Big Deal Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Set up
• The Play
• Cash Cards
• Game End
• "Shark" Variant

Set up

The resource holders are placed into the board and filled with the resources (labour, space, energy and machinery).

The deck is adjusted according to this table, reducing the numbers of available shares in each company (including removing some companies altogether with fewer than 5 players) and also removing some of the cash cards:

• With 2-4 players use 8 Cash Cards
• With 5 players use 10 Cash Cards
• With 6 players use all Cash Cards

The deck is then shuffled and split in two. Three Game Over cards are added to one half and four to the other half, each half is reshuffled and then the half with just three Game Over cards is placed on top of the other half (to ensure a reasonable game length). Each player is then dealt 5 cards.

If any player receives a Game Over card they place it in the space on the board and replace it. During the game, whenever a Game Over card appears on the top of the pile it is immediately turned over and added to the field on the board. If it is the last one then the game ends immediately. The current player does not have a turn and must hand back the card that he just picked up. He receives no income for this lost turn.

With 2-4 players the first player is given $1000 million and then, in sequence round the table, each player is given $1000 million plus $150 million for each player preceding him in the sqeuence. With 5 or 6 players the start player is given $1400 million and each successive player is awarded $150 million more than the player before him.

Board areas: Draw pile, Discard, "Game Over" Spaces, Shares pool, Bank.

The Play

On his turn a player must first pick up the top card from the deck, then claim any income from his companies and finally he can carry out any number of optional actions in any order from the following. At the end of his turn, a player can have at most 5 cards in his hand - any excess will be removed at random from his hand by the next player and discarded (into the waste heap).

Income is calculated by summing the green numbers on the shares for the companies owned by the player. The number of shares is irrelevant in this calculation - each company pays one payment of the amount shown in green.

The optional additional actions are listed below. They can be performed in any order, repeatedly and without restriction, except for the constraint on purchase and sale of resources.

1. A player can buy and sell resources. There is a limit of three resources (in total, not per colour) on buying and a separate limit of three on selling. These purchases and sales can be mixed between the resources. The purchase and sales are always at the price indicated in the next slot on the appropriate resource wheel.

2. A player can buy and sell shares from the bank. There is no limit on the number of such sales or purchases. All purchases and sales of shares are at the price indicated in white on the share being bought or sold. The available shares are stored in the centre of the board, face up. They are distinct from the waste pile (kept next to the draw pile).

3. A player may start a new company. To do this the player must have at least 2 shares of the company in his hand and sufficient resources of the correct types (indicated on the company shares). Only one set of resources is required, regardless of the number of shares used to form the company. The shares are placed next to the company alongside the appropriate field on the topmost share.

4. A player may add new shares from his hand to an existing company he owns, or withdraw shares from a company back into his hand. A company must always have at least two shares to remain open. A player can completely close a company by taking all its shares back into his hand. The resources stay with the player and may be reallocated or simply stored or sold off (subject to the trading limits on resources).

5. A player may sell a company off to the bank. The player receives the white value plus $50 million per share for the sale. So a company with white value $150 million in which the player has 3 shares will earn $600 million as its sale value. The resources stay with the player and may be reallocated, kept unused or sold (subject to trading limits). In this case the shares are discarded to the waste heap and are not available for repurchase.

6. A player may split a company (in order to double the income from it). Each arm must have its own set of resources and must have at least two shares. The companies are then treated as entirely separate groups.

7. A player may make a hostile takeover attempt. To do this the player must play one or more shares of a company owned by another player and then make an offer for the shares. The offer price must be at least the white value of the company shares and is a per share offer. The current owner can make a counter offer to buy in the challenger's shares. The defender can only use cash currently in his hand to make this counter offer. The attacker may offer more than he has in cash, but if he is called on to honour his bid then he must realise assets to meet the costs if necessary. If he has not got enough to do so, then he forfeits the share(s) he used to challenge to the defender and all cash he had before the failed attempt to the bank. The offers and counter offers can escalate until one or other player drops out. Bids must rise in multiples of $50 million, but are otherwise unconstrained. If the defender wins the bidding then he purchases the share(s) from the attacker and adds them to the company or to his hand (provided he does not exceed the 5 card hand-limit). If the attacker wins then he pays for the shares (to the defender) and receives them. The defender keeps the resources, so the attacker must supply his own set of resources if he wishes to open the company. The attacker may sell the shares immediately to the bank for the usual white price plus $50 million per share (even if he does not have the resources to open it). If he does open the company then he can claim a special income from it at the end of his turn.

Note in the source translation: It is not clear in the rules, but it seems likely that if the attacker splits the company taken over in this way then only one income allowance can be claimed from it. It is also unclear whether the bonus income payment is received if the player first takes the shares into his hand and then subsequently, in the same turn, reopens it. This could be important if, for example, the player wishes to open the company, remove some shares from it into his hand, sell off the rest to the bank, and then reopen what is left. It is also unclear whether a player could carry out this manoeuvre if he did not have the resources required to open the company (since he would normally be allowed to sell the shares to the bank without the resources, can he sell a proportion of them and keep the rest?).

Translator's proposed interpretation: For what it's worth, I propose the following interpretations: a player will receive payment from this company provided that he has at least one branch of it open at the end of his turn, regardless of where these shares come from. In principle, he could takeover two branches of the same company, either from the same player or from different players and I suggest that he should claim the income from as many branches as he took over during his turn, regardless of whether the branches remained open throughout his turn. Similarly, I favour a liberal interpretation of the selling of shares to the bank - a player can sell some shares to the bank even if he hasn't got the resources to open the company immediately. My reasoning is that this special income is intended to give a new owner some protection from an immediate new takeover attempt (he is likely to have spent a large part of his cash in the takeover, so is exposed to new threats). The threat remains unless the player sells the company off or takes it into his hand, so in all other cases he should receive the payment. The other case is less clear and my proposal is arbitrary, but favours more aggressive takeover attempts (since a player can realise some of the shares he acquires in order to purchase resources to start up the rest).

Cash Cards

If a player picks up a cash card he may keep it and play it this turn or in a subsequent turn. A cash card can be used in two ways:

1. It can substitute for a share in a company during a hostile takeover (although only for the attacker). In this case, if the attacker wins the cash card is discarded and if the defender wins the cash card is discarded after it is purchased at the asking price from the attacker. The defender receives the value of the white price of the company for the discarded cash card in this case. More than one cash card can be used in the same takeover attempt, possibly mixed with real shares.

2. Alternatively, the player can demand a cash premium from up to two players. Each player he chooses must pay him $50 million for each share and each unassigned resource in front of the player (that is, in front of the player paying the premium). If the player hasn't got the money then he pays what cash he has and the outstanding amount is ignored.

Game End

At game end (when the last Game Over card is exposed) the players may sell all shares and resources (including shares in their hands) at $150 million back to the bank. The winner is then the player with the most cash.

Translator's note: The rules appear somewhat ambiguous, but I believe that the resources sold in this way include both assigned and unassigned resources. Discussion reported on rec.games.board suggests that this is the intention of the designers.

"Shark" Variant

For old hands the following variations are proposed: keep money secret and increase the share bonus on companies sold to the bank to $100 million per share. Also increase the premium claimed using a cash card to $100 million per share and unassigned resource.