Playboss
Playboss Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Game Materials
- I. The Base Model
- Explanations (Base Model)
- II. The Expansion Steps
- Explanations (Expansion Steps)
- 1. Step: Free Market for Sales
- 2. Step: Competition during Purchasing
- 3. Step: Marketing Organization
- 4. Step: Taxation
- 5. Step: Various Game Goals
- 6. Step: Labor Market
Game Materials
- 1 game board
- 8 game pieces
- Play money and checks
- 1 die
- 8 Game Cards
- 30 Risk Cards
- 30 WEB Chips
- 20 Machines
- 40 Products
- 8 Computers
- 20 Workers
The instructions are divided into two parts. On the left side you will find the rules. On the right side are additional explanations.
I. The Base Model
Goal of the Game
Before the game, establish a fixed duration of time for playing the game. At the end of that time, whichever player can demonstrate the most profit, is the winner.
Preparation for Play
The board has spaces. The market is the area where all products are placed: distribute them across the dimples. When purchasing, the materials are removed from here; when selling, they are deposited here. The market prices are shown in the zones: this is how much each product costs that lies within this zone.
With less than 5 players fill only half (1/2) of the market with product. The zones from 150 Marks to 300 Marks remain empty.
Choose a Bank Director
The bank director runs the bank and ensures there is proper gameplay. If you have more than 6 players, the director will have more than enough to do and not also run his own business; have a non player then be bank director. If the bank director is running his own business, he must keep his personal account and funds separate from the bank funds.
The bank director distributes the following to each business manager (player): 1 factory property, 1 game piece, 10,000 Marks of starting capital (divided into 2x 500 Mark, 9x 1,000 Mark).
Important! After one trip around the board, that is, after the players cross the starting point again for the FIRST time, each player gets an additional 10,000 Marks. Every player will therefore be given a total of 20,000 Marks starting capital, though not all at once. Under no circumstance should players get more starting capital, as this would make the process of building a business too easy.
The risk cards are shuffled and placed, face down, in a stack next to the game board.
Now We Can Begin to Play
All game pieces are placed on the red square next to the start. Everyone rolls the die and whomever rolls the highest begins. Rolling a six does not allow the player to roll the die a second time. As soon as the player reaches a field they are unfamiliar with, have the bank director read that field's explanation aloud. In this way, all players will quickly learn the rules and meanings of the game fields.
The Red Decision Field
If a player lands on a red field, he can decide amount 5 possibilities. He may make only a single decision per red field. The decision choices are: Purchasing, Investing, Producing, Selling and do nothing.
1. Decision: Purchasing. Whomever lands on a red field and decides they want to pursue purchasing, can take as many products out of the market zone as they want and can afford, beginning with the lowest price zone, in which there is still product available. If a player still wants to buy more product, he must take it from the next higher priced zone, and eventually the zone priced higher than that and so on. The player must pay the indicated market price per product unit to the bank.
2. Decision: Investment. Pay 10,000 Marks to the bank. Receive a machine from the bank. Place the machine on the production floor such that the single roller is to the top. If needed, a player may apply for credit with the bank to purchase a machine up to a maximum credit of 5,000 Marks (see Credit).
Every player can buy or lease machines from other players, even if that player is not on a decision field. As a result of the delivery and setup time, a machine cannot produce anything until the turn after next (in 2 die rolls), that follows after the purchase or leasing (insofar as one is on a red field).
The usable lifespan of a machine is not infinite (see write-off).
3. Decision: Producing. With a machine, you can produce a single product per red field; with two machines you can produce two products, and so on. (In special cases, a single machine can produce two products – see "Efficiency Improvements.") Pay 1,000 Marks production costs, for each product produced, to the bank. Move the product from the raw material warehouse to the finished product warehouse.
4. Decision: Selling. Whomever has finished product, can sell these in any desirable quantity on the market: Place product in the empty dimples in the market zone on the board. Collect the ten-fold (10x) amount of money from the bank, as is indicated in the price zone into which the unit of finished product is placed. Always fill the highest price zone with newly produced product first, before you must then sell product into the lower priced zones.
5. Decision: Do Nothing. You have the option of not doing anything.
The Green WEB Field
Whichever player lands on a green field can pay 1,000 Marks to the bank and then collect a WEB-chip (WEB) in return. This expense is voluntary, that is, the player is not obligated to buy a WEB from the bank. A player stores the WEBs on their WEB area until such time as they are used.
As long as a player possesses some WEBs, he always has the following options at any time:
Important! One can only utilize ONE of the WEB options with the appropriate amount of WEB.
Efficiency Improvements (3 WEBs)
Give 3 WEBs back to the bank and rotate one of your machines so that the side with TWO rollers is facing UP. With this machine you can now produce 2 products per red field. One must, of course, also pay the production costs for two products at the point of production.
Advertising Campaigns (2 WEBs)
Give 2 WEBs back to the bank. If, upon landing on the next red field, one sells finished product, you will receive the NEXT HIGHER price with a maximum limit of 5,000 Marks per finished product. Insofar as you have agreed to free trade, no one can underbid you.
Computer Leasing (2 WEBs)
One can lease a computer with 2 WEBs for the duration of 1 year (one trip around the game board). The two WEBs are placed on the game board on that field that the player currently occupies.
After every trip around the board (each year), upon crossing the marked field, the bank collects the WEB markers and the player must again pay 2 WEBs as markers on the field or the player must return the computers.
Whomever possesses a computer must only pay one-half (1/2) of the production costs for a product, that is only 500 Marks per product. One can also buy a computer, rather than lease. The cost of purchase is 20,000 Marks and one can take out a line of credit up to 10,000 Marks on that.
Insurance (2 WEBs)
Whomever possesses 2 WEBs, is insured against accidents, machine failure, fire and water damage and other sources of damage (see instructions on the risk cards).
The Yellow Cost Field
You have the following choices:
- Sell all available finished products for ½ the market price.
- Produce on every machine; the production cost is then 3,000 Marks per product.
- Produce nothing and pay 1,000 Marks worth of idling costs per machine.
- Pay 1 WEB.
The Blue Risk Field
Here you encounter the business risks. Draw a risk card from the stack and follow the instructions on the card. Afterwards, put the card back on the bottom of the stack.
The White Write-off Field
Return a machine due to it reaching the end of its usable lifespan, without replacement. If you have a machine with double capacity (2 rollers facing up), it is sufficient to set such a machine back to single production capacity. If you possess 1 WEB, you may pay that to the bank instead and keep your machine.
The Start Field
Every time a player crosses the starting field, he has completed one year of business operation. If the player has an open line of credit with money borrowed from the bank, then this is the time when the interest and fees to the bank are due.
Lines of Credit
On raw material product and finished product, the bank places no value and gives no credit. The bank does issue loans up to ½ the value of capital equipment; 5,000 Marks per machine and 10,000 Marks per (purchased) computer.
It is the banker's job to keep book about the extended credit / loans.
Every time the debtor crosses the start field on the board (that is, once a year) he must pay 10 percent of the still outstanding debt to the bank as interest. In addition, regardless of the amount of the loan, the debtor must also pay 1,000 Marks in loan maintenance fees to the bank until the debt is repaid in full. The debtor can pay back the whole loan at any time in the year. If a debtor manages to pay back an entire loan before he crosses the start field for the first time with that debt, then no interest or fees are due.
Every player can offer private credit loans to fellow players. The interest rate and fees are free to be negotiated among the players.
Repurchase Value
You can sell back machines and product to the bank at any time. With such a repurchase, the bank pays the following:
- 5,000 Marks for each machine (regardless of if it is a single or double production machine)
- 10,000 Marks for a computer (if it had been purchased; leased computers cannot be sold)
- 150 Marks for a raw material product.
- 1,500 Marks for a finished product.
When raw material and finished product are returned, they are always placed in the highest open price zone.
Private Business between Players
Private business between players is allowed at any time, even without a red field. If one is on a red field one can make a 'decision' as well as do any sort of private business.
End of the Game
At the agreed upon completion time set at the start of the game, the current round is run to its conclusion. Every player returns their capital equipment to the bank and is credited with the following values:
- Raw materials: 150 Marks per product unit
- Finished product: 1,500 Marks per product unit
- Machines (incl. 2x producing): 10,000 Marks per machine
- Computers (if owned): 20,000 Marks per computer
WEBs and leased computers have no final value.
To those valuations, one adds the cash on hand for a player. From that value, subtract the 20,000 Marks of starting capital and subtract any still outstanding loan amounts. (Private loans are also subtracted and the positive credit added to the lender's totals.)
The result is the profit, or if negative, the loss.
Explanations (Base Model)
Explanations: Goal and Setup
Playboss is a realistic representation of the market and business. You can use it to practice economic and business thinking and management. The game requires negotiation skills, lightning quick decision making ability and analytical thinking. Greed and cut-throat play will not gain a player anything. Every player is dependant on fair business partners and associates and will learn to behave themselves appropriately.
Through the division of the game into the base model and the six building steps, even business novices will quickly find their way around and understand the concepts.
You can play Playboss alone or with two players in order to learn the basic processes of the game. The game does not get to be real fun, however, until you have many (5-9) players. Invite your friends over for a realistic gaming session and have as much fun as possible.
Business plan games as educational tools for managers are usually set up to include electronic computers. The computer is programmed with a market model and depending on the decisions of the players, delivers financial results, statistics and other analytical results.
Playboss also contains such a market model, even though it has been greatly simplified.
On the game board you see, changing among a predetermined sequence and with a preset probability distribution, a sequence of colored spaces. These spaces, depending on the color, trigger specific functions or events for each player.
The assignment of these spaces was established with endless play-testing and with the help of a computer, in order to ensure that the game always stays in balance, so long as you follow the rules of a market economy.
The die delivers random chance to the game, which determines the movement of the players' pieces around the board.
Explanations: Red Decision Field
The most important function of any manager is to select from amongst several possibilities, that one which he can execute to completion that will, in view of the circumstances and consequences of that choice, best help a business enterprise reach its intended goal.
Often it is necessary to make decisions with limited decision-making time and without complete information regarding the resulting consequences that may result. It is in these situations that the qualities of a manager make themselves known, particularly the ability to make split second decisions by instantly assessing the situation and making the most reasonable decision under the given circumstances that lead to a good solution. In the game, you will also be under time pressure, and most importantly, you will only have a limited number of choices available, because you will not land on a red field with every roll of the die. You must, thus, try to accomplish as much as possible with each decision you make.
How much should one buy? You must weigh the following factors against each other: Because decisions are rare, one should try to purchase as many products as possible. On the other hand, because of this, the price of the products will rise, and it could be that you would have the opportunity to buy the same product later at a lower price. Also beware that there is a cost for warehousing, which is uselessly allocated if you cannot utilize the stored product in a short time. After all, you must keep enough cash on hand to pay for investments, production and the running costs of the business.
What price should one pay? Raw material acquisition is one of the basic requirements for industrial production. A good manager tries to buy at the lowest possible cost, while ensuring the required quality is maintained. Because quality has no impact in this game, it is always in your best interest to buy things at the lowest possible price.
With the purchase of production equipment, it is necessary to make sure that this equipment can be fully utilized and not sit idle. Only then does it pay to buy the production equipment.
Here in this game, this means that you need to be certain you can acquire sufficient raw materials. You must also be in possession of sufficient cash to pay the production costs.
Explanations: Producing and Selling
One should always try to produce as much finished product as possible with a decision. This means fully utilizing your production capacity. Whoever does not do this is giving away his chances of earning money and lowering his business's profitability.
When you do not possess enough raw materials, you should attempt to purchase the needed quantities from other players, albeit at higher prices.
Whoever does not fully utilize their production capacity, because they cannot pay the production costs, has done poor financial planning or has built up too much production capacity. If this occurs, the player should attempt to establish a line of credit to pay the costs. If that is not possible, he should try to sell unused machines or excess product to other players so as to gain some cash in this manner.
The market model of this game mirrors a so-called demand curve. The market, that is, the sum of all possible buyers, is only willing to buy a certain amount of product at a certain price. If the price is higher, you find less buyers; is the price lower, you find more buyers. The markets in the real world also behave in this manner.
You must thus try to sell your finished product for the best possible price, but also sell at the right time so that you do not come into financial troubles.
To do nothing in the face of problems and let yourself be driven by the developments that come is a seldom used behavior in the real world. A good manager doesn't let things get to the point where he cannot do anything at all.
Explanations: WEB Options
WEB is an acronym for the German "Werbung, Entwicklung, Beratung", which is "Advertising, Development, and Consulting" in English. It mirrors those expenses that do not make themselves known as immediate improvements in the business but rather those that will only demonstrate their positive value for a company later in time.
In the profits and losses calculation, such expenditures are classified as expenses. Because, like investments, they have a longer working effect over time, one also calls them immaterial investments.
In the game, WEBs are not considered for the balance sheet.
With advertising campaigns, businessmen can cooperate, in that the company running the advertisement buys finished product from another business for a relatively high price and through the next action sells it for the subsequently next higher market price.
Explanations: Computer Leasing and Costs
Smaller businesses should consider that the high investment costs associated with obtaining a computer can only pay for themselves if a large amount of product can be produced.
In every business, one encounters situations where higher operational costs are unavoidable, and the business manager must select the lesser of the evils.
Examples: An important client demands an acceleration of the delivery timeline and you must thus pay the overtime costs to get the product finished quicker. Through the overuse of capacity, one often encounters a reduction in product quality which results in returns from the clients and price reductions to the client. Through illnesses it is possible to have important production facilities be temporarily dormant or operated with higher cost, temporary labor.
Machines do wear out. Additionally, rapid technological advancement can quickly make a machine obsolete and worthless. A careful businessman thus reduces the value of the machines he has on the books each year. This reduction is called depreciation, or write-off.
Not considered is the loss of value due to increases in prices and inflation. The business must therefore spend a portion of its produced profits for maintenance.
Explanations: Credit, Bankruptcy and Private Trade
People who possess capital equipment, such as machines, are considered creditworthy and can obtain credit with the bank because the machines are considered collateral which can be collected by the bank if the loan is not repaid.
If your assets are not sufficient to repay a bank or private loan when it comes due, you will enter bankruptcy. The bank will then auction off all of your assets. The resulting cash from the auction belongs to the bank if we are dealing with a bank loan, or the player who lent the money on a private player-to-player loan. If both bank and personal loans are in effect, the bank has first rights to repayment and any money left after the bank has been satisfied is left for private lenders.
One can, at any time, sell raw materials or finished product to other players or purchase them from other players for freely agreed upon prices. Likewise you can privately sell or lease, to and from other players, machines with single or double production capacity. However, due to the delivery and setup time required, you cannot produce anything on those machines until the turn after next (in 2 turns).
Explanations: Financial Statement and Profit
A real manager can determine the profit much quicker through the use of a financial statement. He begins by taking inventory; that is, he determines what all he owns.
Example: The sum of the assets is:
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 3 machines | 3 x 10,000 | 30,000 |
| 1 raw material | 1 x 150 | 150 |
| 2 finished product | 2 x 1,500 | 3,000 |
| Loans give out (as printed) | – | |
| Cash on hand | 1,000 | |
| 34,150 |
| Liabilities | Amount |
|---|---|
| Starting capital | 20,000 |
| Bank debts | 10,000 |
| Other debts | 2,000 |
| 32,000 |
Difference: 34,150 minus 32,000 = 2,150 profit!
Let's assume the bank debt were 15,000 Marks instead. Then you end up with the following balance sheet:
| Liabilities | Amount |
|---|---|
| Starting capital | 20,000 |
| Bank debt | 15,000 |
| Other debt | 2,000 |
| 37,000 |
Difference: 34,150 minus 37,000 = -2,850 loss!
Here we have the final assets being worth less than the starting capital.
The balance sheet is then set up as follows:
| Assets | Amount | Liabilities | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machines | 30,000 | Bank debt | 10,000 |
| Raw material | 150 | Other debt | 2,000 |
| Finished product | 3,000 | Starting capital | 20,000 |
| Loans given | – | Profit | 2,150 |
| Cash | 1,000 | Total | 34,150 |
| Total | 34,150 |
The profit and the starting capital together form the owned capital. Whoever has the highest owned capital at the end of the game is the winner.
II. The Expansion Steps
Prologue
Up to this point, you have learned the relatively simple base model. The game is much more interesting to play and much more realistic to a real economy, when you play with the following expansion rules. These expansion rules are divided into 6 building steps.
It is recommended that you proceed in steps. That means, after playing the basic model a couple of times, then add the first expansion step and play with it a bit and then add another expansion step. You can skip over expansion steps and use only ones further on. It is not necessary to use all expansion steps in sequence, for example, you can use step 1 and 3 without using step 2, if you choose to.
In the expansion steps, one slowly replaces the rigid game rules with the free play of market forces. Through action and counter-action, the game plan is held in balance. The rules define the economic order within which these forces can unfold.
Starting Capital
With any of the coming expansion steps, all players receive the full 20,000 Marks right at the beginning of the game. The payment of the second 10,000 Marks after the first round (year) goes away.
Explanations (Expansion Steps)
Explanations: Example of Rule Processes
Example for rule processes in the game:
Restrictive forces
- Competition, Market Saturation, Stagnation
- Costs, Loss of Profits, Stagnation
- Costs, Loss of Profits, Stagnation
These feed into: Sale Prices | Purchase Prices | Salaries
Expansive forces
- Costs, Profit Expectations, Lack of Competition
- Growth, Material Shortages, Profit Expectations
- Growth, Worker Shortage
Salaries and purchasing prices are substantial parts of the costs and influence the sales prices. In the other direction, the sales prices influence the profits and thus the growth of the business. They thus have a feedback into salaries and prices. This game becomes a good model, even if overly simplified, of a market economy. In a real market economy, the relationships are much more complex. Thus we cannot model the effects of retail prices on salaries, called the wage-price-spiral, for example.
Through the higher starting capital, it is possible that one or more players may build a monopoly by buying up large parts of the available raw material product. Those players who end up with no raw product being available have 3 possible responses to this possible situation:
- Purchase raw materials privately from players at reasonable prices through expert negotiation.
- A conspiracy and collusion of all of the 'have-nots' by a joint boycott of the monopolies. If the monopolies end up with a cash shortage, they would be forced to sell at low prices.
- Wait until new raw material product is available on the market through the normal production and product sale process.
Dependant on the conditions, one of these tactics could be the right one. Through this process, one can observe interesting aspects about the creation of cartels and special interest groups.
1. Step: Free Market for Sales
A player who possesses finished product and is sitting on a red field and wishes to sell the product will no longer automatically get the market price for that product. He is only the first supplier and makes an offer by loudly announcing number of units for sale, and the price that he would like to have paid for each unit. This price may NOT be higher than the currently set market price, but it may be lower.
All players that possess finished product at that point, may become competition in the sale and underbid the player's asking price. The players may offer as much finished product up for sale as they want, but the final sale may only be for the total number of units first offered by the player on the red field. The price bidding proceeds, often through several rounds, for so long until we reach a price point where only the originally offered number of units for sale are being offered up by the players with finished product.
You can only underbid in price in decrements of 500 Marks. Thus, there are only 2 price points available per bidding round among players: The original price (or the price out of the previous go-round) and offers that are at 500 Marks cheaper than that price.
One can always withdraw one's entire offer by not participating in the subsequent bidding round, or one can withdraw one's offer partially by only offering up a smaller number of units in the subsequent price bidding round.
Once the original seller lowers his price to the competition's bid price, and the competition (the other players) do not again lower their bid price another step, THEN the seller gets to complete his sale. That means, the seller must not underbid the competition in order to sell his product.
The competition (those players who are not the original seller) can only get to sell their own product if the player who made the first sale offer, gives up on the bidding process and doesn't lower his offer price to the latest price set by the competition. Even in this case, the bidding process MUST continue until the amount of units offered for sale has been reduced to the original number of units offered by the original seller. The original seller on the red field set the number of units that must be sold. Within the framework of this number of units, the lowest bidders will be able to sell their product.
If the competition offers a lower number of units than offered by the original seller at the very first price bidding round, then the first seller may sell the difference between his number and the competition's unit count on the market without competition – he gets the market price for those units. With the remainder of his units he must deal with the competition as described above.
The sold finished products are placed into the highest open price zones on the board, independent of for which price they were actually sold.
Explanations: Free Market for Sales
The players must now calculate by estimation, how far they can lower their prices without loosing money on the product. Businesses with a lower cost structure, such as those utilizing computers or machines with double the production capacity, are now better positioned to provide competition. Now it will be more beneficial to utilize advertising and to watch the market closely in order to estimate the best point at which to sell one's finished product with the least amount of competition from the other players.
2 Examples on Price Underbidding
-
One player sits on a red field and offers 3 products for 5,000 Marks each. He is the first-supplier. Three players form the competition, each with 2 units for sale and offer 4,500 Marks. The first-supplier goes along with the new price and the 3 competition players lower the price to 4,000 Marks. At this point the first-supplier withdraws.
There are a total of 6 units of finished product up for sale at 4,000 Marks each, but only 3 can be sold (the amount the first-supplier established).
The 3 competition players, we call them players A, B, and C further underbid in price: A goes with his 2 units down to 3,500 Marks, B goes along with his 2 units to 3,500 Marks, but C withdraws. A goes with his 2 units down to 3,000 Marks. B stays with one unit at 3,500 Marks – so we now have 3 units sold: 2 at 3,000 and 1 at 3,500 Marks. B's 2nd unit cannot be sold.
-
A player sits on a red field and offers 4 product units for 4,000 Marks each. Two competition players outbid, one with 2 units and one with 1 unit. The first-supplier can now, since the competition only offered 3 units, sell 1 unit for 4,000 Marks. With his remaining 3 units, he must match the competition's price point. If he, for example withdraws from selling his other 3 units at the 3,000 Mark price point, then the two competition players can sell their 3 units at that price.
2. Step: Competition during Purchasing
A player that lands on the decision field and wants to purchase product, can purchase a maximum of 2 units of product at the market indicated price point. The remaining units that may be present in that market price zone are then auctioned off by the bank to the highest bidder. The bank makes the first price point the current market price. If no one offers more than that, then the remaining product stays on the board unpurchased.
Explanations: Competition during Purchasing
The purchase through auction by "parties" is used in many industry branches as the normal method of acquiring materials for production.
Interesting is the observation that during the game, even without an explicit agreement between players, a maximum raw unit price is established to which the auction goes, and that price holds for a long time. Only once a player, for some special reason, succeeds in making a purchase at a higher or lower price, does the price settle at a new level. These "psychological price limits" can also be observed in the real world; one also speaks of the conforming behavior of market partners.
3. Step: Marketing Organization
In 3 corners of the board, you will find marketing organizations (departments) which are represented through a trough which can hold 3 WEBs.
Any player can, at any time (without having to be on red), start one or more marketing organizations, so-long as the market allows this, that is, insofar as they are not already occupied. The process requires paying 20,000 Marks, in advance, to the bank, in marketing costs. The bank then puts 3 WEBs into the vacant marketing trough. From that point, at each trip around the board, another 15,000 Marks in marketing costs will be due to the bank.
The owner of one or more marketing organizations then has the right to sell one of his finished products, without competition and irrespective of any other decisions he may make, at every of his turns rolling the die. He cannot, however, sell any finished product he may have just finished producing with that same die roll and decision. He must thus have at least 1 finished product already in warehouse inventory.
If the owner of marketing organization withdraws his WEBs for other purposes (which is allowed), or he does not pay the due marketing costs, then that marketing organization will again become available and free. In either case, the WEBs in the trough are returned to the player and NOT back to the bank.
Explanations: Marketing Organization
Marketing organizations (or departments) are the names for those parts of a business that secure the distribution of the company's product into the market place. These can be trade representatives, traveling salesmen, sales branches, distributors or even individual retail stores.
In this game, the founding of a marketing organization secures for the player a fixed level of trade at good market conditions, so long as he can provide sufficient finished product through manufacturing or purchasing. In this vein, the marketing organization operates similar to a fixed delivery contract through distributors.
With the establishment of a marketing organization, the business looses the defining characteristic that makes it a contract dependant producer who must best utilize the market conditions to realize sales. Instead, the problem now shifts to providing a steady raw material or product inflow. There always needs to be sufficient raw material available for the production, because an underutilized marketing organization will operate at a loss for the business.
4. Step: Taxation
At every passing of the starting field, each player must prepare his business's financial statement and declare the profit he has made in the past year's trip around the board to the bank.
The bank then collects the appropriate taxes from that profit (just like corporate tax or income tax), utilizing the tax table shown here.
The remaining profit is put back into the subsequent financial statements as capital. Losses are carried forward to the next year as well and can be amortized, that is, used to offset any profits that may be achieved in the coming round. If a money losing business is purchased and consolidated into the financial statements, then this loss can also be amortized to subsequent years.
Income Tax or Corporate Tax
| Profit per round | Tax rate of the respective profit |
|---|---|
| up to 2,000 ("bis" in the German original) | no tax due |
| 2,000 ... 10,000 | 50% tax |
| 10,000 ... 20,000 | 70% tax |
| over 20,000 | 80% tax |
This produces the following tax table:
| Profit | Tax | Profit | Tax | Profit | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | - | 15,000 | 7,500 | 29,000 | 18,200 |
| 2,000 | - | 16,000 | 8,200 | 30,000 | 19,000 |
| 3,000 | 500 | 17,000 | 8,900 | 31,000 | 19,800 |
| 4,000 | 1,000 | 18,000 | 9,600 | 32,000 | 20,600 |
Losses can be amortized. Taxes are paid for each full 1,000 Marks – so round the balance down to the next 1,000 mark level for using the tax table.
5. Step: Various Game Goals
In the basic model, the goal of the game is to maximize the profit of the business within a fixed timeframe. You may replace that goal with the following rules:
-
Whoever is the first to reach a predetermined level of sales (60,000 Marks, for example) is the market leader and declared winner.
-
The game ends when a player reaches a fixed level of total sales (say 60,000 Marks, for example), but the winner is that player whose business has the greatest profit on the books.
-
The game ends just as in 2. Winner is that player with the greatest sales yield:
Sales Yield = Total Profit / Total Sales
-
The game ends just as in 2. Winner is that player with the highest asset yield:
Asset Yield = Total Profit / (Assets + Liabilities)
Explanations: Various Game Goals
With these rules, the players must constantly keep track of all sales amounts, or have them tracked by the banker. Often you may have very large sales amounts at the expense of profits generated by those sales (lower profit margins). Smaller, well structured businesses can frequently operate with higher yields.
Here it is shown which player can utilize the deployed capital in the most constructive and useful fashion. Since the asset yield is computed using the total profit generated in the game, it is usually extraordinarily high for all players. It is thus recommended that you count the rounds for each player (including partial rounds like, say, 3 ½ rounds) and divide the asset yield by the number of rounds played by the player. You thus compute the average yearly yield.
Every player should write down their personal goal at the start of the game (eg. Maximum profit, Largest market share, Largest production capacity, Highest asset yield, etc.).
After the game, you can then discuss which player has best reached their individual goal.
6. Step: Labor Market
The human resources aspect of a business cannot be represented in the Playboss game in a coherent manner because the game only models functional processes and does not consider interpersonal relationships within the company. The principle functions of a labor market can be seen if one utilizes the following rules.
To operate a machine, one needs one unit of labor, depicted through the playing piece. One player becomes the worker representative. He does not get a business to start, but can buy businesses from other players in the course of the game. He is not allowed to run the bank. He gives out the game pieces for labor units and collects salaries.
Using the salaries he collects, he can extend lines of credit to others, participate in existing businesses or seek out other business opportunities.
The worker representative also manages the unemployment support fund. This fund starts with a balance of 5,000 Marks. After the first round, after the first player crosses the start field for the first time, the worker representative must return any unused worker pieces back to the bank. Those surplus worker pieces are removed from play and may never be assigned to any of the players again.
Through this limitation of the labor pool to a fixed mount, we will see that in times of increased production, there will be a shortage of labor, which results in salary inflation. Players can avert this by employing more labor than they currently need to run their machines (hording labor). However, since players must pay salary to each machine labor unit, this will dramatically increase the players costs.
In as far as you are playing with steps 1 and 2, or other prior difficulty expansion steps, you may allow two players to run one business operation.
One manages the marketing and financial aspects and the other manages the purchase, production and labor aspects of the business. The players must agree about their competency division and business decisions.
Strike
The worker representative can call for a strike whenever one of the businesses lands on a red field. He can strike one, several or all businesses simultaneously. The strike will become 'active' for each affected business on the next red field, so long as no agreement has been reached before that point. The affected businesses pay no salaries during the strike and cannot produce any product. The businesses must, however, pay the idle fees of 3,000 Marks per machine each time they land on a red field.
The worker representative pays for every striking worker, whose business lands on a red field, strike-wages equivalent to the highest negotiated salary, to the bank. The worker representative can end the strike at any time. The working conditions and relations remain as they are.
Lockout
Insofar as one or more business are being striked, other businesses may decide on a lockout. Those businesses participating in a lockout are not required to pay any salaries and cannot produce anything on their machines. They must pay 300 Marks idle costs per machine on every red field. The worker representative must also pay strike wages for the locked out worker units. The lockout can be ended by the businesses at any time. All working conditions and relationships remain in effect.
Through this model we are not attempting to minimize the burden of labor conflicts on social partners and society. The model tries, in spite of the necessary simplification, to simulate the development and the consequences and resolution of a labor market conflict in substantial areas and thus contribute to a better understanding of the processes involved.
Production
Businesses that possess machines and labor units may produce on every red field. They may, at the same time, purchase, sell, or invest as well. (They may make one additional decision in addition to production).
Product purchased on a particular turn may not be converted to finished product until the player lands on the next red field.
Finished product produced in a turn may not be sold until the player lands on the next red field. Private purchases and sales between players are exempt from this rule.
Players may not utilize machines purchased on a particular turn for production until they land on the next red field. Private transactions for machines are also subject to this restriction.
Production Costs
The production costs are 500 Marks (250 Marks if in possession of a computer) and must be paid to the bank for every manufactured unit of product.
Labor Costs
The salaries are set to begin with at 500 Marks per worker unit and must be paid on every red field to the worker representative (irrespective of if the business produces product on the field or not). After the first lap of the board, the salaries can be freely negotiated.
Double Production (Efficiency)
During production with a machine that has 2x capacity, still only a single labor unit is required. Salaries are paid at 1x for the single labor unit, but production costs are paid 2x, for the 2 units produced.
In this case, the effect of improved efficiency is more evident. Through increase production capacity, while maintaining a fixed salary cost, one realizes a substantial costs savings.
The Yellow Cost Field
Deviation from the rule established in the basic model is valid here: Whoever wants to produce on a yellow field pays 3,000 Marks in production costs per machine as well as the salary costs.
The other rules remain the same.
Hiring
Hiring can occur at any time. The business manager comes to an agreement with the worker representative in regards to the salary and then obtains the worker unit piece.
Termination
On every red field, the business as well as the worker representative, can talk about worker units leaving the business. The decision becomes effective on the next red field. On this field you may produce product one final time with the respective machine. In any case, you must pay salary costs one final time, then the business returns the labor unit piece to the worker representative, who may do what he wants with this freed up unit of labor.
Unemployment Support
After the first lap around the board, the worker's representative must pay unemployment support for each worker unit that was let go via termination or resignation in the amount of the highest negotiated salary. He must do this every time the die passes by him from the business manager on his right to the one on his left.