Nemesis Game Rules

Nemesis is a semi-cooperative game where you and your crewmates must survive on a ship infested with hostile organisms.

To win the game, you will have to complete one of the two objectives dealt to you at the start of the game and get back to Earth in one piece.

You will find many obstacles on your way: swarms of Intruders (the name given to the alien organisms by the ship AI), the poor physical condition of the ship, the other players that will have their own agendas and , sometimes, just cruel fate.

The gameplay of Nemesis is designed to be full of climatic moments which, hopefully , you will find rewarding even when your best plans are ruined and your character meets a terrible fate.

Components

Cardboard Map
25 Miniatures
138 Small Cards
142 eEgular Cards
5 Heroy Trays
19 Cardboard Room Tokens
100 Cardboard Tokens
2 Dice
40 Plastic Tokens
Rulebook

Setup

Board Setup

Place the board on the table. Use the basic side of the board as shown in the picture.

Note: The basic side of the board is marked by a red arrow icon in its upper left corner.
Shuffle all Room tiles "2" without looking at their fronts and randomly place (face down ) one Room tile "2" on each of the Room slots marked with a "2" on the board. Put all remaining Room tiles "2" back in the box.

Note: Yo u will not use all available Room tiles "2" each game, as there are more tiles than slots on the board. Players never know exactly which Rooms are on the ship.

Note: When putting any components back in the box, avoid looking at their contents.
Then, use the same method to place all Room tiles "1" on the Room slots marked with a "1".
Take the Exploration tokens , shuffle them (without looking at their fronts) and place one token at random (face down) on each Room tile. Put all remaining Exploration tokens back in the box.
Take the Coordinates cards and place one randomly (face down ) on its space next to the Cockpit. Put all remaining Coordinates cards back in the box.
Place 1 Status marker on the "B" space on the Destination Track . This is the Destination marker.
Take the corresponding number of randomly chosen Escape Pod tokens:
- 1-2 players: 2 Escape Pods.
- 3-4 players: 3 Escape Pods.
- 5 players: 4 Escape Pods.
Place the lowest -numbered Escape Pod in Section "A", then place the next (in numerical order) Escape Pod in Section "B". Place the other Escape Pods, alternating between "A" and "B".

Escape Pod tokens should be placed with their "Locked" side face up. Put all remaining Escape Pods back in the box.
Take both Engine tokens marked with the number "1" (1 Damaged and 1 Working) and shuffle them face down. Place them on the cor-responding Engine "1" slot on the board, one atop the other, and face down. The top Engine token indicates the true status of the Engine.

Repeat this step for Engine tokens "2" and "3".

Important: Make sure that the players do not see the fronts of the to- kens, so that they will not know if the Engines are working or not.
Take the Intruder board, put it next to the board and place in the corresponding slots:
- 5 Egg tokens
- 3 random Weakness cards. They are placed face down, so that players will not know what Weaknesses they can discover during a given game.
Put all remaining Weakness cards back in the box.
Take the Intruder bag and put the following Intruder tokens inside: 1 Blank, 4 Larvae, 1 Creeper, 1 Queen, 3 Adults.

Then, add 1 additional Adult Intruder token for each player taking part in the game.

The rest of the Intruder tokens are placed next to the board - they will be used during play.

Place the Intruder Carcass tokens next to the board as well - they will mark killed Intruders.
Shuffle and place the following decks face down next to the board: 3 Items [each with its own color], Event , Intruder Attack, Contamination and Serious Wound decks.
- Place the Craft Item deck next to the 3 Item decks.
- Place the Scanner next to the Contamination deck.
Put all Intruder Player Action cards and all Solo / Coop Objective cards back in the box - these two decks are only used in advanced game modes.
Place the other markers, tokens and dice next to the board:
- Fire markers
- Malfunction markers
- Noise markers
- Ammo / Injury markers
- Status markers (used as Light Wounds / Slime / Signal / Self- Destruct / Time / Destination markers)
- Door tokens
- Red Character Corpse tokens
- 2 Combat dice
- 2 Noise dice
- First Player token
Place 1 Status marker on the green space of the Time Track. This is the Time marker.

The board setup is now complete!.

Crew Setup

Take as many Help Cards as there are players and deal one to each player at random. These cards determine the order of choosing Characters. If there are 3 players, take the cards with the number 1-3, if there are 4 players, take cards 1-4 etc.

The number shown on the Help Card and Inventory is the Player Number - it's not only important for choosing Character, but also for some Objectives.

Put all remaining Help cards back in the box.
Each player gets 1 plastic Inventory Card holder with the same number as their Help card. It is used to keep your Item cards hidden during the game.

This is your Inventory, the place where you store all your non-Heavy Items, so you know what you have, while the other players may only guess.
Remove from both Objective Decks (Corporate and Personal) all cards showing a number of players higher than the number of players taking part in the game.

Shuffle these two decks individually and deal each player 1 card from the Corporate Objectives deck and 1 card from the Personal Objectives deck. Each player must keep the contents of their Objective cards hidden from the other players!

Put all remaining Objective cards back in the box.

When any of the Characters encounters an Intruder for the first time, you will have to choose one of the two Objectives you want to complete during the game.

Hint: There's a good reason why the players receive their Objectives before Character drafts! Knowing your Objective, you can pick a Character that has the best chance to fulfill it.
Shuffle all the Character draft cards. The players choose their Characters in the following order : Player 1 takes 2 random Character draft cards, reveals them, chooses 1 and shuffles the other back into the Character draft deck. Next, Player 2 chooses their Character the same way, then Player 3, etc.

A player may only control the Character whose card they have chosen during the draft.

After the draft, put all remaining Character draft cards back in the box, as they will no longer be used.
Each player takes the following components:
1. The Character board of the Character chosen during the draft.
2. The miniature of their Character and places it in the Hibernatorium. Place your Character miniature in a colored plastic ring.
3. The Action cards deck of their Character, shuffles it and places it on the left side of their Character board, face down.
4. The Starting Item card (Weapon) of their Character and places it in one of the two Hand slots on their Character board. Afterwards, place a number of Ammo markers equal to that Weapon's Ammo capacity on the Weapon card.
5. The 2 Quest Items of their Character and places them, horizontal side up, next to their Character board. Those items are NOT active at the start of the game, but players can perform mini-quests to unlock them during the game.
  
  Take all remaining Character boards and put them back in the box. They will not be used during this game.
6. Leave this spot for the Action discard pile - this is where your used Action cards (and Contamination cards) will go.
Player 1 gets the First Player token.
Place the blue Character Corpse token in the Hibernatorium . It represents the body of a poor sod lying in a pool of blood.

During the game, treat this token as a Character Corpse Object.

The blue Character Corpse token is always assigned to the first dead body found on the ship.

Game Play

The game is played over a series of consecutive turns, and ends when any of the end game conditions are met.

Each turn is split into two consecutive Phases:

Player Phase,
Event Phase.

I. Player Phase

1. Draw Action Cards

At the start of each Player Phase, all players draw cards from their Action deck until they have a hand size of 5 cards.

If the game (at any time) requires you to draw a card and add it to your hand, and your Action deck is empty, shuffle all the cards in your discard pile - these will form your new Action deck. Then, draw the required number of cards.

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2. First Player Token

After all the Players have drawn their Action cards, the player with the First Player token passes it to the player on their left.

Note: In the first turn of the game, do not pass the First Player token.

Each time players are required to do anything in order, start with the player with the First Player token, and then continue with each player in clockwise order.

3. Player Rounds

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player per- forms a round of 2 Actions.

When each player has performed their round of 2 Actions (or passed their round), the next series of rounds takes place. Each player in order performs 2 Actions (or passes) - this takes place as long as there is at least one player who has not passed. When all players have passed, move to the Event Phase.

If a player cannot perform any Actions, or chooses to take no Actions in their round, they must pass.

If a player performs only 1 Action instead of the required two, they must pass.

Any player who already passed cannot perform ANY Actions later during that Phase.

When a player passes, they may discard any number of cards from their hand to their Discard.

When you pass, flip your Help card to the "Pass" side to indicate this.

Note: When a Character ends their round in a Room with a Fire marker, they always suffer 1 Light Wound - see Fire marker, page 17.

II. Event Phase

Resolve the following steps:

4. Time Track

Move the Time marker on the Time Track by 1 space to the right. If the Self-Destruct Sequence is active, also move its marker by 1 space to the right on its Track.

5. Intruder Attack

Each Intruder in Combat with a Character attacks them.

6. Fire Damage

Each Intruder in the same Room as a Fire marker suffers 1 Injury.

7. Resolve Event Card

Draw and resolve 1 Event card:

Intruder Movement - All Intruders sharing the Intruder Symbol shown on the Event card (and that are NOT in a Room with any Characters) move to a neighboring Room through the Corridor showing the number on the Event card.

Example of an Event Card:

1, 2) Intruder symbols and direction number - only the Intrud- ers whose symbol appears on the card (and that are not in Com- bat) are moved through the corridor displaying the same direction number as the card.

In this example, during the Intruder movement step, all Adult Intruders, Breeders and the Queen will move through the Cor- ridor number 1.

3) Event effect - this effect is triggered after the Intruder move- ment step has been performed.

In this example, check if a Malfunction marker is present in the Gen- erator Room to trigger the effect. Then, REMOVE this Event from the game (back to the box) and reshuffle the Event deck and discard pile.

If the number indicates a Technical Corridor, remove that Intruder miniature from the board and put its corresponding Intruder token in the Intruder bag.

Event Effect - After the Intruder movement step, re- solve the effect described on the Event card.

After resolving the Event card, discard it in the Event discard pile (unless the text on the card says differently). If the Event deck runs out of cards (this, however, happens very rarely), shuffle the dis-carded Event cards - they become the new Event deck.

8. Intruder Bag Development

Draw 1 Intruder token from the Intruder bag.

The effect depends on the drawn token:

Larva - Remove this token from the Intruder bag and add 1 Adult token to the Intruder bag.

Creeper - Remove this token from the Intruder bag and add 1 Breeder token to the Intruder bag.

Adult - All players roll for Noise in order. If a player's Character is in Combat with an Intruder, this player does not perform a Noise roll. Return the Adult Intruder token to the Intruder bag.

Breeder - All players roll for Noise in order. If a player's Character is in Combat with an Intruder, this player does not perform a Noise roll. Return the Breeder Intruder token to the Intruder bag.

Queen - If there are any Characters in the Nest Room, place the Queen miniature in that Room and resolve an Encounter.

If there are no Characters in the Nest (or its location has not been discovered yet), add an additional Egg token on the Intruder board. Return the Queen Intruder token to the Intruder bag.

Blink - Add 1 Adult Intruder token to the Intruder bag. If there are no Adult Intruder tokens available, nothing happens. Return the Blank token to the Intruder bag.

9. End of the Turn

Start a new turn

The turn ends after the Intruder bag development step has been fully resolved. It means that all Encounters, Surprise Attacks etc. must have been played out. After that, a new turn starts with the Player Phase and all players draw their Action cards.

Players Goals

A game of Nemesis may result in multiple winners , but it is not a cooperative game - while the players can (and should, to some degree) cooperate, each player has their own Objective to fulfill. Other players achieving their goals are irrelevant to your own victory.

To consider a player a winner, they must meet 2 conditions:

Fulfill their objective, detailed on the Objective card chosen by the player.
survive - meaning one of these two options: [1] hibernate their Character in the Hibernatorium with the ship still functioning and jumping to Earth OR [2] use one of the Escape Pods to evacuate the ship.

Important: Some Objective cards may ask a Character to change the ship S destination - for instance, the ship must be redirected to Mars in- stead of going back to Earth.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the following conditions is met:

The Time marker moves on the final red space of the Time Track - the ship jumps into hyperspace immediately. All characters on board who are not in hibernation die from the massive g-force.

Important: Instant death due to hyperjump does not apply to the Intruders, so if your Objective was to kill the Queen, a Breeder or to destroy the Nest, your target is unharmed, and you fail your mission.

The Self-Destruct marker moves on to the final red space of the Self-Destruct Track (the one with "skull" icon) OR you are instructed to place a 9th Fire marker or a 9th Malfunction marker - the ship explodes /loses hull integrity and all the Characters on board (both awake and hibernated) die.

Everything else on board the ship also dies, including Intruders (this may be important for some Objectives).

The last alive, not hibernating Character on board the ship dies, hibernates or uses an Escape Pod - meaning there is nothing more to do on the ship.

If the Self-Destruct sequence was active, move its marker to the final red space of the Self-Destruct Track. If not, move the Time marker to the final red space of the Time Track. In both cases resolve the effects of those markers as described above.

If one of the conditions above is met and at least 1 Character survived (either asleep in the Hibernatorium or evacuated in an Escape Pod), go to the Victory Check step.

Victory Check

1. Engines Check

If the ship survived up to this moment, its Engines are checked. Re -veal all the top Engine tokens of the three Engines.

If 2 or 3 of the top Engine tokens have a Damaged status, the ship explodes and all the hibernating Characters die.

Everything else on board also dies, including all the Intruders (this may be important for some Objectives).

Note: A Malfunction marker in the Engine Room only disables that Room Action. If the Engine has a Working status, it does not count as Dam-aged, regardless of the mentioned Malfunction marker.

2. Coordinates Check

If the ship survived up to this moment, reveal the Coordinates card and check the current space of the Destination marker.

If the ship is not headed toward Earth, all Characters asleep in the Hibernatorium die.

The Quarantine Objective, which requires another destination for the jump (Mars ), is the only exception to this rule. Any Character with this Objective does not die if they are a sleep in the Hibernatorium and the ship 's destination is Mars.

Important: Instant death due to a destination other than Earth does not apply to the Intruders!

Note: In this case, although the Characters die, the ship is not destroyed

3. Contamination Check

Each alive Character (either asleep in the Hibernatorium or evacuated in an Escape Pod) checks their Contamination cards.

The player Scans all the Contamination cards in their Action deck, discard pile and hand.
If there is at least 1 "INFECTED" card, that player shuffles all their cards (both Action and Contamination) to create a new Action deck , then draws the 4 top cards . If there is at least 1 Contamination card (Infected or not), the Character dies. If there are none, they are lucky to survive.

If there is a Larva on the Character's Board, the player skips step A and resolves step B.

4. Objective Check

If there are any Characters alive up to this step, you only have to check if you accomplished your chosen Objective.

Each player whose Character is still alive at this step must check if they accomplished their chosen Objective. They all reveal their Objective card to the other players and check if they have met all its requirements.

Ending The Game Before The Other Players

If any Character uses an Escape Pod, hibernates or dies, then they can no longer actively participate in the game, and can only spectate. At the end of the game, the Characters that are still alive determine if all their Objectives have been met and thus if they have won or not.

The Player whose Character is the first to die may continue the game as an Intruder.

Critical Gameplay Moments

During the game, there are two critical moments that are not tied to any specific turn, but are triggered under certain conditions:

The First Encounter with an Intruder.
The first Character that dies.

First Encounter

The first time a crew member encounters an Intruder, every one has to make a choice - either follow corporate directives or fulfill their personal objectives.

When the first Intruder miniature (of any type) appears on the board , the situation changes drastically . Each player immediately chooses 1 of their 2 Objective cards.

The one that wasn't chosen is removed from the game face down (without showing it to the other players ). Then , the encounter that triggered this procedure is resolved and the game continues normally.

From now on, each player has only 1 Objective left and they must work toward its completion (it must still be kept secret from the other players).

Note: Players cannot look at the removed Objective cards of the other players!

First Dead Character

The first time a Character (of any player) dies, the ship's AI immedi- ately starts emergency procedures:

All Escape Pods are automatically unlocked (flip their tokens to the Unlocked side).

For the rest of the game they may be locked (and unlocked) normally (for example using the Hatch Control System Room Action).

Self-destruct And Hibernation:

There are also 2 additional important moments that sometimes happen in the game:

Hibernation Chambers Open : When the Time Track reaches any blue space, the Hibernation chambers open. Characters CANNOT enter them before that moment.

Self-destruct Is Critical: When the Self-Destruct Track reaches any yellow space , all Escape Pods are automatically unlocked and the Characters can no longer stop the Self-Destruct sequence.

Objectives

Since completing most of the Objectives requires some knowledge of the game (for example Room actions , rules for destroying the ship, Escape Pods functionality , etc)., you'll find some tips below that may help begin- ner players to find the appropriate sections in the Manual.

Important: No matter which Objective you choose, your Character must survive the game! That means, they must either get into an Escape Pod and launch it or hibernate.

Player X's character cannot survive

This means that the Character of the indicated player cannot be alive at the end of the game (they cannot hibernate or escape using an Escape Pod). You do not need to kill them with any of your Actions - they simply must be dead.

You might want to trap this Character in a Room on Fire or with an Intruder. Maybe you could seek another player's help?

You can also escape the ship by using the Escape Pods, abandoning the rest of the crew on board with Fire, Malfunctions, Damaged Engines, Self-Destruct procedure or Coordinates leading to nowhere and hope that everybody dies or that the ship explodes.

Your character is the only survivor

No Character but yours may survive the game.

Sending the signal

Send the Signal means you need to locate the Comms Room and per- form its Room Action. There is always a Comms Room on board - for the Rooms with the number "1" on their back

The ship must reach earth/mars

The ship will reach its destination if the right Coordinates have been set in the Cockpit and if at least two of its three Engines are still functional (Working status).

Discover a weakness

Weaknesses can be discovered by bringing an Object to the Laboratory and by performing the Laboratory Room Action there. It doesn't matter if you're not the one who did the research, as long as the Weakness has been discovered at the end of the game.

Intruders' Eggs may be found in the Nest. The Nest is always on the board - look for the Rooms with the number "1" on their back.

The Laboratory is always on the board - look for the Rooms with the numb er "1" on their back.

Destroy the nest

The Nest is destroyed when there are no Intruder Eggs left in it. To destroy Eggs, check the Nest description on the Room sheet.

The Nest is always on the board - look for the Rooms with the number " 1" on their back.