Ruins of Mars

About this board game

Ruins of Mars is a competitive board game for 1–4 players, with a playing time of about 120 minutes. Set in the year 2179, it sends optimistic explorers to Mars in search of knowledge that could help prevent Earth’s continued decline.

Earth has been damaged by pollution and the depletion of its natural resources. On Mars, the explorers investigate the ruins of ancient civilizations that once colonized the planet and made it a center of economic activity. Their goal is to understand the alien populations’ downfall, translate their languages, and rediscover technologies that may help turn around Earth’s fate.

The game is played around a board featuring five locations and eleven communal action tiles. These tiles are placed randomly beneath the board’s locations as evenly as possible, ensuring that the available effects are shaped by their changing arrangement.

On your turn, choose a location and optionally pay to move an action tile from an adjacent location to the active site. Take the location’s action based on the tiles beneath it, optionally pay resources to replicate alien technology for your own board, then redistribute the active site’s tiles in a mancala-like fashion.

• Learn the languages of ancient Martian civilizations.
• Study technologies across three levels and multiple classifications.
• Manage radiation, which can reduce your points during final scoring.

Replicated technologies grant special abilities, while your language skills and assembled technology shape your final score. Throughout the game, you must balance gaining knowledge and resources with avoiding too much radiation.

With its shifting action tiles, evolving personal technology display, and focus on language and discovery, Ruins of Mars challenges players to build the most prestigious body of knowledge before Earth’s future slips away.