2025Cody Miller, Ira Fay
- Videos
- 167
- Creators
- 59
1 - 4 players60 - 240 minHeavy weight

2014Cody Miller
Mostly reviews and playthroughs. Xia: Legends of a Drift System is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 30 reviews, 6 how-to-play guides, 25 recorded sessions, 2 unboxings, and 8 other videos.
From BoardGameGeek
Xia: Legends of a Drift System is a 3-5 player sandbox style competitive space adventure. Each player starts as a lowly but hopeful captain of a small starship. Players fly their ships about the system, completing a variety of missions, exploring new sectors and battling other ships. Navigating hazardous environments, players choose to mine, salvage, or trade valuable cargo. Captains vie with each other for Titles, riches and, most importantly, Fame. The most adaptive, risk-taking and creative players will excel. One captain will rise above the others, surpassing mortality by becoming Legend! Customize: Each player begins the game by choosing and customizing a Tier 1 starship. Invest all your money in engines and be a rapid, yet fragile, explorer. Put all your credits into an uber missile and watch other players flee in terror. Get a small engine and save space and credits to invest in buying and selling cargo. Or create a well rounded ship, ready for anything. In Xia, the choice is always yours. Adapt: The goal of Xia is to become the most famous captain. Completing missions, besting ships in combat, purchasing higher tier ships, selling Cargo Cubes and claiming Titles are all ways that players can earn Fame Points. The best pilots will adapt to their surroundings, making snap judgments and changing plans on-the-fly. If you can think on your feet, you'll do well in Xia! Sandbox: The real fun of Xia is that each game will be different. There is no set direction of play - players may choose to be peaceful traders, fierce pirates, workers, miners, opportunists, etc. The game board is randomly laid out and explored each time you play. Players might choose not to explore at all, creating a tiny arena for swift and deadly combat, or explore all 19 sectors and have a large play-scape to exploit. It's up to you! Modding: Xia is very open to modding, and the community has already created loads of stuff. See BGG's Unofficial Xia:LoaDS mods and expansions wiki.
Watch it played
Xia: Legends of a Drift System has 71 videos from 17 creators: 30 reviews, 6 how-to-play guides, 25 playthroughs, 2 unboxings and 8 other videos. They date from 2013 to April 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "How To Play Xia - an overview in less than 12 minutes", which runs 12 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "Dice Tower Reviews: Xia". 6 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "Xia Gameplay - Part 1", one of 25 playthroughs.
If you like it, try Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread and Tavarua, also by Cody Miller, or The Oracle of Delphi and Explorers of the North Sea, which share several of its mechanics.
8 of 17
2025Cody Miller, Ira Fay
1 - 4 players60 - 240 minHeavy weight
2016Stefan Feld
2 - 4 players70 - 100 minHeavy weight
2016Shem Phillips
1 - 4 players45 - 60 minMedium weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Xia: Legends of a Drift System is a 3-5 player sandbox style competitive space adventure. Each player starts as a lowly but hopeful captain of a small starship. Players fly their ships about the system, completing a variety of missions, exploring new sectors and battling other ships. Navigating hazardous environments, players choose to mine, salvage, or trade valuable cargo. Captains vie with each other for Titles, riches and, most importantly, Fame. The most adaptive, risk-taking and creative players will excel. One captain will rise above the others, surpassing mortality by becoming Legend! Customize: Each player begins the game by choosing and customizing a Tier 1 starship. Invest all your money in engines and be a rapid, yet fragile, explorer. Put all your credits into an uber missile and watch other players flee in terror. Get a small engine and save space and credits to invest in buying and selling cargo. Or create a well rounded ship, ready for anything. In Xia, the choice is always yours. Adapt: The goal of Xia is to become the most famous captain. Completing missions, besting ships in combat, purchasing higher tier ships, selling Cargo Cubes and claiming Titles are all ways that players can earn Fame Points. The best pilots will adapt to their surroundings, making snap judgments and changing plans on-the-fly. If you can think on your feet, you'll do well in Xia! Sandbox: The real fun of Xia is that each game will be different. There is no set direction of play - players may choose to be peaceful traders, fierce pirates, workers, miners, opportunists, etc. The game board is randomly laid out and explored each time you play. Players might choose not to explore at all, creating a tiny arena for swift and deadly combat, or explore all 19 sectors and have a large play-scape to exploit. It's up to you! Modding: Xia is very open to modding, and the community has already created loads of stuff. See BGG's Unofficial Xia:LoaDS mods and expansions wiki.
Designer
Cody Miller
Artists
Cody Miller, Steve "Coolhand" Tyler, Peter Wocken
Publisher
Far Off Games
Categories
Mechanics