A printable On Mars log lives or dies on the one record nobody keeps: what the endgame scoring actually added, and why, because On Mars does not end with the Opportunity Point track alone but with a seven-line list added to it, and the game ends when the Remaining Missions marker reaches the end of its track — three missions completed, a high colony level, or a mix — after which the players finish the current round, play one more round with no shuttle phase, and then work through that list. Nobody at the table argues about the game they played; they argue about whether progress cubes paid one point each or on the 1/2/4/7/11 ladder, whether an unbuilt blueprint cost anything at all, whether a scientist counted other players' buildings, and whether a failed Earth contract lost points or just scored zero. The only evidence is the log: a line for every endgame category, with the count and the rate written beside it, or a single OP total that was written at the end and can be defended by nobody.
Progress cubes score on a ladder, not per cube, and ships score three each, so a player with three progress cubes and two ships in the hangar scores four from progress and six from ships. Count the cubes flat at one each and one point vanishes; count the ships at one each and four more vanish, which is exactly the kind of quiet error that turns a tie into a loss nobody can explain. A log that writes the cube count beside the ladder value, and the ship count beside the rate of three, makes both rates checkable; a bare cube count does not, because the count alone cannot tell you whether the ladder was consulted or the cubes were merely counted.
Colonists and tech tiles are table lookups, not rates, and that is the second trap. Colonists score by the number beside the highest-located colonist after all colonists from the player's marker side and working area are returned to the living quarters, with excess going to the personal supply, and each tech tile in the laboratory scores the value indicated below its column. A log that writes the highest colonist number and each tech tile's column value on separate lines keeps the two lookups apart; a log that merges them into a single bonus line hides which table was consulted, and a colonist counted before the return, or a tech tile scored at its printed benefit instead of its column value, adds phantom points that no later recount can find. The lookup lines are where the table, not the arithmetic, decides the game, so the table result must be written down, not the reasoning that produced it.
Advanced buildings and scientists are where the sign errors live. Each built Level 1 card pays three and each built Level 3 card pays five, but every unbuilt Level 1 blueprint loses three and every unbuilt Level 3 blueprint loses five, so a player with two built Level 1 cards, one built Level 3 card, and one unbuilt Level 1 blueprint scores six plus five minus three, eight net, not eleven. Each scientist pays three for every advanced building of the indicated types on Mars no matter who owns it, so a scientist whose type appears on three buildings pays nine even if the player owns none of them. Score the unbuilt blueprint at zero and three phantom points appear; count a scientist's buildings only among the player's own and real points disappear. The building line must show built and unbuilt counts side by side, and the scientist line must show the Mars-wide count beside the rate of three, because a total that hides either sign is a total nobody can audit.
Earth contracts close the list, and they cut both ways: gain or lose the points depicted on the card depending on whether it was completed, with resources or crystals transferable to contracts at this point. A contract line needs the completed-or-failed verdict written beside it, not just the points, or a failed contract scores on memory alone. Take a game that ends with A on 41 Opportunity Points scored during play and B on 37. A's endgame bonus is 45: progress 4 (3 cubes on the ladder), ships 6 (2 at three each), colonists 7 (highest-located number), tech 6 (column values 2, 3 and 1), advanced buildings 8 (two Level 1 at three, one Level 3 at five, minus one unbuilt Level 1 at three), scientists 12 (one matching three buildings at three each, one matching one building at three), contracts 2 (one completed at four, one failed at minus two). A's final total is 86. B's endgame bonus is 48: progress 7 (4 cubes on the ladder), ships 3 (1 at three), colonists 9 (highest-located number), tech 7 (column values 3, 2 and 2), advanced buildings 8 (one Level 1 at three, two Level 3 at ten, minus one unbuilt Level 3 at five), scientists 12 (one matching four buildings at three each), contracts 2 (one completed at six, one failed at minus four). B's final total is 85. A wins by one. Count A's progress cubes flat at one each and A falls to 85, a false tie. Ignore unbuilt blueprints entirely and A rises to 89 while B rises to 90, a false B win by one. Count A's scientists only on A's own buildings and A's scientist line falls from twelve to six, A falls to 80, a false B win by five. Three different single-line errors, three different wrong results, and only the line-by-line log shows which one happened.
An On Mars endgame log that a buyer prints, fills in, and trusts is not a sheet of blank lines but a checklist of the seven-line list in order: progress cubes on the ladder, ships at three each, highest colonist number after the return, tech tiles at their column values, advanced buildings built minus unbuilt, scientists at three per matching building on Mars regardless of owner, Earth contracts gained or lost by verdict, each with its count and rate beside it, and then the tiebreak line, most crystals, then most advanced buildings, then most progress cubes, then shared, written before any winner is declared. That is the download worth selling: not the arithmetic, which any player can do, but the structure that stops the arithmetic from drifting, one line at a time, until the winner changes.
Disclaimer: This log is a player aid for On Mars and is not affiliated with Eagle-Gryphon Games or Vital Lacerda. Endgame scoring uses the official seven-line list; check the rulebook for your edition before play.
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