Card Game

Trying to invest in the future? Read the stock reports, follow the trends, talk to valued advisors. Or chuck the whole thing and play Take Stock !

You are the power players. You can choose to make the prices rise as you purchase stocks in strong companies, or you can choose to crush the dreams of your opponents by freezing their accounts or crashing the market.

Remember, the one with the most at the end wins!

Each player collects stock certificates in five stocks, (Crispyflake Corn Cereal Co., Glittering Gems Ltd., Zeta-Chip Technology Ltd., Arctic Oil Drilling Co., and Movie Madness Distributors), that they hope will have a high price when the market closes. The goal of the game is to accumulate the highest score after four rounds of play.

Contents:

100 Cards
30 Tokens
1 Rulebook

There are 60 "share" cards (numbered 1-12 for each stock) representing a stock value if placed in the market, or representing a certificate of 1, 2 or 3 shares if placed in front of the player. There are 40 "market event" cards which affect the stock market in various ways: 3 stock splits, 1 stock crash and 1 insider trading for each stock; 4 stock audits; 3 stock freezes; 2 no market changes; 1 market upturn; 1 market downturn; 1 stock option gained; 1 stock option lost; 1 market crash; and 1 market closed. There are 30 tokens representing stock options allocated to the players at the beginning of the game.

The stock starter cards (the 1's) are placed in a column in the middle of the table to represent the stock market. The value of each stock is represented by the highest number in each row. During each round, players may choose to increase the value of a particular stock by playing a card from their hand onto the corresponding row on the table.

Players may also choose to place cards from their hand onto the table in front of them, to represent shares acquired for a particular stock.

Market events may also be played to affect the market prices.

At the end of each round, options may be exercised to buy up extra shares, after the market has closed. Each player's score is calculated by multiplying the closing price of each stock with the number of shares held for that stock.

The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of four rounds.

In The Ares Project, 2-4 players are competing to see which of their factions will lead mankind into the future. Each faction has its own deck of cards, buildings, upgrades, attacks, special powers, and a screen behind which a player will play cards. Your opponents do not know what you are building. When a player lays down an attack card, he chooses an opponent, the players drop their screens, and they battle for control of the Frontier, i.e. the center of the table. Whoever controls the Frontier scores points and also has the ability to attack player bases directly. Eliminate your opponent to win instantly, or have the most points when the game ends.

Railroad Barons belongs to the family of 18xx games, but raised to the meta-level. Individual companies are no longer the focus, but large holding companies which add more and more new railways to their portfolios. At this abstract level there is no need for the game board and route tiles used in traditional 18xx games.

The two players buy and sell stock in holding companies, and the holding companies they control buy railways to generate revenue. Corner the market in the best companies, and exploit the weaker companies, to edge out your opponent and gain any possible relative advantage.

Like other 18xx games, there are no random elements, merely a battle of wits between two ambitious financiers. Assets that are profitable in the early game rapidly become obsolete, so you must always plan ahead for future growth and investment. Growth or Bust!

This game is purely about the money, as there is no map or track tiles!

Cards and tokens are used to represent:

5 Holdings (with a Director's share of 40% plus one share each of 30%, 20%, and 10%)
Railroad companies (with a fixed income) which become obsolete as more modern Railroads come into play.
5 private Investor cards (similar to the 18xx Private companies)

From the publisher, Playroom Entertainment:

In Space Shuffle, form Solar Systems and collect points in a game that is truly out of this world! As you place the planets in their correct galactic order, you will gain points depending on the planet's color and the other colors within that Solar System. But keep your eye towards the sky, as other players will also score points if they are the Space Commander of that certain color. Be the player that has the most points after 5 Solar Systems have been completed and you will get to take a walk on the moon while your opponents are left star-gazing!

from the Game Report:

The game is played in a series of rounds during which each person plays a card to the center of the table. Usually these cards will fall into one of four Suits: Gold, Courtiers, Provinces and Musketeers. The cards feature ranks from 1-7, and after all cards have been played the person who played the highest card in each Suit collects all the cards of that type. Captured cards are then placed into a person's "structure", which shows all the elements of a player's court. At the end of the game and at various points during play, a player scores points based on the value of the cards in his structure.