Colony: Moon — Print Edition

Build humanity’s first lunar colony through cooperation, competition and political negotiation.

Colony: Moon is a hard-science, social-science-fiction story game about founding a permanent settlement on the Moon, making it succeed and opening the way to the rest of the Solar System.

The players take the roles of The Board, the people responsible for deciding the colony’s future.

Every member of the Board has ideas about what the colony should become. Turning those ideas into reality requires negotiation, political capital and the support of the other players.

Cooperation or Competition

Colony: Moon can be played cooperatively or competitively.

Board members propose plans, debate the direction of the colony and expend political capital to put their decisions into effect. Successful plans earn prestige, giving individual players an incentive to advance their own priorities.

The colony, however, must still succeed.

The game explores:

• Competing ideas for the colony’s future.

• Political and pragmatic decision-making.

• Negotiation between Board members.

• The dangers of pursuing an unfocused programme.

• The advantages of working together.

• The tension between personal prestige and collective success.

Players are encouraged to take on roles within the Board and make decisions according to their characters’ goals and motivations.

A Political Game of Space Exploration

Colony: Moon concentrates upon the human and political questions behind lunar colonisation.

The central challenge is not simply reaching the Moon, but agreeing upon what to build once humanity gets there.

What should receive priority?

Whose plans should be supported?

How much political capital should be committed?

When should personal ambitions be set aside for the good of the colony?

The answers emerge through play, discussion and the decisions made by the Board.

Accessible and Quick to Prepare

Reviewers have praised Colony: Moon as fun, compelling and easy to prepare.

The rules were described as straightforward enough to run after only a cursory amount of preparation, with roleplaying and characterisation adding further depth to the game’s political interactions.

One reviewer particularly recommended it to admirers of games such as Civilization, Alpha Centauri and Outpost who would like greater emphasis upon diplomacy and politics.

More Than Entertainment

Colony: Moon has also been used successfully in a university business-school language class.

Students researched the space race and plans for lunar and Martian exploration, learned the game, debated the colony’s development and produced reports on their decisions and results.

The instructor reported that the exercise encouraged cooperation, discussion, debate and the practical use of English under pressure—even among students with little previous gaming experience.

That educational use is not required to enjoy the game, but it demonstrates how readily its central ideas can provoke conversation and collaborative problem-solving.

The Next Step Begins Here

Humanity has reached the Moon.

Now somebody must decide what happens next.

Take your place on the Board.

Argue for your vision.

Spend your political capital carefully.

Earn prestige when your plans succeed—but remember that personal victory means little if the colony fails.

Build the settlement that opens the Solar System to humanity.

This listing is for the physical print edition of Colony: Moon, written by James Desborough. It is a 54-page A5 paperback. No separate roleplaying-game system or Games Master is identified as being required by the published description.