Стартап

Стартап Rulebook

Table of Contents

Setup and Preparation for the First Game

Look inside the box. It contains three decks of cards: Projects, Opportunities and Incidents. Shuffle each deck before starting.
Deal each player 3 Project cards and 3 Opportunity cards, face down. These are each player's starting ideas and contacts. Then give each player 10 coins, their starting savings.
Place your "Me" card in front of you, and help the other players do the same.
Place the active player marker in front of you.
Begin the first turn.

Victory

The player who reaches 27 coins of capital first wins.

Project Cards

A project is one of your ideas, which can be brought to life through hard work.

The project card has the following parts:

Feature icon - a purple ribbon with a white plus sign. If a project has this icon, features can be attached to it. Example: this project does not bring in steady income by itself, so you will need to look for ways to monetize it.
Work - the work needed to complete the project. When all the checkboxes are filled in, the project is complete. The example card needs two units of designer work and two units of developer work.
Deadline - the work must be finished within two weeks, that is, within two turns. If it is not finished in time, the project is considered failed. In the example, one person alone cannot finish the project in time.
One-time bonus - a bonus received once, after the project is completed.
Ongoing income - a project that brings in income every turn.
Incident trigger - when this project is completed, you must also draw an incident card.

In more detail:

Work - the amount and type of work needed to finish the project. For example, if a project needs two units of design and two units of development, you need a designer and a developer who will do the project together over two turns.
Deadline - the time after which the task counts as failed. Even if you have finished a project 99%, but did not meet the deadline, it is worthless and goes straight to the discard pile. One turn equals one week.
Reward - once you complete all the work on a project, it starts to generate profit. Sometimes this is a one-time reward, and sometimes it is a permanent source of income.

Three failed projects (projects not completed by their deadline) mean an immediate loss.

Opportunity Cards

Each opportunity card has two parts: a feature or game situation, and an employee. The card can be turned over and played as an employee.

A feature is marked with the feature-type icon in the corner of the card (a coin on a purple background). It is an addition to one of your already completed projects, and it earns an extra 1 coin of profit per turn. A feature may only be attached to projects that have the feature icon. Developing a feature works the same way as developing a project. Unlike a project, a feature has no deadline, but it cannot be done on its own, without your own project.
A game situation is an event that can happen to you or to a chosen player. Some situations are good for business (for example, your girlfriend left you, and you worked a lot), and some are bad (for example, a very important backup has disappeared).
If you play a card as an employee, the employee joins your team and starts working for 1 coin per turn.

An opportunity card can be played in only one of its two roles: as personnel, or as a feature or situation. If you hire a person to your team, the text on the second part of the card is ignored. If you play it as a feature, the employee on the card is also ignored.

A feature is placed under its project like this (figure caption: "Attach a feature under a project like this").

Employees are conveniently kept under your own card (figure caption: "It is convenient to account for employees like this"). The figure shows the employee cards stacked under the "Me" card, with specialty banners "Content", "Developer" and "Employees".

Me Card

Each player has a "Me" card. Its printed text is:

Offices: 3 people - 1; 5 people - 2; 7 people - 3. (These are the office costs per turn, given by headcount. See "How to pay the office?" below.)
Turn (summary of the turn):
1. The active player reveals a project, takes an opportunity card and reveals an incident card.
2. In turn, play opportunity cards and hire personnel and launch projects, then distribute work.
3. Pay salaries and rent, then receive profit.
Backup: a box with two checkboxes. See "What is a backup?" below.
Failures: a box with three checkboxes. Three failed projects (see Project Cards) mean an immediate loss.

Incident Cards

An incident is a sudden problem that affects all players.

The incident card has the following parts:

Description of the situation.
Condition - what happens to the players. In the example, you lose money.
Avoid - the possibility of avoiding a large loss for each player by pooling resources together.

Such incident cards stay on the table and act until the question is resolved, that is, until the "avoid" condition is fulfilled. Sometimes you must pool work rather than money.

Many incidents can be avoided with a small loss if the players can agree. On such incident cards there is an "avoid" field that contains, for example, the amount needed to remove the negative effect.

To try to avoid an incident: all players take a certain amount in their hands (or pretend to do so), and on the count of "three" they pour the contents of their fists onto the table. If the total amount obtained is equal to or greater than the amount on the card, the incident is cancelled.

Another type of incident does not happen instantly. It may lie on the table for several turns. A long incident is characterized by the phrase "until the question is resolved". Usually such cards are closed by work: work is distributed on the same principle as for a project.

Example: the "Licence?" incident. Description: "The office was checked for licensed software. Nothing was found." Condition: "You lose 5 coins in fines." Avoid: 3 coins.

Example: the "Projects bring no profit until the question is resolved" incident. Avoid: Management, with three checkboxes.

Turn

1. The Active Player Draws Cards

Reveals a project card and decides whether to take it into work. If not, the same decision is made by the other players clockwise. If no one takes the project into work, it goes to the discard pile.
Takes an opportunity card into hand, without showing it to the other players.
Reveals an incident card. All players are subject to the incident: each must either close the problem, or try to avoid the situation, or simply suffer the effect of the card.

On the first turn of the game this part of the turn is skipped.

2. Players Play Cards and Distribute Work

The active player may play one project card and one opportunity card.
Immediately after this, the player may distribute work.
The player adds one week to the deadline of each of their own projects.

This part of the turn is repeated for each player in turn, clockwise from the active player.

3. Costs and Income

At the end of the turn, each player pays the office rent, pays 1 coin for each employee regardless of whether that employee was busy in this turn (or fires them), and then receives profit from projects and features.

4. A New Active Player Is Designated

The active player marker passes to the next player clockwise, and a new turn begins. If at the end of a turn one player has capital of 27 coins, that player wins and the game ends.

How to Distribute Work?

Each member of your team, including you, produces one unit of work per turn.

You are a generalist and can work in any specialty. Hired employees work only within their own specialization. For example, a developer never takes on design, and a designer, happily, does not touch code.

Work can be distributed both to your own projects and to the projects of other players. Work may also be needed to implement features, to get rid of various problems, and to create a backup.

To distribute work, simply take a pencil and tick the appropriate checkboxes on the cards. Note whose work you are using and where, for example: "The designer works on our home site, the developer writes a utility, and I will also write content for the home site."

How to Fire Employees?

Each employee receives 1 coin at the end of the turn. If you fail to pay someone's salary, that person leaves, and their card goes to the discard pile.

In addition, you may fire any employee on your own turn by sending their card to the discard pile.

What to Do If an Employee Is Idle?

Suppose you have a designer, but there are no tasks that require design work. In this case the designer will be idle for the whole turn, but you must still pay their salary.

To keep a designer from being idle, you can use their work on the project of another player (by agreement with that player). Another option is to assign the employee to make a backup.

How to Pay the Office?

The office payment is the cost of your team's upkeep, which depends on the number of staff. As soon as the team grows, you need a larger office. The exact costs are listed on the "Me" cards.

Can You Push Competitors Out of the Market?

Yes. If you finish a project with the same name as another player's project, that player's project goes to the discard pile together with all its features.

If you like competition and big, long games with a large company, you can mix two editions and try playing in a harsh, turbulent market.

How to Earn Money?

First, while you have no employees, you work for some company yourself and save money. In this case you receive 1 coin of salary each turn. As soon as you hire your first person, you stop receiving this salary until the end of the game, regardless of how many employees you have, or even if you have none at all.
Second, you can make projects. Project profit is the main source of income for many startupers. Your own projects always bring deep moral satisfaction.
Third, you can sell your work, or the work of your team, to those whose projects are "on fire". The game has many tasks that can be solved only by a large team, so you will often have to negotiate actively. You can negotiate for money, for a share of the profit from a future project, for services ("I'll give you a designer, you give me a developer"), or on any other terms. Feel like an outsourcer.
You can also sell ideas: on your turn you may send a project card from your hand to the discard pile and receive 1 coin for it. You may do this only once per turn. It is not very profitable and it is always a pity, but it is completely painless.

What Is a Backup?

Normally, a backup copy of data is not needed at all. But as soon as something unpleasant happens, it becomes the most desirable thing in the world. A backup is a mini-project that is located on your "Me" card. If two units of work have been invested in it, the backup counts as existing. If the work on it is not finished or has not begun, the backup counts as absent.

Diplomacy

The game models a real business. You may negotiate about anything except passing cards from hand or from the table between players.

For example:

You can agree that another player will help you with your project in exchange for money, a promise of future help, and so on.
You can work on a project together with another player, agreeing to share its profit. The card stays with the player who launched the project into work, and that player receives the profit, then, if they wish, passes part of it on to the other participants.
You can lend money or simply ask for material help.
You can discuss together ways out of problematic situations.
If you want more realism, you can introduce an additional rule that all obligations have the force of a contract and must be fulfilled (or the one who breaks them pays a penalty).

In short, this part of the game is completely open to any combination.

Examples of Strategies

Safe start. Work "for someone else" and receive a salary until you launch your first project, which brings in regular profit. After that you can leave the company and switch fully to your own business. The advantage is that you start without stress and problems; the disadvantage is a very slow launch of your first project.

Group of enthusiasts. You can agree with a friend that the two of you will tackle a large project for a share of the profit. For a while you can work together, receiving salaries, then hire the people you need and quickly deliver the project. The method is good for speed, but it is bad because no one can guarantee to your friend that you will not cut the funding, for example, just before the end of the game.

Investor. Hire personnel quickly, launch projects into work, and hire other players to speed up the work as much as possible. This is a risky but very fast strategy for obtaining reliable sources of financing.

Of course, while playing Startup, you will quickly find dozens more possible ways for events to develop.