Astromania : The Astronomy Card Game

An astronomy card game made by real astronomer. Check out our Kickstarter : bit.ly/astromaniakickstarter

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Do you like space and card games? We have some news for you!

We wanted to make some trading cards to highlight contributions of queer astronomers. But if you already have a deck of fancy cards, why not make a whole game out of it?

Astromania is the card game equivalent of real life astronomy research. With its assortment of object cards and tool cards, Astromania lets you strategize and combine techniques to solve the mysteries of the universe - just like a real astrophysicist!

Check out our Kickstarter. And if this sounds like a fun thing to YOU, please reblog or back us if you are able to!

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We are playtesting at Protospiel North in Toronto this weekend! Come say hello if you are there!

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Object (Card) of the Day : Luminous Blue Variable

Class : Star

Ability : Variability

As their name implies, luminous blue variables are bright blue stars, known for their characteristic episodes of violent outbursts. During these outbursts, these stars eject most of their outer envelope into space causing dramatic fluctuations in their physical properties, such as temperature. These are some of the most luminous stars known to us and may look very similar to supernova explosions, sometimes leading to classification errors.

Here's an image of AG Carinae, a luminous blue variable captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and processed by Judy Schmidt

Link to our Kickstarter

Full List of Object Cards

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Astronomers of Astromania

Astromania is the card game equivalent of real life astronomy research! But with fake astronomers? What's that about?

Astronomy work comes in many forms and the creators of the game, astronomy graduate students and active researchers, wanted to bring out all aspects of it and feature astronomers with the likenesses of current active researchers. And so, fake astronomers were born! These are our original characters with detailed backstories, doing an assortment of astronomy related work! Stay tuned for details on each one of them.

Link to our Kickstarter

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Object (Card) of the Day : Brown Dwarf

Class : Star

Ability : Too Red To See

Brown Dwarfs are on the margins between a star and a planet -they are typically 10 times the mass of Jupiter but much lighter than a Sun-like star. They can't really kickstart the nuclear fusion of regular hydrogen - a process which gives stars their light - but are just massive enough to fuse Deuterium, a heavier sort of hydrogen. Due to this, they aren't as bright or hot as most stars and may look closer to reddish brown.

Here's an artist's impression of the Brown Dwarf, 2MASSJ22282889-431026 based on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Link to our Kickstarter

Full List of Object Cards

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First Physical Prototypes are HERE!!

An assortment of tokens, cards, and some dice

We are entering our playtesting phase folks!!

Support us on Kickstarter

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Object (Card) of the Day : Pulsars

Class : Star

Ability : Lighthouse

Pulsars are fast rotating neutron stars with beams of light coming out of their magnetic poles. When the pulsar rotates, the beam rotates towards and away from Earth and we can only see it when it points towards us. As a result, pulsars appear as pulses in our night sky, just like a lighthouse would appear to a ship! These pulses are so regular that they can be used as clocks accurate to about a 100 nanoseconds!

Here's an image of a Pulsar wind nebula of the Vela Pulsar captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin)

And an animation of pulsars being space lighthouses by Michael Kramer (MPIfR/JBCA)

Link to our Kickstarter

Full List of Object Cards

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Object (Card) of the Day - Star Forming Region

Class : ISM Ability : Construction Site

Star forming regions, also known as nebula, are areas in space full of dust and gas. Star forming regions can span about 100 light years and produce the the equivalent of a million suns!

Gas in these regions clump up until the clumps are massive enough to potentially collapse in on themselves. The gas clump, also known as protostar, eventually starts to fuse materials in its core to avoid its collapsing fate, and starts to emit light - just like the stars we are used to seeing in the night sky!

Here's an actual image of a star forming region from the James Webb Space Telescope (proper credit in alt)

Full list of object cards

Link to Kickstarter

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Objects in the Sky (Deck)

Astromania's Sky Deck is 60 cards - that is 60 objects that either exist or are thought to exist in the universe!

Each day, we will introduce you to each of these cards one by one so that you can get to know the cards better. Follow us for updates like this one and more!

Interested in supporting our game? Consider pledging or sharing our Kickstarter

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Who is making this game?

Some really tired people. We are three exhausted astronomy graduate students working on a fun little side project. And we hope to bring some of our astronomical lives into yours!

Read more about us on our Kickstarter story

Consider backing us too while you're there and if you are able to. Want to support us but can't afford to back us? Help us spread the word! We would very much appreciate that!

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What's Inside the Astromania Box?

Astromania has about 200 cards split into three decks:

Prompt Deck

Sky Deck

Draw Deck

The Prompt Deck is questions/prompts that you solve by 'studying' the cards in the Sky Deck - real physical objects that actually exist in the sky!

How should you 'study' them you ask? Well, use a combination of Tool, Astronomer, and Interact cards in your hand that you can draw from the Draw Deck.

Check out our Instruction Manual to learn more about how Astromania works.

Interesting in supporting us? Consider backing us on Kickstarter or reblogging this post to spread the word.