Space Alert

Space Alert is a cooperative board game designed by Vlaada Chvatil and first published in 2008 by Czech Games Edition, with further editions released by Rio Grande Games and other publishers. Players take on the roles of a small crew surveying unexplored regions of space aboard a starship, and each round is split into a frantic ten minute action phase, often run against a recorded audio track that announces incoming threats in real time, followed by a slower resolution phase in which the crew's planned card plays are revealed and executed in order. During the action phase, players simultaneously and secretly choose cards that move their character between the ship's decks or trigger actions such as firing the ship's weapons, redirecting power to shields, or repairing damaged systems, then must anticipate how those choices will play out once resolved. Threats include external dangers requiring weapons fire and internal hazards that must be managed inside the ship, and the crew succeeds or fails together depending on how well their simultaneously planned actions mesh once time runs out.