StarDriven: Gateway

StarDriven: Gateway is a sci-fi board game of space exploration near a newly discovered alien gateway. Player factions seek to win over local planets to be able to exploit the ancient gateway. Designed by Todd Walsh for 1 to 4 players, Rock Manor Games will be launching StarDriven: Gateway on Gamefound in the Fall. Featured here are only prototype components that were shown off at Gen Con.

One of the main mechanics in the game is dice placement. Each player operates a single ship exploring space near the gateway. Player boards show the stations within the ship, where dice are placed for actions when manned by crew.

Navigation and Helm deal with ship movements. Sensors let you investigate adjacent space tiles instead of exploring into them blindly. Command lets you attack enemies, Engineering repairs damage, and Crew Quarters draw more crew cards.

Crew are placed into these stations to allow them to be used, but crew can also be exhausted for their abilities or to complete missions.

Each turn concludes with the option to hire a new freelancer or promote crew you have already.

Also shown above are the mission cards. Explore space to find planets where these missions can be completed by spending matching symbols and crew strength. At this planet below, the blue player can Investigate Local Myths if they spend crew cards with the two symbols indicated on the top left that have a total value of 5 or more.

Each sector of space has a token for the first player to explore there, which may reward you with experience or have you run into an enemy ship. Sometimes anomalies will be encountered while exploring.

These will cause you to draw an anomaly card that come with negative effects, but are worth 3 points at the end of the game. They can always be discarded, forgoing the points for the positive effect listed on the bottom.

Objectives are another way to score points in StarDriven: Gateway by meeting the specified conditions.

Space exploration is dangerous and each round the Warbound will activate by drawing as many cards as there are players.

If the revealed number on the Warbound deck matches the tile of a Warbound ship, it will move as directed on the ship’s reference card. In this case, the small white Interceptor will move to the closest player ship and attack. If no Warbound ships move, instead resolve the effects of the Warbound card (Ram & Board above).

Attacks resolve through both the attacker and defender rolling dice. Matching values are blocked.

Unmatched dice hit on the station matching their value. If the roll above had the attacker on the left, only 1 was blocked and hits will be taken in stations 2 and 4. A damage token is placed over the top die slot, limiting your ability to take actions there. If a station is fully damaged, the hull damage tracker will be reduced which is non-repairable and loses points during end game.

Any dice previously place in a damaged slot are removed and not recovered until a rest turn is performed.

StarDriven: Gateway is played over multiple replayable episodes with varying scoring and unique rules. Opponent levels and available mission cards also change depending on the scenario. Competitive and cooperative episodes will be available.

While I’ve only been given a small taste of the game, StarDriven: Gateway felt like a big, epic space game (think Stars of Akarios) but simplified and focused. No massive fleet of ships exploring in different directions, just your one ship. Follow along with the Gamefound campaign for more details.