Customizing Mars

An unofficial Terraforming Mars expansion

Complete instructions – v0.2

For more, visit www.customizingmars.com

Please send feedback to customizingmars (at) gmail (dot) com

Customizing Mars: Overview
Customizing Mars is a set of three unofficial Terraforming Mars expansions that enable
customization and randomization of the entire game board for even more variety and
replayability. All Customizing Mars expansions work with or without the official expansions.

Customizing Mars: Map Tiles adds near-infinite variability to the Mars map with an
easy-to-set-up modular map tile system and brand new sets of tile placement bonuses. Select 7
of the 24 double-sided map tiles to create a unique map for every game!

Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards introduces new strategic objectives by adding 32
new milestones and awards to the original set of 30, and includes an innovative milestone and
award selection system to ensure balanced gameplay.

Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses includes 25 double-sided tiles for customizing the
global parameter track bonuses, and furthermore brings your custom map, milestones and
awards, and global parameter tracks (including Venus!) all into one compact playing area.

Customizing Mars: Custom EVERYTHING! includes all three Customizing Mars expansions.

For more, visit www.customizingmars.com.

Example setup of Customizing Mars: Custom EVERYTHING!

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 2

Customizing Mars: Overview 2

Customizing Mars: Map Tiles 4

Map Tile Layout 5
Map Tile Selection 6
Example Custom Map 6
Placement Bonus Tile Glossary 7

Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards 8

Milestone and Award Selection Rules 8
Important Notes on Balance 9
Milestone and Award FAQ 9
Example Milestone and Award Sets 10
Milestone Glossary 11
Award Glossary 12

Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses 14

Board Frame Layout 14
Bonus Steps 14
Map, Milestones, and Awards 15
Standard Project Reference Cards 15
Playing with Colonies and Turmoil Expansions 15
Example Board Setup 16
Bonus Step Glossary 16

House Rules and Variants 19

End of Game 19
Drafting and Game Start 20
Project Card Adjustments 21
Better Game Balance and Speed 21

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 3

Customizing Mars: Map Tiles
Customizing Mars: Map Tiles adds near-infinite variability to the Mars map with an
easy-to-set-up modular map tile system and brand new sets of tile placement bonuses.

You have twenty 9-hex map tiles, four 7-hex map tiles, and eight 1-hex map tiles, all
double-sided, at your disposal to create endless permutations of custom maps. Your custom
map fits perfectly into the board frame of the Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses expansion,
or it can be placed on top of the original Terraforming Mars map.

You can construct a map by choosing map tiles at random, or carefully craft a map to have new
and interesting gameplay effects. There are only a couple important guidelines on tile layout
(page 5) and tile selection (page 6) that you should follow.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 4

Map Tile Layout
A basic Customizing Mars map is constructed with one central 7-hexagon tile and six
surrounding 9-hexagon tiles in one of the configurations shown below.

Optionally, you may combine a 7-hexagon tile and two 1-hexagon tiles to replace a 9-hexagon
tile as in the configurations below.

Or you can get even more creative.

You may randomly select map tiles (ensuring that they meet the below requirement on spaces
reserved for oceans) or manually select them to design a custom map.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 5

Map Tile Selection
Areas Reserved for Oceans
The map must have a total of 12 areas reserved for ocean tiles. These are required to support
the 9 ocean tiles, Mohole Area, Protected Valley, and Mangrove. Although you could play with
more than 12 areas reserved for ocean tiles, we recommend that you have exactly 12 when
constructing a map.

To start, we recommend creating connected groups of spaces reserved for oceans. This more
closely mimics original map design by increasing ocean placement bonuses and creating open
areas for tile placement.

Special Placement Restrictions

The map tile with Noctis City and the map tile with the volcanic sites (with Arsia Mons, etc.) are
completely optional. If they are not used, then tiles from corresponding cards (Noctis City, Lava
Flows) lose their placement restrictions.

Example Custom Map

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 6

Placement Bonus Tile Glossary
Customizing Mars: Map Tiles adds several new types of placement bonuses, explained here:

Add the printed microbe or animal resource(s) to any card.

Add a resource, except a science resource, to any card.

Add 1 microbe resource per microbe tag you have in play to any one card.

Reveal a card. Gain one resource of the printed type for each tag on the
revealed card. Discard the revealed card.

Areas with a steel reward do qualify as a steel placement bonus for Mining
Area, Mining Rights, and Mining Guild, even if you gain no steel.

When placing a tile here, you may choose to pay the resources shown to
increase the indicated production one step.

These areas do not qualify as a steel or titanium placement bonus for

Mining Area, Mining Rights, or Mining Guild.

When you place a tile here, steal the printed resources from the owners (if
any) of tiles on the indicated areas.

These areas do not qualify as a steel or titanium placement bonus for

Mining Area, Mining Rights, or Mining Guild.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 7

Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards
Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards introduces new strategic objectives by adding 32
new milestones and awards to the original set of 30.

An innovative selection system ensures balanced gameplay and a diverse set of milestones and
awards. Pick your own set, or select them at random for a new game every time.

Milestone and Award Selection Rules

Randomly select five milestones and five awards from the available tiles, or pick your own set.
To ensure a balanced and diverse set of milestones and awards, obey the below restrictions on
the numbers and colored circles in the upper-right corner of each tile.

Milestone restrictions:
● No two milestones may have the same number or adjacent numbers
● No milestone may have the same number as an award
● At most two milestones of each color (red, yellow, and blue)
● At most one milestone of each color with a ∅ symbol

Award restrictions:
● No two awards may have the same number or adjacent numbers
● No award may have the same number as a milestone
● At most two awards of each color (orange, green, and purple)
● At most one award of each color with a ∅ symbol

Why this works

The above rules prevent related milestones and awards from being used in the same game. For
example, the Miner award (most steel and titanium resources) and the Industrialist award (most
steel and energy resources) share adjacent numbers and may not be used together because
steel resources contribute towards both awards.

These rules also ensure milestone and award diversity. For example, the Gardener (3
greeneries), Mayor (3 cities), and Pioneer (3 special tiles) milestones each have a blue circle.
No more than two of these may be used in a single game, which prevents milestones from
focusing too much on tile placement.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 8

Lastly, double-sided milestone and award tiles prevent additional pairs of overlapping
milestones and awards. For example, the Homesick milestone (5 earth tags) and the Earthling
award (most earth tags) are on the same tile and therefore cannot be used in the same game.

Important Notes on Balance

Wild tags
We strongly recommend that you play with a house rule that wild tags do not count towards
milestones; otherwise, a wild tag can make it too easy to achieve multiple tag-based milestones.
Milestone thresholds have been balanced with this house rule in mind.

Milestone Thresholds
Balanced over hundreds of games, but with a particular focus on games played with
expansions. For example, Diversifier has been adjusted to require 9 different tags in play for
better balance with the introduction of Venus tags.

That said, these thresholds may still not be perfect for your group, and so you may wish to
further adjust milestone thresholds. You can do this by hand, or you can purchase a
Customizing Mars: Milestone Adjustment Sticker Pack which includes numbered stickers to
overlay on the milestone tiles.

Turmoil and the Terraformer milestone

When playing with the Turmoil expansion, you may still wish to use the Terraformer milestone
replacement tile (26 TR).

Milestone and Award FAQ

Q: Why have some of the original milestone thresholds changed?
A: Some original milestone thresholds have been updated for better balance when randomizing
milestones. These thresholds, for both original and new milestones, were chosen after hundreds
of playtests, including plays with Terraforming Mars expansions. That said, these thresholds
may still not be perfect for your group. If you’d like to further adjust milestone thresholds, we
encourage you to add a Milestone Adjustment Sticker Pack to your order.

Q: Why can’t Hoverlord and Venuphile be used in the same game?

A: In Customizing Mars, the Hoverlord milestone and the Venuphile award are on opposite
faces of the same tile, and therefore cannot be used in the same game. This is to ensure a
wider variety of milestones and awards. If you’d like to use both Hoverlord and Venuphile in the
same game, you can use the milestone or award tile from the Venus Next expansion.

Q: Why shouldn’t [milestone or award] and [another milestone or award] be used in the same
game?
A: Customizing Mars includes setup rules that prevent certain pairings of milestones and
awards. This is done to ensure a wide variety of milestones and awards in each game and to

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 9

prevent any one tactic from being too powerful. For example, the Miner award (most steel and
titanium resources) and the Industrialist award (most steel and energy resources) may not be
used in the same game because steel resources contribute towards both awards.

Q: What’s the difference between Eccentric and Collector awards?

A: Eccentric counts the number of resources on cards, while Collector counts the number of
cards with resources on them. Eccentric and Collector may not be used in the same game for
the reasons described in the FAQ above.

Q: Are there map restrictions on using Polar Explorer and Desert Settler?
A: To remain true to the original intent of this milestone and award, we suggest not using Polar
Explorer when there are areas reserved for oceans in the bottom two rows and not using Desert
Settler when there are areas reserved for oceans in the bottom four rows.

Q: For the Distributor milestone, do I need to meet the 4 megacredit requirement before or after
claiming the milestone?
A: You only need to meet the 4 megacredit requirement (in addition to the other resource
requirements) before claiming the milestone.

Q: Do Party Leaders and the Chairman count towards the Proletarian award?
A: No. Party Leaders and the Chairman are not part of the Proletariat, and so they do not count
towards the Proletarian award! If you are seeking this award, you may need to be strategic
about when you place delegates so as to not become a Party Leader.

Q: I’m not playing with a particular expansion. What do I do?

A: No problem! Simply remove the corresponding milestone and award tile for whichever
expansion(s) you are not using:
● If playing without Venus Next, remove the Hoverlord / Venuphile tile.
● If playing without Colonies, remove the Colonizer / Hegemon tile.
● If playing without Turmoil, remove the Lobbyist / Proletarian tile.

Example Milestone and Award Sets

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 10

Milestone Glossary
Note: We strongly recommend that you play with a house rule that wild tags do not count
towards milestones; otherwise, a wild tag can make it too easy to achieve multiple tag-based
milestones. Milestone thresholds have been balanced with this house rule in mind.

Apprentice Requires 5 science tags.

Appointee Requires 6 cards with a positive VP icon. Cards that score VP for
resources held do not count.

Builder Requires 8 building tags.

Centralist Requires one group of 4 connected tiles (in any configuration).

Colonizer Requires 4 colonies.

Decentralist Requires 4 groups of one or more tiles that are NOT connected.

Distributor Requires 4 each of: megacredit, steel, titanium, plant, energy, and
heat resources.

Diversifier Requires 9 different tags in play.

Ecologist Requires 4 bio tags (plant, microbe or animal tags).

Energizer Requires 7 energy production.

Gardener Requires 3 greenery tiles.

Generalist Requires having increased all production by at least 1 step.

Homesick Requires 5 earth tags.

Hoverlord Requires 9 floater resources on your cards.

Lab Assistant Requires 7 bio resources on your cards (animal or microbe

resources).

Legend Requires 5 played events (red cards).

Lobbyist Requires 7 active delegates (including Party Leaders and Chairman).

Mayor Requires 3 city tiles.

Pioneer Requires 3 special tiles (brown tiles).

Planner Requires 17 cards in hand.

Plutocrat Requires 4 cards in play (not events) with a cost of at least 20 M€.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 11

Polar Explorer Requires 3 tiles in the two bottom rows.

Power User Requires 4 power tags.

Realtor Requires 3 tiles adjacent to ocean tiles.

Rim Settler Requires 3 jovian tags.

Settler Requires 5 tiles in play.

Space Cadet Requires 6 space tags.

Specialist Requires 13 production of any resource.

Tactician Requires 5 cards with requirements in play.

Terraformer Requires a terraform rating of 30.

Tycoon Requires 14 project cards in play (blue and green cards).

Create your own milestone!

Award Glossary
Banker Highest megacredit production.

Benefactor Highest terraform rating. Count this award first!

Celebrity Most cards in play (not events) with a cost of at least 20 M€.

City Slicker Most city tiles.

Collector Most cards in play, including corporation cards, with one or more
resources on them.

Contractor Most building tags.

Coordinator Most tags of any one tag type (excluding building tag).

Cultivator Most greenery tiles.

Desert Settler Most tiles south of the equator (the bottom four rows).

Developer Most tiles adjacent to special tiles (brown tiles).

Earthling Most earth tags.

Eccentric Most resources on cards in play (including corporations).

Estate Dealer Most tiles adjacent to ocean tiles.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 12

Event Manager Most played events (red cards).

Frontiersman Most tiles along the map perimeter.

Green Thumb Highest plant production.

Hegemon Most colonies and city tiles.

Hoarder Most cards in hand.

Industrialist Most steel and energy resources.

Landlord Most tiles in play.

Magnate Most automated cards in play (green cards).

Miner Most steel and titanium resources.

Nationalist Most tiles connected in one group (in any configuration).

Naturalist Most bio tags (plant, microbe or animal tags).

Oligarch Most party delegates, excluding Party Leaders and Chairman

(neutral delegates have no effect).

Planeteer Most planet tags (earth, jovian, or venus tags).

Powerhouse Most power tags.

Scientist Most science tags.

Space Baron Most space tags.

Thermalist Most heat resources.

Venuphile Most venus tags.

Create your own award!

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 13

Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses
Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses includes 25 double-sided tiles for customizing the global
parameter track bonuses. It also brings your customized map, milestones and awards, global
parameter tracks (including Venus!), and the redesigned terraform rating (TR) track all into one
compact playing area.

Warning: Customizing Mars: Board and Bonuses requires the Customizing Mars: Map Tiles
and Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards expansions. The global parameter track
bonuses are not compatible with the base game board.

Board Frame Layout

The Customizing Mars Board Frame consists of six pieces:
● Two top pieces that hold the terraform rating track
● Two side pieces that hold the global parameters and off-Mars city areas
● Two bottom pieces that hold the milestones and awards

Each board frame piece is double-sided.

● When playing with the Venus Next expansion, flip the left board piece to the side with the
Venus scale and additional off-Mars city areas.
● There are horizontal and vertical styles of the Terraform Rating track. The horizontal
style more closely matches the original track design, but we recommend you try the
vertical design! In particular, it makes end-of-game counting easier.
● The two sides of the milestone and award pieces are identical.

Assemble these six pieces around your custom map, and then add milestones, awards, and
global parameter bonus steps.

Bonus Steps
The original bonus steps for Global Parameters are printed on the board frame pieces. But you’ll
want to mix it up!

There are 25 bonus tiles (17 short and 8 long) that you can use to customize bonus steps.
These bonus tiles cover the areas outlined in white, adjacent to the global parameter scales. A
short bonus tile covers one outlined area, and a long bonus tile covers two.

The Oxygen and Venus scales have three outlined areas that can be covered by: 1 short bonus
tile and 1 long bonus tile (recommended); or 3 short bonus tiles.

The Temperature scale has four outlined areas that can be covered by: 2 long bonus tiles; 1
long bonus tile and 2 short bonus tiles (recommended); or 4 short bonus tiles.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 14

You can select bonus tiles at random, or choose a custom set!

Recommendations
When mixing long and short bonus tiles, we recommend placing the long tile at the top of the
Global Parameter scale. Long tiles tend to have bigger bonuses!

We recommend not putting the temperature bonus on the temperature track, the oxygen bonus
on the oxygen track, or the Venus bonus on the Venus track.

Map, Milestones, and Awards

You’ll need the Customizing Mars: Map Tiles and Customizing Mars: Milestones and Awards
expansions to complete the board. Your custom Mars map fits neatly within the board pieces,
and five milestones and five awards fit within their assigned sections.

Standard Project Reference Cards

For convenience, four reference cards showing the available standard projects are included.
One side includes Air Scrapping, the standard project added with the Venus Next expansion.

Playing with Colonies and Turmoil Expansions

When playing with the Colonies expansion, you’ll still need to place the Colony Tiles and Trade
Fleet Tile adjacent to the Customizing Mars board.

When playing with the Turmoil expansion, you’ll still need to place the Terraforming Committee
board adjacent to the Customizing Mars board.

This ensures an overall compact experience whether you are playing with or without these
expansions!

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 15

Example Board Setup

Bonus Step Glossary

Add the printed microbe or animal resource(s) to any card.

Add a resource, except a science resource, to any card.

Fund an award for free. If three awards are already funded, you may not fund
a fourth.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 16

 Place your marker on a non-reserved area. Only you may place a tile here.

Use a card action that has already been used this generation.

Place a city tile next to no other tile.

Place a “neutral” greenery tile. Do not raise the oxygen level. You do
receive any placement bonus for placing the tile.

Duplicate only the production box of one of your building cards.

Raise Venus 1 step. Only use if playing with the Venus Next expansion.

Gain 2 floaters. Only use if playing with the Venus Next or Colonies
expansion.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 17

 Place a Colony, obeying normal placement restrictions. Only use if playing
with the Colonies expansion.

Gain all your colony bonuses. Only use if playing with the Colonies
expansion.

Add a delegate to any party. Only use if playing with the Turmoil expansion.

Create your own bonus step!

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 18

House Rules and Variants
Just for fun, here are some house rules that we find add value during our hundreds of plays.
We’ve organized these into four sections: End of Game; Drafting and Game Start; Project Card
Adjustments; and Better Game Balance and Speed.

End of Game
Scoring Tied Awards
Instead of all players receiving the full number of victory points when tying for first or second
place, they instead split the available points, rounding up. See the following table, and note that
second place is awarded only if there is a single first place winner.

… for 1st place … for 2nd place

Single winner (no tie) … 5 points 2 points

2 players tie … 4 points each 1 point each

3 players tie … 3 points each 1 point each

4 players tie … 2 points each 1 point each

5 players tie … 2 points each 1 point each

In 3+ player games, this adds motivation to be the sole winner of an award rather than settling
for a tie.

End-of-Game Sequence
This variant introduces an immediate end-of-game sequence when the global parameters reach
their goals. This reduces large swings in game length and scores based on whether the global
parameters reach their goals at the end of one generation or the beginning of the next. We’ve
found that this results in closer-scoring games, better balance between strategies, and less
feeling like the game drags on at the end.

New end-of-game sequence:

In the original rules, when all ocean, temperature, and oxygen global parameters have reached
their goals, the game ends at the end of that generation. In this variant, however, this triggers an
immediate end-of-game sequence:
1. The player completing the global parameters finishes their turn (of up to 2 actions). If a
player has already passed this generation, they are brought back into the round and
allowed to take more actions as described below.
2. All other players, in turn order, take a full turn (of up to 2 actions).
3. The player that completed the global parameters takes a final turn of up to 1 action. If
that player went last this generation, the game is over.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 19

 4. Otherwise, other players continue, in turn order, taking up to 1 action until the player
that went last this generation has taken their turn. (This often means that not every
player will have this extra action.)

The final production phase, greenery placement, and scoring proceed as usual.

Example:
Alice, Bob, Charlie, and Diane are playing a four player game. Alice went first this generation,
and Diane went last. Diane has already passed this round, but Alice, Bob and Charlie are still
active. Here is an example end of game sequence:
1. On his turn, Bob completes the global parameters. Diane is brought back into the round,
even though she already passed.
2. Charlie takes his turn of up to 2 actions, followed by Diane and then Alice.
3. Bob takes his turn of up to 1 action.
4. Charlie takes his turn of up to 1 action, followed by Diane. Because Diane went last this
generation, Alice does not take this extra turn.

Alice Diane
(went first this Bob Charlie (went last this
generation) generation)

... ... ... ...

2 actions 2 actions 2 actions Pass

2 actions 2 actions 2 actions 2 actions

(triggers endgame)

2 actions 1 action 1 action 1 action

Why this works:

An immediate endgame reduces large swings in game length and scores based on whether the
global parameters reach their goals at the end of one generation or the beginning of the next.
We’ve found that this results in closer-scoring games, better balance between strategies, and
less feeling like the game drags on at the end.

This particular end-of-game method gives each player enough actions (2 or 3) to play their most
important remaining cards after global parameters have reached their goals.

This method also ensures that all players have within ±1 action of each other in the final
generation (assuming they use every action), without giving an advantage to the player who
triggered the end game condition.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 20

Drafting and Game Start
The Basic Option
You may always choose to play as the Beginner Corporation, minus a small premium for the
privilege. Keep all 10 project cards and start with 37 M€.

Corporation and Prelude Drafting

During the initial corporation and prelude selection phase, begin with two corporations and four
preludes as usual. From this set of six cards, keep any two (2 players) or any one (3+ players)
and pass the rest.

Repeat for the passed cards, until you have chosen a new set of six corporations and preludes.
Choose your corporation and preludes from these.

If you do not have a corporation, you must play as the Beginner Corporation.

Research Phase Drafting

During the research phase, draw four project cards as usual. From this set of four cards, keep
any two (2 players) or any one (3+ players) and pass the rest. Alternate passing directions for
each generation.

Repeat for the passed cards, until you have chosen a new set of four project cards. Buy cards
into your hand as usual.

Mulligan
When playing without corporation and prelude drafting: you may choose to discard all
corporation, prelude, and project cards. Receive a new set of cards, with two fewer project
cards. You may repeat this process as many times as you’d like until you receive no project
cards.

Project Card Adjustments

Protected Habitats
We remove this card from the game. No one is safe!

Law Suit
Even if a player has already passed this generation, they may play Law Suit after being
attacked by an opponent.

Toll Station
In a four player game, receive 2 M€ production for every 3 opponent space tags.
In a five player game, receive 1 M€ production for every 2 opponent space tags.

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 21

Better Game Balance and Speed
Wild tags don’t count for milestones
Wild tags do not count towards milestones; otherwise, a wild tag can make it too easy to
achieve multiple tag-based milestones. Customizing Mars milestone thresholds have been
balanced with this house rule in mind.

Equal opportunity colonies

On their first turn of the game, a player may build a colony on any colony tile, even if three other
colonies have been built there. This rule only applies to their first colony on that tile.

Place their player marker to the left of other colonies so that trading bonuses are not affected.
The player receives the same bonus for building a colony as other colonies on that tile.

Additionally: on a player’s first turn after Aridor adds a colony tile, a player may build a colony on
that colony tile.

Final Greenery placement

During end-of-game greenery placement, greenery placement starts as usual with the previous
generation’s starting player. Players take turns in order placing one or two greenery tiles, as in a
normal generation, until everyone is done.

Reduce stalling with “half actions”

To keep gameplay moving quickly, some actions only count as “half actions”:
- Selling patents
- Blue card actions
- Corporation card actions
- Trading with a colony tile
All other actions count as “full actions”.

If you only perform a single “half action” during a turn, you are considered to have “passed” and
may not take any more turns this generation. Note: you still may not take more than two “half
actions” in a single turn.

Example turns:
First Action Second Action Effect

Half Action None Pass

Full Action None Still Active

Half Action Half Action or Full Action Still Active

Full Action Half Action or Full Action Still Active

Customizing Mars www.customizingmars.com Page 22