Astronomers

Astronomers is a cooperative roleplaying game (with no "storyteller" or "DM"). The goal is to discover nearby planets and stars, and learn stories about those out of your world.

At the end of the game, you'll have discovered stories about objects no one else on your planet has ever heard of. This works as a great world-building exercise for any role-playing game, or just a fun activity.

You’ll need: a six-sided die, a standard 52-card deck, a writing utensil, some paper / post-its, a game play area, and up to 5 players. Shuffle the deck and deal out as many cards as the length of game you want. Each card is about 5 minutes of gameplay. The more cards, the longer the game.

Shuffle the deck and figure out who looked at the stars most recently. This player goes first.¹

Decide if you want to Discover a New Object or Revisit a Discovery.

Discover a New Object

• Draw a card from the deck.²
• Place the card anywhere on the workspace. This will be the object you find.³
• Flip the card over and roll the dice.
• Use the tables to determine the type of celestial body discovered.
• Give a quick description of the object you just discovered and take notes on a post-it or piece of paper.⁴
• Then it’s time for the Press Room: answer one question from each player about what you just discovered and mark notes on the post-it.⁵
• Gameplay continues clockwise.

Revisit a Discovery

If you think there’s more to be found out about an object, you can draw another card and combine those attributes with the object that’s already on the workspace.

If a card drawn has the same attributes as the original object, that means the attribute is doubled. Alternatively, revisiting a discovery could find that an object has moved, or changed orbital patterns.

The Press Room happens just like a regular turn.

Gameplay ends when the deck runs out or the work space is overrun with cards. At this point, all the visible celestial objects have been discovered.

Remember the stories you told and the places you learned about, and continue to tell their stories. If you play again, you can continue building off the same map, tangentially, or any other way you’d like.

1. If there’s a tie in determining turn order or you’re unsure who last looked at the stars, point in the north direction. Whoever is closest to true north goes first.
2. The card pulled can be the one on the top of the deck, but it doesn’t have to be. The card can come from any part of the deck.
3. Cards should stay within the workspace, but can certainly be placed near each other, or even on top of each other. If placed on top, a player can “continue researching” a celestial object, and the new aspects of the card are added to the previous.
4. Statements about the objects come in two parts: “Our Studies Show” and “Legend Has it”. For example, for the Ace of Diamonds with a roll of 4, you might say: “Our studies show that this celestial body is a medium-sized planet that’s completely icy yet very hospitable to life. Legend has it, though, that the planet is actually a very small rock surrounded by ice-- 80% of its size is pure ice.”
5. Other players can ask any questions about the newly discovered celestial body. For example, “Does the planet have life?” or “Why is the fire blue?”. See the appendix for more sample questions.

Nina Navazio | Concept, design, development

Miles Cumiskey | Development, input

Ellie Gargiulo | Input, editing

Ciomara Valentine | Input, editing

Jordan Bradley | Input, editing