Galactic Emperor, the brand new science fiction-themed empire-building game from Crosscut Games, apparently generated such anticipation prepublication that while initial shipments are still on their way to preorders and retailers, the game has already sold out at the publisher level. In this board game, players fight to fill the power vacuum left by the sudden death of the last Galactic Emperor. Each round they can choose from several different roles, including Explorer, Steward, Merchant, Engineer, Warlord, Regent, and Scientist. Galactic Emperor includes 84 miniature plastic spaceships, as well as numerous tiles, tokens, resource cubes, and victory chits. And a feature that is probably responsible for much of the excitement for a game of this type, it supposedly plays out in only 90 minutes.