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Afterlight Station

Your first station.

Buy the right modules. Connect a working refuge. Be ready when the solar storms arrive.

Commander’s manual · Rules v3

2–4 commanders · Three solar storms · One winning station

01 / Know what you’re building

Each commander builds a separate station around a Command Core. You share a market of five modules and a display of six credit cards.

Win by earning the most Renown: lead the six departments, shield your sunward lanes, and connect different departments for Synergy. There are three scoring Storms. Points already earned are yours to keep.

The station boardA station board seen from above: a pentagonal Command Core in the centre, each of its five facets carrying two blue docking ports, one toward each inner-ring node it faces; three dashed rings labelled inner, middle and outer; and ten 36-degree sectors numbered 0 to 9 clockwise. The sun sits straight above the board and the sunward axis runs down through the centre of sector 0; sectors 8, 9, 0, 1 and 2, centred on that axis, are shaded as the sunward lanes. Eleven pods are docked on nodes, each with its inward marker toward the Core. Blue bars join sockets that are both docking ports, forming corridors: for example from the Core to the inner-ring pods in sectors 0, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 9, and between neighbouring pods in sectors 0 and 1. Two small orange rings mark sealed contacts, where a bulkhead faces a neighbouring socket: between the two inner-ring pods in sectors 9 and 0, and between the two middle-ring pods in sectors 0 and 1.0123456789INNERMIDDLEOUTERCORESUNWARD AXISHABLABOBSREADCKGRNGRNHABLABREADCK

02 / Prepare the table

  1. Give everyone a station board, its Core, a Dry Dock with room for four modules, and a score marker on zero. Choose a fixed seat order.
  2. For three or four players, shuffle all 60 modules. For two, remove 12: exactly two per department and four per guild. Shuffle the remaining 48. Reveal five modules into the market.
  3. Shuffle the 72 credits. For two players, remove one of each guild/value combination first, leaving 54.
  4. Deal one card at a time in seat order. Stop dealing to each player once their total reaches at least 15. Then keep hands private.
  5. The player with the fewest cards starts; ties go to the lowest hand total, then a random choice. Reveal six credits and set purchases to zero.

Play in fixed seat order from that starter. Every round ends after each player has had one turn. Storm I and II occur at purchases 20 and 40, or 16 and 32 with two players.

Component checklist · Preparing a printed copy

03 / Choose one action each turn

Acquire credits

Take one face-up card, or take up to three cards from different guilds with a combined value of 7 or less. Refill the display afterward.

Example: Fabrication 2 + Energy 3 + Research 2 is legal. Fabrication 2 + Fabrication 3 is not: a multi-card take must use different guilds.

Purchase a module

Pay the module’s effective cost using only its guild’s credits. Overpaying is allowed; you receive no change. Install it legally or keep it in your Dry Dock. Increase purchases by one and refill its berth.

Pay the exact cost and you also take one displayed credit worth 3 or less, if one is available. This is a bonus card, not another action.

Reconfigure

Install one Dry Dock module, remove one installed module to the Dock, or swap an installed module with a docked one at the same node. The whole station must remain legal. Docked modules do not score at Storms.

04 / Make a legal connection

Always point the module’s inward marker toward the Core. Two facing docking ports make a corridor; a bulkhead seals that contact. Sealed contacts are allowed.

  • Every module needs a continuous corridor route to the Core.
  • A middle-ring module needs at least one inner-ring module in the same or an adjacent sector.
  • An outer-ring module needs at least two middle-ring modules in the same or adjacent sectors.

Support depends on occupied nodes, even without a direct corridor. Check the whole station after removing or exchanging a module.

Placement: corridor routes and supportA station board with a pentagonal Command Core at the centre and pods in sectors 0, 1 and 6. In sector 1, an Observatory on the outer ring connects by corridor to a Laboratory on the middle ring, which connects inward to a Greenhouse on the inner ring, which connects to the Command Core: a continuous corridor route, highlighted. Pod A, a Reactor on the middle ring of sector 0, is supported by the Habitation pod on the inner ring of the same sector. Pod B, the outer-ring Observatory in sector 1, is supported by two middle-ring pods, in sectors 0 and 1. Where the Reactor's clockwise bulkhead meets the Laboratory's counterclockwise port the contact is sealed, which is legal. Pod C, a dashed Habitation on the outer ring of sector 6, is illegal: only one middle-ring pod stands in sectors 5, 6 or 7, and an outer-ring pod needs two.0123456789INNERMIDDLEOUTERCOREHABGRNREALABOBSDCKREAHABABCROUTE TO THE CORE

See the full placement examples →

05 / Watch the market and the sun

Modules that survive a complete eligible round get a one-credit Drift discount, up to two. At the next eligible round end, a module already at two discounts rotates to the bottom of the supply and is replaced. If the supply is empty, it stays. A newly arrived module must wait through a future complete round before receiving a discount.

When a Storm purchase threshold is reached, finish that turn and score all commanders before the next turn. You score department rankings and your shield; a Storm does not destroy modules.

Department Readiness: installed module count + 2 for every additional ring that department occupies. Three modules across two rings give 5 Readiness.

Shield: inspect sectors 8, 9, 0, 1 and 2. A lane scores 1 if its outermost module has an outward bulkhead, plus 1 if that screened lane occupies at least two rings.

Synergy: at installation, corridors to at least two neighboring modules of departments other than the new module’s own earn 2 Renown. Three different qualifying departments earn 3 instead. Each module can earn Synergy once per match.

06 / Finish the round. Count your Renown.

The end is triggered when the hidden supply cannot refill an empty market berth. Complete the current round so everyone has had the same number of turns, then resolve the Final Storm. Most Renown wins; tied players share victory.

Passing is normally allowed only when no other action is legal. After the end is triggered, anyone may pass.

Keep the table reference beside you →

Common first-game questions

Do all touching sockets have to match?

No. Sealed contacts are legal. What matters is a corridor route to the Core and sufficient ring support.

Can I rotate a module to fit?

No. Keep the inward marker pointing to the Core. The four socket directions are fixed.

Can I earn Synergy again by reinstalling?

Only if that module has never scored Synergy. Once it has scored at either tier, it cannot score again.

What if no credit cards remain?

Reshuffle spent credits when the deck empties. If both deck and discard are empty, leave the display short and continue.

Where do I find a disputed rule?

The complete rulebook includes worked scoring ties, all edge cases, the two-player variant and a glossary.