SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a game of turning our gazes to the stars, and seeing what – or whom – might be looking back at us. It’s a big experience, and just like encountering an alien lifeforms, is perhaps not for the faint of heart.

Several boards – including some moving parts – are set up on a (big) table, denoting the solar system, the planets the technological advances players may make during the game. As the briefest of overviews, you play the staff of SETI, intent on discovering extra-terrestrial life. How you go about this boils to five rounds, and in each round as many turns as you can (or want to) take, with each turn consisting of a single action.

Launching a probe from Earth is an action, as is turning it into either an Orbiter or a Lander once it reaches another planet. Probes are moved by either spending energy – one of the games’ five main resources – and when they convert or orbiter or lander, you are rewarded with points – for the win – but also other things, such as cards, publicity, or data (represented by small blue discs). Playing a Card is another action: pay the cost in credits and gain the action or rewards on the card. These are far too numerous to list here, but tie in with the framework of the other actions. Publicity is tracked on the main boards for each player, and another action is spending six publicity to Research a Tech. The techs, as well as blessing you with instant rewards as well, increase the power of your launch/orbit/lander actions above, or your ‘computer’ – a track that runs along the bottom of your personal player board. This is where harvested data is placed, and once your computer is ‘full’ – each spot in the upper row occupied by a data disc – Analyze Data is an available action: one that allows you to mark your discovery of alien traces out on the board.

Marking is a key part of SETI: players each have a set of markers in their own colour that, as the game progresses, will end up occupying spaces on the board, which is broken into sectors. As your markers spread – always gaining you rewards of some description – these sectors will slowly fill up. When a sector is full, the player with the most markers there scores points for having a majority, almost like a vast cosmic dog peeing contest is taking place against a celestial lamppost.

The last main action – there are numerous ‘free’ actions we’ll come to shortly – is Scanning, where you basically point your telescope at the stars and pick up signs of life. This allows you to mark two sectors: the one Earth currently inhabits, and a neighbouring sector.

Bear in mind, all actions have a cost: usually credits and/or energy. What can help you manage this is that each card has a discard value: simply throw it into the discard pile and take the reward. This is one of the free actions that don’t cost you a turn. You can always pay energy to move your probe, or pay three publicity for a new card. If you can’t – or don’t want to – take a turn, you pass. The first player to pass in a round gets first choice of one from a clutch of new cards, and always rotates part of the board. This is a critical part of SETI: that different component parts of the solar system will shuffle around (anti-clockwise) and reposition everything in relation to each other. Probes will get carried – or indeed pushed – into new places by this movement (note: the development of a tech by players also triggers this rotation). After everyone passes, a new round begins, and players gain some income in the form of energy/credits/cards/more, before a new round begins – until the fifth and final round finishes.

But what of alien life? Well, each game has two of the five possible alien lifeforms that come with the game waiting to be discovered. As soon as players discover the three different clues of alien life for that particular species, their bespoke little board (placed face-down in set-up) is flipped over and a new clutch of cards (and rules) enter play. Each alien life-form brings its distinct wrinkle to the game, but the larger thrust of their appearance is the addition of further scoring opportunities for all the players. After everyone passed on round five, players total up their scores, and the most points is the winner.