Mars to Stay: A story game about an almost impossible dream

By Frederik Jensen and Claudia Cangini

You dream to go where no human has gone before and do what no human has done before.
You pursue an almost impossible dream — to build humanity’s first colony on Mars.
You travel to Mars to stay.
You are smart, tough, and competent. You signed up for a 20-year contract with a private company to exploit resources available on Mars. The Mars environment is extremely hostile to human life. The next team arrives in two years. If something goes wrong, help is far away.
3-6 players. 3-6 hours. Excellent for online play.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thoughtful Games
• Release date: May 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9789151981543

Book preview

Mars to Stay

A story game about an almost impossible dream

By Frederik Jensen

Mars to Stay

A story game about an almost impossible dream

Author: Frederik Jensen

Illustrator: Claudia Cangini

Copyright © 2021 Frederik Jensen

Permission granted to share the game for the purpose of playing the game. At least one player must own a copy of the game. Play aids can be downloaded from thoughtfulgames.com/marstostay. All other rights reserved.

Published by Thoughtful Games, thoughtfulgames.com

First e-book edition 2021

ISBN 9789151981543

Bar code

Mars to Stay

A story game about an almost impossible dream

You dream to go where no human has gone before and do what no human has done before.

You pursue an almost impossible dream — to build humanity’s first colony on Mars.

You travel to Mars to stay.

You are smart, tough, and competent. You signed up for a 20-year contract with a private company to exploit resources available on Mars. The Mars environment is extremely hostile to human life. The next team arrives in two years. If something goes wrong, help is far away.

3-6 players. 3-6 hours. Excellent for online play.

About Mars

Mars is approximately half the diameter of Earth and the surface area is slightly less than the total area of Earth’s dry land. Surface gravity is about 40% of that of Earth. One sol on Mars – the time it takes for Mars to rotate around itself – is about 24 1⁄2 hours. One Martian year is 668 sols or about 1.9 Earth years.

The main ingredient of Mars’ atmosphere is carbon dioxide. The surface pressure is less than 1% of that of Earth. Surface temperature ranges from -143° C to 35° C. The daily temperature swing is large as the heat-holding capacity of the dust that covers most of the surface is low.

The distance to the horizon is shorter than on Earth. There is no moisture, so usually there is a very high visibility. Year-round dust storms can block sunlight for weeks at a time. Mars has two moons – Phobos and Deimos. Both are much smaller than the Moon. Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye. Earth can be seen if you know where to look.

The main surface features on Mars are impact craters, lava flow plains, and volcanoes. The colors range from red-orange, golden, brown, tan and greenish, depending on the minerals present. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system and there are still areas with volcanic activity. The Borealis basin that covers