RULES

Design: Tom Jolly & James Ernest

Tech development: Tablescope

Number of players: 2
Age: 6+
Game length: 2 minutes
Components: 20 spaceship cards in two colors, 3 asteroid
cards, 2 pilot cards, 2 cards with the links to the
companion bot and the rulebook.

Light Speed is a real-time tabletop shooter in which two Game objective and setup
fleets of spaceships jump from hyperspace to battle
around a precious asteroid. This rulebook refers to the The game's objective is to score more points than your
edition curated by Tablescope and playable through the opponent by destroying enemy spaceships and hitting
support of a companion bot on the free messaging app asteroids to extract mineral units, then ensuring that the
Telegram. ships that collected them survive the battle.

You need a table free of objects, approximately 60 x 60

Tablescope cards allow you to unfold the battle by cm. Place the rocky asteroid in the center of the playing
sending a picture of the game to the Telegram bot surface. Each player takes ten cards in the color of one of
reachable by the QR code below. The software shows the two fleets and shuffles them. You can place the pilot
the outcome of the shootout, counts the points, card corresponding to your color next to you as a
displays the explosions, and, if you wish, even reminder of your fleet’s color.
generates the commentary of the skirmish.
Hold the deck face down in one palm so you can draw
cards with your other hand, keeping the playing surface
clear. Set a 1-minute timer on a cell phone. You are ready
t.me/lightspeedgamebot to play.

1. Jump from hyperspace

Start the game by activating the timer. Simultaneously,
The game is available as a free print&play from
players reveal one card after another from their deck and
tablescopegames.com/light-speed. During the game,
place it freely on the table surface. As long as they
the position and shape of the cards will be relevant,
maintain contact with the played card, they can move and
so carefully cut out their outlines, making sure not to
rotate it but never overlap it with other cards already on
remove the white border and the shields.
the table. Players cannot change the placement of
previously played cards in any way.

The jump phase ends when the time is up AND at least

one player has played all ten of their cards. The first
player who places their last card informs the other by
saying 'done!'. At this point, when the time runs out or if it
has already run out, the other player has two options:
they either leave the card they are placing exactly where
it is at that moment or withdraw it, giving up playing it. At
the end of the jump phase, one of the two factions may
not have deployed all its spacehips.

It is time to open fire.

2. Battle resolution
At this stage, players check the outcome of the battle. To
do so, send a picture of the game table to the Telegram
bot, reachable from the QR code in the box. We suggest
you use the 'Commentary' resolution mode for the first
game.
Order of fire

The number at the top center of each spaceship card is

the initiative and determines the order in which
spacecraft fire their laser beams. Spaceships with the
same initiative fire simultaneously. Each beam is
extended to check if it hits any part of another card on the
table.

Damaging a spaceship

If a spaceship, friend or enemy, gets hit, it takes as much

damage as the power of the beam (red: 1 damage, green:
2 damage, yellow: 3 damage). The icons at the top of a
spaceship card (1 to 4) are the lives of the spacecraft. If in
the course of the battle, a spaceship accumulates a
number of damage equal to or greater than its lives, it is
destroyed and is no longer considered in play, which
means it will no longer be in the way of laser beams and
cannot fire unless it has already done so.

Some spaceships have shields, represented by lines on

the outer edge of the card. If a beam hits a spaceship on
the shield, the target takes no damage. Game example. The two spaceships with initiative 1 fire
first: the red 1 hits the blue 4, destroying it! The blue 1
extracts two mineral units and hits the red 9, but on the
Extracting mineral shield. Then it is time for the red 2, which also mines two
mineral units. Now it would come the fire from the blue 4,
When a beam hits the asteroid, the firing spaceship which, however, has already been destroyed. We then
mines as many mineral units as the damage inflicted. The move on to the red 8, which obliterates the blue 1,
software automatically charges the asteroid with 12 vaporizing the mineral units it had collected. Finally, the
mineral units, which are consumed during the battle red 9 extracts a mineral unit with one of the two beams
based on the damage suffered. When there is no more and hits the friendly ship red 8 with the other. Oops.
mineral to extract, the asteroid is destroyed and no longer
considered in play.
Game variants
It may happen that, during the same initiative turn, one or
more spaceships attempt to extract more mineral units
from the asteroid than it has available. In this case, for Four-player game
each beam that hit the asteroid (regardless of its color),
one mineral unit is assigned to the spaceship that emitted You can play Light Speed in pairs. After shuffling the
it. After that, one more mineral unit is assigned to each decks, divide the cards of each fleet equally, distributing
green or yellow beam and, finally, once more to each five per component of a team. Set the timer to 30
yellow beam. Suppose that at any point of this allocation seconds. Everyone plays simultaneously, and the jumping
process the asteroid does not have enough mineral units phase ends when the time is up AND at least one team
to allow for equal distribution; in that case, all the has played all ten of their cards. The other rules are
remaining mineral is removed from the asteroid without unchanged.
being allocated. Anyway, don't worry too much: the bot will
take care of everything! Asteroids

You may decide to play with a larger number of asteroids.

In this case, the software will automatically distribute 12
Score mineral units among the asteroids on the table (e.g., 4
units per asteroid if there are three in play). Have a look
Each player scores as many points as the total lives of at the ‘Asteroid Fields’ expansion’s rules before using the
destroyed enemy spaceships (no matter by whom). In crystal asteroid or the corrosive asteroid ;)
addition, for each of their own spaceships still in play at
the end of the game, the player obtains as many points as
the number of mineral units extracted from that
spaceship.

The player with the most points wins the battle! In case of
a tie, play again!

CREDITS. GAME DESIGN: TOM JOLLY & JAMES ERNEST * ART: ALBERTO CARIATI * TECH DEVELOPMENT: TABLESCOPE * ORIGINAL
EDITION: CHEAPASS GAMES