Mayan Sun, Aztec Destiny: 500 BC to AD 2012 and Beyond

"The great problem was the cyclical climate; rains fell across the highlands only part of the year, and sometimes they did not fall at all. Arrival of the rainy period was often erratic; a premature shower might easily cause hungry farmers to plant too soon, only to see their precious hoarded seeds sprout and die in the burning ground. When this happened whole villages died off. The farmers had to have some way to measure the moons between the rains; they could tell the seasons accurately only by measuring the movements of the earth against the constant stars.

"At a very early period some unknown genius devised such a calendar, and it was perfected gradually over many years."

–Fire and Blood: a bold and definitive modern chronicle of Mexico by T.R. Fehrenbach

In Mayan Sun, Aztec Destiny: 500 BC to AD 2012 and Beyond, players are ancient astronomers reading the stars and sun patterns. Using the Mayan Haab agricultural calendar invented in roughly 500 BC, players inform their villages when to best plant their seeds so that they may grow a tremendous harvest to feed their people. After their seeds are planted, the astronomers recommend rituals to aid in their harvest and their reading of prophecies in the stars, but problems arise. A village conducting a ritual to help their crop could be stealing the power of the sun or cosmos from a nearby neighbor. Droughts may crush other villages.

After crops have been harvested, the ancient astronomers now begin to forecast the prophecies of the stars. Using the technologies found in the Aztec Calendar, the important messages from the sky above may be telling us when and how the world will end. Players wager a bet about the ultimate destiny. With their knowledge of Prophecy they may influence this ultimate end, and also may know the exact date! Could the world end by the fires of a super volcano in 1969 AD, or will an alien race arrive in 2012 AD, or will a super nova occur light years away destroying our planet in 3,000,000,000 years? Players are now trusted prophets and will have the knowledge of the end of time.

Mayan Sun, Aztec Destiny is a tile-moving game for 2-4 players. The game can be played as either a basic game or an advanced game. The basic Sun Phase of the game involves players moving tiles by conducting rituals, tile positioning can help or hinder players as they grow crops and collect prophetic knowledge. Players in the basic game will score for the amount of villages they feed and Prophecy tokens they collect. Players desiring a more involved game will have a Destiny Phase in which Prophecy tokens, earned in the Sun Phase, must be used to either influence the value of villages, investments in the future, and/or influencing how and when the world may come to an end.

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