Reputation Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Objective
• Components
  • Project Cards
  • Identity Cards
  • Other Components
• Setup Instructions
• The Game Round
  • 1. Return Workers from the Projects
  • 2. Reveal New Projects
  • 3. Bidding
    • A. Bid on the Private Sector Project
    • B. Bid on the Public Sector Project
    • C. Speculate
  • 4. Determine Winning Bids
  • 5. Co-sponsorship Bid
  • 6. Workers Return to HQ
  • 7. Prepare for Next Round
• End of the Game
  • 1. Measure your Reputation
  • 2. Eliminate the players with the least Reputation
  • 3. Calculate your Profit
  • 4. Determine the Winner
  • Example Scoring
• Things to Remember!
  • General
  • Bidding
  • Corporation and CEO
• Quick Reference

Game Objective

You are the CEO of a trillion dollar company, balancing sponsoring Public and Private Sector projects. Your goal is to make money through profitable Private Sector projects while maintaining your brand image by sponsoring Public Sector projects.

At the end of the game, you will get sanctioned by the anticorporate group and be eliminated from the race for victory if you have the least reputation! Among the remaining CEOs, the CEO who made the most profit claims victory, and continues to be the elite of the elite!

Components

Project Cards

12 Private Sector Project cards

• Name of this project. All Private Sector projects have a red background and the Private Sector icon.
• Amount of Reputation you will lose if you sponsor this project. See End of the Game (p. 15) for details.

12 Public Sector Project cards

• Name of this project. All Public Sector projects have a green background and the Public Sector icon (a green leaf).
• Number of Credits this project starts with. See Reveal New Projects (p. 6) for details.
• Number of Workers required to bid on this project. See Bidding (p. 6) for details.
• Amount of Reputation you will gain if you sponsor this project. See End of the Game (p. 15) for details.

1 Public Sector Project marker

1 Start Player marker

Identity Cards

8 Corporation cards

Corporation cards give you a Special Power that alters the game rules. Unless otherwise stated they can be used any time during your turn.

8 CEO cards

CEO cards give you an Agenda. Every time you meet the criteria you gain the amount of Reputation tokens shown. Unless otherwise stated they can be completed multiple times.

Other Components

5 Player boards

• Break room: You cannot bid with the workers that are occupying this area.
• HQ: These are the Workers you can bid. See Bidding (p. 6) for details. The table in the background is used during the end game scoring. See End of the Game (p. 15) for details.

50 Workers (10 of each color)

30 Reputation tokens

58 Credit tokens (9 x 10, 9 x 5, 40 x 1)

Setup Instructions

1. Take Components: Each player chooses a color and takes the corresponding Player Board and the correct number of Workers for the player count.

   • 3-players: All 10 Workers
   • 4-players: 9 Workers
   • 5-Players: 8 Workers

2. Create your identity: Take one CEO card and one Corporation card. For your first game we suggest using the symbols on the top right corner of the cards to take a matched pair. In future games you can use the matched pairs or create an identity with any combination of cards.

3. Form your HQ: Place all your Workers on your Player Board in the HQ area.

4. Create Project Decks:

   • Separate the Project Cards into Private Sector Project cards and Public Sector Project cards.
   • Shuffle the Private Sector Project cards and deal 10 cards face down into the center of the play area.
   • Shuffle the Public Sector Project cards and deal 10 cards face down into the center of the play area.
   • Place the Public Sector Project Marker next to the corresponding deck.
   • Return all unused Project Cards to the box without looking at the face of the cards.

5. Create Credits Bank: Place all Credit tokens in a pile reachable from all players to create a Bank. The currency in this game is called Credits.

The Game Round

The game is played over 10 rounds. Each game round consists of 7 steps:

1. Return Workers from the Projects
2. Reveal New Projects
3. Bidding
4. Determine Winning Bids
5. Co-sponsorship Bid
6. Return Workers to the HQ
7. Prepare For Next Round

1. Return Workers from the Projects

All players perform the steps below simultaneously. Skip this step in Round 1.

Move up to three of your Workers to the Break room. Each step below can only be used to move one Worker and they can only be moved to empty spaces on the Break room:

1. From a Private Sector Project card in front of you: 1 Worker moves to the middle space of the Break room.
2. From a Public Sector Project card between you and your left neighbor: 1 Worker moves to the leftmost space of the Break room.
3. From a Public Sector Project card between you and your right neighbor: 1 Worker moves to the rightmost space of the Break room.

2. Reveal New Projects

• Flip the top card from each Project Deck face up adjacent to the deck.
• Place the number of Credits indicated on the Public Sector project adjacent to the card.
• Place Public Sector project markers adjacent to the card.

3. Bidding

All players are involved in this phase. Each player takes their turn in a clockwise order, beginning with the Start Player.

You are now bidding on the projects to win the rights to sponsor them. Private Sector Projects are usually more profitable, but at the cost of your reputation. Public Sector Projects are usually less profitable, but will enhance your reputation.

On your turn, take one of the following actions:

• A. Bid on the Private Sector Project - Bid with more Workers than your competition.
• B. Bid on the Public Sector Project - Bid by undercutting your competition.
• C. Speculate - You pass your turn. If you are the leading bidder on either of the two projects, you must speculate.

Bidding continues until all players have speculated consecutively.

A. Bid on the Private Sector Project

Workers from your HQ are used to bid for the Private Sector Project. Whenever a player bids on this project, they must offer more Workers than their competition.

1. If you are the first player to bid on this project this round, then you may bid with 1 or more Workers. Otherwise, you must outbid the current leading bidder by bidding at least 1 more Workers than their current bid.
2. Move the Workers you are bidding with from your HQ next to the project card. You are now the leading bidder.
3. The player who has been outbid returns their Workers to their HQ.

Diagram: "You" (new leading bidder) bids more Workers than "Opponent" (previous leading bidder).

If no one bids on the Private Sector Project during the round, return the project card to the box and any Credits that had been moved to it this round to the Bank.

Tip: In this game your action is limited by the number of Workers you have. It takes several rounds to get all your Workers back, so use them wisely!

B. Bid on the Public Sector Project

A Worker from your HQ is used to bid for the Public Sector Project. Whenever a player bids on this project, they must undercut their competition by moving at least one Credit from the Public Sector Project to the Private Sector Project.

1. Move the number of Workers indicated on the card from your HQ next to the Public Sector Project card. You do not need to bid more Workers than the previous player. Always bid the number of Workers indicated on the card.
2. Move 1 or more Credits next to the Public Sector Project to the Private Sector Project. This will be collected by the player who wins the Private Sector Project this round. You are now the leading bidder.
3. The player who has been outbid returns their Worker to their HQ.

If no one bids on the Public Sector Project during the round, return the project card to the box and the Credits to the Bank. Also skip the Co-sponsorship Bid (p. 12) step for this round.

Tip: The number of Credits is what determines the winner at the end of the game. Giving away 1 Credit means a two point spread between you and the winner of the Private Sector project!

C. Speculate

When you speculate, you are passing your turn to see what other players will do.

• When you speculate, you pass your turn and play continues with the next player clockwise.
• You may bid again on your turn if another player bids on either project.
• You must speculate if you are the leading bidder on either project.
• When all players have speculated consecutively the bidding step ends.

Tip: Sometimes it is best to take a step back and wait to see what happens. However, whether you get another turn depends on other players' actions, so you may lose out on your chance to act!

4. Determine Winning Bids

Only the leading bidders of the two projects are involved in this phase. These players perform the steps below simultaneously.

The winner of the bids are determined and these player are now the project sponsors. You assign your Workers to work on the project.

Winner of the Private Sector Project:

1. Take all Credits next to the card. You may flip them to keep the values secret.
2. Place the Private Sector Project card face down in front of your board. If you already have Private Sector Project cards from the previous rounds, the new card goes to the bottom of the stack.
3. Place the Workers you bid on top of the stack alongside any existing Workers.

Winner of the Public Sector Project:

1. Take all Credits next to the card. You may flip them to keep the values secret.
2. Move the Public Sector Project card face up in front of you. This will be moved between you and a neighboring player after Co-sponsorship Bid (p. 12) step.
3. Move the Workers you bid next to the card.
4. Take the Public Sector Project marker and place it next to your Player Board.

5. Co-sponsorship Bid

Only the player who won the bid for Public Sector Project and the two neighboring players to his left and right are involved in this phase. These 3 players perform the steps below.

The neighbors on either side of the player who won the Public Sector Project bid now get a chance to co-sponsor the project. If they win the bid, they also enhance their reputation. They will bid with Workers from their HQ.

1. The player who won the bid to sponsor the Public Sector Project secretly takes the Public Sector Project marker into their left or right hand. This is used as a tie-breaker.
2. The neighbors of the player who won the Public Sector Project both announce how many Workers are currently in their HQ.
3. Both neighbors then secretly place the amount of Workers they are bidding in one hand, and the Workers not being bid in the other hand. The hand containing the bid Workers is clearly extended forward so all players know which hand is the bid.
4. All 3 players simultaneously open their hands. The neighbor who bid the most wins the right to co-sponsor the project.
   • If there is a tie, the hand the primary sponsor is holding the Public Sector Project marker breaks the tie.
   • If it is in their left hand, their left neighbor wins the right to co-sponsor the project.
   • If it is in their right hand, their right neighbor wins the right to co-sponsor the project.
5. Both neighbors return the Workers they did not bid to their HQ. The neighbor that lost the bid also returns their Workers they bid to their HQ.

After determining the winner of co-sponsorship bid

• The two sponsors of the Public Sector Project place the Project card between them face up. If other cards are already in this area then the new card goes to the bottom of the stack. Spread the stack of cards slightly so the Reputation value of all cards are visible.
• All Workers from the initial bid and the co-sponsorship bid are placed on top of the card, alongside any existing Workers.

Diagram labels: Workers bid in 3. Bidding step (Primary Sponsor: the player who won the bid in 3. Bidding step); Workers bid in 5. Co-sponsorship Bid step (Co-Sponsor: the player who won the bid in 5. Co-sponsorship Bid step). Workers from the previous round are shown on the card. Place the new card at the bottom and spread the cards slightly so that you can see the Reputation value.

6. Workers Return to HQ

All players perform the steps below simultaneously. Skip this step in Round 1.

Your Workers that have been resting for a round come back to your HQ.

• Move up to 3 Workers from your Break room to your HQ.

7. Prepare for Next Round

• Move the Start Player marker to the next player in clockwise order.
• If this is the 10th round the game ends. Continue to End of the Game (p. 15). Otherwise, go back to 1. Return Workers from the Projects (p. 5) to start a new round.

End of the Game

After completing 10 rounds, the game is over and the winner is determined. Follow the steps below to see who won the game.

1. Measure your Reputation

Your total Reputation is made up of the following.

A. Count the number of Workers in your HQ. Workers on Public and Private Sector Project cards do not count.

B. Use the number of Workers in your HQ to determine the amount of Reputation you receive. The table on your Player Board, recreated here, shows how much you should receive.

Workers in HQ	Reputation
1-2	1
3-4	2
5-6	3
7-8	5
9-10	7

C. Reputation tokens gained throughout the game by completing CEO Agenda.

D. Reputation from Public Sector Project cards between you and your left neighbor.

E. Reputation from Public Sector Project cards between you and your right neighbor.

F. Lose reputation from Private Sector Project cards in front of you.

2. Eliminate the players with the least Reputation

3-player or 4-player game:

The player with the least reputation is eliminated. If there is no clear lowest ranking player (2 or more players are tied), then no player is eliminated.

5-player game:

The 2 players with the least reputation are eliminated. If 3 or more players are tied for the least reputation, then no player is eliminated. If 2 or more players are tied for the second least reputation, then only the least player is eliminated.

3. Calculate your Profit

Your total Profit is made up of the following.

A. Use the number of Workers in your HQ to determine the amount of Credits you receive. The table on your Player Board, recreated here, shows how much you should receive.

Workers in HQ	Credits
1	0
2-3	1
4-5	2
6-7	4
8-9	6
10	8

B. All Credits you earned during the game.

4. Determine the Winner

The player with the highest profit who has not been eliminated is the winner! In a tie, the player with higher reputation wins. If there is still a tie, all tied players win.

Example Scoring

	Blue Player	Green Player	Red Player	Yellow Player
Reputation from HQ	3	2	2	3
Reputation from Agenda	4	6	4	3
Reputation: Public Sector Projects	23	20	20	23
Reputation: Private Sector Projects	-6	-6	-8	-4
Reputation Total	24	22

Red player is eliminated since he has the lowest reputation. Among the eligible players, Green player has the highest total profit so he is the winner!

Things to Remember!

General

• All players start the game with 0 Credits.
• Credits are not public information. Whenever you gain credits you may flip them face down to hide their value.
• Workers are public information and you should always tell someone how many Workers you have in your HQ if asked.
• Once the Private Sector project card is in the stack in front of you it cannot be viewed again until the end of the game.

Bidding

• You do not need to bid more Workers than the previous player when bidding on the Public Sector project.
• When bidding on the Public Sector project, you must move at least 1 Credits from it to the Private Sector project.
• When bidding on the Private Sector Project, you must outbid the previous leading bidder by bidding more Workers.
• If no one bids on the Public or Private Sector project, then return the card to the game box and any Credits adjacent to the card to the bank.
• If no one bids on the Public Sector project, then skip the Co-sponsorship Bid step for that round.
• If there is no Credits left on the Public Sector project, then you cannot bid any further.

Corporation and CEO

• Corporation Special Power alters the game rules. They take precedence over any conflicting rules written in the rulebook.
• Corporation Special Power can only be used once during a game, unless otherwise written.
• CEO Agendas can be completed multiple times in a game, unless otherwise written.

Quick Reference

This is a quick reference of how the game round is played. For details please read the corresponding page of this rulebook.

Step 1. Return Workers from the Project card (p. 5) Return Workers from the Project cards in front of you to the Break room area of your Player Board.

Step 2. Reveal new Project cards (p. 6) Reveal new Project cards, and place the number of Credits indicated on the Public Sector Project card.

Step 3. Bidding on the Project cards (p. 6)

• A. Bid on the Private Sector Project - Bid with more Workers than your opponent.
• B. Bid on the Public Sector Project - Bid by moving 1 or more Credits from the Public Sector Project to Private Sector Project.
• C. Speculate - Pass your turn.

The bidding step continues until all players have speculated consecutively.

Step 4. Determine Winning Bids (p. 10) Determine the project sponsor of each project, take the Credits next to the project card, and assign Workers.

Step 5. Co-sponsorship Bid (p. 12) The neighbors on either side of the player who won the Public Sector Project bid now get a chance to co-sponsor the project.

Source note: the printed Step 5 line reads "(o. 12)"; corrected to "(p. 12)" to match the Co-sponsorship Bid page.

Step 6. Workers Return to HQ (p. 14) Your Workers that have been resting for a round come back to your HQ area of your Player Board.

Step 7. Prepare for Next Round (p. 14) Move the Start Player marker to the next player in clockwise order. The game ends after 10 rounds.