In TECH-BUBBLE, 3 to 6 players ride the technology market roller coaster at the turn of the 21st century as it surges and eventually plunges. The players represent various market sectors during the "Dot.Com Bubble". They make decisions to stay in the market and ride out the surge or get out before the bubble bursts. Timing and nerves of steel are everything. And along the way players can affect each other's investments and decisions by crafty play.
Due out October 2009
From the publisher, Rio Grande Games:
Seehausen am See. For many years, more and more people visit this idyllic village during the annual summer fest. In these three weeks, the breweries and beer gardens in the village make more money than during the rest of the year. So, you and your opponents become hardened businessmen, who rush to Seehausen am See to invest in the businesses there with an eye toward the large profits that come during the festival. During these three weeks each will invest in the businesses and try to get his people in management positions in the breweries and beer gardens where he owns stock. The players also work to increase the size of their favorite beer gardens so that they can earn more money. In the end, it is not the size of the beer gardens or who is in charge, but the amount of money in the players’ pockets...
Schwarzer Freitag is a stock trading game with a built-in bubble to explode. The players are buying shares on a growing stock market, but at one time in the game the prices will crash. The players try to find out the right time to sell their shares and buy gold and silver (these are the victory points), before the market crashes.
The actions of all players change the probability of the crash. When they start selling, the probability of the crash will get higher. If they only buy shares then the crash will come later.
To win the game, you have to have a close look at what the others do to be in the position to sell the highest share at the right time, to get the most money. But the silver/gold price will rise too, and you can also win by buying silver/gold early in the game.
This game is the first game in the Freitag-Projekt:
Freitag(Friday) is a game project started on Friday 24th of October in Essen. I, Friedemann Friese, will work on that project for the next Five years on every Friday. I will work Five, Fifteen,... minutes (In German twenty-five, thirty-five,.. starts with an F, too) up to Fifteen hours on that project, but only Fridays.
The game will be published in Five years on the Friday of Spiel '13 in Essen. It will not be shown on Wednesday or Thursday.
I have a blog (by now only in German) on my website, where I show my work on that project.
By now I really don't know what will happen, but I have a lot of time......
Now it happened that the first game is ready and I found a company for publishing (the company is very interested, but it is not totally sure by now)
I will add the new second game to the database.
This Sid Sackson classic has taken many different forms over the years depending on the publisher. Each player strategically invests in businesses, trying to retain a majority of stock. As the businesses grow with tile placements, they also start merging, giving the majority stockholders of the acquired business sizable bonuses, which can then be used to reinvest into other chains. All of the investors in the acquired company can then cash in their stocks for current value or trade them 2-for-1 for shares of the newer, larger business. The game is a race to acquire the greatest wealth.
Some versions of the 3M bookshelf edition included rules for a 2-player variant.
The original version is part of the 3M Bookshelf Series.
Theme
Players take the part of land owners, attempting to buy and then develop their land. Income is gained by other players visiting their properties and money is spent when they visit properties belonging to other players. When times get tough, players may have to mortgage their properties to raise cash for fines, taxes and other misfortunes.
Gameplay
On his turn, a player rolls two dice and moves that number of spaces around the board. If the player lands on an as-yet-unowned property, he has the opportunity to buy it and add it to his portfolio or allow the bank to auction it to the highest bidder. If a player owns all the spaces within a color group, he may then build houses and hotels on these spaces, generating even more income from opponents who land there. If he lands on a property owned by another player, he must pay that player rent according to the value of the land and any buildings on it. There are other places on the board which can not be bought, but instead require the player to draw a card and perform the action on the card, pay taxes, collect income, or even go to jail.
Goal
The goal of the game is to be the last player remaining with any money.
Cultural impact on rules
Monopoly is unusual in that the game has official, printed rules, but most players learn how to play from others, never actually learning the correct way to play. This has led to the canonization of a number of house rules that make the game more palatable to children (and sore losers) but harm the gameplay by preventing players from going bankrupt or slowing down the rate of property acquisition. One common house rule has players put any money paid to the bank in the center of the board, which jackpot a player may earn by landing on Free Parking. This prevents the game from removing money from play, and since players collect $200 each time they pass Go, this results in ever-increasing bankrolls and players surviving rents that should have bankrupted them. Another house rule allows players to take "loans" from the bank instead of going bankrupt, which means the game will never end. Some house rules arise out of ignorance rather than attempts to improve the game. For instance, many players don't know that properties landed on but left unbought go up for auction, and even some that know to auction don't know that the bidding starts at $1, meaning a player may pay well below the listed price for an auctioned property.
Background
In the USA in 1933, Charles Darrow devised Monopoly based on an earlier game by Elizabeth J. Magie. The patent was filed 31st August 1935 while the game was on sale in America. Based on an earlier game, The Landlord's Game, it was at first rejected by Parker Bros., as being too complicated to be a success. How wrong could they be! It came to the UK in 1936, made under licence by Waddingtons. Darrow died in 1967 having realised he had developed one of the most successful board games of all times. It was awarded as Game of the Century by the TRA (Toy Retailers Association).
Monopoly was patented in 1935 by Charles Darrow and released by Parker Brothers. The game was actually one of a number of variants in existence at the time, all of which date back to an earlier, 1904 game by Elizabeth J. Magie called The Landlord's Game. Magie was a proponent of the Single Tax put forth by famous author Henry George. The game was designed to show the evils of earning money from renting land (as it leads to the destitution of all but one player) and the virtues of the proposed Single Tax - players could choose to play under regular rules or alternate "Single Tax" rules.
The game didn't really go anywhere and Magie lost interest in it. Variations of the game evolved, however, and homemade versions traveled up and down the Atlantic coast and even as far west as Michigan and Texas, being developed all along the way. Eventually the game was noticed by Charles Darrow, who introduced it to the world in its current form.
Re-implements:
The Landlord's Game
Expanded by:
Official
Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-on
Monopoly Free Parking Mini Game
Monopoly Get Out of Jail Mini Game
Unofficial
Super Add-ons: Monopoly
Entrepreneur's Accessory to Monopoly
Game Spice: Monopoly Expansion
Mafiopoly
Monopoly: Mob Rule Expansion Deck
Final Fantasy Monopoly