FAQ
Q: What's the recommended age, player-count, and game time?
A: You'll need a minimum of three and a maximum of four players to play.
A standard game generally takes about 3 hours to play; the short-game varient takes about 2. Long enough for you to really invest in your empire, but short enough to play on a week-day evening.
Legacy of the Stars is recommended for ages 10 and up.
Q: What is the premise of the game? How do you win?
A: Legacy of the stars is an epic strategy game where you control one of 8 unique factions trying to rebuild human civilization after a galactic civil war. You want to become the faction whose legacy will shape humanity's future. There are six different kinds of victory point cards called "Legacies" for you to earn by doing things like establishing outposts on planets, building cities, researching technology, and conquering your neighbors.
The first player with 8 Legacy Cards wins.
Q: What makes this game special?
A: The core mechanic, for one, is simple but deep. The glory and vengeance tracks also provide a diplomatic catch-up mechanic that diffuses a lot of feel-bad situations.
Like many great games, Legacy of the Stars combines very simple systems in such a way that complexity, depth, and nuance emerge from their interactions. So it’s easy to learn, but hard to master.
Another thing you don’t often see in this kind of game is a simple combat mechanic that doesn't hinge on chance or bluffing – so your military strategy is more chess-like than Risk-like. Like chess, the depth and complexity arise from interactions between simple and predictable pieces.
Q: What was the main inspiration behind the game?
A: Primarily classic PC space empire building games like Master of Orion 2. We'd played several other empire-building board games but never found one we could play competitively again and again. There were a lot of specific design goals we set out to achieve, and the result, after years of testing and refining, is something we're really proud of.
Q: Is this a finished product or a work in progress?
It's a finished product, but that doesn't mean we're done with it. As with any game that is balanced for competitive play, there may be errata if we see imbalances in the meta-game. We’re also testing two mini-expansions.
Q: Tell me more about these "mini-expansions" you're planning…
The Exalted Worlds expansion introduces unique planets whose locations and special properties are only revealed as players defeat the Exalted Guardians protecting them. These planets reveal more of the galaxy's history and add more flavor and variety to the galaxy map itself.
In addition, while the base set includes 8 factions, and a set of 9 technology cards which are balanced to work well together, we want to make a mini-expansion to introduce 4 more factions and another set of 9 technology cards. The new technologies will be usable in place of the original 9 or can be mixed and matched with them to create different technology options and combinations in every game.
Q: How can I buy Legacy of the Stars?
A: Legacy of the Stars is currently only available directly from us - email contact@legacyofthestars.com to inqure about getting a copy. So far only the only people who have bought one are people we know personally or who played the game at a meet-up or game night in Boston and decided it was something they needed to own. (Current copies in existence: 8!) The price is currenlty $90 plus shipping (free delivery if you live in the Boston area).
Q: Is there going to be a cheaper or better version in the future?
A: We don't know for sure. We're looking into it. The more interest there is the current version, the more likely that becomes. Having a community of even a dozen or so people who owned their own copies and could report on games played, test print-and-play expansions, and contribute their energy and ideas would be an enormous help. So if you like this game, the best thing you can do for its future is get a copy of the current version and start playing it.
Q: $90 is a lot, but I still want to try this game out…
A: We run games around the Boston area all the time! Send us an email at contact@legacyofthestars.com and we'll let you know when the next opportunity to play is.
Q: Are you looking for a publisher?
Yes, we're open to talking with publishers. If you’re an interested publisher feel free to drop us a line.
Q: I have another question that isn't listed here, will you answer it?
Send us an email at contact@legacyofthestars.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!
