Encounters Over Basel

The Basel Event refers to a mass UFO sighting that occurred on August 7, 1566, over Basel, Switzerland. It’s one of the more famous historical celestial phenomena, often cited in ancient alien and unexplained mysteries circles. This game is a fictional take on what happened.

According to contemporary reports—including one published in the Basel Gazette—residents witnessed strange celestial phenomena in the sky during sunrise. These included:

• Black spheres appearing and engaging in what was described as aerial combat.

• The orbs were said to move rapidly, collide, and vanish in smoke.

• Witnesses described it as a “fearful spectacle” and interpreted it as a divine warning or omen.

I joined this game jam as a video game developer mostly to think outside the box and try something different. My day job is a graphic designer so I was very curious about designing a game from a layout perspective but my main focus was the gameplay mechanics as this is the area I feel like I need the most work when it comes to video games design.

If you like ALOT going on in your board games... this is for you.

The game is basically you vs the bad guys invading, it is single player game. I wanted to build something similar to the board game "Shadows over Camalot" as I do enjoy playing that game with my brother and friends. The game is difficult and you are meant to lose, winning should feel like a struggle in this game. The "Side of Box Quests" will alter the gameplay, quest 1 of 5 does make it easier, the other quests make it harder, more interesting and just weird, these can be played in combination or all together.

This is my first attempt at making a board game so I expect there to be a lot of issues unless I can fix them before the end of the jam.

Game Setup

🎲 City Health: Roll a 1d6 twice. Add both results, then add +8. This is your starting City Health.

🎲 Orb Health: Roll a 1d6 once.

• If the result is odd, multiply it by 5.

• If the result is even, multiply it by 3. This is the Orb’s starting health.

🛡️ Place Health Counters on both City and Orb Health based on the totals you just calculated.

🛡️ Shuffle the Relic and Action Cards and place them face down on their designated spots.

🛡️ Place the Movement Cart on any blank grid space of your choice to begin.

Your Turn (Each Round)

Every turn follows these 4 steps in order:

1. Roll 1d6 This determines how many spaces you must move.

2. Move Your Cart Move the number of spaces rolled. You can only move forward, left, or right—never backward or diagonally. You’re navigating a burning city, fleeing from deadly Orbs. Movement is mandatory.

• If you land on a grid space with text (like “+1 to dice roll”), the effect activates next turn—not immediately.

3. Draw an Action Card Draw a card and resolve its effect. Some actions are modified by your die roll or any active relics or grid effects.

4. Resolve Relics If you're attacked by the Orb Force—even if the attack fails—you draw one Relic Card.

• Relic cards can be used on your next turn.

• If the relic is usable, you must use it.

• If you’re attacked before using it, you discard it and draw a new one to use next turn.

Win or Lose Conditions

💀 Lose If:

• City Health reaches 0

• You fail a critical side quest that ends the game

🏆 Win If:

• Orb Health is reduced to 1

• On your turn, you roll the exact number needed to land on the “End” square

• If successful, you defeat the Orb Force and win—no card draw is required

• If you fail to land on “End,” the game continues until you succeed

Game can be played with all side quests at once or none, or any number of them in combination for an added challenge.

Status:

This game is VERY much a work in progress. You can play it and win but you will mostly lose, I will be making tweaks once the jam is done.

If folks like it I will 100% put more time into it, more cards, more relics, flesh out the gameplay more just let me know your thoughts, I value all feedback, good and bad.

Versions:

Free version includes: The full game with 1 Side of Box Quest. This includes the PDF, JPEG and a ink saving black and white version:

Paid version Includes: The full game with all 5 Side of Box Quests, high resolution PDF and JPEG. This version also includes the black and white ink saving version along with the files to Table Top Simulator ready to play.

(Please keep in mind if purchasing this, this was a work of passion, I love creating games, and while the game is finished and playable some aspects might be a tad weird or broken)

Credits:

Graphic design, Game design, layout, gameplay mechanics, art (about 10%) and story by Rob Williams/GamesbyRob. Illustrations by MidJourney and ChatGPT.

Thanks:

Thank you to Ten Acre Games for holding the Cereal Box Game Jam. Never thought I would make a board game and it was a really great experience for me :)

Check out other awesome entries here: Cereal Box Game Jam