Preface:  Sci-fi is currently a void in collectible card games.  There are no GOOD science fiction based games in circulation.  I realized this when I began this project, but realized that there may be a REASON that this is true.

Why no Sci Fi?  The games that have shows up:  Star wars (two times no less) Babylon Five, and some other trendy pop culture based games I've never played.  Figuring out why these games failed is part of the secret in how to make a new one good.  The primary reason I've found these games to fail, is that they tend to lean heavily on existing content to give the game flavor.  Face it, the feel of a card that's based on something big, like a Battlecruiser, just doesn't have the same warm taste as one based on a person, or monster.  This means that the big past games had to rely on gimmecky franchise tie ins (Star wars and B5).  Even if they were good games, they lose a lot of luster as the cultural references move out of popularity.

How will I fix this?  The second question I asked myself.  First and foremost, is to breathe life into every aspect of the game.  Yes,. this is a game where you use space ships to blow up other ones, and try to capture a planet.  But let's humanize it a bit.  Instead of making cards that depict a group of fighters, why not reference them by their leader?  If Jak Rumper is the captain of that wing, why not label the card "Jak's Screamers" and have the art being a have cut away of the person, Jak, and the other half his Screamers in action.  Better still, try to avoid such mundane ideas as 'hunks of metal' ships, and focus a bit more on other fanciful technologies that could propel one through space.  Ships made of pure energy, or organic, or Elemental in nature.

That all behind me, let's take a look at the mechanics of the game.  The meat.  The potatoes.

Object of the Game:  Neutralize the opponents Homeworld by doing damage to it.

In this game you will be playing the part of a single solar system amongst many.  Each game represents a skirmish between your System, and another.  You aren't exploring or building up new planets, your are leading your system against someone elses.

This means you start with 6 planets in play.  Three Frontier planets, two Core planets, and one homeworld.  You don't get more, and you don't lose the ones you have... this is just a skirmish afterall.

Each Planet has two stats:  One representing it's Defense (Will need a catchy keyword for this) and another that represents its Industry (Aka, resources).  The Industry value of a planet is always between 1 and 4.

Each Ship has a few stats:

S/H: Shield/Hull.  When a ship takes damage, it first takes it to the shield, and then to the hull once the shield is reduced to 0.  Shields regenerate each turn.

P/RoF:  Power/Rate of Fire.  When a ship bombards, it does it's Power to RoF targets, and may choose the same target more than once.  (A ship with 4 RoF and 1 Power could do one damage to four targets, or two damage to two targets, or three to one, and one to another, etc).  When a ship bombards a planet, it does it's Power in damage to that planet (Ignoring RoF).

Slots:  A ship has a number of slots on it.  When you Install Components to a ship, the size of your components (combined) cannot exceed the number of slots on a ship.  (May use the word 'size' instead of 'slot'.)

Ships come in three Classes.

Fighter:  Fighters have two special rules.
-------1.  Fighters do not have Warp Engines, and therefore may not Tap to Engage.  They may still Tap to Intercept.
-------2.  A single RoF cannot do more than one H damage to a Fighter Ship.  This represents one fighter in the squadron being shot down.  Therefor, high Power, low RoF ships are weak vs Fighters.

Cruiser:  Cruisers have no special rules.  They may Tap to engage, suffer damage as normal, and may not be directly engaged.

Capital:  Capital ships have one special Rule.
-------1:  A Capital ship is large enough that other ships may Tap to Engage it directly.  Normally a ship can only tap to engage planets.

Fighters tend to have High RoF, and low power (Often only 1 P), while Capital Ships are the opposite.  This makes Fighters strong vs Capital ships, but since they can't engage them without a card effect, it makes the Capital ships all the easier to use.  Also, when a ship Bombards a planet, they do their P in damage to the planet (Ignoring RoF).  This makes fighters very poor planet hitters, but Capital ships the best.  Cruisers are in the middle ground.  They can tap to engage, making them good attackers, but cannot be engaged directly themselves, which makes it easy for you to get a large fleet of them before you commit.

Combat:  During the Engagement phase, you may Tap your disengaged ships, to have them engage opposing Planets, Capital Ships, or to join an existing battle.  You may not tap to engage a Core planet, until you have neutralized a Frontier planet in that System already.  Similarly, you may not engage a Homeworld planet, until you have neutralized a Core planet and Frontier planet in that System already.

When you have declared your engagements, the opponent may Tap his Disengaged ships to Intercept your ships.  That opponent may add the intercepting ships into any engagement your ships were entering.

Lexicon:

Engaged:  A ship that is already in an engagement with an opposing planet or ships.

Disengaged:  A ship that is not in an engagement with an opposing planet or ship.

Intercept:  A Ship that is entering an engagement as it is being created.

Example:  It is Albert's engagement phase.  He taps his Judgement Capital ship to engage Bob's Frontier planet.  Bob then Taps his Screamers fighter ship to intercept the Judgement.  The result is that Bob's Planet, and Screamers, are now engaged with Albert's Judgement.  These ships stay engaged until they leave the engagement.

Lastly, during the engagement phase, ships that are currently engaged, may tap to Disengage.  You remove them from the current engagement, and they are now considered "Disengaged".

After the Engagement phase is the Bombardment phase.  This phase has two parts:  Ship to Ship bombardment, and Planetary Bombardment.  Ships may elect to do their P in damage to RoF targets they are engaged to, or they may instead wait to do Planetary Bombardment instead.  NOTE:  A ship may not do both Ship to Ship and Planetary Bombardment during the same bombardment phase.

Ship to Ship bombardment happens first.  If a ship choses to do Planetary Bombardment is destroyed during the StS bombardment, it does not do any Planetary Bombardment damage either.  If it is still functioning, it does it's P in Damage to that Planet.

Example:  It is Albert's Bombardment phase.  His Judgement has a P of 4, and a RoF of 1.  INstead of doing an StS bombardment against Bob's Screamer fighters, he waits to bombard the Frontier Planet.  Bob has his Screamers (1 P, 2 RoF) shoot the Judgement with both points of RoF, doing two damage to it.  The Judgement has 1S and 5H.  The first point of damage reduces the S to 0, the second does one damage to the Judgements Hull.  Next turn, the Judgement will have 1S and 4H.  Since the Judgement survived StS bombardment, he does 4 Damage to the Frontier Planet, dropping it's Defensive value to 2.

Production

The resource management of this game is both simple, yet complex.  You don't put 'lands' in your deck, or worry about drawing resources of any kind.  They all start in play in the form of Industry on your planets.  When you Pay the cost of something, you Tap a Planet that can cover the cost.  For instance, if a Screamer Fighter ship costs 1, you would Tap any planet with an Industry of 1 or more, to produce it.  Some costs aren't so simple, however.  A Judgement Capital ship costs "2+2".  This means that you must pay 2, twice.  This requires Tapping two planets with a Industry of at Least 2.  Both Planets are considered to have produced that ship.

Lastly, your system is not alone in the universe.  It's economy is effected by the Galactic economy, and it's ebb and flow.  This is represented by the Economic cycle.  There are four (1-4).  The game starts in Cycle one, and increases by one each turn, until it gets to cycle 4.  At that point, it decreases until it's back to cycle 1 again, and then starts over.  The progression is:  1,2,3,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,3,2,1.  Note that cycles 1 and 4 are more rare than cycles 2 and 3.  This is intentional.

What does this mean?  It's a very simple effect.  Each planet's Industry is never allowed to be greater than the current Cycle.  That means if it has a Printed 3 Industry, but it's in cycle 1, then it can only pay 1, not three.  It has to wait a few turns before it reaches it's full allowance.

This is also why no Planet has more than 4 Industry.  A cost of 4 can only be played once in a very great while.  Paying 4+4 is a hefty cost indeed!  The factions in the game are generally more effective during certain cycles than others.  For instance, the Vykathians are the quick swarm faction.  They have a lot of effects of the form "Make the opponent pay X, or do bad things to them."  Such effects are more powerful when resources are tight than later on.  On the other hand, the Imperials have effects such as "Pay X:  Gain an additional effect."  Meaning that the more resources are around, the stronger they are.

To make for even more interesting game play, factions will have ways to try to influence the cycle.  Vykathians would have cards that try to keep it in 1 and 2 as often as possible, while others may keep it higher.

There are two other card types, though I may decide only one is needed:  Components, and Facilities.  Real simple, Components are enhancements for ships, and Facilities are enhancements for Planets.  At this time I'm thinking they may end up being less than important compared to the rest of the mechanics.  We'll see.

Cards, Turns, etc.

Some of this is still a bit up in the air.  Here's how I plan on doing card drawing though.  At the start of each turn, you may Tap any number of your planets.  After you have chosen on how many (And which), you draw that many cards.  This means that you are PAYING industry to draw your hand each turn.  Obviously, in the higher cycles, you'll probably tap your Frontier planets (Which likely have less Industry) to draw cards.  You may choose to Tap none at all.

By the way, a Planet is neutralized when it's Defensive value is 0 or less.  This doesn't prevent it from doing anything, it simply lets the opponent try to get to your Homeworld.  Obviously, if the Homeworld is Neutralized, you lose.  There is no built in way to Deneutralize a planet, though card effects may allow it.

Since I'm verging on exhaustion, I'll type more on this tomorrow.  Lemme know what ya think, or if you have questions.