In the ALEPH Lunar Harvest Card Game, you step into the role of daring Astrobotanist - or harsh lunar Challenger. The Astrobotanists' goal is to grow and protect their crops, while the Challenger throws everything they can at the Astrobotanists to stop their mission. The game draws on lunar mission scenarios and biological science, with every decision you make immersing you in the high-stakes world of space agriculture.
Ready to test your skills in space farming?
Every purchase helps support future space science outreach through the ALEPH Project.
A lunar survival card game inspired by the ALEPH mission
Players: 2-4
Time: 15-20 minutes
Ages: 10+
Includes: Astrobotanist cards (Species and Actions), Challenger cards (Challenge and Actions)
You're an Astrobotanist, part of a pioneering lunar science crew. Your goal: grow and protect valuable flora in harsh off-Earth conditions. But one of you takes on a different role… the Moon itself. The Challenger represents extreme space hazards, trying to stop the mission from succeeding.
If you're an Astrobotanist, your job is to plant and protect different species of each type required by your mission (Science, Health, Nutrition, Wellbeing) before making the return journey home.
If you're the Challenger, your goal is to unleash disasters (environmental, mechanical, and resource-based) to stop them!
Resource types:
The Astrobotanists' Mission is to plant in front of them at least one of each Resource type.
Challenge types:
There are different types of challenges that the Challenger can throw at Astrobotanists, which may be countered by matching action cards that the Astrobotanists can pick up from their deck.
This is a game of 2 rounds: The initial round is the survival on the lunar surface, while the second round is surviving the trip home - for both rounds, the aim of the Astrobotanists is to have at least one species of each resource type, and the Challenger's goal is to stop that from happening!
The game ends after a Mission Home card is played. Each side has one:
Astrobotanists can play "Mission Complete" if:When either card is played, the Mission Home phase begins.
Each Astrobotanist and the Challenger each draw up to 3 cards from their deck (unless their deck is empty or they have a card allowing them to pick up more).
No more turns, no holding on to cards - just the trip home.
Astrobotanists win if: They are left with at least one species for each feature type.
Challenger wins if: They remove all species of at least one feature type from the Astrobotanists.
These help players grow and protect their species:
These represent different flora players aim to grow. Each species comes with a starting resilience score on the side, with numbers above and below to track resilience changes with an action card or challenge card is played on it. Species cards each come with a resource type: Nutrition, Health, Wellbeing or Science.
Used to support species or adjust gameplay. Some can be played during your turn to boost the resilience of your planted species or swap cards with your teammates, while others may be used out-of-turn to counteract Challenger cards.
These simulate the harsh conditions of lunar life and are used to block the Astrobotanists' progress:
These are the problems you'll throw at the Astrobotanists, like broken equipment or dangerous space weather. They come in three types: environmental, mechanical, or resource challenges.
These make the challenges worse or directly counteract the Astrobotanists' defences.
Astrobotanists start first. The first player draws a card and may choose to plant a species card in front of them. They might then increase that species' resilience by placing an action card of the same type on top of it. The action card can be placed to indicate the new resilience score on the species card.
The player then ends their turn and the next Astrobotanist draws a card to begin their turn. They may make similar moves, but seeing that the species planted by the previous Astrobotanist is a Science-type species, they might choose to hold onto their own Science species for the journey home and instead plant a different type, such as a Nutrition species.
Once all Astrobotanists have had a turn, the Challenger draws their card(/s) and plays. They might place a Resource Challenge on one of the species in play. But one of the Astrobotanists has a counteraction card for resource challenges and plays it out of turn - but wait! The Challenger has a counter-counteraction! The challenge card remains, and the targeted species loses resilience, which is updated by placing the challenge card on top of the species card to indicate the new resilience score.
Play continues until an Astrobotanist draws a Mission Complete card from their deck. If their team meets the conditions - at least one species of each resource type planted in front of them surviving at least one lunar day - they can play it.
Both the Astrobotanists and Challenger then each draw three cards (unless they hold a card that allows them to draw more at this stage). All species in play are discarded, and Astrobotanists reveal their species held in hand. They play any helpful action cards and hold onto counters for the final assault.
Then it's the Challenger's last chance to sabotage the mission - throwing every challenge they can at the Astrobiologists' planted species to disrupt them. If they can eliminate all species of just one resource type, the Astrobotanist's mission fails. If the team survives with all types in front of them, the Astrobotanists win!
Celebrate the victory - or regroup and prepare for the next mission!
We don't yet have any real photos of plants growing in the lunar environment (although it's a goal of the ALEPH Project!). In the meantime, we can imagine with the power of AI. The images used in this game were generated using OpenAI's ChatGPT, prompted by a human.