take 4 dice from your Crew board. This will ensure that you meet at least the green requirement, but you are also hoping to activate the Dice Combination on the current Global Condition. No other Crewmembers are in your Sector, so nobody can assist you.
• You are currently uninjured, and the Special Action does not depict a Danger die, so step 2 is skipped.
• In step 3, you roll the dice and get the result shown: one red Accident, one blue Basic, one green Scouting, and one green Biology.
• In step 4, you play no cards or use any effects to change the rolled dice.
• In step 5, you use your result to activate the Dice Combination effect of the current Global Condition card. You move the die to your Spent Pool and gain 1 Live Specimen Lead. You could also use your other dice to activate Dice Combination effects of Section cards in your hand, but doing so will leave you with not enough dice to achieve your desired Outcome of the Special Action.
• Step 6 is skipped as there are no Injury or Danger dice to resolve.
• Step 7 is skipped as there are no Special Effects for this Action.
• In step 8, you check to see if you meet either of the requirements for the Outcomes. You have spent your so you do not meet the requirements for the yellow Outcome. However, since you have 1 die of each colour, you mark the green Outcome and move the dice to your Spent Pool. (The red die with the Accident result still counts as a red die.)
• Step 9 is skipped as you have no dice remaining in your Roll Pool.
• Finally, in step 10, you resolve the green Outcome, gaining Unique Discovery 1 and replacing the POI card with card P000.

Example 2

You choose to perform the Special Action “Heal the Ecosystem.” Another Crewmember already attempted this on an earlier turn, so the green track has already progressed once.

• In step 1, you choose 3 dice from your Crew board (2 blue and 1 green). Another Crewmember is in the same Sector and they choose to Assist you by adding 1 green die to your Dice Check.
• In step 2, you add your 1 Injury die to the dice chosen in step 1.
• In step 3, all the dice are rolled.
• In step 4, you play a Section card that allows you to reroll 1 die; you reroll one of the blue Accidents and manage to roll a Vanguard!
• In step 5, you choose not to use any of your dice for Dice Combinations of cards in your hand as you want to save the dice for the Special Action. Remember, Accident results cannot be used to make Dice Combinations, so you are stuck with that!
• In step 6, you resolve the Injury die you rolled. Unfortunately, the result on the die matches the icon on your Injury card, so you place the die on the card and apply its effect (Lose 1 Supplies). If the die did not match, it would have remained in your Roll Pool. At the end of step 6, the Injury die is returned to one of your topmost Available Section dice slots.
• In step 7, you resolve the Special Effects from left to right. First, you progress the green track by 1 space for the Biology result, moving that die to your Spent Pool. Since there is already a marker on the green track, it is moved 1 space to the right. You then move the Vanguard result to your Spent Pool, treating the result as another Biology icon and progressing the track once more. You then use your Convert Ability to Spend the green basic result rolled by the Assisting Crewmember as another Biology result, moving that die to their Spent Pool and progressing the track again, moving the marker to the Outcome space. The second Special Effect progresses the red track by 1 space for the Accident. Since there is no marker on the red track, you place a marker in the leftmost space and move the Accident die to your Spent Pool.
• Step 8 is skipped because this Special Action has tracks.
• Step 9 is also skipped as there are no dice remaining in any Roll Pools.
• In step 10, the effect of the green Outcome is applied, gaining 1 Success token and directing you to go to Log 366.

Section Cards

Section cards are the primary way of modifying your rolls or stacking your chances for some crucial rolls. They also make it possible to roll icons that are not on any of your Available dice.

Apart from one playable effect (top part of the card), each Section card also contains a special Dice Combination (bottom part). If you have icons in the Roll Pool that match the Dice Combination requirement of a Section card in your hand, you may move the dice with these icons to their owner’s Spent Pool to apply this Dice Combination effect. Discard the card afterwards (see Dice Checks on page 31 for details).

Each Section has a different set of Section cards, kept in their Section Compartment.

If you are instructed to sacrifice a Section card, place it in your Section Compartment.

Section card deck

Players build Section card decks for their Crewmembers during the Mission Launch Procedure step of the Ship Management. Each deck must contain a minimum of 10 cards. It also cannot include any cards with a Rank higher than the rank of the Crewmember.

Section card limit

If a Crewmember ever has more cards in their hand than their Section card limit, they must immediately discard down to their limit. They may not play any cards while above the card limit. The limit is 2 cards for Rank 1 Crewmember, 3 cards for Rank 2 Crewmember, and 4 cards for Rank 3 Crewmember.

Playing Section cards

• You may play the upper part of Section cards at any point indicated on the card. However, many Section cards have more specific rules listed on the card.
• Dice Combinations in the lower part of Section cards may only be used during Step 5 of a Dice Check.
• Discarded or played Section cards are placed face up on your discard pile.
• Whenever you have to draw a Section card and your Section card deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile and place it to the left of your Crew board as your new Section card deck.

Section Dice

Section dice come in three colors: red, blue, and green. They are used during Dice Checks, after which they are placed in their owner’s Spent Pool. Refreshing a die moves it from your Spent Pool back to a slot on the left side of your Crew board.

On each die, the sides that depict the most common result are indicated by brackets in the corners. When placing or sorting the dice, always place them so that a side with the brackets is facing up. This will make finding and organizing your dice much easier. Each color uses a different form of brackets to help distinguish them if you are colorblind.

Most of the icons are thematically tied to certain types of activities (for example, you might need to roll a icon to avoid taking damage). There are also three special die sides, described below:

• Vanguard () – This icon may be treated as if it were any one other Section dice icon, even one not present on the die rolled.
• Basic () – This icon most often has no effect on its own, but may be Converted to another icon using your Crewmember’s Convert Ability (if the color of the die matches your ability).
• Accident () – This icon represents an unpredictable outcome. Sometimes, there might be no negative effect of rolling an Accident, but other times, it could be a disaster! Accident results can never be used to trigger Dice Combinations.

Note: Each die still counts as a die of its color, no matter what icons are showing.

There are 5 types of Section dice per color:

• Type 1 – Basic dice: These dice do not have any specialized icons. They are useful when you simply need dice of a certain color, and the Basic icon can be changed into a specialized icon using your Crewmember’s Convert Ability.
• Type 2 – Specialized dice: These dice have one of three different specialized icons, associated with their color. Specialized dice are useful when you want to roll a very specific icon.
• Type 3 – Universal dice: These dice contain all three specialized icons associated with their color in various two-icon combinations. The chance to roll a specific icon is less than when using a Specialized die but Universal dice have no Accident icon. Universal dice are unavailable at the start of the Campaign – players unlock them by progressing the story.
• Type 4 – Expert dice: These dice have all the icons from their color on a single die, with some sides depicting two icons. Also, Expert dice have no Accident icon. They are unavailable at the start of the Campaign – players unlock them by progressing the story.
• Type 5 – Wild dice: These dice contain only Vanguard icons and Accident icons. Rolling a Wild die gives you a chance to roll whatever icon you need, but also has a higher chance of rolling an Accident.

Crewmember Abilities & Skills

Convert Ability

The top left of each Crewmember card depicts a Convert Ability that allows them, when Spending a die, to treat a Basic icon of the color shown as if it were the icon depicted. For example: This Convert Ability allows you to Spend a Basic result on a blue die as if it was a Science result.

Crewmember Skill

Each Crewmember also has one Skill described in the lower section of the Crewmember card. The card also lists the starting number of Charges for the Skill.

A Skill can be used at any time (unless stated otherwise by its text) by discarding 1 Charge from the Crew board. When used, follow the instructions for the Skill.

Note: The number of Charges listed on the card is the starting number, not the maximum number. Some effects may cause a Crewmember to have more Charges than they started with.

Injuries

Injuries represent many different negative conditions Crewmembers can gain during a game. They are represented by Injury cards and Injury dice.

Gaining an Injury

Whenever you gain an Injury, place its card in the leftmost empty Injury slot on the bottom of your Crew board. Then, take 1 Injury die and place it in the top dice slot of any column of your Crew board that currently does not have an Injury die in it. If you place a die in a slot containing a Section die, move that die (and any dice below it) one slot down.

Any dice that are moved to a slot that your Crewmember cannot use (due to their rank) are moved to your Spent Pool. You may rearrange the dice below an Injury die, before they are pushed down.

Note: If you gain an Injury and there are no more Injury cards of that type available (they are already all in play), gain the “Wounded” Injury instead.

Emergency Evac

If a Crewmember with 3 Injuries would gain a 4th Injury, the Away Team is evacuated and Planetary Exploration ends immediately (see page 41).

Injuries in Dice Checks

Injury dice must be rolled when performing a Dice Check, as described on page 31.

Removing an Injury

Some game effects allow you to remove an Injury die and also sometimes an Injury card.

• If you remove an Injury die, take it from its dice slot and place it back in the supply.
• If you remove an Injury card, take it from its Injury slot and place it back in the Injuries deck.

Note: Although you gain an Injury die whenever you gain an Injury card, they are separate things; you do not remove an Injury die when you remove an Injury card or vice versa, unless instructed to do so.

Flipping an Injury

Some effects may allow you to flip an Injury card face down. A face down Injury card is inactive; Injury dice cannot be placed on this card. However, it still counts as an Injury for all rules that count the number of Injury cards you have, such as Emergency Evac and Medbay.

Points of Interest, Global Conditions & Missions

Whenever you are instructed to take any numbered Global Condition, Mission, or POI card, and there are multiple copies of that card available, take one at random.

Global Condition Special Effects and Global Condition Effects

Some Global Condition cards contain additional Dice Combinations, Special Effects, or another passive effect. Dice Combinations on the current Global Condition card can be triggered any number of times during a Dice Check. Any Special Effect on the current Global Condition card is added to every Dice Check and must be resolved before other Special Effects.

Completing Missions

Most missions complete automatically; you will be instructed to discard the card when you reach a certain point in the game (a Logbook entry, or as the effect of another card). Other missions require you to trigger their Completion text once you have met the requirements. This can be done before or after any Action.

Replacing POI cards

Some effects instruct you to replace the POI in a Sector with another card. To do this, discard all POI cards from the Sector (return them to “Points of Interest” in Card Tray A) and place the new POI card in their place.

Note: If you are instructed to replace a POI when the current POI in your Sector is printed on the board, simply place the card on top of the printed POI.

Placing POI cards on top

Some effects instruct you to place a POI card on top of any cards in the Sector. To do so, do not discard any POI cards from the Sector, simply place the new card on top.

Note: Whenever a new POI card is placed in the Sector, discard all Time tokens and markers from the previous POI card in that Sector.
Important: Do not remove markers or tokens placed directly on the Sector.

Events

At the end of each Crewmember’s turn, they draw and resolve the top Event card from the Event deck.

1. Reveal the top Event card from the Event deck. If the Event deck is empty, shuffle the Events discard pile to form a new deck before revealing the top card.
2. If none of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector (including icons on a POI card), follow the secondary effect of the card, printed at the top of the card.
3. If any of the Biome icons on the card match any Biome icons in your Sector, resolve the main effect of the card, printed in the lower part of the card. Unless specified otherwise, this effect only applies to the player who revealed the card.
4. Discard the card face up to the Event cards discard pile.

Unaffordable choices

If a card offers you a choice, you may not choose an option that you cannot pay for in full. For example: When resolving the “Low Visibility” event, if you have no Supplies, you must roll instead.

However, you are allowed to choose an alternative way to pay for your choice that is allowed by other rules. For example: You may choose an option that requires you to Sacrifice a die, even if you only have 3 Section dice. You gain an “Exhausted” Injury instead of Sacrificing a die.

Time Tracks

At various times during the game, you will be instructed to progress one or more Time Tracks. For each Time Track, if there is no Time token currently on the track, place one on the leftmost space. Each subsequent progress moves the token one space to the right. Once it reaches the rightmost space (the one with details of the effect), resolve that effect. If you are instructed to reduce a Time Track, move a Time token one space to the left (or discard it, if it’s already on the leftmost space.)

If there are several Time Tracks in play, you can resolve them in any chosen order.

Threats

Threats represent neutral or hostile creatures and phenomena that the Away Team will encounter.

A Threat consists of two elements:

• One or more Standees: Placed on the Planet board, these indicate where the Threat currently is.
• Threat card: Placed in the designated space next to the Planet board, this card shows the special rules for the Threat, including how the Away Team can interact with this Threat.

The Time Track on a Threat card shows how the Threat behaves: When a Time token progresses, resolve the effect printed above the space the token moves into.

For example: The Time token moves from the middle space to the rightmost space. The Arrogator Behemoth will Attack (all Crewmembers in the Sector with the Arrogator Behemoth must spend 1 ; if there are no Crewmembers, Arrogator Behemoth Travels and progresses the red track of its Action) twice. Then, the Time Track is reset – remove the Time token from the track.

Crewmembers may perform the Special Action shown on a Threat card if they are in the same Sector as the Threat’s standee. Performing this Special Action often leads to neutralizing the Threat. Some Threats are represented by more than one standee. Unless the card states otherwise, any Crewmember in a Sector with any of the secondary Standees may not perform the Special Action on the Threat card, and is not considered to be in the same Sector as the Threat.

Important: When moving, Threats ignore the icon, but they still only move to connected Sector, unless their card states otherwise.

Danger Dice

At various points in the game, you will be instructed to roll the Danger die. This could be the result of a Travel effect, as required by a Special Action, or something else. Whenever you roll the Danger die, look up the result in the appropriate section of the Danger die Reference card, depending on the letter inside the icon.

Landers & Lander Mods

Landers are an essential part of Planetary Exploration and are required to reach many dangerous worlds. Before each Landing, you will choose and customize your Lander to increase your chances of success.

Note: Landing cards may provide useful information on atmospheric conditions and what will be needed to overcome them.

1) Stats + Landing Track

There are 3 Lander statistics: Armor (), Sensors (), and Agility (). Some or all of these will be tested during the Landing procedure. Each Lander has different starting statistics; use the Lander you think is best suited to the situation. Good planning will increase the chances of a safe start to your mission, but come unprepared, and your Crewmembers might get hurt even before they set foot on land.

Landers also have different starting spaces on their Landing Track. More agile Landers require less time to complete the Landing, thereby reducing the chance of any negative Outcomes.

2) Capacity

Each Lander has limited storage for the following:

• Supplies – how many Supplies you start the Planetary Exploration with.
• Equipment – the number of Personal () and Mission () Equipment cards you can take from the Armory.
• Discoveries – the combined number of Discoveries and Unique Discoveries you can bring back to ISS Vanguard.

3) Lander Mods

When customizing the Lander, you may add various Mod cards to increase its capabilities. There are two types of Lander Mod cards:

• Structural – these Mods will increase at least 1 of the Lander statistics.
• Utility – these Mods usually provide additional bonuses during Planetary Exploration or will increase your Lander storage capabilities.

Equipment

These cards represent useful tools to help the Away Team succeed in their Missions on planets.

Equipment cards come in four types:

• Small Equipment ()
• Personal Equipment ()
• Mission Equipment ()
• Mission Equipment Upgrades ()

All Equipment currently available is stored in the “Armory” (Card Tray B). During Ship Management, you will choose which Equipment cards to load onto the Lander and then which Crewmember is carrying each piece of Equipment. Small Equipment does not take any space in the Lander. Instead, during Ship Management, each Crewmember will take 1 Small Equipment and place it directly next to their Crew board.

Each Crewmember may carry any number of Equipment cards. If an Equipment card depicts a Section icon in the upper-right corner, only Crewmembers from that Section may carry and use it.

Crewmembers in the same Sector may freely exchange Equipment cards without a Section icon.

Most of the Equipment cards you are carrying may be used at any time during your turn, including in the middle of a Dice Check. If a card lists “this counts as an Action,” using the card counts toward the limit of 2 Actions per turn, and it may be used only when you can normally perform an Action.

Unless specified otherwise, the effect of an Equipment card can only be used by the Crewmember carrying it.

Some Mission Equipment cards place a token that represent them on the Planet board – the rules for these can be found on the cards themselves. Once a Mission Equipment token is placed on the Planet board, any Crewmembers may benefit from its effects, including Crewmembers from Sections that could not carry the card.

If you are ever instructed to discard an Equipment card, place it back in the “Armory” (Card Tray B).

Discoveries

Discovery cards represent interesting objects, samples, and specimens gathered by the Away Team on alien worlds. They are divided into 5 decks and placed above the Planet board when preparing the Planet board (page 24 of the Ship Book).

When instructed to gain a Discovery, take the top card from the corresponding deck and place it in the indicated space below the Lander board. During Planetary Exploration, there is no limit to the number of Discoveries that can be on the Lander. However, at the end of the Planetary Exploration, you must discard any Discoveries in excess of the limit shown on the Lander board. Discarded Discoveries are placed on the bottom of the corresponding deck.

If a Discovery has a “Planetary Exploration” ability, that ability may be used at any time during Planetary Exploration, unless stated otherwise by the card.

Discoveries are unloaded from the Lander to the ISS Vanguard during the Unloading procedure of Ship Management (page 28 of the Ship Book). If a Discovery has a “Ship Management” ability, its effect is resolved when it is unloaded.

Once unloaded, Discoveries are stored in “Gathered Discoveries” (Card Tray B). Many Research Projects require Discoveries to be paid as a cost. To pay a Discovery, move it from “Gathered Discoveries” (Card Tray B) back to its Discovery deck.

Unique Discoveries

Unique Discoveries are special, numbered Discoveries that can only be found on specific Planetary Explorations. Unique Discoveries up to number 32 are slotted into the Ship Book during Unloading. Those numbered 33 and higher are discarded during Planetary Exploration. If the Planetary Exploration tells you to gain a Unique Discovery without specifying its number, take the top Unique Discovery from the Unique Discoveries slot on the Planet board. Unique Discoveries numbered 1-32 should never be discarded or removed from the game!

Leads

Lead tokens represent clues that guide Crewmembers toward Discoveries. At the beginning of Planetary Exploration, all 20 Lead tokens are placed in the Lead bag. Whenever instructed to gain 1 or more Lead tokens, randomly draw them out of the bag and place them one by one in an order of your choice on top of the corresponding Discoveries deck. If there are no Leads available in the bag, you cannot gain any more Leads at this moment. Lead tokens have a value between 0 and 3.

When the total value of Lead tokens on a deck is 3 or more, place all Lead tokens on the deck by the side of the bag and then gain the top Discovery card. If a Lead token has a icon on it, place it back in the Lead bag instead of placing it next to the bag.

Note: This could mean that you place one token, gain a Discovery, then place another token and gain another Discovery.

Lead tokens may also have additional instructions written on them:

• +1 Card – When this Lead token is placed on a Discovery deck, a Crewmember chosen by the Science Section player draws 1 Section card.
• +1 Charge – When this Lead token is placed on a Discovery deck, a Crewmember chosen by the Science Section player adds 1 Charge to their Crew board.

Note: Whenever you gain a Discovery card (in any way), if there are any Lead tokens on that deck, place those Lead tokens next to the bag (or back in the bag if they have the icon) before drawing the card.

Ending Planetary Exploration

Planetary Exploration ends whenever:

• A Crewmember in the Lander Sector performs the Lift-Off Action (with agreement from all other Crewmembers). Resolve the Lift-Off Log shown on the Planet board.
• A Crewmember who already has 3 Injuries would receive a fourth Injury. This triggers an Emergency Evac. Resolve the Evac Log shown on the Planet board.
• A Log or a Mission card tells you to end the Planetary Exploration. Follow the instructions of this Log or Mission card.

Important: Lifting off without all Crewmembers in the Lander Sector will cause the abandoned Crewmembers to die! Emergency Evac saves everyone on the Planet board, but it is only triggered when a Crewmember gains a fourth Injury, and it results in failing the Planetary Exploration! All non-Unique Discoveries are lost during an Emergency Evac.

Ship Management

All rules related to managing ISS Vanguard, performing Research, preparing missions, and others can be found in the Ship Book. Whenever asked to perform a Ship Management, simply open the Ship Book on its first page and begin to resolve its procedure, progressing to other pages when prompted.

Optional Game Mode: Deadly Space

ISS Vanguard comes with an optional, harder difficulty setting called “Deadly Space.” This mode is recommended if you have already completed the Campaign or want a more challenging game, with more chance of losing your Crewmembers.

To enable Deadly Space mode, place the Deadly Space Reference card on the table and follow its instructions. You can add or remove these optional rules even during the Campaign.

Resetting Your Game

To completely reset your game, perform the following steps:

1. Take out all cards from the Ship Book and any cards that were “Removed from the Game.”
2. If you plan on replaying the Tutorial, prepare the Tutorial decks (see Log 720 for details).
3. If you are using a paper Logbook, erase all marks and notes made during your campaign, or print a fresh Logbook copy (available at issvanguard.com/resources/).
4. Warning! This step contains spoilers for the contents of the Secret envelope. Read it only if you have already opened it. Place the components listed in the frame on the right (Components in Secret envelope) in the Secret envelope.
   Warning: Upcoming ISS Vanguard campaigns will import some of the choices you made in the first campaign. If you want your decisions to impact future campaigns, be sure to safely store your marked Logbook.
5. Resolve the “Before your first game” step at the beginning of Chapter I of this Rulebook.

Spoilers: Components Breakdown

Components in Secret envelope:

• 4 Red Section dice
• 4 Blue Section dice
• 4 Green Section dice
• 40 Advanced Event cards
• 18 Add-on Facility cards
• 2 Ship Book Pages
• 1 Ship Book cardholder

Components in Tutorial Decks:

Tutorial Deck A:

• 1x This Side Up (top card)
• 4x Crewmember cards
• 12x Tutorial Section cards
• 3x Mission cards
• 11x Point of Interest cards
• 1x Global Condition card G01
• 1x Research Project R01
• 1x No More Cards! — bottom card

Tutorial Deck B:

• 1x This side up — top card
• 1x Tutorial Rank-up card
• 1x Unique Discovery 1 card
• 4x Injury cards
• 5x Event cards
• 1x No More Cards! — bottom card

Standees and Equipment Glossary

Threat Standees

• Apex Predator
• Magnacereb
• Guardian Metahedron
• Drones
• Arrogator Warswarm
• Builder’s Biomebot
• Carnivorous Thicket
• Kurma
• Maw
• Ophthalmoid
• Sprouts
• Flower Bug
• Scintillating Shardfly
• Arrogator Behemoth / Converted Arrogator Behemoth / Arrogator Guardian / Self-repairing Guardian
• Dust Storm / Gravity Rift
• Idemian Pilgrim / Furious Pilgrim
• Aerugon Saboteur
• Enraptured Visitor
• Bombardment / Re-origination Beam

Landers and Equipment Standees

• Faustschlag
• Space Ranger
• Pelican
• Waygate
• Dragonfly
• Void Ranger
• Heavy Mining Laser
• Mining Probe
• Biomass Fabricator
• Pod Launcher
• Pod
• P.E.T. / P.E.T. Wilson
• Defense System
• Zip Line
• Other Equipment
• Improvised Outpost
• Medbay
• Seeker Droid
• Medevac Drone
• Improvised Expansion (Improvised Outpost Upgrade)
• Outpost
• Expansion (Outpost Upgrade)
• Hydrofarm (Final Outpost Upgrade)
• Improvised Oxygen Farm (Final Outpost Upgrade)
• Modular Turret
• Cannon Unit (Modular Turret Upgrade)
• Comms Tower (Final Outpost Upgrade)
• Drill Rig (Final Outpost Upgrade)
• Shield Unit (Modular Turret Upgrade)

Game Terms Glossary

• Assignment – Various tasks during Ship Management that you can assign Available Crewmembers to in order to gain a benefit. See page 1 of the Ship Book.
• “Awaiting…” envelope – A temporary storage for any components that are awaiting to be slotted into the Ship Book. Whenever you gain a Ship Book card, put it in the “Awaiting…” envelope: The appropriate page of the Ship Book will then tell you what to do with that card.
• Away Team – The group of Crewmembers who are currently exploring the Planet board.
• Charges – Markers placed in the Charges slot of the Crew board which are spent to use a Crewmember’s Skill. See page 37 of the Rulebook.
• Convert Ability – An ability of a Crewmember to treat Basic results of one color of dice as another icon during Dice Checks. See page 37 of the Rulebook.
• Connected Sector – A Sector is connected to your Sector if it’s linked with a Travel Path that has an arrowhead pointing from your Sector to that Sector.
• Crewmember – A playable character, represented by a Crewmember card in a Rank sleeve of their Section. During Ship Management, Crewmembers in players’ hands are referred to as Available Crewmembers.
• Danger die – A die used in situations to determine additional disadvantages for the Crewmember. The letter inside the Danger die icon indicates which part of the Danger die Reference card to use.
• Dice Check – A test performed using Section dice, using the Dice Check procedure summarized on the Reference cards. See page 31 of the Rulebook.
• Dice Combination – An effect depicted on the lower part of a Section card or on current Global Condition card. Spend dice with the icons depicted during a Dice Check to activate the effect. See page 32 of the Rulebook.
• Discard – When discarded, all numbered cards (such as POI or Mission cards) should be placed in their tray, behind a corresponding divider, so that you can easily find them later. Unnumbered cards, unless stated otherwise, should be discarded to the bottom of their decks. If you keep cards in a tray, behind a divider, the first card is considered the top card and the last card is considered the bottom card. Only Section and Event cards have a dedicated discard pile.
• Discovery – Something valuable that can be found during Planetary Exploration. Represented by cards in 5 different decks that can be used for an effect during the Planetary Exploration or Ship Management. Discovery cards are used during Research.
• Equipment – Crewmembers may use Equipment they carry with them during Planetary Exploration. Each Crewmember may carry any number of Equipment cards. Discarded Equipment goes back to the Armory.
• Equipment token – A token representing a piece of Equipment placed on the Planet board. Its rules are described on the corresponding Equipment card.
• Evac – The forced Evacuation that interrupts your Planetary Exploration whenever any Crewmember receives a fourth Injury card. Evac will cause you to lose all non-Unique Discoveries from the Lander board and your Exploration will be considered a failure!
• Event – A card representing a dangerous or interesting situation happening on the planet. See “Events” on page 37 of the Rulebook.
• Exertion – Sacrifice a die to Refresh 5 of your dice. If you have a total of 3 or fewer dice, gain an “Exhausted” Injury instead of Sacrificing a die.
• Global Conditions – Cards placed (or printed) in the bottom-right corner of the Planet board. They contain effects that affect the entire Planet board. They may contain various elements, from additional Dice Combinations, rules of Travel, Actions, Time Tracks, etc.
• Injury card – A card with the name of the Injury used to determine the effect of your Injury die roll. See “Injuries” on page 40 of the Rulebook.
• Injury die – A yellow die used to roll for Crewmember’s Injuries. See “Injuries” on page 40 of the Rulebook.
• Lander – A ship used by players to land on explorable planets. It is represented by a Lander board and a standee (or miniature) and may be equipped with several additional Mods.
• Lander Mod – A card representing one of many available Lander modifications. Mods come in two types: Structural Mods and Utility Mods, and each Lander board has a certain number of slots for their cards.
• Lander Sector – The Sector with the Lander standee.
• Landing card – A card representing an explorable planet or other object. It contains useful information about the conditions for your next Planetary Exploration.
• Landing Opportunity – A place found on a System Map where you can land on the planet and perform Planetary Exploration.
• Leads – Tokens with values ranging from 0 to 3 that represent your progress toward a Discovery. Some of them have additional effects.
• Lift-Off – An Action that allows Crewmembers to end a Planetary Exploration. To use it, all Crewmembers on the Away Team must agree, and you have to be in a Lander Sector. Then, read the Lift-Off Log on the Planet board.
• Mission – An Objective for the Away Team to achieve during Planetary Exploration. Each Planetary Exploration consists of 1 or more Missions.
• Morale – One of the key statuses of ISS Vanguard. Its current level is represented by the Morale card kept in the Ship Book. Raising and lowering Morale is explained on page 2 of the Ship Book.
• Objective – The main task you need to fulfill to progress your campaign. Represented by the Objective card in the Ship Book.
• Outcome space – The rightmost spaces of rows of Dice Checks on POI, Threat, Mission, and Rank-Up cards. The effect of the space is applied when a marker is in the space.
• Planet board – A large board stored in the Planetopedia that shows the surface of a Planet. It is divided into Sectors, some of which contain pre-printed POIs. It contains information about Missions, Global Conditions, Unique Discoveries, Lift-Off, Evac, and any additional Planet specific rules.
• Planet Record sheet – A small sheet of paper used to save the state of the Planet board so that you can return later.
• Planetary Scanner – A cardboard component that holds a Landing card and allows you to reveal it piece by piece, depending on the amount of Energy spent while Scanning.
• Point of Interest (POI) – A card signifying something of interest to the Away Team. It may contain its own Biome icons and rules for Special Actions. Some POIs are pre-printed on the Planet board.
• Production Project – A card used in the Production Complex of the Ship Book. The front contains basic information about the project, its starting Stage and boost requirements. The back is only revealed when you complete the project and contains a list of cards and bonuses to apply.
• Random Crewmember – Whenever any rule or effect targets a Random Crewmember, players roll a D10 for each Crewmember. The Crewmember with the lowest score becomes the target of this rule or effect. In case of a draw, repeat the roll between any Crewmembers who were tied in last place.
• Rank-Up card – A card that lists the requirements players have to meet in order to Rank-Up their Crewmembers at the end of the Planetary Exploration.
• Refresh – Move a Section die from your Spent Pool to your Available dice slots on your Crew board.
• Remove from the game – Place back in the game box, in the “Removed from the Game” compartment. Any cards or other components that are Removed from the Game no longer take part in the Campaign! When you start a new Campaign, return all removed cards back to their trays.
• Required dice – Any dice that are added to your roll by any rule of the game, including Injury dice in your Crew board, the Danger dice required by the POI you are in, and more.
• Research Project – A card used in the Research Laboratory of the Ship Book. The front contains basic information about the project and its cost. The back is only revealed when you complete the project and contains a list of cards and bonuses to apply.
• Reset – Discard the marker or Time token from the corresponding track. The next time you progress this track, place the marker / Time token on the first slot again.
• Rest – Resting is the main way in which Crewmembers Refresh their dice. See “Rest” on page 30 of the Rulebook.
• Roll Pool – A group of dice that were rolled as part of a Dice Check, but not spent yet.
• Sacrifice (card) – Return this card to your Section Compartment.
• Sacrifice (die) – Move a Section die from your Available dice or Spent Pool back to your Section Compartment. This reduces the total number of dice your Crewmember has until the end of Planetary Exploration. If you have no Section dice on your Crew board or Spent pool, or if you only have a total of 3 Section dice in play (Available dice, Roll Pool, Spent Pool), gain an “Exhausted” Injury instead of Sacrificing a die.
• Section – One of four specialized Vanguard divisions that players control in this game (Recon, Security, Science, Engineering). Each Section consists of: Crew board, Section Compartment, Section cards, Section-specific Equipment cards, and 9 Rank sleeves for the Crewmembers recruited for this Section.
• Section card limit – You may have up to 2/3/4 Section cards in your hand if you are Rank 1/2/3.
• Section cards – Cards used in many ways that may affect the Outcome of rolls, grant rerolls, or even change the situation on the Planet board. All Section cards belong to one of the Sections and cannot be exchanged between Sections. Section cards are used to build individual Section decks from which players will draw their cards during Planetary Exploration. You may only use Section cards of your Crewmember Rank or below.
• Section Compartment – A part of the box reserved for cards, sleeves and dice of your Section, and identified by its color.
• Section dice – A selection of red, green, and blue D6 dice belonging to your Section. They are used by Crewmembers of this Section during Planetary Exploration.
• Sector – A numbered part of the Planet board. May contain a Log entry or POI or be empty.
• Ship Book divider – An indexed page in the Ship Book, usually the title page for a particular section of the Ship Book.
• Ship Situation – A Ship Management card that is used to represent events that happen on ISS Vanguard during its long space travels.
• Ship Upgrade – A Ship Management card that represents additional systems and rooms you will be installing on ISS Vanguard over the course of your campaign. Upgrade cards become available as you complete Research and Production Projects.
• Supplies – Supplies are the primary resource Crewmembers consume during the Planetary Exploration, and represent oxygen, filters, spare parts, rations, water, batteries, and more. The current number of Supplies is tracked on the Supplies Track that’s a part of the Lander board. You may never have more Supplies than this track allows.
• Supplies Track – A track on the Lander board or Planet board that shows the current number of Supplies.
• System Maps – This book contains maps of many planetary systems and interesting objects you may find there. Each page also has the Outbound Systems frame that shows which systems are connected with this one and how much Energy you need to spend to travel between them. All of the interesting objects have their number, name, and cost of investigating them, printed in the table beneath the graphic representation of the planetary system.
• Tech Level – One of the key statuses of ISS Vanguard. Its current level is represented by the Tech Level card kept in the Ship Book.
• Threat – A creature, a natural disaster, or other danger represented by a standee on the Planet board and a card containing its rules at the top of the Planet board. Not every planet contains a Threat, but some may contain multiple.
• Travel – A basic Action that allows Crewmembers to move from one Sector to another connected Sector. Each Path contains 1 or more Path icons that determine Travel rules. If the Path contains a Travel icon you should use the specific Travel rules printed on the current Global Condition card instead. See “Travel” on page 30 of the Rulebook.
• Unique Discovery – A special type of numbered Discovery that can be found in only one specific place. When gained, Unique Discoveries are placed on your Lander and then transferred to your Ship Book during Ship Management. When instructed to gain a Unique Discovery, if the Unique Discovery space on the Planet board is empty, follow the instructions on the space instead. See “Unique Discoveries” on page 39 of the Rulebook.

Icons Glossary

Dice-related Icons

Cost/Requirement Icons

• Die – A Section die of any color.
• Red, Green, Blue – A Section die of a specific color.
• Spend a die – Move 1 die (of the color shown, or any color if all 3 are shown) from your Crew board to your Spent Pool. If you do not have any dice on your Crew board, you must Sacrifice a die instead.
• Sacrifice a die – Return 1 die to your Section Compartment (of the color shown, or any color if all 3 are shown). See “Sacrifice (die)” in Game Terms Glossary for details.
• Danger die – Roll a Danger die and compare its result to the entry with the same icon on the Danger die Reference card.

Planet Board Icons

• No Movement – Crewmembers in this Sector cannot Travel or move from this Sector. Effects that place them in another Sector can still be used.
• No Save – When you save the state of the Planet, do not save this card – further Ship Book instructions will let you know where to return it.
• Final POI – This Sector is now fully explored. Some rules relate to Sectors of this type.
• Important! – This Sector is of particular interest to ISS Vanguard! Some rules relate to Sectors of this type.
• Success – Successes are represented by special tokens and are used to measure how efficient you are on your Mission. They are used to buy new Section dice and to Rank-Up Crewmembers.
• Lander – This Sector may contain a Lander and become a Lander Sector.

Equipment Icons

• Small Equipment – Light, personal items that take no cargo space in the Lander and are placed next to Crew boards before the Planetary Exploration.
• Personal Equipment – Equipment carried by the Crewmembers and placed in the Lander before the Planetary Exploration.
• Mission Equipment – Heavy Equipment that often requires an Action to set up or use and is often represented by a token on the Planet board.
• Mission Equipment Upgrades – Cards representing various upgrades for Mission Equipment. They take no cargo space in the Lander and may be taken every time a Mission Equipment card they attach to is taken.

Crew Dice Icons

Section Dice

• Physical – Athletic feats, stamina, raw strength, speed, withstanding harsh conditions – anything related to physical challenges.
• Gathering – Mining, taking samples, searching for valuable Discoveries etc.
• Defense – Defense, preventing damage, combat, dogfighting etc.
• Scouting – Surveying the terrain, overcoming natural obstacles, outdoorsmanship, and survival.
• Biology – All natural sciences – microbiology, botany, medicine, creating antidotes etc.
• Xenology – Understanding and using / communicating with all alien life – sentient beings, alien specimens, alien plants.
• Construction – Building, repairs, modifying the equipment, making camps etc.
• Science – All formal sciences: physics: maths, calculations, statistical analysis, studying exotic matter or alien minerals, research etc.
• Technology – Using complex technology and systems: operating robots, flying ships, querying computer consoles, understanding alien tech.
• Basic – This result may be modified by your Crewmember card.
• Vanguard – This icon can be used as any other icon from Section dice.
• Accident – An unpredictable or negative Outcome – some rolls have rules related to this icon. It cannot be used in Dice Combinations.
• Any same icons – This icon means that this combination requires several identical icons on your Section dice. You cannot use as .

Injury Dice

Icons on this die have different meanings depending on which Injury card you are checking during the Dice Check:

• Damage
• Heavy Damage
• Mental
• Special

Biome Icons

• Caves – Caves, underground tunnels, and structures.
• Crystalline – Areas affected by the scintillating crystalline anomaly.
• Deadly – Used in toxic / corrosive / extremely high-pressure or radioactive environments, where a minor suit malfunction would cause death.
• Desert – Arid plains and deserts.
• Frigid – Extremely low-temperature conditions, with water or methane ice, and snow / ice impeding travel.
• Hostile – Unfriendly locals are a problem in this Sector.
• Rocky – Areas dominated by sharp rocks and / or steep mountains.
• Ruins – Planets covered in ruins / structures of alien civilizations or with ancient mechanisms.
• Tutorial – This special Biome is used only during the Tutorial. It is used when resolving an Event during the Events step at the end of the turn.
• Vegetation – Forests, jungles, tundra, lush fields of plants.
• Void – A special icon used when exploring space-based zero-g locations or when the Crewmembers are in near-void conditions, with little to no gravity.
• Volcanic – High-temperature locations with lava and / or seismic activity.
• Water – Used in coastal or underwater conditions – and sometimes in very thick, water-like atmosphere.

Special Effect Icons

• These icons direct you to a specific Outcome, and mean that the Special Effect is Immediate. When you resolve them, immediately end the Dice Check process, move all dice from the Roll Pool to their owner’s Spent Pool and resolve the corresponding Outcome.
• These icons indicate progress on the corresponding track. When you first progress on a track, place a marker on the leftmost space. Each subsequent progress moves the marker 1 space to the right. Once a marker has reached the Outcome space, it does not move any further.
• These icons represent a reduction of the corresponding track. Each reduction moves the marker 1 space to the left. If the marker is on the leftmost space and you should reduce it again, discard the marker from the card.

Other Icons

• Lead-recycle – This icon indicates that this Lead is put back in the Lead bag after discarding it from a Discovery deck.
• Energy Cost – This icon indicates an Energy cost and may be found on Systems you visit, when scanning Landing cards, or on installed Ship Upgrades.
• Lander Agility – This icon shows the Agility of your Lander. It is important during Landing Procedure.
• Lander Sensors – This icon shows the Sensors of your Lander. It is important during Landing Procedure.
• Lander Armor – This icon shows the Armor of your Lander. It is important during Landing Procedure.
• Special Action – This icon indicates that this is a Special Action, limited to once per turn.
• Dice Check – This icon indicates that a Dice Check must be performed.
• These icons show the Rank of your Crewmember if they’re on a Rank sleeve, or a Rank requirement if they’re on any other component:
  • Rank 1
  • Rank 2
  • Rank 3

Danger Die Icons

Icons on this die have different meanings depending on the letter of the Danger die. Check their meaning on the Danger die Reference card:

• Common
• Uncommon
• Rare
• Special

Ship Book Icons

• Crew Assignment – This icon marks all places where you can spend your Available Crew on various effects throughout the Ship Management.
• Section – These icons represent 4 Sections that Vanguard Crewmembers may belong to:
  • Security
  • Recon
  • Science
  • Engineering

Index

Some game terms are only explained in the Ship Book. These are prefixed by the letters SB followed by the page number of the Ship Book.

• Action (29), Actions token (29), Special Action (29, 47)
• Adrift (SB5)
• Assignment (44, 47, SB1, SB26)
• Assist (23, 31, 32)
• Awaiting envelope (44)
• Away Team (44, SB23)
• Biome (37, 46)
• Charges (37, 44)
• Convert Ability (32, 37, 44)
• Crew board (16)
• Crewmember (37, 44), Available Crewmember (25, 44, SB1, SB26), Crewmember Skill (37, 44), Crewmember’s Death (SB32, SB36), Random Crewmember (44), Resting Crew (7, SB1)
• Deadly Space (41)
• Dice: Buying or selling (SB27), Danger dice (39, 44), Dice with multiple icons (33), Injury dice (40, 45, 46), Section dice (16, 36, 37, 45)
• Dice Check (31, 44, 47)
• Dice Combination (31, 32, 36, 44)
• Discard (36, 39, 44)
• Discoveries (38, 39, 44, SB28), Unique Discoveries (38, 39, 45, SB28)
• Empty Deck (20)
• Equipment (38, 39, 44, 46, SB23), Equipment token (43)
• Evac (40, 41, 44)
• Events (37, 44)
• Exertion (31, 44)
• Global Conditions (32, 41, 44)
• Injuries (40, 44, 46)
• Lander (38, 44, 46, SB18), Lander Mod (38, 44, SB18), Landing card (38, 44 SB5, SB23), Landing Opportunity (44)
• Leads (39, 44), Lead Recycle icon (47)
• Lift-Off (30, 41, 44)
• Logs (11, 30)
• Mission (41, 44), Mission Failure/Mission Failed (SB26)
• Morale (44, SB2)
• Number of Players (8)
• Objective (44)
• Outcome (31, 34), Connected Outcomes (34), Outcome Requirements (33), Outcome space (31, 34, 44)
• Path (30, 45)
• Penalty token (SB2, SB5)
• Planet board (44, 46, SP23)
• Planet Record sheet (44, SB23, SB24, SB39)
• Planetary Exploration (6, 29, 30, 41)
• Planetary Scanner (44, SB5)
• Point of Interests (POI) (41, 44)
• Prepare (30)
• Production Project (44, SB12)
• Rank (47, SB16, SB23, SB27), Rank-Up card (13, 25, 44, SB24, SB27)
• Recruits (SB16)
• Refresh (30, 44)
• Remove from the game (44)
• Research Project (45, SB8)
• Reset (40, 45)
• Resetting the game (41)
• Rest (30, 45)
• Roll Pool (16, 31, 45)
• Round (29)
• Sacrifice (card) (36, 45), Sacrifice (die) (31, 45)
• Saving the game (SB39)
• Secret envelope (41)
• Section (45), Section card limit (36, 45), Section cards (36, 45), Section Compartment (45), Section dice (45)
• Sector (30, 45), Connected Sector (30, 44), Lander Sector (30, 44, SB24)
• Ship Book divider (45)
• Ship Management (6, 41)
• Ship Upgrade (45)
• Situations (45, SB2, SB17)
• Special Effect (33, 34, 47), Global Condition Special Effect (41)
• Start token (29)
• Success (46)
• Supplies (38, 45), Supplies track (38, 45)
• System Maps (45, SB5)
• Tech level (45, SB2)
• Threat (40, 45)
• Time track (38, 40)
• Travel (30, 45)
• Turn: End of Turn (29), Turn token (29, SB24)
• Tutorial deck (41)
• Unaffordable Choices (37)