Race for the Galaxy rules refresher

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You are building the most prosperous space empire, and the most victory points wins. You do that by playing cards from your hand as worlds and developments in your tableau, and by turning goods into victory point chips.

For setup, put out twelve victory point chips per player in ones and fives, and set the ten point chips aside for use only in the final round. Each player takes a set of seven different action cards and one face up start world, dealt from the five shuffled start worlds. Shuffle the unused start worlds into the game deck, deal six cards to each player, and each player discards two of them face down. What is left is the card supply, and the discard pile sits next to it, face down and a bit messy so you can tell them apart. If Alpha Centauri is in play, put a face down card from the supply on it as a starting windfall good.

Each round, everyone secretly picks one action card and then all reveal at once. Only the phases somebody chose happen, and they happen in order: Explore, Develop, Settle, Consume, Produce. Every phase has an action that all players perform, plus a bonus only for the players who chose it. If two players pick the same phase, the phase still only happens once, and both get the bonus. After all chosen phases are done, everyone discards down to ten cards in hand and takes their action card back.

Cards have three uses: as a world or development placed in your tableau, as one money to discard when paying, or as a face down good sitting on a world.

In Explore, every player draws two cards and keeps one, discarding the other. All the drawing happens before anyone discards. If you chose Explore plus five, you draw seven and keep one. If you chose Explore plus one plus one, you draw three and keep two.

In Develop, each player places a development face down, or nothing, and all reveal together. Then you pay the cost shown in the diamond by discarding that many cards from hand. Choosing Develop lets you discard one card fewer. You may never have two copies of the same development in your tableau. Six cost developments have a question mark instead of a victory point value; they score a variable amount at the end.

In Settle, each player places a world face down, or nothing, then all reveal. Worlds with a black cost are paid for by discarding that many cards. Choosing Settle lets you draw a card after placing and paying or conquering. Worlds with a colored halo are windfall worlds: when first settled, take a card from the supply, face down and unlooked at, and put it on the world as a good. Worlds with a red circle are military worlds. You cannot pay for those; your total Military must equal or exceed the defense number, and then you place the world for free. Military and payment never combine, so Military never reduces a cost. Military from powers lasts until the end of the Settle phase. A Contact Specialist is the exception that lets you pay for a military world, other than an Alien one, at a cost of its defense minus one, and ordinary cost discounts do combine with that.

In Consume, you must use your consume powers, discarding goods face down for victory point chips and card draws. Each good discarded feeds only one power, and a good does not have to be on the world consuming it. Consumption is mandatory, but you may invoke your powers in any order you like, even if a different order would have used more goods. Each power is used once per phase, and a power that says up to some number must be used as fully as possible once you invoke it. If you chose Consume Trade, you must first sell one good before using your consume powers, drawing cards by kind: five for Alien technology, four for Genes, three for Rare elements, two for Novelty, plus any Trade powers you have. Only a player who chose Trade may sell. If you chose Consume double victory points, you double the chips your consume powers give you, but not other effects, and not victory points gained from discarding cards out of your hand.

In Produce, every player puts a face down card from the supply as a good on each production world, that is a world with a solid colored circle, that does not already have a good. No world holds more than one good. Choosing Produce lets you also produce a good on one of your windfall worlds that is empty.

A few things about powers generally: a power does not work in the phase in which its card was placed, only from the next phase onward. Powers are mandatory unless they say may, they are cumulative, and a cost reduced below zero is just zero with no refund. When the card supply runs out, immediately reshuffle the discards. Victory point chips and the number of cards in each hand are open information. When order actually matters, resolve clockwise starting from the player with the lowest numbered start world.

The game ends at the end of the round, including the discard step, in which either a player has twelve or more face up cards in their tableau, or the last victory point chip is handed out. If the chips run out, bring in the ten point chips so everything earned in that final Consume phase can be paid. Then total the victory points printed on your worlds and developments, your chips, and the end of game points from any six cost developments. Highest total wins. If players tie, the tied player with the most cards in hand after discarding plus goods on worlds wins. If they are still tied, they all win.

A turn, played out

You have 9 face up cards in your tableau and 7 cards in hand. Your worlds' powers give you a total Military of 2, and 2 rounds ago you placed a Contact Specialist. This round you reveal Settle. The player to your left reveals Develop, and the player across reveals Settle too. So Develop happens first, then Settle, and nothing else. In Develop you place a development costing 2. You did not choose Develop, so there is no discount: you discard 2 cards. The player to your left pays 1 fewer for theirs. You are down to 4 cards. Now Settle. You place a world with a red circle and a defense of 4. It is not an Alien world. Your Military of 2 falls short, and you cannot combine Military with payment. But your Contact Specialist has been out since an earlier round, so its power works, and you may pay defense minus 1. You discard your last 3 cards. Your Military takes nothing off that price. Your hand is empty, but you chose Settle, so you draw 1 card. The player across chose it too and also draws 1. Your tableau now shows 11 cards. One more and the game ends at the close of that round.