Ship management as fun

Let’s continue with the Ship Management Phase of 🚀 ISS Vanguard!

I have to start with the most unique component - the Ring Binder 📖 that stores every relevant card 😅 It may sound silly, but it is actually an ingenious solution to make everything that much easier to manage. The text inside walks you through each section and acts kind of as its own rulebook. Sometimes you get hit with huge walls of text though, which is not ideal. I would have preferred some use of iconography.

Each time you arrive from your planetary mission, you go through the shipbook to unload your cargo, visit the medbay, upgrade your ship and equipment, travel to new systems, deal with arising situations, research available projects, manufacture new gear, etc. You can find a detailed description of each step in the comments. ⬇️💬

At each Ship Management Phase you only get a limited amount of energy and command points to use, so you can’t visit every facility of the ship. You have to make decisions and prioritize whatever you need the most.

A very important aspect I want to highlight is that you as a player command not only a single character, but one of the 4 Sections: Engineering, Security, Science or Recon - (if playing with less than 4 players, you might command more than one). Recruiting new crew members for your section also happens in this phase (thematically they are in a hibernated sleep until you wake them) - crew members are put into printed section card sleeves so you know where they belong, and it also tracks their rank. Only one member of each section may take part in a planetary mission, but many of the ship actions will need you to exhaust active crew members to boost them.

When you are done with everything, it’s time to choose the next landing crew and equip them as you see fit - then strap in, and head into the unknown yet again.

I think this phase does an amazing job to break up the gameplay and change gears every now and then. It is also an essential tool to give the sense of progression, as you get more and better crew, newer tech and equipment. At end of the ship management you will always feel pumped up to start up the next adventure. 😁👍