Overview

Celestia is a push-your-luck adventure game where players travel aboard an aircraft from city to city, collecting treasures of increasing value. One player serves as the captain each leg, rolling dice to determine challenges. Passengers must decide whether to stay aboard (risking a crash) or disembark to safely claim a treasure. The player with the most valuable treasure collection when someone reaches 50 points wins.

Components

• 1 aircraft model
• 6 Adventurer pawns
• 6 Adventurer tiles
• 9 oval City tiles (numbered 1 to 25 in ascending value)
• 4 Event dice
• 78 Treasure cards (distributed by city)
• 68 Equipment cards:
  • 20 blue Compasses
  • 18 yellow Lightning Arresters
  • 16 red Foghorns
  • 14 black Cannons
• 8 Turbo cards
• 4 x 2 Power cards (Ejection x2, Jetpack x2, Alternative Route x2, Wind Gust x2)
• 4 Magic Spyglass treasure cards (in first 4 cities only)
• 1 rulebook

Setup

1. Place the 9 City tiles in ascending order on the table (lowest value 1 to highest value 25).
2. For each City tile, shuffle the correspondingly numbered Treasure cards and place them face down next to the tile.
3. Place the aircraft on the first City tile.
4. Each player chooses an Adventurer tile and places the matching pawn in the aircraft.
5. Shuffle all Equipment, Power, and Turbo cards into a single deck.
6. Deal starting hands:
   • 2-3 players: 8 cards each
   • 4+ players: 6 cards each
7. Place remaining deck face down within reach of all players.
8. Choose a first captain by any method.

Turn Structure

The game consists of multiple journeys. Each journey starts at the first city and consists of multiple legs. Each leg has 5 steps:

Step 1: Captain Rolls Dice

The captain rolls as many dice as indicated on the next City tile. Dice show events: Fog, Lightning, Birds, Pirates, or Blank (no event).

Step 2: Passengers Decide

Starting with the player to the captain’s left, each passenger (non-captain player still aboard) declares:

• “I will stay” – leaves pawn in the aircraft
• “I will leave” – removes pawn, places it on their Adventurer tile, draws the top Treasure card from the current city’s deck

The captain may NOT disembark at this point (exception: if alone at the start of a leg, the captain may choose to land without rolling dice).

Step 3: Captain Faces Challenges

The captain must play the required Equipment cards from hand to overcome all dice results:

• Fog: play 1 Compass
• Lightning: play 1 Lightning Arrester
• Birds: play 1 Foghorn
• Pirates: play 1 Cannon
• Blank: no card needed

Multiple dice showing the same event require that many cards. The captain MUST play Equipment cards if held (no bluffing). Turbo cards are optional.

Step 4: Move Aircraft

• Success: Aircraft moves to the next city. All played cards go to the discard pile.
• Failure: The captain plays NO cards. The aircraft crashes. No passengers (including the captain) receive any Treasure this journey. The journey ends.

Step 5: Pass Captaincy

The passenger to the left of the current captain becomes the new captain. A player who left the aircraft cannot become captain.

New Journey

When a journey ends (crash or reaching the last city):

1. Place the aircraft on the first City tile.
2. Return all Adventurer pawns to the aircraft.
3. Each player draws 1 card from the Equipment deck.
4. The next player clockwise becomes captain.

Actions

Equipment Cards

Each Equipment card overcomes one matching event die. The captain must play all required Equipment cards if available.

Turbo Cards (x8)

Each Turbo card overcomes any ONE event (any die result). The captain may choose not to play these. May use multiple per leg.

Power Cards

Card	Who Can Play	When	Effect
Ejection (x2)	Captain or passengers aboard	Before captain plays Equipment	Forces one passenger (never captain) to leave and take a Treasure card
Jetpack (x2)	Captain or passengers aboard	When aircraft is about to crash	Player descends safely, takes top Treasure from the farthest city reached this journey
Alternative Route (x2)	Captain or passengers aboard	After captain declares he cannot face events	Captain re-rolls any dice of his choice once. Passengers may not change decisions after re-roll
Wind Gust (x2)	Any adventurer (even those who left)	After passengers have decided	Forces captain to re-roll all blank (uneventful) dice. Passengers may not change decisions after re-roll

Magic Spyglass (x4)

Found only in the first 4 cities as Treasure cards. Can be played by captain or passengers aboard after the captain declares he cannot overcome challenges. Effect: all challenges are ignored, journey continues. An unused Magic Spyglass is worth 2 points at game end.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Before the beginning of a new journey, if any player has reached 50 points in Treasure cards, the game ends immediately. The player with the highest total score wins.

Beginner Variant: Remove Power and Magic Spyglass cards. Keep Turbo cards. Game ends when a player has 5 different types of treasure. Points counted as normal.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• If the captain is alone in the aircraft at the start of a leg, they may choose to land (take a Treasure) without rolling dice, or continue.
• If the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
• If a city runs out of Treasure cards, remove that City tile; the aircraft no longer stops there. If a passenger takes the last card, no more passengers may disembark at that city.
• If the aircraft reaches the last city (25), starting with the captain and going clockwise, each player aboard draws a Treasure card. Some players may receive nothing if cards run out. A new journey then begins.
• The captain MUST play Equipment cards if he has them. He is never forced to play Turbo cards.
• Discussion and persuasion between players before deciding to stay or leave is encouraged.
• It is always allowed to count the remaining Treasure cards in any city.

Player Reference

Dice Events and Required Cards:

Die Face	Required Card
Fog	Compass (blue)
Lightning	Lightning Arrester (yellow)
Birds	Foghorn (red)
Pirates	Cannon (black)
Blank	None

Leg Sequence:

1. Captain alone? May land without rolling.
2. Captain rolls dice.
3. Passengers decide (stay/leave), left of captain first.
4. Power cards may be played (Ejection, etc.).
5. Captain declares success/failure.
6. Jetpack, Alternative Route, Wind Gust may be played.
7. Captain plays Equipment/Turbo OR Magic Spyglass is played.
8. Aircraft moves or crashes.
9. Captain changes.

Game End: 50 points triggers end before next journey.