/pic7245199.jpg)
ISS Vanguard
A 60-hour Star Trek campaign in a box, gorgeous and messy in equal measure.
Designed by Andrzej Betkiewicz, Krzysztof Piskorski, and Paweł Samborski · 2022
If your group loves long sci-fi campaigns and won't flinch at the admin, this is one of the most atmospheric ones out there. Everyone else should sit a session before they buy.
Best for: Talkative groups who want a sprawling, story-first space campaign
What it is
Here's the pitch. You're crew aboard a deep-space exploration ship, dropping onto strange planets one mission at a time, very much in the Star Trek away-team mold. Each landing is a dice-and-card puzzle: you commit dice to checks, then play cards to nudge results and claw dice back, which is where the cleverness lives. Real players keep coming back to that feeling of exploration, the gorgeous box, the 86 crew with actual backstories, and a free app that adds voice acting.
The catch
Now the honest part. The two halves of the game don't sit together comfortably. The away missions can be thrilling, but they lean hard on luck, so you might breeze through or get gutted before you've really started. The ship phase, sold as deep management, plays thinner than that. And the admin is real: cards shuffling between folder sections, a fat log book, fiddly AI rules. Most groups quietly hand one person the job of running it.
Who it's for
So who's this for? People who loved Gloomhaven and wished it wore a spacesuit. If your table likes talking through missions, doesn't mind a 20 to 60 hour commitment, and treats setup as part of the ritual, you'll get a lot here. Solo and two-player feel pinched on resources, and the late campaign can sag into repetitive rolling. Play a session at a friend's table first. This one earns devotion or frustration, rarely a shrug.
What other players say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
More from the shelf
All reviews/pic4458123.jpg)
Wingspan
A calm little game about birds that tables get weirdly competitive over.
/pic6973671.png)
Azul
Lovely tiles, simple rules, and a surprising amount of quiet cruelty.
/pic9156909.png)
Catan
The one that started a thousand game nights, and one or two genuine arguments.