Game: Filthy Rich

Thread: Re: User Review

DuckAndCower — 2008-10-17T14:09:28+00:00

You pay taxes for every 0 rolled. Changing this takes away some of the strategy, and probably explains why people find it too easy to acquire 3 luxuries quickly in the 2-player game (luxuries are taxed, but provide no benefit. Buying them when you're low on cash generation is risky when you're taxed for every 0).

Thread: Re: A Rule Change from Richard Garfield

cerulean — 2008-05-29T13:18:18+00:00

Indeed, a good tactical play is to make an opponent pay up when they're short on cash, thus forcing them to liquidate businesses.

Thread: Re: Some recommended variants (from a GeekList).

Zimeon — 2007-09-28T14:16:57+00:00

Adding the choose page on a 6 was a good idea, I'm going to try that.

I solved the luxury-problem with separating the luxury cards in 5 stacks, and counted them as 1-5 luxury points. Might seem like a flat solution, but it worked. We play to 4 or 5 points. Can't remember exacty how many luxury cards there were, but I think we divided the luxury cards like the 3 cheapest being 1 point, the next 3 being 2 points, and so on. In the 4 point stack there were 2 cards, and the space shuttle was alone 5 points.

This didn't encourage quick luxury buying in the sae way (although people wanted to buy the taxfree one) but the game is still enjoyable with this system.

Thread: A Rule Change from Richard Garfield

NickDanger42 — 2007-02-19T18:51:26+00:00

At Origins 2005 I was lucky enough to play Richard Garfield. Before we started he mentioned a rule error. The 'Selling Businesses' section implies that you cannot sell any businesses when a '0' is not rolled. Richard says that is incorrect, you can sell them at most anytime. The only time when you can’t would be when a card is played against a specific business.
Primarily, this avoids an opponent playing a card which would force a payment that a player doesn't have the money for, and thus eliminating them from the game.

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cleonhard — 2007-02-08T05:22:26+00:00

box back

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cleonhard — 2007-02-08T05:19:29+00:00

sample action cards

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cleonhard — 2007-02-08T05:19:00+00:00

sample asset cards

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cleonhard — 2007-02-08T05:18:26+00:00

sample sign cards

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cleonhard — 2007-02-08T05:17:51+00:00

sample luxury cards

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cleonhard — 2007-02-07T05:25:33+00:00

scan of box

Thread: variant on auctions

psyche_athanatos — 2006-03-25T16:38:07+00:00

I just got the game yesterday. During our second playing, when for the first time one of our players was about to be eliminated, we came up with a new rule for auctions. Instead of the remaining players paying the auction money to the bank, the player who used to own the luxury gets the money. This keeps him in the game, which IMO is a real benefit. Plus, it just seems to make more sense; why couldn't someone sell their personal jet to pay for unexpected business expenses? We also played that you could just discard the luxury back into the pile to avoid paying the tax on it (if what people were offering in the auction was shamelessly low). Maybe some kind of compensation even for the discard would be nice, in the same way as you can sell back businesses for $2. Either $1 or $2 for a returned luxury might work. Any thoughts on this?

Thread: Re: General Comment

psyche_athanatos — 2006-03-25T16:28:53+00:00

I like these ideas. If removing the really cheap luxuries, maybe only leaving the seven (with its two tax) would work. It would still be a great card to buy for your third, but someone would probably bite the bullet and take it by that point.

Thread: Re: General Comment

psyche_athanatos — 2006-03-25T16:26:09+00:00

This is an interesting idea, and it sounds like it could really solve the problem of games ending too quickly. The only possible problem I see with it is that if a really bad card was on the top, the game might stall. If the top card were the space shuttle, I could even see a situation arising where no one was willing to buy it EVER, not only because it would cost so much but because then you'd be stuck with that huge tax and an almost certain loss. Maybe if only the mid-level luxuries were used this might work.

Thread: Re: Some recommended variants (from a GeekList).

psyche_athanatos — 2006-03-25T16:19:12+00:00

I love some of these "fixes". I bought the game yesterday and we managed to get three sessions in. The first was okay, but ended very quickly due to one player buying up three cheap luxuries right away while the others were still trying to establish income. The second game had the opposite problem. We were taxed severely--both because players were buying luxuries before they should have (due to previous game) and because of the dice--and we ended up with just a few dollars each and all our businesses sold. Actually, there was one business on the board: the military recruiter! Oh, another player had the Yakuza loan (and about two dollars left), so this gives you an idea of how poorly we were doing. I thought the whole thing was outrageously funny--that in a game called "Filthy Rich" we were barely able to scrape by each turn. We ended up scrapping the game and starting another. This last game played very nicely, but the end seemed to come too soon. We only had three players, so the cheap luxuries were not spread out very well--this was emphasized by the fact that one player couldn't buy any luxuries at all--so the winner was able to win fairly cheaply (though not so much as in the first game). We declared him the winner, but decided to play to four luxuries. This extended the game a great deal, which some might not like, but it made it much more interesting for us, as the last place player actually came back from behind to win. Needing four luxuries meant that some expensive ones had to be purchased, and this meant that a few lucky rolls wouldn't end the game immediately.

I hadn't thought of just limiting the cards randomly, but it makes perfect sense and we might try it. This has the added advantage of making the space shuttle a possible buy (though its taxes don't really make sense--who would buy it except if needed for an immediate win). This might even be better than increasing the number of required luxuries because of the problem of taxes on three or four luxuries.

Limiting the hits on the Tic Toc spot is a good idea, as the card is probably too strong anyway. Limiting taxes sounds reasonable, too, though this only came up once in our three games. I kind of like how taxes punish rapid expansion, but two tax rolls in one turn is crippling and has a good chance of knocking people out completely (which reduces the fun IMO).

I also like your idea of choosing your own page number on a six. This adds a nice bit of strategy on choosing the best pages (tied with luck, of course). But it also helps keep the pages moving around more. As it is, there's only a 50% chance of the page changing, and we spent practically our whole first game on pages one and three (never even touching four). A great part of this game is in the interaction among the different levels, and if you get stuck in one place you lose that.

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Keng Ho — 2005-08-09T12:36:21+00:00

Money and dice

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Keng Ho — 2005-08-09T12:36:21+00:00

Luxury cards

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Keng Ho — 2005-08-09T12:36:20+00:00

Signboard cards

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Keng Ho — 2005-08-09T12:36:19+00:00

Action, Business and Asset cards

Thread: Some recommended variants (from a GeekList).

disclamer — 2004-10-09T15:23:02+00:00

Already plays well, but some suggested fixes:

Interesting game mechanics (the "board" is a ring binder containing 4 CCG card sheets). Objective: Get rich and buy luxuries; the first player to buy three luxuries wins the game. Players launch business by placing business signs in the numbered card sleeves of the binder and roll dice to determine income (and taxes) for launched businesses. Small amounts of money can also be made by playing action and asset cards. Works great for 2 and is a lot of fun. With two players, the playing time is shorter than in the multiplayer version; one game takes about 30 minutes.

[Stefanie Kethers, '99]
A slightly-flawed multiplayer game that is actually quite terrific for two. But with fixes. We recently played it four times with these fixes:

ignore multiple taxation rolls in the same turn. If you roll 4 dice and get 3 "10"s, you only get one taxation.
Tic Toc cannot get multiple hits before it boomerangs. It only pays income once, even if it is hit more than once.
Remove the $6 Luxury. Shuffle the others. Draw 6 at random for game use. Set the others aside.
For games 2 through 4 we added this:

Play to 4 Luxuries instead of 3. Draw 8 at random instead of 6.
For games 3 and 4 were tried these:

Draft at the beginning. Take one deed from every company and go around the table Settlers style, once clockwise, then counterclockwise starting from the last player, letting every player draft two companies. Then shuffle the unclaimed deeds in with the rest of the deck and deal three more cards to everybody.
When you roll the d6 to change pages... 1-4: go to that page number, 5: stay on the same page, 6: roller's choice!
Separate the business deeds into its own pile. A player can then draw two cards at the end of his turn from either the business or non-business pile, or one from each. After drafting two businesses in the beginning, fill your hand with 3 non-business cards.
Every one of these fixes worked GREAT. The games were all quite fun, and not one of 'em was a runaway, though again, a few of them felt like they were going to be runaways. These were all 2-player games, though I don't think a three or four player game would be any less fun, and would surely benefit from ALL of these fixes. At least the "global" ones anyway (the fixes we used for all four games). I definitely went from wanting to like this to actually liking it - especially as a two-player game.

[Dave Arnott, '99]

Thread: Session Report

daw65 — 2004-09-02T23:14:03+00:00

I was pretty much the last to arrive (and I thought I had made good time). We weren't sure if Rich was going to make it (he had said earlier he was maybe 50% likely), so we got out a pretty quick game for starters, Filthy Rich.

Since this was new to everyone but Sterling, we started with a rules explanation, and then began a "practice turn". Sterling took the first turn, and bought the first building, putting its three card billboard on Page 1. Carrie next built a two-card billboard on the same page, and then taxes came due. Carrie could pay, but Sterling, having not earned anything from his billboard, was forced to sell his business in order to pay taxes. Well, these two players' turns were illustrative enough that we ended up just finishing this out as the game, rather than restarting after "practice".

Alice began by playing aggressively, taking a loan for 10 and then buying luxuries. She quickly had two luxuries, but very few buildings (the Squat and Gobble, for one, and the Knight Errant Military Recruiter). The rest of us played less aggressively, to varying degrees. Dave and Jim both built a few different buildings -- Dave had a card each on pages 2 and 4. Jim had a few different buildings on page 1, including Chapter XI Bookstore, which, in location 8, would turn out to play a major role in the game.

The dice rolls to determine which billboards were "hit" were pretty consistent. The Columbus Travel Agency wound up paying Carrie quite often, as 2 or 3 came up quite a bit. It only paid $2 per hit, though, so Carrie couldn't do too much with her earnings. But the number 8 was extremely popular, and Jim was able to earn quite a bit of money ($6 per hit) from that bookstore. With that money he was able to buy his first luxury, and build more and more buildings to the point where he had six in all.

Of course, all these buildings meant that Jim had a pretty good tax burden, and when they came up he had to shell out $9 each time. But he had the income that let him do that. Dave's holdings were all pretty low in taxation requirements. But Sterling and Carrie both had to sell off a business at one point to pay taxes, and Alice -- poor Alice wound up selling all of her businesses at one point to pay taxes, which meant that her earning potential was much lower from then on. Ultimately, when the next tax time arrived, Alice was just unable to pay, and ended up going bankrupt.

Well, once that happened, her two luxuries went up for auction. Jim and Dave were the only ones who could afford the luxuries, so they ended up splitting them. At this point Dave had one luxury, but Jim had two. So the next step was to try to deny Jim income so he couldn't buy his third. A couple of different times Dave built the Tic Tac Toe Casino's board to cover Jim's Chapter XI Bookstore, but the Casino is such that whenever it is hit, it pays big and then leaves the board to return to its owner's hand. And sure enough, it was hit twice on one turn, paying Dave $14 for the business. But then it also uncovered the bookstore again. And more 8s were rolled, this time paying Jim handsomely. By the time it was his turn, Jim had more than enough to buy his third luxury, and win the game.

Thread: Re:User Review

shadowkeeper — 2003-09-17T13:33:21+00:00

Richard Garfield is sort of a George Lucus of games. Like Star Wars, "Magic: The Gathering" isn't considered to be a masterpiece, but it's is undeniably brilliant, met with vast commercial success, and revolutionized an entire industry. But just because these men are geniuses doesn't mean you can't be disappointed with one of their offerings. (Raise your hand if you're a fan of "Willow". And what usually prompts this disappointment is not that they fail, but that they fall just short of succeeding.

Filthy Rich, a new family board game from Wizards of the Coast, actually has quite a bit going for it, and the central mechanism shows that inventive spark that put Garfield at the top of his (ahem) game. Players are entrepreneurs, all setting up shop in the same narrow alley. A card game at heart, players purchase business and play various special cards, which will bring cash into their coffers or woe onto their rivals. When opening a new business, a player receives a sign for his new store, which he may then hang in the alley. The game (which bills itself as "A 3-D Game of Capitalism" has a unique feature, wherein players may hang their banners in one of four layers, which mimics the depth of an alleyway: banners hung in the first layer may obscure banners hung in the third layer, just as a large sign in the entrance of an alley might block for view signs deeper in the alley. Since revenue in Filthy Rich is largely dependant on the visibility of your sign, the ability to block other's banners (and the threat of having you own sign eclipsed) is an intriguing premise around which to build a game.

But some of the other elements undermine as much as contribute to game's basic framework. In each game I have played, at least one player has found himself inextricably "in the hole", so to speak: stuck in last place with no hope of a comeback. This might be acceptable in a "gamers game" like Intrige, but in a family game it is inexcusable, as no one's going to be having fun when Lil' Timmy is doomed to wallow in defeat for the duration of the contest. But even in gaming circles, the "runaway loser" problem sticks out, as winding up "in the hole" can be as much a result of bad luck as poor choices.

A few house rules have been proposed to "fix" Filthy Rich - and, in my experience, they do improve the game - but, of course, it's not the job of the player to design the game. Filthy Rich is not bad, but it certainly falls short of it's potential. With the novel and enjoyable "3-D" aspect, a really nifty game could have resulted. Unfortunately, Filthy Rich is not quite it.

Thread: User Review

TomVasel — 2003-07-09T18:08:54+00:00

Filthy Rich, the “3-D game of capitalism” is a unique game for several reasons. One, it is one of the lesser-known games of Richard Garfield, creator of Magic the Gathering. Another is that it is the only game I know of that uses a notebook with plastic card pages as its board. The name first caught my attention, but when I purchased the game and opened it up, I was quite intrigued by the concepts used.

So is Filthy Rich worth it? The short answer is that yes, it’s a fun, unique game. There is a good dose of luck involved, and some variants should be used, but it’s a very fun, interesting game. Now for my usual longer blurb……

First, a short description of game play….

The notebook is opened up and put in the table in front of all the players. There are four plastic card sheets (each can hold nine cards) that overlay each other. Numbers one through nine are printed on the back cover and are visible under each card slot on the pages. The pages are also numbered – one through four, with four being the first page, going backwards to one. The pages are turned so that the number one page (the last page) is showing. Each player is given $10 and is dealt five cards from a deck. Two other decks, one consisting of business signs, and another of luxuries, are placed to the side. These decks are not shuffled – as players can freely look through them. One player takes his turn first, with the rest following clockwise.

On his turn, a player has the option of buying a luxury. (These cards are necessary to win the game.) Luxuries vary in price, and most have little dollar signs on them, showing their tax status. Then a player can take two actions with the cards in their hands. They can play a card, following the instructions on it, and/or they can “sell” a card (discarding it) to the bank for $1. If they play an “action” card, the instructions on it are immediately followed, and it is discarded. Action cards usually help get the player more money or hurt other players, usually causing them to lose money. The player can also play an “asset” card. This card has a price at the top that must be paid to put it in play. However, these cards usually provide very good benefits to the owner and stay in front of the owner for the remainder of the game (usually). An example of an asset card is Business Insurance (cost $3) – Whenever a 0 is rolled on a business die, you collect $1 from the bank. The third kind of card that can be played is the most important – the business cards. These cards also have a cost at the top of them that is required if they are to be played. Each business card has matching sign card(s) in the sign card deck. These card(s) are taken out and slid into slots in the notebook of the owners choosing. Some signs are made up of multiple cards, so therefore use more than one slot. If a player is putting a sign on a page that covers up part or all of a sign of another player on a lower page, they must pay a “covering fee” of $2 per card to that player.

After a player takes their two actions, they roll dice. First, they roll a number of 10-sided dice equal to the page number that they are currently on. Every number that is rolled is checked. If the number corresponds to a sign that is in that slot, then that business is “hit”. The player who owns the business checks their business card that corresponds with that business and follows the instructions for when that business is “hit” (usually receive money.) If a “0” is rolled on the die, however, all players must pay taxes. Each player owes taxes based on the amount of dollar signs on the cards they own (on their assets, business cards, and luxuries). If the players cannot pay the money they owe, they are out of the game! After rolling these 10-sided “business” dice, the player rolls a six-sided dice. On a 1-4, the player turns to the same page number. On a 5 or 6, however, the page stays the same. The player then draws 2 cards to bring their hand back up to five, and passes play to the next player.

Before their turn, and whenever taxes are due, a player may sell their businesses to get money. They receive $2 for each card of the business sign. Whenever a player is knocked out of the game, all their luxuries are auctioned off. Whenever a player gets three luxuries, they win the game!

Some comments on the game:

1). Components: The components for this game are of very high quality. The notebook is the main focus of the game, and is a good quality one, with nice artwork on it. The rules for the game are printed in the inside cover of the rulebook – making it very easy to refer to the rules when playing the game. The plastic card sheets are Ultra Pro brand, which I remember well from my childhood as the ultimate card protectors. It’s very easy to slip the cards in and out, with no worries about ripping the pages or cards. The cards are of fairly good quality. The sign cards have incredibly good artwork on them, and the luxury cards also have a humorous cartoon style of artwork on them. All the cards are well designed, and are easy to distinguish and read. The money that comes with the game is typical paper money that comes with many games (think Monopoly). I would rather use coins, but it doesn’t really make much of a difference. The dice are nice, with the business dice being white with black numbers – making them extremely easy to read. The box is square and fairly thin. It holds all the components well, and easily fits on a bookshelf. It is covered with some more nice artwork.

2). Humor: The signs are very funny. Even after multiple playings, they still elicit laughter. Businesses like Sven’s Swedish Tacos, “with the world’s only lutefisk tacos”, and Nobody Shops At Shorty’s – “You don’t want it, we don’t got it!”. The humor is also reflected in the pictures on other cards and in some of the text.

3). Visual: The game looks really good on the table. The effect of looking through the plastic pages, and how the signs cover each other up is very nice. Mr. Garfield stated that he got the idea when in Hong Kong, looking at all the signs. I live in Korea, and it certainly is an accurate portrayal of an oriental street. The idea of rolling a die to see which businesses earn money is faintly reminiscent of Settlers of Catan, but only slightly.

4). Luck and Strategy: …which brings us to luck in the game. When drawing cards and when rolling the dice, there is a lot of luck. A player can place a lot of businesses, but never have the dice rolled that give them any money. This may frustrate a lot of people, but we found the luck enjoyable. The game has such a lighthearted atmosphere that it doesn’t matter too much, anyway. There is a good bit of strategy in the game, however. Choosing which businesses to play (many of them have special abilities), whether to cover up an opponent or not, which page to place your signs on, when and which luxuries to buy – all these bring a good bit of strategy to the game.

5). Luxuries: The luxuries are priced at extremely variable prices. The cheapest – the personal trainer - is $6, while the most expensive – the space shuttle – is $45. In a two or three-player game, some have complained that it’s too easy for one person to quickly buy up the cheaper luxuries and win the game in too quick of a time. Some have suggested a variant of taking out the cheapest luxuries from some games. I haven’t found it to be too big of a problem, myself.

6). Taxes: The rules seem unclear as to whether taxes are charged for every “0” rolled, or just once per turn, no matter how many “0”’s are rolled. Most people interpret the rules to mean the former – but most people play the variant which is the latter, and I must say that it makes a big difference. Taxes can make or break a player, and are really annoying when they are rolled. They keep the game from progressing too fast, and if you played them for every “0” rolled, many players would go broke quickly and it would take away from the fun factor of the game.

7). Changing Pages: Another good variant suggested by some is that when a “6” is rolled, a player may choose which page to flip to. This reduces the luck a little, and adds a bit of strategy. I highly recommend playing with this variant. There is a swell of other variants available on the internet, and quite a few of them help make the game more fun. I would encourage you to check them all out.

8). Fun Factor: Filthy Rich is a lot of fun to play. Yes, you may play well, and still not win because of the luck involved, but everyone in our groups has a good time playing the game. The idea is so original, and the signs look so good, and the cards so humorous – that the game is very enjoyable to play!

So I have to recommend Filthy Rich. Players won’t leave the game, satisfied with their extremely innovative strategies – but they will leave laughing about the good time they had. (Except paying taxes). If you can find this game, printed by Wizards of the Coast in 1998 – I recommend you pick it up – if only for the fun, innovative ideas involved.

Tom Vasel

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2002-04-08T20:21:15+00:00

I first played this game many years back at Ted Cheatham's home outside
of Jackson, Mississippi. Although I admired the novel concept of using
a binder and card sheets in the game, the game really didn't grab me, so
I hadn't given it much thought since then. However, I did recently
receive a review copy, so I was determined/forced to bring the game to
the table for a few more playings.

Before playing, I did carefully study the volumes of proposed variants
as listed on Mark Jackson's Game Central website. We decided to
incorporate two main changes:

1) Only one 'zero' counts for tax purposes when rolling the business
dice; and

2) When rolling the die to turn the page, a '5' keeps the page in place
and a '6' allows the player to decide which page to turn to.

Both of these variants worked well. Sadly, however, we missed an
important rule and allowed a player to purchase more than one luxury on
a turn. This, along with a string of incredible luck wherein that
player received multiple hits on nearly every roll, caused the game to
end in lightning-quick fashion -- about 25 minutes.

For my next playing, I am toying with the idea of using the variant
wherein the luxuries valued at '6' & '7' are removed. My fear, however,
is that they may prolong the game beyond its welcoming point. Any
thoughts on this?

In any case, Ashton was the first to acquire a luxury, but Clyde proved
immensely successful with his 'Floating Craps' business. It hit on
EVERY turn. He would remove it, then re-purchase it on his next turn
and have it promptly hit again. He also experienced tremendous
patronage of his Scorpion business and only suffered the ill effects of
the scorpion section once. Clyde was flush with cash and was quickly
able to purchase the next three luxuries over the next two turns (we
misplayed this by allowing him to purchase two luxuries on one turn),
ending the game abruptly.

No one was taken by the game, feeling there was very little control and
a overly high luck factor. I'm going to try to play the game again over
the next week with my family and friends and hope it might have a better
reception in that environment. I'll also make sure to not miss that
luxury rule!

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I've read mixed reviews on this game, but I played it the other day at a gaming session and thought it was a lot of fun. It's not particularily deep, but who cares? There are two 'variants' that I've tried and would recommend.

1) No matter how many 0's are rolled, taxes are paid ONCE for that turn. Otherwise, it's just too easy for players to get wiped out of the game.

2) Depending on how many people are playing, consider removing some of the cheaper luxury cards from play. With a 2-player game, it's really pretty easy to snag three luxuries if you don't do SOMETHING to make it a bit tougher.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

To solve the 2-3 player problem (game too short), we found that shuffling the luxuries and only allowing the top one to be purchased made for an interesting variation. Not only does it force the game to take longer, since more money is required for a victory, but it also adds a new element to timing your purchase: I'm buying this 29 dollar luxury... but the next one might be the 8, and that'd give my opponent a win. No Money Down also becomes a power card here.

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Janet Ford writes:

Greg, Janet, Bernie, Alan and Julian played.

Greg was put out of the game early due to the dreaded tax, so he joined in on the Adel Verflichtet table, as they were just beginning.

Bernie was put out of the game a few rounds later after a card was played that had each player paying $3 to the bank, and Bernie could not afford this. His assets were thus auctioned. Julian bought the asset, and this completed a set of three for him, this asset being at a cheaper price than the next one for sale, and thus ended the game. Alan finished second, with not enough cash for a third luxury. Janet was third, with one luxury and getting poorer every turn!

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Doug writes:

This was a new Wizards of the Coast game, recently purchased by Roger. This is not so much a report, as some comments thrown together.

The game is interesting - basically you are trying to make a lot of money with which to acquire "luxuries". You need to acquire three luxuries to win the game. Luxuries get more expensive with each purchase, so getting in early is ideal, but puts you in a dangerous position due to lack of funds.

You make money by opening companies. To open a company you purchase a deed cards (play it out of your hand and pay some cash) and slot an advertising billboard into a collectible card game folder - yes, one of those plastic sheets that holds 9 cards, in a three ring binder! There are four sheets in the binder, with 9 cards per sheet. Cash is earned by your business via the roll of a die, or several dice. Reading left to right, top to bottom across the folder sheet, a business pays off if you roll it's position number. A roll of zero means it's tax time you have to pay for businesses or luxuries held.

The spaces in the folder quickly fill up, and as pages are turned businesses on lower sheets get covered up, meaning a die roll in that position will pay the business you can see, not the ones lower down. This is simple, clever and quirky. There are a bunch of action cards to make things spicy, the business names are very funny, and the easy game play sucks you in.

Yes, I enjoyed it! Such a simple idea and it seems to work well. There appeared to be tactics and strategy there - especially on what level to place a business. A "four card" business on level four would be a killer combination, due to the four die rolls. My wallet was getting the familiar tingle during the game.

We played with the rules as written, but aborted before two rounds were complete due to every player being on the verge of bankruptcy. I suspect a bit of this was self inflicted as the "luxury" cards were purchased with the initial $10 allocation of cash, leaving virtually no protection from tax. Those tax rolls are killers.

Roger then explained that there is a variant flying around that if say four 0's are rolled, tax only hits your once, not four times. We agreed to begin the game again with this variant, and it worked. However, it appears that this adds considerable length to the game. Roger speculated that perhaps the 45 minute playing time took into account players being eliminated quite easily.

I'll let Roger chip in with some "what happened" talk, as it's his game. The general consensus around the table was "clever".

As an aside - just about every game I own that comes with 10 sided dice contains instructions on how to interpret the '0' face. I've never seen a game with '10' on the dice with rules explaining it's a '0'!! It has to be a joke!.

Initial rating: 7

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Billabong Report: 30th May 2000

Present: Alan, David, Karen, Craig, Torben Morgensen, Janet, Doug, Debbie, Steve

Well, I always suspected they breed them tough in Denmark. As Janet and I arrived tonight, in the midst of a severe cold snap in Melbourne, we spied Karen and Craig huddled in their car, as well as David and Alan in another car. And then there was Torben, standing by the door holding a bicycle helmut!

Torben is from Denmark, working in Melbourne for 3 months. This hardy Copenhagener had cycled out from Melbourne to Chadstone, a distance of 20km, in the dark and wet conditions to join us at Billabong. What's more, he was cycling back again at 11pm! I now look on Mik Svellov with new found respect.

Debbie, Karen, Doug, Steve, Alan

We played Karen's special "Fully Imported from Seattle" copy of this game. This is a game that has only hit the table once or twice at Billabong, and it left lingering memories of dreaded tax die rolls, trying to run businesses on shoestring budgets, and going bankrupt with the greatest of ease.

This game was not really any different, but it was a lot of fun. We played with the now mandatory variant that only the first tax die roll of '0' hits - any subsequent die rolls are not counted. In fact this is almost too severe, as we lost a couple of players during the game.

Karen began very strongly - purchasing an early luxury, establishing a couple of businesses which hit often. Alan invested in Love Shack Videos, Debbie into the Shmoo hut. The trouble was they were on page 1, and were instantly covered when the pages got flipped over. Steve started the Stern Smith and Bubba business, Doug went into Spider Web Marketing.

Steve's and Doug's business, along with the Floating Craps gambling den pretty much decided the game. Steve built Stern Smith and Bubba up to a level five business, before losing it to Doug via a hostile takeover card. Steve had earlier lost another business to Debbie via the same card, so it wasn't a great game for Steve.

Karen was the first to go, after a really strong start, a couple of tax rolls hit her hard. Finally, on her turn she hit Doug's Spider Web Marketing business twice (meaning she had to pay $6 to Doug), as well as another $2 to Doug as he was holding the Protection Racket asset. (Tip: that is a very handy card!). Doug picked up one of Karen's luxuries in the ensuing auction.

With Karen gone (and the rest of us feeling inwardly guilty) we ploughed on. Several more tax rolls saw us all go to the brink, but fought back from bankruptcy. Alan and Doug were alternating the play of the Floating Craps card which continued to hit often, three times hitting twice and paying out $14 - a fortune in this game!

Another tax roll and Debbie disappeared. She was just heading off to fetch a two player game to play with Karen, when Doug won the game. A string of incredibly lucky rolls had hit the Craps, Stern Smith and Bubba (4 times for $20) and the Spider Web Marketing. Doug found himself with $30 in his hand and managed to hold it to pick up two luxuries over two turns. It was almost a shock!

Scores:
Doug: 3 luxuries Alan: 1 Steve: 0 Debbie/Karen: bankrupt

Doug's rating: 6 .. one of those once a year games. A pity really, it just misses the mark, and a little more development would have worked wonders.