Surviving Mars: The First Mission

In the late 21st century, a coalition of wealthy governments, troubled by the continued destruction of earth's natural habitats, put together a team of elite astronauts to begin the first human settlement on Mars. Surviving Mars: The First Mission, is a game about those first few astronauts and how they managed to create the first settlement on Mars almost a century ago. In this game, players must work together to construct a predesigned and prefabricated habitat consisting of a biosphere, a sustainable crop system and a number research laboratories. Additionally, players must complete a number of critical life supporting research tasks in order to ready the habitation system and the Martian terrain for the first wave of humans. The game can be played as a single experience, or series of episodes where player continue further the mission, and pick up where the last game left off. This game is a cooperative (or solo) worker placement, dice rolling and deck building experience, that complement the push-your-luck feel of dice with the ever growing stability of deck building. Player cooperative choose teams of two astronauts (each with their won specialty) to complete missions over a series of episodes. Players take on the role of one of four characters; Biologist, Engineer, Researcher, or Commander. (An expansion is still in development that will allow a 5th character, the Medic.) Each round players must cooperatively make both tactical and strategic decision with an overwhelming amount of unknowns. A successful Martian settlement means, players must strategically balance a number of risks: the natural risks of the Martian terrain and extreme Martian temperatures; solar radiation and sandstorms; the immediately fatal risks of damage to their life support systems or habitat; and, or course, starvation. All this while still maintaining the state of mental and physical health necessary to construct the full habitat before the next wave of humans arrives! Can you survive the first mission to Mars? description from the publisher: