Two rival Spinward Clans, a group of unregistered pilots known for their trade acuity, have completed one half of a trade cycle, landing in Mutuality space. Which side will come home with a full hold and gain all of the honour and prestige, and which side will drift endlessly through empty space?
Trade Cycles is played with a deck of cards, each card representing an event of some kind, from your opponent running out of fuel, or you finding an extra battery in your flagship's trade goods. Each card has one of three properties: Problem, Solution, or Safeguard.
In order to place any lightyear cards you must be Enroute or fly with the Way of the Clans. Additionally, you may run into trouble along the way. Pirate attacks will neccessitate repairs, running out of charge will require a charge booster, if your artificial gravity systems fail you may need to jury rig a solution, the flagship may need to be escorted by a wing of fighters through an asteroid field, or the flagship might be held up at a quantum skim accelerator. Of course, pirates are no match to a flight ace, an extra battery will keep the flagship charged enough to make the trip, high-tech alliance goodies won't fail and need cobbled-together parts, and you won't need to worry about asteroid fields or skim queues if you fly with your innate clanner abilities.
The first player to go exactly four hundred (400) lightyears wins. Having safeguards in play increase your score, with an additional bonus for having all four safeguards. Another bonus is given out for not playing any eighty lightyear cards.
Commands:
TRADECYCLES to start a game.
JOIN for an opponent to join the game.
DRAW to draw a card; used each round.
STOP to end a game early.
