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Tabletop games

Celestia

Gather the most precious treasures by travelling from city to city aboard an airship, and get off at the right moment, before the captain crashes it.

players
2–6
minutes
30

You’ll need the game box. Marquoir sums up the rules and keeps score.

Setup

  • The 9 cities form a line, from the least valuable (1) to the most valuable (25); each gets its pile of treasures next to it, shuffled and face down.
  • The airship lands on the first city. Each player takes an adventurer's tile and pawn: the tile stays in front of them, the pawn goes aboard.
  • Shuffle the Equipment, Power and Turbo cards together: each player gets 8 with two or three players, 6 with four or more. The rest form the draw pile.
  • Choose the first captain however you like.
  • 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and up.

How to play

  • A game is made up of several voyages; a voyage moves stage by stage, from one city to the next. Everyone takes a turn as captain.
  • The captain rolls as many Event dice as the destination city shows. A die shows a hazard (lightning, fog, birds or pirates) or a blank face.
  • Each passenger, starting to the captain's left, says whether they stay aboard or get off. Whoever gets off takes back their pawn and draws the top Treasure card of the city where the airship is: their voyage is over.
  • The captain doesn't get off, unless they are alone aboard at the start of a stage: they may then take the city's treasure instead of rolling the dice, which ends the voyage.
  • Once all decisions have been made, Power cards may be played.
  • The captain must then play, for each die showing a hazard, the matching Equipment card: lightning rod against lightning, compass in the fog, foghorn against the birds, cannon against the pirates. A Turbo card stands in for any equipment.
  • If they have what it takes, they must play their cards, and the airship moves on to the next city. If not, they play nothing and the airship crashes: nobody aboard gets a treasure.
  • The captain's role then passes to the passenger still aboard sitting on their left.
  • A new voyage starts again from the first city: everyone puts their pawn back aboard and draws an Equipment card.
  • If the airship reaches the last city, each player aboard takes a treasure there, starting with the captain, while any remain; then a new voyage begins.

Scoring

  • Each Treasure card shows a value. You keep your treasures face down, but may look at them at any time.
  • An unused Magic Spyglass scores 2 points at the end of the game.
  • In Marquoir, enter at the end of the game the value of each player's treasures and the number of spyglasses kept.

End of the game

  • The end is decided when a voyage begins: anyone who then holds 50 or more treasure points must say so, and the game ends.
  • The richest player wins.

House rules and pitfalls

  • Power cards: Ejection forces another passenger to get off; Jetpack lets you leave a crashing airship and still take the treasure of the city of departure; Alternative Route has the captain reroll the dice of their choice; Wind Gust forces them to reroll all the blank dice.
  • The four Magic Spyglasses are hidden among the treasures of the first four cities. When the captain announces they can't get through, a Spyglass lets them ignore every hazard of the stage.
  • A city with no treasure left is taken off the route. When the draw pile is empty, shuffle the discard pile.
  • Beginner variant: no Power cards or Spyglasses; the game ends, before a new voyage, as soon as a player holds five different treasures, then points are counted as usual.

Frequently asked questions

When does a game of Celestia end?

When a new voyage is about to start: if a player has 50 or more points in treasures, they announce it and the game ends. The richest player wins.

Can a captain keep their equipment for later?

No: if they have what it takes to face the hazards shown on the dice, they must use it. Only Turbo cards are left to their discretion.

What happens when the airship crashes?

Nobody aboard gets a treasure for that voyage. A new voyage starts again from the first city, and everyone draws an Equipment card.

Can the captain get off the airship?

Normally not: they steer the airship to the end of the stage. The one exception: if they start a stage alone aboard, they may stop and take the city's treasure instead of rolling the dice.

The box

Released
2015
Age
Ages 8+
Designer
Aaron Weissblum
Artwork
Gaétan Noir
Mechanics
Push Your LuckBetting and BluffingDice RollingHidden Victory Points
Contents
  • 1 airship, 9 City tiles and 4 Event dice
  • 6 Adventurer tiles and 6 pawns
  • 78 Treasure cards
  • 68 Equipment cards: compasses, lightning rods, foghorns and cannons
  • 8 Turbo cards and 8 Power cards

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