AirLock: Esacpe Horizon
“Welcome aboard the UFRV Horizon, a long range scientific exploration and research vessel. Our mission will take the Horizon to the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond to gather important data for the benefit of the Earth’s population and future longevity. Please report to the cryo-stasis cabin and prepare for hibernation protocols. The system will awaken you upon arrival at our destination…”
AirLock: escape horizon, IS A CO-OPERATIVE SURVIVAL AND ESCAPE GAME for 1-4 players..
Story: Part way through its journey the UFRV (United Federation Research Vessel) Horizon encountered a cloud of what appeared to be dust and debris. In actuality this was a swarming colony of an unidentified xenos life-form. When the Horizon made contact the colony infiltrated the ships exhaust and ventilation systems, damaging the ship, and forcing the crew to leave cry-sleep and seek out the escape craft to leave the ship.
Objective: Players take control of a Trooper / Civilian pair and navigate the ship, fending off the xenos threat, in an attempt to reach the escape pods and leave. The ship is variable, and is randomly built from 5 decks of cards. Threats increase in difficulty as the game progresses. Once each cabin is successfully cleared of threats, each player receives a random equipment card which. may provide weapons, healing items, hazard mediation, or possibly threats. Beneficial cards provide a buff, ways to manage action points, or tools to negate hazardous conditions in the cabins.
Game Play: All players start with an identical deck which consists of 6 cards 1, 2, & 3 Action Points, and 1 Maneuver Card. Each players Trooper/ Civilian pair occupy one quadrant of the current cabin. Action Points are used to attempt to meet the threat level of the player’s quadrant. Maneuver cards are use to change the facing of your Trooper/ Civilian pair to assist with or address the threat in a different quadrant.
Players deal 4 cards from their deck each turn, and attempt to overcome the threats of the current cabin by generating enough action points to meet the threat number of their quadrant. Weapons and items can allow you to multiply action points, direct them to assist another player, or negate a hazard in the current cabin. Healing items can restore health to a Trooper or Civilian.
The ship deck is created by stacking two cabins from each of the green, orange, red, black, & white cabin cards. The threat numbers on these cards get progressively higher, increasing the threat of the cabins as you move through the ship.
Threats: The xenos deck contains 6 types of threats: Eggs, Larva, Pupa Stage I, Pupa Stage II, Adults, and Stress.
Eggs negate any actions for that player until another player destroys them.
Larva & Pupa will cause 1, 2, or 3 damage to your Trooper or Civilian.
Adults explode, causing you to place an exposure card in your deck. Exposure cards count toward you 4 card total.
Stress cause a number of cabins (1, 2, or 3) to collapse.
Win/Lose: If one or more players successfully get one of their Troopers or Civilians to the escape pods they win the game. If all Troopers and Civilians lose all health, or the current cabin collapses due to stress, the players lose.
SPECS
Conceived 2016
Cooperative Play / Dungeon crawl
1-4 Players
8 and older
Being play tested
GENESIS
This design is a pared down version of another, larger game of AirLock. I was enjoying designing with these small square cards and wanted to continue to try and explore other possible ways they could be used. The large game has a lot of components, and a higher level of complexity. I wanted to try and compress that experience into a smaller, more easily digestible package. As this game progresses there are puzzle like aspects that arise in how the players action points and item cards can begin to interact to overcome the threats.
I am trying to get a streamlined feeling in the mechanism I chose to use. The small card draw (4 total), simple ship build, and limited component count all are attempts to keep it simple, but retain the tension of the original, larger version.
The artwork for this game comes from some drawings I did way back in graduate school of an organism and its different stages of development. These are represented by the Egg, Larva, Pupa, and Adult stage artwork on the threat cards.