My favorite mechanism from Pulsar is the median in the dice draft. It balances the dice each turn and leads to interesting decisions beyond the normal dice drafting decisions. As far as the “extra main action” mechanism, I like how Council of 4 does that as well. Spend 3 valuable servants to get a highly coveted extra main action, or possibly get it from a few other places. Feels very satisfying when you pull it off to chain together a mega-turn. Also, the mechanism of the not-drafted die having an effect on the game is also done well in Pioneer Days (determines which disaster moves forward), and also in La Granja/ La Granja: No Siesta (all players use the leftover die).

I'm glad you touch on how satisfying it is to get that extra red die in this game. The game only lasts 8 rounds and 16 actions is definitely not enough to do everything you want to do so getting that 3rd action is definitely important and helps you increase the sense of accomplishment. As for my favorite mechanism, I really like the interaction between dice values and the initiative/engineering track which lets you move up track if you take a die below the median value while higher values will make you regress on those tracks. And you can't intentionally just tank one because of the negative points you get each round if you're too low. Really interesting mechanism especially since the median will change form round to round depending on dice rolls. I'm a big fan of this one and you made me want to bring it with me next game night. :)

It's not a random number - it's 1000 years after the 1849 California Gold Rush, which this sort of emulates but in space. I could definitely see this being originally themed after 1849 but rethemed because space is fun.

Another important aspect to why the red die feels so good is that an extra action is 50% more actions you get to do on one turn! The more things you can already do, the less impactful bonuses feel. I think an important element of extra actions or abilities is how they impact the game flow. Games are just more exciting when there's variability to the turn structure. In some respects, the contrast between your normal turns and your good turns makes them even more special. I think Alhambra has a really nice "extra action" effect. When you buy a tile on your turn, if you pay for it exactly, you get to go again. This is just so satisfying when things line up for you, and is such a straightforward way to make it happen. It has the added benefit of making lower value cards useful for hitting exact numbers too.

In Castles of Burgandy it’s fun getting the extra action when placing buildings into your realm . Pulsar looks fun and will now need to acquire..Thanks Jaime

Definitely thought of Castles of Burgundy and Trajan but both have more abundance of comboed bonus actions. Glass Road/RFTG have it rooted in interaction with anticipating your opponent

Terrific game. My favorite new-to-me game of the year.

Pulsar is a great game. I simply love all the different paths to victory. You can focus on technology, your personal tech tree, traveling to planets, building pulsars, and etc. In the end they are all pretty viable and fun.

Pulsar 2849 is one of my group’s favorites. The management of the dice drafting and the two tracks is such an interesting element. Touching on your first point, another dice drafting game that provides the last player to draft an interesting decision is Pioneer Days from TMG. It can be so impactful, that prior players may draft a certain die color they may not want, just to take that option off the table from the last player. It can create some fascinating decisions and some meta gaming.

There's a light game called Spirits of the Wild that has a mechanism where you flip a fixed set of action cards face down as you use them (visually similar to Hanamikoji). The card backs on each player's two "Take One" cards show two halves of a fox picture. If you use both of your "Take one" actions before flipping your cards back up, you get to move the fox. This is a secondary action, not the main way to move the fox, which comes from one of the main card actions. The fox blocks one of your opponent's spaces. I thought this was really clever, particularly in such a simple game, and I was reminded of it when you mentioned combining things to get an upgrade or extra action. Unrelated, it's also quite beautiful.

I really like when games add that action so the last player isn't getting hosed as bad! My current "go to" dice game is BarBEARians though! I don't feel like the mechanics are similar but still a fun game =D

Sorry for the spelling ..Jamey

Makes me think of some of the Djinns in Five Tribes. Some of them give you an extra action on your turn, like placing an additional palm tree or palace, or pulling meeples out of the bag onto a blank tile. Not sure how specific the actions are in Pulsar, but reminded me of the Djinns and some of the cards you can draft in Terraforming Mars give you access to actions other players don't have. Converting resources or adding animals, etc.

I haven't played Pulsar yet. Sounds interesting. I can't think of any other games quite like that in the way you describe it. In Alien Frontiers, you can unlock your extra dice, but you aren't really getting extra actions really, you are just playing all of your dice. In Tiny Epic Galaxies, you unlock extra ships and dice... and having more dice allows you more that you can potentially do. As an aside, just finished Red Rising and moved onto Golden Son. I like that blend of sci-fi with a mix of 'fantasy' (the roman influences). I found it a bit crude in parts, but overall, it flows well and is immensely entertaining.