Designed by Orin Bishop - 2-6 players 60 minutes ages 12 and up - Roxley Games 2015

Contents: 162 cards (108 part cards in 3 colors, 36 boost cards, 6 inventors, 6 propulsion, 6 player aid), 6 pawns, 7 track tiles,
6 Damage Gauges, 84 dice in 3 colors, 40 Cog Tokens, direction token, these rules + example turn sheet

Note: This rulebook is not final.

Drafting Phase

Overview

Each player is dealt 4 cards, one from each deck. (If the decks
run out, reshuffle their discards to form new decks. Each deck
should have its own discard to make sorting easier.)

At the turn of the century, the world's greatest minds meet on neutral
territory in the Swiss alps to settle once and for all, in a no holds barred
race, who is the greatest inventor of all time!
The game is played over a series of rounds until a player's invention
crosses the finish line, at which point one final round is played and then
the player furthest past the finish line is declared the winner!
Each round starts with a drafting phase, followed by a venting phase,
a racing phase, and then a damage phase.

1) Construct: Attach the card to your invention. Cards in

your invention must lie so that they connect back to
your inventor through a chain of complete valves. Cards
must be placed upright.

Setup
Randomly select 3 tiles
to create a continuous
racetrack and place the
start tile at one end.
At the other end of
your newly created
track, you must create
the finish line. Do this
by first attaching the
tile that features the
checkered line,
orienting it such that
the checkered line is
closest to the point of
attachment. Then
place the final tile that
shows the town.

Note: At any time you may rearrange cards or discard

unwanted cards in your invention to make things fit
(returning any dice on discarded cards to the supply).
(Discarding cards already in your invention does not
earn you dice/cogs.).
It is legal for 2 adjacent
machine part cards to
share a border on which
only one of those cards
has a valve, so long as
both cards are
connected back to the
inventors cockpit.

Make a pile of dice and

Cogs within reach of
all players.
Deal each player an
inventor and a
propulsion card that
matches their inventor's die symbol. These are placed face-up in front
of them as the first two card in their invention and are placed
together such that both cards are upright and the valves link up (see:
Construct). (Undealt inventors/propulsion are put back in the box and
will not be used.) Each player takes a Damage Gauge set to 0 and
takes the pawn of their inventor's color (bordering their portrait) and
places it on the racetrack's start space.
Separately shuffle the other 4 colors of cards (as distinguished by
their borders: copper, silver, gold and black) and lay them out as four
separate decks. (For reference, gold cards always generate movement
icons, silver cards always generate dice, copper cards always have
valves on each edge, and black cards are boost cards.)
Put out the direction token
side up.

Each player selects a card in their hand to play, placing it facedown in front of them and then revealing simultaneously. (If
there is an issue with timing, resolve according to the direction
token.) Each card can be used to perform one of 3 actions (with
reminder icons in the corner of each card):

between two players with a random

2) Fuel: Discard the card to take 2 dice of the card's color,

or if the card is an action card (black, vertical
orientation) take 1 die of any color, and place them in
front of you (not sitting on any cards). Blue dice
represent steam, red dice represent heat, and yellow dice
represent electricity.
3) Cogs: Discard the card to gain 2 cog tokens.
After each player resolves their card (by using it to construct,
fuel, or get cogs), they pass the remaining cards in their hand
either clockwise or counter-clockwise based on the arrow
showing on the direction token.
Now everybody simultaneously selects another card to play.
Alternate playing and passing until all the cards in players hands
have been played. Flip over the direction token. Play now
proceeds to the Venting phase.

Boost cards

Shields

Boost cards (black border) have no valves; when you construct them,
keep them hidden and stash them in a separate boost card pile under
your Damage Gauge. You may play them at any time unless the boost
card specifies when it is played.

When a card generates a

, immediately increase your
Damage Gauge by1. (If you are already at +3, take a Cog
instead.)

Venting Phase
Players may now spend their cogs to vent dice on their invention.
Each cog spent allows you to remove 2 pips, which may be split
between dice. If a die is reduced to 0 pips, it is put back in the general
supply, thus freeing up the die space in your invention (see below).

1. Racing Phase
The racing phase is performed by everyone simultaneously. (If there is
an issue with timing, players resolve their activations in order
according to the direction token.)
At the start of this phase all players roll all the dice they claimed during
the draft using fuel actions, as well as any additional dice from cards
that activate at no cost (e.g. 'Capacitor'). (Cards with no cost have a
green exclamation point icon on them.)
Now players can activate cards in their invention by placing available
dice on them. The die must be placed in an open space, and the color of
the die must match the color of the space. Each card's effect is resolved
before another card can be activated.
Each card has a
symbol, or a
with a number. Dice are placed
on the space(s) to the left of this symbol. The card's effect is shown to
the right of this symbol.
For cards with a numbered
, divide the number of pips on the die
you are using to activate the card by this number (rounded down). This
is how many times the card's effect happens. You may activate with
multiple dice at once and add their pips together (provided there are
enough open spaces).
For cards with the
symbol, any die can be used to activate the
card's effect, regardless of how many pips it has. (Keep that number
showing on the die though.)
After the effect is resolved, the die(/dice) remains on the card. Placed
dice are unavailable and do nothing but block that space on the card
until it is removed using repair action(s) (they do not continue to
activate the part).

Dice Icons
If a card's effect shows a
/
/
icon, immediately roll a die
of that color and add it to your pool of available dice.
If it shows a
/
/
, you can remove a die of that color from
any card in your invention (regardless of pips) and put it back in the
general supply. A card may remove a die from itself.

Wheels
When a card generates
, immediately move your pawn that
many spaces forward on the racetrack. Then reduce your
Damage Gauge by 1 for each terrain icon (
moved into/through.

) in spaces you

(If you go past -7 on your Damage Gauge, immediately discard 1

card from your invention for every damage taken beyond -7.)
Action cards refer to this as gaining damage.

Cogs
When a card generates
, immediately take that many Cog
tokens from the central supply. You may spend these during any
racing phase (returning them to the supply) to reroll a die OR
add 1 to a die for each Cog spent. (A die with 6 pips cannot be
increased.) Only unplaced dice may be augmented with Cogs.
You may also spend Cogs to buy additional dice while your
pawn is on a space on the track with a die icon (1 die of that
color per Cog spent). Immediately roll these dice and add them
to your die pool. Cogs can also vent dice, but only during the
venting phase.

2. Damage Phase
The racing phase ends when all players are done activating cards.
Players now look at their position on the Damage Gauge. If they
are at 0 or higher, nothing happens to their invention and their
dial remains how it is. However if they are at a negative value,
they must now discard cards from their invention equal to how
far they are in the red. After losing cards, their dial is reset to
0.
If losing cards means you can no longer arrange your invention
such that all parts connect back to your inventor via a chain of
valves, you must discard unconnectable cards. If losing cards
ever forces a player to discard their inventor card, instead they
keep their inventor card but their invention is considered to have
violently exploded and their pawn is sent to one space behind the
player in last (or one space back if they themselves were in last).
All unplaced dice must now be returned to the supply
(Exception: Flywheel cards let you store dice). Cogs may be
hoarded round to round.
A new round begins, and players are dealt cards for a new
drafting phase.

End of Game
When a player crosses the finish line
, it signals that the
next round will be the last. A final round is played out as normal
(including a drafting phase and action cards phase) and at the end
of that round's racing phase, the invention that is the most spaces
past the finish line is declared the winner! If there is a tie, the
player with the most cards left in their invention (after resolving
the final rounds damage) wins. If there is still a tie, the game
ends in a draw.

Example Round
Tesla, Edison and Curie are playing the first turn of a 3-player game.
For the drafting phase, each are dealt 4 cards, one of each color.
From his first hand, Tesla selects Ion Thrusters and chooses to attach it
to his invention. (He could get 2 cogs or 2 electricity dice ,
but he hopes to get electricity dice from other cards.) His
remaining cards are passed to Edison who is on his right
since the direction token currently shows counter-clockwise.
From the next three cards (passed to him by Curie) he selects
Thermocouple, attaches it to his invention, and passes the remaining
two cards to Edison.
From two cards he selects the boost card Weather
Machine which states that it can be played at the
start of a racing phase. He stashes it under his
Damage Gauge for safekeeping (rather than
discard it for a die/cogs) and passes one card.

The last card he's passed is Steam Vent, which he

discards for 2 heat dice.
Tesla currently has no dice on his invention and no cogs so he does
nothing during the venting phase.
At the start of the racing phase he decides to play the Weather
Machine which grants him 1 electricity die and makes spaces without
terrain have 1 for the turn. (The card is placed near the board to remind
everyone.) He now rolls the 3 dice in front of him. The heat dice come
up 5 and 2, and the electricity die is 1.

He activates his inventor card (automatically

because it has a green exclamation point ) and
chooses to gain a shield rather than take cogs or an
electricity.
He then activates the Thermocouple with the 2-value
heat die (he could alternatively use the 5-value heat die,
but this would be harder to remove with cogs later)
which grants him a Cog and an electricty die, which he
immediately rolls. It is a 3.
He uses the Cog he just got to add +1
to this electricity die, making it a 4.
By placing it along with the 1-value
electricity die, he is able to activate the
Ion Thrusters, which allows him to move
2 spaces along the track (if he had 10+ pips
on his electricity dice, he could get double
the effects). Since there are no terrain
symbols printed on the spaces he enters,
normally he would take no damage.
However, his Weather Machine adds 1
terrain to these spaces, so he moves his Damage Gauge down 2,
putting him at -1.
The Ion Thrusters also let him remove the heat die from
his Thermocouple.
Since it now has an open space, he can now activate the
Thermocouple again with his 5-value heat die, gaining a cog and
an electricity die. He rolls a 6 on it. The Ion Thrusters have no
dice slots left. He could use it to activate his Induction Motor
(triggering its effect twice) but decides against it since this would
be more damage than he wants to take. Instead he ends his turn
and returns the unused electricity die to the supply (but keeps the
cog). The other players concurrently finish their race phases.
Because he is at -1 on his Damage Gauge, he
must now discard 1 card. He decides to lose
Thermocouple, which sends the 5-value heat
die on it to the supply. Then he resets his
Damage Gauge to 0. Because the induction
motor is now floating in space, he must now reposition it so that
it connects to an open valve.
A new turn and draft phase begin. If Tesla
wants to use his Ion Thruster in the next
racing phase, he might discard cards in the
draft to get cogs, and then vent the dice on
Ion Thrusters during the venting phase.