Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Escape Pods is a game of spaceships and escape for 1-5 players of ages 10+. You are tasked to evacuate crew members from an exploding spaceship, taking them via pods to secure refuges on a nearby moon.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Action Points
Spend a limited allowance of points across several possible actions each turn.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Pick Up and Deliver
Collect goods at one location and transport them to another for rewards.
Memory
Remember previously revealed information, positions, or sequences.
Read the full game description
Escape Pods is a game of spaceships and escape for 1-5 players of ages 10+. You are tasked to evacuate crew members from an exploding spaceship, taking them via pods to secure refuges on a nearby moon. The goal of the game is to rescue as many crew members as you can, taking them from the spaceship to the four shelters in some nearby moons. However, be careful: The combination of crew members in each shelter could make the escape not completely successful! Players will alternate their turns following the round in clockwise order. On their turn, a player becomes the active player. On each turn the active player can take up to two actions. To take an action, the active player must: Place one of their available action tokens on one of the activation spaces on their action cards, marking the action the player wants to take. If the chosen action does not have any free activation spaces (without a token), the player cannot take that action. Resolve the effect of the chosen action. This effect must be resolved in its entirety before taking a second action. After taking the two actions, the active player will take all their action tokens from the activation spaces for basic actions. In addition, if all three spaces for advanced actions (Board, Program, Pilot) have an action token on them, the active player also takes those action tokens. Players continue playing using the normal rules, until one of these conditions is met: There are no spaces left in the refuges, or There are no crew member on the pods beyond the barrier. As soon as one of those conditions is met, the game ends and players proceed to scoring. —description from the publisher