Era 0 in this lore is known in your civilization as the Speed of
The Great Artifact
Unofficial Solo Campaign by Propsero
for R. Winder’s “Deep Future” Game
Version 0.5
Many eras ago, a legendary Xeno artifact, now known only as
“The Great Artifact”, was destroyed. Its fragments were taken to
the far reaches of the galaxy by rival civilizations who attempted
to harness their power.
Over the ages, the pieces of The Great Artifact were re-forged into
mighty but less-powerful artifacts of their own. One by one, they
were lost as the civilizations who held them fell victim to their own
greed or hubris.
Legend tells of four such artifacts scattered throughout the galaxy.
Your civilization desires, above all others, to possess these and re-
assemble them into The Great Artifact to face the Xeno as equals.
The Great Artifact is a solo campaign for Deep Future. It
is a replayable, winnable quest that spans many eras.
This campaign is recommended to be played with all
rules in Propsero’s Bleak Future expansion for the most
challenging experience. It is compatible with the base
rules, or any subset of the Bleak Future rules.
This is the first episode in The Great Artifact series by
Propsero, and contains non-canonical lore. The
second episode in the series, The Great Insurrection, is
playable immediately after you win this campaign.
1 Goal
The goal of the campaign is to unify the galaxy by
finding, recovering, and re-assembling the remnants
of The Great Artifact.
The Great Artifact was shattered into 4 pieces which over the years
were forged into separate, less-powerful artifacts which changed
the galactic balance of power:
(1) The Five-Thousand Year Energy Source, lost during an
ambushed attempt to purchase the entire Ikengan fleet in 616 BcE;
(2) The One Eto Mind, which controlled the planetary AI of the
Etonian empire for millennia until the Ninth Great War of 612
BcE;
(3) The Heart of Amli, which powered the dying star of the
Amlivians until it was lost in the Solar War of 387 BcE; and
(4) The Sceptre of N'Dor, rumored to have been passed down for
generations among the Warrior Tribes of N'Dor, but which has
not been seen since the War of Many Moons in 42 BcE.
Light (“c”) Era. “Before the c Era” (“BcE”) refers to how many
eras in the past those events occurred.
These artifacts will be created (in that order) as special
game cards over the duration of your campaign.
Artifacts are always in one of three states: lost, found,
or recovered. When an artifact is created, it begins in
a lost state. Over your campaign, it may be found and
then recovered (and potentially lost again!).
The Great Artifact is won by recovering all four
artifacts in a single game and transporting them to the
black hole at the galaxy’s center. This will typically
take many eras to achieve (at least 5, but potentially
many more than that).
2 Campaign Setup
At the beginning of your campaign, perform the
normal Deep Future Campaign Setup.
The star charts were known to be incomplete, but we had to start
our search somewhere.
2.1 Create an Artifact
After normal Campaign Setup, create a single new
artifact card for artifact 1 (The Five-Thousand Year
Energy Source). Artifact cards are special cards that
never enter the deck. All artifact cards will eventually
be created using the below method.
Write Artifact N on the card, where “N” is the number
of the artifact (1-4), and the name of the artifact.
Artifact cards do not have a normal suit and value
because they never enter the deck; however, each
artifact has a unique artifact suit. To generate an
artifact suit, discard cards from the deck until you
discard a suit not already used on any artifact in the
game. (For the first artifact, you will only discard one
card.) Write that artifact suit on the artifact card
below its name.
This artifact is now in the campaign, but is lost until
you find it. Note the artifact in your log and that it is
currently lost.
1

Example Artifact Card with a skull artifact icon.
Throughout the campaign, keep lost and found
artifact cards on the table near the neutral worlds line.
When you recover a found artifact, it will be added to
your tableau.
The artifact exuded a mysterious energy. It excited and scared us.
3 Rules
3.1 Finding Lost Artifacts
During the first era of the Campaign, the first artifact
is in the campaign but is lost – it is a lost artifact. In
later eras, there may or may not be lost artifacts in the
campaign. To find lost artifacts, you must first win a
game via normal victory conditions.
Immediately after winning a game in the campaign, as
a reward, if there are any lost artifacts in the game,
and no found artifacts (i.e. all found artifacts were
recovered during that game), you may search for one
of the lost artifacts.
The citizens supported our civilization’s victorious era by combing
the galaxy for the Great Artifact.
If your game currently has more than one lost artifact,
pick which lost artifact to search for.
Discard two cards from the deck to generate a sector
number. If there is no found artifact already in that
sector, look through the deck. If you find a named
world card of that sector, you have found the artifact
on that world! In a future game, if you settle that
world, you will recover the artifact and add it to your
tableau.
(The named world card requirement is designed for
use with the optional Discovered Worlds rule in Bleak
Future.)
If you found an artifact, note the world and sector of
that artifact in your log. This artifact is now a found
artifact and can be recovered by settling on that
specific world in a future game.
A world that currently contains a found artifact is
known as an artifact world. Artifacts may move from
world to world as they get lost and found – artifact
worlds are not a permanent designation and their
status should not be noted on their game cards.
The day we found that first legendary object was celebrated for
years.
3.2 Game Setup for Artifact Worlds
Whenever you begin a game in the campaign, check
your log for any artifacts currently in found status and
their artifact world locations.
During homeworld selection in Game Setup, if you
draw an artifact world, discard it as if it were a non-
world card.
At the end of each Game Setup, add 1 neutral cube to
the sector of each artifact world (to a max of 5 total
cubes per hex) if that sector contains no player cubes.
This happens regardless of whether the artifact world
is in the neutral worlds line or in the deck.
The primitive residents of the planet did not understand the power
of what they had, but they wouldn’t give it up without a fight.
3.3 Recovering Found Artifacts
You can recover a found artifact by using the Settle
action on its artifact world. The artifact world card
may be settled from your hand or the neutral worlds
line. (World cards created via the Settle action will not
be artifact worlds at the time they are created.)
Recovering an artifact occurs automatically when you
settle an artifact world, in addition to the normal
effects of the Settle action.
Once you recover an artifact, you now possess that
artifact via the occupation of the world it was
recovered on. Add the artifact card to your tableau.
You may want to place the recovered artifact card
near the card of the artifact world it was recovered
from. If you lose that world, you will lose that artifact!
If it wasn’t for the ancient monolith we discovered and what lay
inside, we may not have bothered with the planet at all.
After recovering an artifact, if no lost or found
artifacts remain in the campaign, and less than 4
artifact cards exist, you have awakened the next
artifact! Create the next artifact card (see 1 for creation
order and 2.1 for creation process) and place it near
the neutral worlds line. The new artifact is lost but
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may be found if you win the current game or a future
game. Note the awakening of the artifact and its lost
status in your log.
As soon as we found that first artifact, it was rare for any of us to
have a peaceful night’s sleep. We restlessly dreamed of another
mysterious object that we had never seen, yet somehow suddenly
knew existed.
3.4 Recovered Artifact Challenges
During each Payment Phase, add 1 card to the
challenge pile for each recovered artifact in your
tableau.
By the end of the campaign, the challenge pile will have at
least 5 challenge cards per turn. Specialized technologies
and/or invoking your artifacts may be necessary to increase
your chances of endgame survival.
As if by psychic force, our galactic neighbors grew jealous of us
from the moment we touched the shimmering object.
3.5 Invoking Recovered Artifacts
Each artifact can be invoked when it is in your
tableau. An invocation lasts from the time the
recovered artifact is invoked until the end of that turn.
It took little time for our scientists to discover its astounding
capability. What they couldn’t understand was how it violated our
understanding of the laws of physics.
Invoking artifacts angers the Xeno. Every time you
invoke an artifact, decrease the Xeno Relations track
by 2 and permanently destroy (cross out) the
topmost non-destroyed square of the Xeno Relations
track. After invoking any artifact in the campaign, you
will no longer be able to win a game in this campaign
via the Xeno Relations victory condition.
That first invocation will forever be known in our history as The
Great Awakening, both for us and for the dark animosity it
aroused in our former allies.
After you invoke an artifact, it will act as an infinite
source of its artifact suit until the end of that turn. It
may be used to perform the action associated with
that suit, any upkeep payments of that suit, or any
challenge costs of that suit without discarding a card
or upkeep token. All other game rules still apply – an
invoked artifact simply acts as the equivalent of
discarding a card of its artifact suit any number of
times.
We feared its dark power, but there was more than once in our
history where we were desperate enough to use it… even though
we knew what it had done to past generations.
Example scoring tracks after four artifact invocations.
Here, the Xeno Relations score cannot exceed 2.
3.6 Losing Artifacts
After an artifact has been recovered, it will remain in
your tableau as long as its artifact world remains in
your tableau.
If you lose that artifact world for any reason (by
intentionally discarding it, or losing control over its
sector), you will immediately lose the artifact.
Place the lost artifact back near the neutral worlds line,
and note in your log that it is now lost.
You will need to find the artifact again by winning the
current game or a future game (see 3.1).
Every world it touched became a stronghold… and a target.
3.7 Losing a Game
If you lose a game, any artifacts that are currently lost
or found remain in that state for the next game.
Any artifacts that you recovered during that game
become lost again. Note this in your log.
What began long ago as an ambitious quest to reunite the galaxy
ended in the destruction of everything we ever knew.
3.8 Winning a Game with 1-3 Artifacts
If you win a game with one, two, or three recovered
artifacts, congratulations! Your civilization achieved a
level of greatness and power not seen for millennia.
Unfortunately, you were not great enough to recover
all 4 of the artifacts and re-assemble The Great Artifact
to unite the galaxy. The campaign will continue until
you do. Note the victory in your log along with the
artifacts you recovered.
Write the artifact suits of all recovered artifacts on the
civilization card you create. In future games, that
civilization card may be discarded from your hand
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for one of its artifact suits instead of its primary card
suit.
Any artifacts that are currently lost or found remain
in that state for the next game.
Any artifacts that you recovered become found and
remain on their artifact world for the next game.
Memories of our era have faded. We achieved greatness, but
perhaps not the level of greatness we once believed possible.
3.9 Finding the Final Artifact: Galactic War
When you recover an artifact during a game, if you
now hold 3 artifacts in your tableau and the
remaining artifact is currently found, a Galactic War
begins immediately.
Decrease the Xeno Relations track by 3. Destroy the
topmost non-destroyed square on the Xeno
Relations track. You can no longer win a game in this
campaign via the Xeno Relations victory condition
(this may have already been the case, if you had
previously invoked an artifact during this campaign).
After the first Galactic War, the Xeno never offered another treaty.
Add 1 neutral cube to each sector adjacent to the
black hole (or remove 1 of your cubes, if present).
Add 5 neutral cubes to the sector containing the final
artifact (to a max of 5), and 1 neutral cube to every
sector adjacent to it (and/or remove a corresponding
number of your cubes, if present).
Example: if you had 2 cubes in the sector of the final artifact
at the outbreak of Galactic War, you would remove those 2
cubes and replace them with 3 neutral cubes.
Note the outbreak of Galactic War in your log. You
must fight through the neutral forces and settle the
final artifact world to recover the artifact.
Once Galactic War breaks out, you cannot win the
current game via normal victory conditions.
The rest of the galaxy united with the Xeno to oppose us. We
weren’t about to give up now.
3.10 Forging the Great Artifact
After (and not before) you have recovered the final
artifact and hold all four artifacts in your tableau, you
may transport each artifact from its artifact world to
the black hole at the center of the map.
The black hole’s sector was home to the Penrose Forge, an ancient
mysterious structure that had lay dark for all of known history.
Suddenly, we knew what it did – and how to activate it.
An artifact is transported by moving a designated
cube from its artifact world to the black hole, using
one or more instances of the Expand action (or other
movement effects).
The requirement to leave 1 cube behind when
performing Expand does not apply if every cube
being moved is transporting an artifact.
A unit transporting an artifact will still be destroyed
(and its artifact lost) if it remains on the black hole hex
between turns – to win the campaign, you must bring
all four artifacts to the black hole in the same turn.
We thought the Penrose Forge was a myth. We never expected it
to be the most important device in our civilization’s history.
If you lose a unit transporting an artifact, that artifact
will become lost – you may now win this game via
normal victory conditions again, but you will not be
able to win the campaign during this game.
Coming so close to greatness and failing to achieve it became the
defining feature of our civilization.
3.10 Winning the Campaign
Once you have transported all four recovered artifacts
to the black hole in the same turn, congratulations!
You successfully recovered and re-forged The Great
Artifact. This unified the galaxy and achieved
seemingly perpetual peace under your rule. You have
won the campaign. Will your civilization break the
rule that “all civilizations must fade”, and after
millennia still be recognized as the rightful galactic
rulers?
You may end the campaign, or continue by playing
The Great Insurrection (the next episode in this series).
We did it. Our children don’t understand what we went through,
but we did it for them. I can die happy.
And yet something stirs near the black hole…