Phase One: Customizing a 60-card deck;

Phase Two: Creating and seeding the spaceline; and

Phase Three: Playing the game.

Six Mission cards (each Mission card must be unique); plus

One Outpost card for each affiliation you decide to control.

The remaining cards are selected in any combination the player desires with one restriction: no more than half of the deck can be dedicated to seed cards (i.e., Mission, Dilemma, Artifact and Outpost cards). After customizing your deck, count to be sure there are exactly sixty cards.

If you have only one starter set, you have only 60 cards so you cannot customize your deck. Since we use a pure random assorting method in manufacturing, you may lack a needed card. You can solve this problem temporarily by substituting one card for another card (for example, use a Klingon outpost to represent a Romulan outpost) or by using a smaller deck or spaceline size. You can also trade with other players for the cards you need or purchase new ones to Expand Your Power in the Universe ®.

Choose your Mission cards first. These cards tell you what skills you need among your personnel to accomplish those missions and thus what Personnel cards would be useful in your deck. Also, missions help you decide how many affiliations you want to control. At a minimum, you should have one Outpost card, at least one Ship card and several Personnel cards for each affiliation you decide to control.

Mix in a variety of Event, Equipment, Dilemma and Interrupt cards. Consider what affiliations your opponent is likely to use and choose cards that are effective against them! Also, choose some cards that enhance the abilities of your own cards or can be used defensively.

Stock several copies of important cards in your deck. Except for seed cards, your other cards will be shuffled and drawn randomly from a draw deck during the game. Cards on the bottom of this deck may never come into play. If you want to make sure a certain kind of card will come up early, include more than one in your deck.

1. Creating the Spaceline

Each player now separates out their Mission cards, shuffles them and places them face-down in a pile. Choose a player to go first. That player draws the top Mission card from his pile and places it face up on the playing surface. Players take turns placing cards face up, side-by-side, on either end of the growing line. When all of the Mission cards have been laid down, a spaceline has been built that looks something like this:

Remember, each player should place his Mission cards on the spaceline facing towards himself (to indicate ownership of the cards). The spaceline represents adjacent locations in space where missions can be accomplished. Thus, Mission cards indicate both a place and a mission. The spaceline functions something like a gameboard, but it's unique for every game. The spaceline is sometimes called the Space/Time Continuum.

Mission cards are designed with relevant information facing both players. A summary of the mission faces your opponent; complete information faces you. Below is an example of information shown on Mission cards:

Mission Cards

Color icons at each end of the Mission card indicate which affiliations can attempt the mission. Any player controlling an indicated affiliation can attempt the mission, regardless of who placed the card on the spaceline. For example, if both players are controlling Klingon affiliations, either player can use their cards to attempt any Klingon missions on the spaceline. Some Mission cards allow two or three affiliations to attempt the mission. Regardless, the first player to complete the mission scores the points. The requirements for completing missions will be explained later in these rules.

2. Seeding The Spaceline

After completing the spaceline, players create plot twists in the game by hiding Dilemma and/or Artifact cards under the spaceline. Dilemma and Artifact cards create various secret hazards or assistance which a player will discover when attempting to complete a mission. Players take turns seeding these cards as one by one the plot thickens. The seed phase will take only a few minutes to complete. Typically a player would place Dilemma cards under their opponent's missions and Artifacts cards under their own missions, but this is not the only strategy to follow.

When seeding Dilemmas and Artifacts, the cards are never shown to your opponent. As a result, you never know what you will encounter at a mission location. When you attempt missions, the story of the game will unfold in unknown and unexpected ways. Here are a few rules with respect to seeding Dilemma and Artifact cards:

More than one Dilemma or Artifact card can be placed at the same spaceline location. These cards are always added to the bottom, face down. In other words, when the pile is turned over, the first card seen will be face up and it will be the last card seeded at this mission location.

Players may not place duplicate Dilemma or Artifact cards at the same location. If found, duplicate cards are simply discarded.

Artifacts can only be placed at planet locations (not in space).

As previously stated, planet dilemmas must be placed at planet locations, space dilemmas at space locations and either dilemmas at planet or space locations. Cards incorrectly seeded are discarded when they are discovered.

Dilemma and Artifact cards can only be placed during the seed phase; unused cards are discarded. If a player runs out of Dilemma or Artifact cards to place, or does not want to place a card for any reason, he may pass. If both players pass consecutively, the seeding phase ends (even if one player still has unused Dilemma or Artifact cards).

3. Establishing Outpost(s)

An outpost represents the location at which personnel and ships can report for duty. After Dilemma and Artifact cards are seeded, each player, in turn, selects a mission location on the spaceline to establish an outpost. Outposts can be established on a planet or in space.

Outpost(s) symbolize bases constructed by an affiliation's forces from their homeworld. More than one outpost can be placed at the same mission location. However, each player can seed only one outpost for each affiliation he controls. You can build additional outposts later by including Outpost cards and appropriate engineering personnel in your draw deck.

An outpost can only be established at a location of matching affiliation (i.e., a player can't put a Klingon outpost under a Federation-only Mission card.) A player may, however, place an outpost at a mission with more than one affiliation icon, as long as the correct affiliation icon is present. You place outpost(s) directly underneath the desired Mission card, sticking out to mark the outpost location on the spaceline like this:

If both players are playing the same affiliation, they will each have an outpost for the affiliation. Unless otherwise instructed, neither player may make use of an opponent's outpost(s).