Business Rulebook

Overview

Source note: rules translation/summary by Peter Sarrett of Sid Sackson's Business, from BoardGameGeek (file 693). This is a short summary rather than a full publisher rulebook.

Designed by Sid Sackson Rules translation/summary by Peter Sarrett

Shuffle the cards and deal one face down to each month of the game board. The remaining three cards are set aside and not used in the game. Turn up the cards for January, February, and March.

Each player starts with 105 thousand: 3 10,000s, 1 25,000, and 1 50,000. Money is kept secretly by each player.

Put all shares (chips) into the bag, mix them up, and randomly pull out four shares for each player. Players display their shares publicly.

At the beginning of each month one player randomly draws several sets of shares from the bag and sets them in groups in the middle of the board:

2 players: 3+5 shares (2 groups) 3 players: 3+4+5 shares (3 groups) 4 players: 3+4+4+5 shares (4 groups) 5 players: 3+3+4+4+5 shares (5 groups) 6 players: 3+3+4+4+5+5 shares (6 groups)

When all groups of shares are on the market, each player secretly decides which group they're most interested in and how much they're willing to pay to get it. Each player secretly puts the amount of his bid in his hand. The minimum bid is 10,000. Once all players are ready, their bids are revealed.

The high bidder gets first choice of share groups, then the 2nd highest bidder, and so on. All bidders pay the amount of their bid to the bank.

In the case of a tie, tied bidders roll dice and choose groups in order from highest to lowest rolls (rerolling ties).

Each player decides in turn whether or not to sell some of his shares. That month's card determines the prices available for specific sets of shares. Shares can only be sold in those sets, but an unlimited number of each set may be sold by any players. Sold shares are returned to the bag, and the price is paid to the player from the bank.

No player may hold more than 10 shares at the end of any month. Anyone exceeding this limit must discard back down to 10, returning the extras of his choice to the bag.

At the end of the month the current month's card is discarded and the next face-down card is turned up.

In March, June, September and December the bank pays double the listed rates when players sell their shares. (Variant: The designer's original rules doubled the payouts in October and November and tripled them in December instead).

After December, the player with the most cash wins (leftover shares are worthless).