Humans explored the entire universe but never found a place suitable for life. They scoured the cosmos far and wide, hoping to discover that one planet where a colony could be established. But one day, luck finally smiled on humanity—an old archive mentioned a distant alien planet called Artemia. A team of scientist-explorers set out for it. Scans quickly revealed that Artemia not only had all the conditions necessary for life but also boasted astonishing flora and fauna. Yet this alien planet hides something more. Or rather, someone...

Not Alone

Not Alone is an asymmetric card game where one player becomes a dangerous hunting creature, while the others are its prey. The hunted must outwit the monster and survive until help arrives. The creature, meanwhile, needs to track its victims, break their will, and force them to remain on Artemia forever, eventually assimilating into the planet’s ecosystem.

Gameplay

In Not Alone, Artemia’s locations are represented by ten cards, laid out on the table in two rows. Above them sits a track: one side shows how many turns remain until the rescue ship arrives, while the other tracks the time until the survivors fully assimilate with Artemia. Depending on which side the marker reaches first, either the hunted or the creature wins.

Each astronaut-explorer is given a unique survival kit to fend off the creature. This includes three willpower cubes, one survival card, and five starting location cards. The hunting creature begins the game with three tokens and hunting cards.

Each round of Not Alone consists of several phases: Exploration, Hunting, Reckoning, and Round End. During the Exploration phase, an astronaut can discard willpower cubes to draw location cards, then choose one from their hand or the drawn cards to play onto the field—this is where they’ll hide from the monster in the current round. In the Hunting phase, the creature uses its tokens to search for the survivors, aiming to accelerate their assimilation with the planet in the subsequent Reckoning phase. At the round’s end, the creature retrieves its hunting tokens and draws any missing cards. Other played elements are discarded.

Hunter or Prey?

Not Alone is an immersive thematic game, perfect for a fun evening with friends. Will you manage to escape and leave Artemia behind? Or will the mysterious creature triumph, forcing you to become part of its ecosystem? In Not Alone, the cleverest player prevails.