Astroparticle Physics Community Card Game

Welcome to the Astroparticle Physics Community Card Game! 

This is an open-source, community-driven project designed for the astroparticle physics research community. It is a game that can be played by one or more players and is also a way to enrich the networking experience. Think of the personnel cards as enhanced business cards – they include a short bio, email address, a LinkedIn QR code, and even a summary of strengths and challenges. Whether you trade cards with someone you meet in person or print them from the community deck, you have a pretty great understanding of who that person is professionally, whether you share any research interests, and even how to connect or work collaboratively with them.

 

Playing the game:

The goal is to do as much science as possible by completing projects.

Project cards have certain skill requirements that must be met to complete that project. Players use Resource Points (RP) to recruit Personnel cards and build a team capable of completing bigger and bigger science projects. Event cards can be recruited to help or hinder players’ journeys to scientific excellence! The game can be played competitively, collaboratively, or a mix of both!

Setup: 
All cards are shuffled together. The deck is placed in the middle of the table, and 6 cards are turned face up to form the “pool.”

 

 

Taking Turns:
The current player draws one card from the deck and places it face-up on top of another card in the pool. 
The player then receives 1 Resource Point (RP) automatically every turn, and any additional RP from completed projects. (Use dice or tokens as RP counters)
The player then chooses to spend RP on resources (Personnel or Events cards) in the pool or keep their points for later.
The player may also attempt to complete a Project(s).
When the player is finished with their actions, it’s the next player’s turn.
* Players may only take actions during their turn.



Recruiting Resources:
Players can spend any or all of their accumulated RP in a turn.
Personnel and Event cards have an RP cost at the top of the card. 
Personnel cards are recruited from the pool and placed in front of the player on the table, representing that player’s research team. 
Event cards are purchased from the pool and can be activated immediately or saved to be used later. Players do not need to spend RP again to use an Event card that has been purchased.



Completing Projects:
Personnel cards (blue) provide players with Skill Points to use towards completing Projects (yellow cards).
Event cards (red) can be used throughout the game according to the text on the card. Some Events may last one turn and be discarded afterwards, while others may be used multiple times and kept in a player’s roster.
Personnel cards may allocate Skill Points to a project once per turn (including the turn they are recruited). If the Project requirements are met that turn, the player acquires the completed project and places in front of them on the table.
Skill Points can be divided between multiple projects. 
The project will provide additional RP each turn starting next turn.

 

Winning:


House Rules: The first player to complete 3 ( or X ) Large Scale Projects (RP+6) wins.


Nobel Prize Rules: The first two players to complete a Large Scale Project (RP+6) win.


The Search Continues Rules: Play until all resources in the deck have been recruited and all projects have been completed. Players may need to collaborate to complete the remaining projects. Awarded RP can be shared between collaborators. The player with the highest total of RP on all completed projects wins. 


 

Other details:

• Do not replace cards removed from the Pool. On the next player’s turn, they will turn a new card face up and can fill the empty spot. If the deck runs out, collect all the cards underneath the current face-up cards in the pool and shuffle them together for the new deck.
• If the deck runs out completely, continue playing until all cards in the pool have been used and then declare a winner based on the number of completed projects, or declare the game “to be continued” 🙂
• When discarding cards (event cards that have been used), place them face-up at the bottom of any of the pool card piles. Attaching cards: Some event cards say to “attach” to another card. Attached cards stay attached even if that card moves onto or off of a project, to a different player, or back into the pool. The only time an attached card is removed is if the host card is shuffled into the deck.

 

The game is intended to be shared and added to by members of the Astroparticle Physics Community.
Cards are created by entering the information into a Google form. The data submitted is applied to a card template and added to the community deck. After creating cards of yourself, your colleagues, and your projects, they are added to the community deck so that they may be downloaded and included in others’ games.
*Don’t worry about creating another version of someone or something – each card will be treated as unique in the game… although we have an idea about “levelling” up cards, so if you start a new degree or position, feel free to make a new card for yourself (rather than updating the old one)

Personnel Cards: Personnel cards represent individuals in the astroparticle physics community. Anyone can create a card for themselves, their colleagues. In the form, you will be asked if you are submitting information for your own card or on behalf of someone else. Cards submitted on behalf of someone else will be held for review until that person approves their card.

Personnel cards can be created by submitting card information through this form: https://forms.gle/2a2CXEgiG2Yx44yd9

 

Project Cards: When determining required skill points and categories for project cards, try to be true to the nature of the project. For example, a phase one experiment might require more Theory and Instrumentation points than Data and Outreach, while a public event would require mainly Outreach points.

Project cards can be created by submitting card information through this form: https://forms.gle/hA4Qgx6EAETnhgc97

 

Event Cards: Event cards represent the wide range of things that happen within the research community; conferences, Student exchanges, opportunities, grants, resources, pizza parties etc., could have a positive impact on your research team. Detrimental aspects such as technical challenges, supply delays, etc can be designed to play against other players to slow their progress. There is a lot of opportunity to be creative about the effects of events cards.

Event cards can be created by submitting card information through this form: https://forms.gle/WqKEWQurQyCprsXj6

 

To download the latest (July 11, 2024) print-ready community deck, click here. This file has the card backs already inserted on every other page and is best printed on recto-verso (front and back) printers. If your printer does not print recto-verso, print the even pages, flip over the pages, and then print the odd pages on the other side.

Using Adobe Acrobat Free or Acrobat for Chrome, you can select which pages you want to print, how many pages get printed on a page, and how many copies to print. The cards are a standard trading card size, 2.5 x 3.5 inches and should be printed 9 per page on  8.5 x 11″ letter paper.

 

If you want to print a page with 9 copies of a single card or a specific selection of 9 cards on a page, select “Pages” rather than “All” in the “Pages to Print” section. In the input field, indicate the pages that you want to print, for example: “1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1” or “1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3”. *Note that the print preview may not change right away – you may need to click on another part of the print dialogue window to refresh the print preview.

Depending on how your printer handles multiples, you may be able to make one cut between cards, or you may need to make two cuts, removing a strip of blank paper between the cards.

Printing on heavier card stock is recommended as it will make your cards more durable.