Voyage of the Pandora is a solitaire game of interstellar exploration. The player controls the Biological Survey Mission Pandora as it travels the star ways in search of extra-terrestrial life forms. The player uses the crew, robots, and equipment of the Pandora to collect exotic specimens while attempting to minimize the loss of human life and return home with the Pandora intact.

Voyage of the Pandora is played in two time scales. The length of the game (or tour of duly) is measured in tour months. When a single planet is being explored by an expedition to its surface, time is measured in expedition hours. The passage of hours has no effect on the passage of months.

Voyage of the Pandora does not use a repeating sequence of play, as many SPI games do.  Rather, the player refers to a series of events, represented by the 232 paragraphs following these rules, to determine the occurrences and outcomes of the journey. The player goes from event to event as a result of his decisions and as a result of chance (i.e. the roll of a die or the instructions of a chart). In this way, a chain of events is formed that gives play a narrative quality not found in other games.