In the near future, nanofacturing techniques will allow incredible new materials to be built atom by atom. But they can only be built in the zero-gravity and high-vacuum conditions in space. Various private and government enterprises race to establish a buckytube mechanosynthesis factory on a suitable carbonaceous asteroid. To do so, they accumulate tanks of water in orbiting fuel depots, to be used as rocket propellant. Also needed are remote-controlled robonauts to do the grunt work.
The key to success is water in LEO (low Earth orbit). At first, water will be expensively upported out of the deep gravity well of Earth. But for a third the fuel and energy, water can be supplied from Luna, the moons of Mars, or other nearby hydrated objects. Extracting resources at the work site is called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Whoever develops ISRU technology able to glean water from space rather than Earth will gain the strategic high ground to make money through exoglobalization.
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Posted by: Mister Alex (43 reviews)
Date: 2008/10/17 Time: 11:21am
As a glance at the Game Contents list will tell you, Before the Wind is a very, very card-heavy game; which won't deter some, but it does make for a design that is perhaps "busier" than it needed to be. The cards are a bit monochromatic, and the "warehouses" aren't to the same scale as the cards they're meant to hold... superficial details that nevertheless detract from the game, which at heart is a reasonably engaging contest of bartering and tactics.
