Twilight Inscription (Dice Game)

The Lazax Empire has burned to ash, rejected by its subjects. The aftermathwas tragedy and petty conflict in equal measure, a time of loss and exhaustion.In the ensuing Dark Years, the factions of the galaxy retreated and recoveredtheir strength. Now, they look upon the stars and see an opportunity—a chanceto reclaim what was lost. A chance to redefine galactic civilization. A chanceto leave their mark upon the stars.

Twilight Inscription, an epic roll-and-write game for one to eight players,offers an experience unlike anything Fantasy Flight Games has done before. Witha limited pool of resources at your disposal, you’ll need to carefully manageNavigation, Expansion, Industry, and Warfare as you amass victory points andearn your right to the throne on Mecatol Rex. Will your faction become the newrulers of the galaxy? Or will your fledgling empire fade into obscurity?Anything can happen in this strategic, infinitely-replayable game!

Write Your Legacy
Much like how Twilight Imperium is a massive board game, Twilight Inscription isa massive roll-and-write. Where most roll-and-writes have each player fillingout a single board (referred to as a “player sheet”) as they play, TwilightInscription has you filling out four!

During setup, each player starts off by choosing a faction, such as theArborec , the Emirates of Hacan , the Nomad , or the Titans of Ul . All 24 ofTwilight Imperium’s factions are here, and each has its own unique abilities.Once you have your faction, you take one of each of the aforementioned fourplayer sheets: Navigation, Expansion, Industry, and Warfare. These are whatyou’ll be writing on as you play the game. These sheets are reusable, andyou’ll write on them with dry-erase chalk markers, which are included with thebox. And the coolest part? There are eight different versions of each sheet!This means you can start with a vastly different setup than your opponents.(Don’t worry—for those of you who prefer that everyone starts with the exactsame setup, that option is also included.)

Between all the factions you can play as and the different player sheets youcan use, no two games of Twilight Inscription will feel quite the same. Now,let’s take a look at the things you’ll be doing during a game.

Each round kicks off with an event card. Most of these are “strategyevents,” such as Fledgling Empire and Echoes of the Past . These grant youresources, which, along with the resources rolled on the dice, you then spend onone of your player sheets in a multitude of ways. You do this by using yourmarker to cross off the resource costs for whatever it is you’re trying to do(hence the “write” part of roll-and-write). Just keep in mind that you canonly spend resources on one sheet per round!

There are a lot of things to spend resources on across all four sheets, andfiguring out the best place to do so is part of the core strategy in TwilightInscription. Maybe you want to discover new systems or race to Mecatol Rex onNavigation; perhaps you’d rather develop some planets on Expansion; you couldalways generate commodities to amass your wealth on Industry; or maybe you justwant to build up your fleet on Warfare. You’ll gradually gain victory pointsno matter which sheet you invest in, but take care not to neglect any of them;otherwise, unexpected events could throw you off your game!

For example, some event cards, such as Border Conflict , will trigger a war,which involves you comparing the strength of your fleet (located on your Warfaresheet) to those of your neighbors. You earn victory points if your fleet isstronger than a neighbor’s, but you can also lose points if your fleet isweaker than theirs.

In a similar vein, if a council event occurs, such as Convene the Council ,you’ll need votes, which you can build up on your Industry sheet. The effectsof agendas like Technology Embargo and Corporate Tax Breaks can have seriouseffects on the game, but if you’ve been neglecting your Industry sheet, youwon’t have enough votes to ensure the outcome is the one you want.

All in all, striking the balance between Navigation, Expansion, Industry, andWarfare is the key to achieving victory. There are endless possible strategiesthat you could use to pull ahead of your opponents—the question is, whichapproach is the best for you? The game goes until the war event A Throne forthe Taking is resolved, at which point everybody’s victory points aretallied. Whoever has the most is the winner!

Alone Amongst the Stars
You may have caught it earlier when we mentioned the player count, but you canplay this game solo as well!

If you play the game by yourself or with only one other player, than you willsquare off against an AI opponent. The AI opponent follows its own set of rules,and its objective is simple: make as much progress along its goal tracks aspossible. The AI doesn’t earn any victory points for itself, but it doesdisrupt you (and your human opponent, if there is one) in your quest to earnpoints of your own. For example, the AI will actively oppose you in warfare andcouncil events, so you will still want to make sure you build up your fleet andvotes as much as you can. If you haven’t earned a certain number of victorypoints by the time the game ends, then the AI has beaten you, so bring yourA-game!

A New Chapter
Twilight Inscription is an all-new way to experience the Twilight Imperiumuniverse. This roll-and-write is FFG’s first foray into the genre, and thegame is as epic and massive as anything in the TI universe should be. Make yourmark on the galaxy and claim the throne!

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