Description from the designer:
An accident of physics has flung your starship at light speed! You need only to endure 13 minutes until the engine runs out of fuel. All that stands between you and rescue is Outer Space...
13 Minutes At The Speed Of Light is an asymmetrical game of cosmic strategy and manipulation. A team of Astronauts attempts to survive ever increasing waves of danger from Outer Space.
In Cooperative play, you command four Astronauts in their frantic fight to survive. In Competitive play, one player takes the role of Outer Space, and all other players command the four Astronauts.
Rounds looks like this: (1) Outer Space plays a Card Game: drawing a hand of hazards and laying them in ambush on the table. (2) The Astronauts play a Worker Placement Game: positioning workers around the ship to use its defenses. (3) Players compare Space’s cards with the Astronauts’ workers, dealing damage wherever defenses fell short.
Outer Space wins if it manages to kill enough Astronaut workers in order to achieve victory. Astronauts win if they manage to keep enough of their workers alive until Outer Space runs out of hazard cards.