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Charon Inc. box art
2010 Ranked #6,291

Charon Inc.

An economic area-control game where competing corporations bid for mining regions, collect gems, and construct facilities on a distant moon. Your final unspent flag determines a special power, making each bid affect both territory and future advantage.

Family Games Science Fiction Area Majority / Influence Auction/Bidding Admin: Better Description Needed!

Players

2-5

Play time

Not listed

Age

13+

Complexity

2.24/5

Rating

6.30

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

In the year 2288, off-world mining is now controlled by a few mega-corporations. It is no longer just people or nations that are subject to exploitation, but entire planets and moons.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

In the year 2288, off-world mining is now controlled by a few mega-corporations. It is no longer just people or nations that are subject to exploitation, but entire planets and moons. As the CEO of one of these mega-corporations, in Charon, Inc. you will vie against CEOs of other corporations as you exploit the planet’s resources and colonize Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. You will stake claims to the various mining regions of Charon, acquire resources for building facilities, use special actions (fair and unfair) to gain advantages over other CEOs, and build your empire to achieve victory in this fast-paced game of planetary domination! Game Summary The board shows Charon divided into several regions. Each round, seed the regions with a mix of gems. Players start with a hand of building cards: at the start of each round, everyone puts one into a common pool. At the end of each round, you get additional cards.Players' bidding flags start out 1 in each of the special power areas. Go around bidding till each player has just one flag unspent. Bid by moving a flag from its space to a location on the board -- in a region, on a border btwn 2 regions, or on an intersection (corner) touching 2-4 regions. After all bids placed, use the special power where your last flag stands -- that is a pretty cool twist, where you have to decide which special power you want to try for (but you only get it if you're alone on that power; or if there's 2 of you in a 5er game!). Then resolve each region: the player with the most flags in/around it wins all the gems. Ties broken by seniority, where a flag is more "senior" if it affects fewer regions (center then edge then corner). After all gems collected, players (in turn order) use their gems to build cards from common pool and/or their hand (but may never build cards with same number). May trade gems (3:1?) to get the colors you need, and may only save a limited number of gems from turn to turn. Some special powers change trade ratio and holding limit. After 5 rounds, player who built the highest sum of buildings wins.

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–5
Best with
3–5
Play time
60 min
Age
13+
Complexity
2.2/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

2
Fred Binkitani Emanuele Ornella

Artists

1
Charlie Bink

Publishers

2
Eagle-Gryphon Games Pegasus Spiele

Linked items

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