Galaxy Table

What Galaxy Table is

Galaxy Table is a battle-and-rescue game played on a long sheet of paper, where the paper is the map, your drawings are your pieces, and a ruler decides every move. It is for ages 8 and up, 2 to 6 players, about 90 minutes.

One player is the Star Guide: they run the Eviks, call for rolls, and keep the game fair. Everyone else plays a hero of the Galaxy, defending its residents from Eviktar and his Eviks.

The one law of the table

If it is not on the paper, it is not in the game. A hero is in the fight only while their figure stands on the paper. A wall exists only if someone drew it. A mine only goes off if its drawing is touched. No pretend pieces, no "I had a shield the whole time." If you want it, draw it.

Required kit

None of this is optional. A Galaxy Table game needs all of it.

If the printer is running while you play, even better: the next figure is being made while the battle goes on.

Setting up the table

The Star Guide draws the map before the players sit down; the players draw everything after that. Every mission map has the same five parts: a base edge for the heroes, a Med Bay box, a goal, the rivals' ground, and a spot where the black hole will open.

This is the first-night map, drawn to scale: one square is one inch, and one Galaxy Ruler is six squares. Tape the paper down so it can't slide, keep the ruler, stencils and dice on the table edge, and leave room around the paper for production.

Setup checklist

1. Tape the paper flat; stamp the grid if it isn't printed.
2. Draw the base edge (a line five squares in from one short end) and the Med Bay box in that corner.
3. Draw the mission: goal, walls, lava, diamonds and portals (each mission tells you where).
4. Put rival figures down. Keep the black hole token beside the paper until the mission says it opens.
5. Players place their figures or totems on squares touching the base edge.
6. Write Table rules in a corner, for the decisions made tonight.

Your hero

A first-night hero needs a crew, five stats, three numbers, and a figure standing on the paper. That is all; it takes 10 minutes.

1. Pick a crew

Each crew is inspired by a legend hero of the Galaxy, and each has one special move that costs 1 Spark.

2. Set your five Star Stats

Put +3, +2, +1, +1, +0 on these five, in any order.

3. Work out three numbers

• Shield = your crew's starting Shield + your Power. When it hits 0, you are zapped home.
• Guard = 10 + your Zoom. Rivals must roll this or higher to zap you.
• Spark = 3 tokens. Spend one for your special move. They all come back at the start of the next game. You also start with 3 carried diamond tokens, enough for one push of the black hole.

4. Put your hero on the paper

Your hero needs a real figure. Pick one:

• Printed mini: a 3D-printed figure on a 1-inch base.
• Drawn figure: draw your hero on a card about 2 inches tall, cut it out, and fold the bottom so it stands. It must fit on one square.
• Totem: if your figure is still being drawn or printed, a totem stands in its square. A totem is a full hero in every way; it just means "this one is in production."

Give your hero a code name (never your real name) and write it on the base or the back of the card.

The table loop

Every Galaxy Table night follows the same seven steps. Steps 1 and 2 happen once, steps 3 to 6 repeat every round, and step 7 ends the night.

1. Roll the paper. Tape it down. If it has no grid, stamp one with the grid stencil. The Star Guide draws the mission's map (see Setting up the table).
2. Place the figures. Each hero's mini, cut-out or totem goes on a square of their team's base edge. The Star Guide places the Eviks and the black hole token.
3. Heroes' Turn. Heroes act in any order the team agrees on. On your turn you get one move (up to one ruler) and one action: zap, draw something, use your special move, or beam a friend back.
4. Production. While it is not your turn, you work on the next thing: finish painting your figure, draw the gadget you will place next turn, or cut out a new Evik for the Star Guide. Your totem marks anything still being made.
5. Rivals' Turn. The Star Guide moves every Evik with the ruler and rolls their zaps.
6. Black hole pull. The black hole pulls the nearest drawing one ruler closer (see The Black Hole). Then a new round starts at step 3.
7. The Print. When the mission ends, the table picks one drawing to scan and print as the night's prize (see Production and the Print).

What counts as one action

Moving with the Galaxy Ruler

One move is one ruler length (6 inches, 6 squares), measured on the paper. The ruler decides every distance in the game; if the ruler says you can't reach, you can't.

How to measure a move

1. Put the end of the ruler against your figure's base.
2. Move along the ruler, in a straight line or with one bend (measure the first leg, then lay the ruler again for the rest of the length).
3. Put your figure down anywhere along that path, on its own square.

What stops a move

• Walls: your path can't cross a drawn wall line. Go around it.
• Figures: you can pass a friend's square, but you can't pass through a rival's square or end on anyone's square.
• Lava and black zones: crossing a hatched lava drawing means a Zoom roll against 12; fail and lose 2 Shield (you still finish your move).
• The paper's edge: nothing leaves the paper. A figure pushed off the edge is zapped home.

Reach

Reach works the same way: lay the ruler from your figure to the target.

Backup words

When there is no time to measure (or someone is telling the story away from the table), use these words. They mean the same as the ruler:

• Close = touching or the next square.
• Near = within one ruler.
• Far = more than one ruler away.

The ruler always wins over the words.

Drawings are real

Every wall, mine, bridge and treasure in the game is a drawing on the paper, and a drawing does exactly what the legend below says. Use the icon stencil so nobody is stuck: an eight-year-old with a stencil draws as well as anyone.

The stencil legend

Drawing rules

1. Draw only on your turn, as your action, in your own marker color.
2. Start it near your figure: the drawing must begin within a half ruler (the notch) of your figure's base.
3. One drawing per action, at its stencil size. No giant walls around the whole map.
4. Never on top of another drawing. New drawings can touch old ones but never cover them.
5. Never erase. A used or smashed drawing gets crossed out with an X, so everyone can see what happened.
6. Say what it is as you draw it. "This is a mine." If it doesn't match the legend, it's just a doodle and does nothing.

Touching is how things happen

Nothing happens at a distance unless a rule says so. Interaction starts when a figure's base touches or crosses a drawing, or when the ruler laid for a zap crosses a wall. If two drawings touch, nothing happens until a figure steps into them; a mine touching a bridge is still a mine, and you'll find out when you cross.

Rolling and zapping

Every roll is the same: d20 + the stat that fits, against a Target. Reach it or beat it and it works. Roll on the paper next to the figures so everyone sees it.

Targets

• Boost: roll two d20s, keep the higher (a friend's figure touching yours to help, high ground, a great plan).
• Snag: roll two d20s, keep the lower (shooting through a shield dome, standing in lava).
• 20 on the die = Supernova: it works no matter what, and a zap does double.
• 1 on the die = Space Oops: it fails and something silly happens. Never mean.

Zapping a rival

1. Measure reach with the ruler (blade: touching; blaster: two rulers, no wall crossed; Spark: one ruler).
2. Roll d20 + the stat for your weapon (blade Power, blaster Zoom, energy Spark) against the rival's Guard.
3. Hit? Roll 1d6. Take that much off the rival's Shield on the Star Guide's tracker.
4. Rival at 0 Shield? It fizzles out and teleports home. Take its figure off the paper and put its diamonds (tokens) on its square for anyone to grab by touching.

Rivals zap heroes the same way: the Star Guide measures, rolls d20 + the rival's Attack against your Guard, and takes the zap off your Shield.

Zapped home

When your Shield hits 0, nobody gets hurt: a beam carries your hero home.

• Move your figure to the Med Bay box in the paper's corner. It is not in the fight; it is not on the battlefield.
• Drop half your carried diamonds (round down) on the square where you were zapped.
• Keep playing: use your turns for production (draw your next gadget, finish your figure).
• Beam back: a friend uses their action and rolls Heart against 12. Your figure comes back on a square touching theirs with 1d6 Shield.
• Start of the third round after you were zapped: if no one has beamed you back, you return on your base edge with half your Shield.

The Black Hole

The black hole is a real piece on the paper, and every round it pulls the nearest drawing one ruler closer. Heroes can pay diamonds to push it away, but pushing it away from you pushes it toward someone else.

Setting it down

The Star Guide places the black hole token (a printed disc or a black paper cutout, about 2 inches across) and draws a dashed ring around it, one half ruler (3 inches) out from its edge. The ring is the edge of no return.

The pull (step 6 of every round)

1. Find the nearest piece. Lay the ruler from the token to the closest figure or drawing, heroes, rivals and ink alike. If two are tied, both get pulled.
2. Pull it one ruler straight toward the token.
   • A figure or cutout slides along the ruler.
   • An ink drawing (a wall, a mine, a bridge) gets crossed out, and its owner redraws it one ruler closer, the same size.
3. Anything now touching the ring is swallowed:
   • A hero is zapped home and loses all carried diamonds into the hole.
   • A rival teleports home to Eviktar.
   • An ink drawing is crossed out for good.

A Guardian's safe spot keeps anything inside it from being pulled that round. A bridge drawn across the ring lets figures cross it without being swallowed.

The push

Once per round, on your turn, any hero may spend 2 carried diamonds to push the black hole one ruler in a straight line, in any direction. This is free; it doesn't use your move or your action.

• Put the diamonds in the hole (they are gone), say out loud which way you are pushing, and slide the token. Redraw its ring.
• The token can't land on a figure or leave the paper.
• Wherever you push it, it is now closer to someone. You can push it toward the Eviks, toward an empty corner, or toward a friend. Every choice is allowed, and the table sees every choice.

Why it matters

The black hole is the moral center of the game. You can win the fight by aiming it at rivals, but the night's prize vote (see Production and the Print) goes to the drawing or hero the table thinks played best, not just who zapped most. Protecting a friend at your own cost is the strongest move in the game.

A hero whose figure was pulled at least once and was never swallowed has survived the black hole, and can be voted for the Print.

Production and the Print

Nobody waits at Galaxy Table: when it isn't your turn, you are making something, and at the end of the night one thing gets printed and goes home.

Production (step 4 of every round)

While another player takes their turn, you can:

• Finish your figure: color it, add armor, cut it out cleaner.
• Draw a gadget card: draw a stencil icon on a small card and cut it out. On your turn, placing the card on the paper is your draw action, exactly like drawing it there.
• Make Eviks for the Star Guide: draw and cut out rival figures to join the next Showdown.
• Send a design to the printer: pick your best figure for the printer queue.

Anything still being made is marked by a totem. When your real figure is finished, swap it in for the totem at the start of your turn, free.

Production has one rule: it happens off the paper. Nothing you make counts until it is placed on the battlefield on your turn.

The Print (step 7, the end of the night)

When the mission ends, the table chooses one thing to become real:

1. Nominate. Each player may nominate one drawing or figure from tonight: a hero, a gadget, a rival, or a hero that survived the black hole. You can't nominate your own.
2. Vote. Everyone votes once, not for their own. The Star Guide breaks ties.
3. Scan. Photograph or scan the winner flat, in good light.
4. Print. The Galaxy Kids turn it into a 3D-printed figure or token. It is handed to its maker at the next game night.

The winner's print becomes a real piece they can bring to every game after.

Debrief

• Bank your diamonds. Carried diamonds are safe once the mission ends; write them on your hero card.
• Photograph the table before you roll up the paper. With every family's photo release on file, the best pictures go on galaxykid.org.
• Roll up the paper and keep it. The next mission can start where this one ended.

Rivals on the paper

Eviks follow the same table rules as heroes: a figure on a square, one ruler of movement, zaps measured with the ruler. The Star Guide draws them in red, cuts them out, or uses printed Evik minis.

How the Star Guide runs them

• One rival per hero makes a fair first Showdown. Add a Captain once heroes have played three nights.
• Eviks move toward their goal: the nearest hero, the treasure, or a resident to scare.
• Eviks retreat when half of them are off the paper, unless a Captain is still standing.
• Eviks get pulled too. The black hole doesn't pick sides.

Settling disagreements

Arguments end the same way every time: the paper first, then the ruler, then the legend, then the Star Guide, then the dice. Go down the ladder until one of them answers, and that answer stands for the rest of the night.

The ladder

1. The paper. What is drawn is true; what isn't drawn didn't happen. "I had a shield" doesn't count unless the shield dome is on the paper.
2. The ruler. Measure it, out loud, with everyone watching. Touching counts: if the ruler or a figure's base touches the line, even by a hair, it touches.
3. The legend. A drawing does what the stencil legend says, nothing more. A doodle that isn't on the legend does nothing.
4. The Star Guide. If the first three don't settle it, the Star Guide decides, in under one minute.
5. The dice. If the Star Guide can't decide either, both sides roll a d20. Higher wins; on a tie, roll again.

Whatever the ladder decides, write it in the corner of the paper under "Table rules." Next time it comes up, it's already settled.

Hands-off rules

• Only you move your figure, and only on your turn.
• Only you redraw your drawings. Nobody else's marker touches your ink.
• Nobody erases. Crossing out shows what happened; erasing starts arguments.
• Roll where everyone can see. A roll that falls off the table is rolled again.

Common arguments, already settled

The Shield Up card

A card with a shield drawn on it sits in the middle of the table. Anyone can tap it, with no reason needed, and the Star Guide changes or skips whatever just happened. Say thank you and keep playing.

First night: The Silent Beacon

The Eviks stole the Song Crystal from the Peace Beacon; the heroes must carry it back across the paper before Eviktar's black hole swallows it. One map, one Showdown, about 90 minutes including making heroes.

The Peace Beacon on the hill has gone silent. Without its song, the Eviks will march on Peace Plains tonight. Super Nova Woman's voice crackles over your comm badge: "Heroes, the Song Crystal is in the Echo Chamber. Bring it home."

Draw the map (Star Guide, before players arrive)

On a 3 ft x 6 ft sheet with a 1-inch grid (see the map under Setting up the table):

1. Base edge (left short end): a line five squares in, labeled "Peace Plains." Draw the Peace Beacon, a circle two squares wide, just behind it.
2. Med Bay box with a plus sign in the bottom-left corner.
3. Lava river across the middle of the paper, two squares wide, hatched. Leave a two-square gap near the top edge; that's the only dry crossing.
4. Echo Chamber at the right end: a wall outline about two rulers across, with two openings. Put the Song Crystal token (any small gem or bead) in the middle.
5. Three diamonds drawn in tricky spots: one by the lava, one in the Echo Chamber, one in the far corner.
6. Two portals (spirals): one just inside the Echo Chamber, one behind a wall near the lava. Don't explain them; let the players discover them.
7. The black hole: don't place it yet. It tears open at the start of round 3.

Rivals

• One Lava Blob next to the Song Crystal.
• One Evik Scout per hero, minus one, scattered between the lava and the Echo Chamber.
• Pip, a tiny Evik cutout who won't fight, standing by the portal behind the wall.

How the night goes

1. Make heroes (10 minutes), place figures or totems on the base edge, and play Rise for the Peace of the Land.
2. Rounds 1 and 2: heroes cross the lava (bridges help), dodge or zap Scouts, and grab diamonds.
3. Round 3: "The sky rips open." Place the black hole token on the lava river, two rulers below the dry crossing, and draw its ring. The pull starts this round.
4. Pip: a hero touching Pip can use their action to talk (Heart against 12). Pip whispers that the portals connect. Be unkind to Pip and he runs and tells the Lava Blob, which gets a Boost on its next zap.
5. Grabbing the crystal: a hero touching it uses their action, Zoom against 12. The carrier moves only a half ruler per move. Passing it to a friend whose figure is touching yours is free.
6. Winning: the crystal touches the Peace Beacon. Or, if every rival is off the paper, the heroes walk it home.

The crystal clicks into the Beacon. A single bright note rings out across the paper, and the Eviks turn and run for the Lava Fields.

End of the night

• The Print: vote for the night's drawing or the hero who survived the black hole.
• Bank diamonds and photograph the table.
• The hook: a smoky voice over the comm badge: "Enjoy your song, heroes. Eviktar has more than one black hole."

Month two

Everything above is the whole game for the first month. Once the table has played three or four nights, these unlock, one at a time:

Quick reference