Rolling Stock Stars Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Setting Up the Game
• Playing the Game
  • The First Turn
  • The Second Turn
• The Remaining Turns
• Game End and Scoring
• Receivership
• Corporation Special Ability Summary
• Easily Missed or Misunderstood Rules
• Canonical Rules
  • Setup
  • Game Sequence
  • Glossary
  • Procedures
• Variants
  • Open Companies Variant
  • Two-Player, Two-Handed Variant
• Credits

Game Contents

The rule book is what you are reading right now. The complete rules of Rolling Stock Stars are actually not very long and contained in the section Canonical Rules. They are great if you just need a rules refresher or you are looking for precise answers to your most delicate rules questions. They are definitely not suitable for learning the game. Thus, the rest of the rule book explains the game in a more approachable fashion, with helpful examples and figures.

• 135 round synergy markers are used to track synergies of subsidiary companies within a corporation.

• A bank of rectangular cardboard play money (30x 1 coin, 30x 2 coins, 20x 5 coins, 20x 10 coins, 20x 20 coins). The "coin" symbol represents "coins," the currency of the game. The bank is meant to be unlimited. Should you ever run out of play money, use other means of tracking money. If you own poker chips, you might find it more convenient to use them instead of the provided cardboard money.

• 6 player order cards are used to randomly determine the initial player order and later to track the player order throughout the game.

• 6 turn summaries describe the nine phases of a game turn. Hand out one to each player. A summary of the receivership rules is on the back.

• 36 company cards are the core of the game. They come in five colors. Each color has a number of stars assigned to it: Red (1 star), orange (2 stars), yellow (3 stars), green (4 stars), and blue (5 stars).

  Each company has a unique face value in coins, printed in the upper left corner. The face value is used when calculating the wealth of a player at the end of the game and as the minimum bid in auctions.

  The numbers printed in parentheses to the right of the face value define the price span for which the company can be sold to corporations. Just beneath the face value, you'll find the aforementioned "star rating" (one to five stars), which is used to determine share price changes of a corporation.

  In the middle, you can see the name of the company and its abbreviation. Name, abbreviation, and face value are each unique. So you can refer to this company as "the Société nationale des chemins de fer français" or "the SNCF" or "the 26." Whatever you like most. In the upper right corner, you'll find a circle with the income of the company. The colorful circles and diamonds on the company card tell you something about the possible synergies with other companies. They will be explained later.

  The back of each company card shows a cost of ownership (starting from no cost up to 4 coins). The cost of ownership printed on the back of a company card has nothing to do with the cost of ownership of the company described on the face of the same card. When you set up the game, you will build a deck of face-down company cards. The back of the top-most card in that deck determines the current cost of ownership applying to all companies whose color matches one of the colors in the central rectangle on the back of the card. A more detailed explanation of the cost of ownership will follow later.

  The game end card has a cost of ownership on both sides (7 coins and 10 coins). The game end card is used as the bottom-most card of the company card deck, with the 7-coin side up.

A note about "horizontal" and "vertical" components: The normal orientation of cards and money is called horizontal. In various situations during the game, cards or money are turned vertical (turned by 90 degrees) to mark a special state of that particular component.

Setting Up the Game

Set up the game following these steps:

1. Give each player a turn summary to reference throughout the game.
2. Place the money in a central position on the table, easily reachable by everybody. This central area is the bank. Initially, it contains all the money in the game, but later, it will also contain shares.
3. Give each player 30 coins from the bank. Exception: In a six-player game, each player receives only 25 coins.
4. Pick the player order cards corresponding to the number of players. Return the remaining cards to the box. Shuffle the player order cards and deal one random card to each player. The players reveal their cards, which define the initial player order. You don't need to change seating order as the player order will change often throughout the game.
5. Set the eight charter cards aside. Place the stack of shares of the corresponding corporation on top of each charter card. The stacks are "face down," i.e. with the apricot-colored side up. You also have to sort them: The top-most share is the one marked Available for IPO, followed by the share with a large number 1, followed by the share with number 2, and so on until the highest available number is reached at the bottom of the stack (which is 3 to 6, depending on the corporation).
6. In another area of the table, lay out the 27 share price cards in a long, sorted row, starting with 0 coins and ending with 75 coins. Most tables will not be long enough for this row. Feel free to break the row, e.g. into three rows of nine cards each. But keep in mind that it is effectively still one long row.
7. Pick one player to be in charge of executing the actions of the foreign investor. There are no decisions involved. That player only has to make sure that those actions are executed according to the rules and not forgotten. Place the foreign investor card in reach of that player. Place 4 coins (from the bank) into the treasury of the foreign investor (i.e. to the right of the foreign investor card).
8. In the following steps, you'll build the company deck. Start with the game end card. Place it on the table where it is easily visible for all players (somewhere next to the bank). Turn the face with the lower cost of ownership (7 coins) up.
9. Sort the company cards by color and set aside the company with the highest face value of each color. Those companies are marked by their abbreviation printed in red or yellow rather than black.
10. Shuffle each remaining pile of companies of the same color.
11. Without looking at them, draw a number of companies from each pile that is equal to the number of players. Exceptions: With 4 players, draw 5 orange companies. With 5 players, draw 7 orange companies. With 6 players, simply use all companies of all colors. Keep the drawn companies separated by color, but add each of the set-aside companies face-down to their respective pile of the same color.
12. Return the remaining companies to the box, again without looking at them.
13. Shuffle each of the same-color piles individually.

You are all set to start the first turn of the game.

(Setup layout: the deck of companies and the foreign investor sit alongside the offering of companies available for auction, the bank, and each player's own area. A sample corporation area shows the charter card with its stack of shares marked "Available for IPO," the share price card, the corporation's treasury, and a row of subsidiary companies below.)

Playing the Game

Each turn runs through nine phases (although in some turns, nothing might happen in particular phases). Refer to the turn summary to get an overview. The rightmost column of the turn summary indicates who makes decisions in a particular phase: PRIV means that the players act as private investors. CORP means that the players act as presidents of the corporations. (The president of a corporation is the player that currently holds the President's Share of that corporation.) AUTO means that no decisions are required. The game "plays itself" in those phases.

The First Turn

The game starts without any corporations in existence. That simplifies many phases of the first turn. We'll go through the turn phase by phase.

TURN 1, PHASE 1 – INVESTMENT

In current player order, starting with position 1, each player performs exactly one action. However, the player order is cyclic, so after the player last in player order has taken their action, loop back to player 1, who will now take exactly one action again. Proceed with player 2, and so on. Repeat this cycle until you meet the end condition described below.

In turn 1, the only actions available are pass and start an auction. (The share trading part of this phase doesn't happen in turn 1.)

Pass is a very simple action: If you take that action, you (basically) do nothing. As a reminder that your last action was pass, you turn your player order card 90 degrees. Passing does not prevent you from taking a different action next time you are up. If you take an action different from pass, but you have passed before, turn your player order card back right-side-up. If at any time during this phase, all player order cards are turned, the phase immediately ends. In other words, the phase ends once all players have passed consecutively. Even if passing itself does not prevent you from taking another action next time you are up (see above), the phase might end before you have the opportunity to do so (which happens if everybody else passes, too).

Start an auction is the other possible action. If you take that action, you pick one of the companies available for auction. You place a bid at least as high as the face value of that company. If you don't have enough money to do so, or if there is no company available for auction, you cannot take this action. Once you have placed your bid, the next player in player order either raises the bid by at least 1 coin or leaves the auction. Then the next player does the same, and so on. Remember that the player order is cyclic, so after the last player in player order has raised the bid or left the auction, the player at position 1 is up to either raise the bid or leave the auction. This cycle continues until all players but one have left the auction. The remaining player pays their bid to the bank and places the company card in front of them. A player's bid must not exceed the money the player owns (but it may exceed the price range printed on the company card as that range is only relevant for acquisitions in phase 3). Players that have left the auction are skipped for the remainder of that auction. They are not allowed to re-enter that same auction. Once the auction is over, a new company card is drawn and placed face-up into the offering of companies. However, the newly drawn card is not available for auctions during the same phase it is drawn. Turn the company card vertical to mark it as unavailable. In the first few turns of the game, it is very common that at some point during this phase all the companies in the offering are not available for auctions so that players cannot start more auctions.

The player that takes the next action after the auction is the one next in player order after the player who started the auction (not after the player who won the auction).

Example of a complete auction: Amy, Brian, and Crystal play a three-player game. They have already reached turn 2. (The auctions in turn 1 are less interesting, so this example is taken from turn 2. The rules are exactly the same.) The current player order is Amy: 1, Brian: 2, Crystal: 3. Amy has 20 coins, Brian 12 coins, Crystal 9 coins. The offering contains the MHE, the WT, and the MS. The WT has been drawn this turn, so it is oriented vertically. Brian is up to pick an action. He wants to start an auction. However, the WT is not available for auctions, and the MS is too expensive (minimum bid is 17 coins but Brian has only 12 coins). The only company Brian could pick is the MHE. He does so and decides to place an initial bid of 9 coins. 8 coins would have been a legal bid, too, but Brian wanted to prevent Crystal from bidding in the auction from the start. Crystal is next in player order but has only 9 coins so she cannot raise the bid and automatically leaves the auction. Next is Amy. She has enough money to raise the bid. She decides to raise the bid to 11 coins. Now it's back to Brian. He would still be able to raise the bid to 12 coins but he thinks that 12 coins for the MHE is a bit too much. Furthermore, if he leaves now, Amy has won the auction and has to pay the 11 coins she has bid. After that, she won't have enough money to buy the MS, which she would have gotten for face value otherwise because no other player would have had enough money to overbid her. So Brian leaves the auction, Amy pays 11 coins and gets the MHE. A new company is drawn, the BD, which is placed into the offering, but turned vertical. The auction is over now, and the next player to take an action is Crystal (because she is next in player order after Brian, who started the auction). Crystal doesn't have enough money to start an auction. So she has to pass and turns her player order card 90 degrees. In fact, the only company available for auctions is the MS, and none of the players have enough money left to bid for it, so all players have to pass, and the phase ends.

TURN 1, PHASE 2 – WRAP-UP

Redistribute the player order cards according to remaining cash on hand. The player with the most cash left gets position 1, second most gets position 2, and so on. Break ties using the old player order. (In practice, you should first check if there are any ties, break them according to the current distribution of player order cards, and only then start to redistribute the player order cards.)

Example (continuing the example above): After the end of phase 3, both Amy and Crystal have 9 coins left. Brian has 12 coins left. So Brian will be position 1 in the new player order. Amy and Crystal tie for position 2. Since Amy was before Crystal in the old player order (1 vs. 3), she gets position 2, and Crystal keeps position 3.

If there are any companies left that are available for auction, the foreign investor tries to buy them for face value directly (no auction triggered), starting with the company with the lowest face value and then continuing in ascending face value order. If the foreign investor has enough money for the company with the lowest face value, it pays the money to the bank and adds the company to its assets. (Place the company below the foreign investor card. If the foreign investor already owns companies, line them up in a horizontal row.) Then repeat with the company with the next lowest face value, and so on, until the foreign investor doesn't have enough money left.

Whenever the foreign investor buys a company, draw a new one from the deck as if that company had been purchased in an auction.

Usually, it takes a few turns before the foreign investor manages to buy a company. In practice, it is very rare that it buys more than one company per turn.

After the foreign investor is done, turn all companies in the offering horizontal, so that they are available for auctions in phase 1 of the next turn.

TURN 1, PHASE 3 – ACQUISITION

As there are no corporations in the game yet, nothing happens in this phase.

TURN 1, PHASE 4 – CLOSING

In principle, you could close your freshly bought companies already, but it really wouldn't make any sense. So ignore this phase for now.

TURN 1, PHASE 5 – INCOME

The bank pays income to all players and to the foreign investor. Each player adds the income of all their companies and collects the result from the bank. (The income of each company is printed in the circle in the upper right corner of the company card.)

The foreign investor does the same, but always earns an additional +5 coin bonus, regardless of owning any companies (see the circle in the upper right corner of the foreign investor card). Add the foreign investor's income to its treasury to the right of the foreign investor card.

TURN 1, PHASE 6 – DIVIDENDS

Only corporations pay dividends. As you probably have guessed by now, there are no corporations yet, so nothing happens.

TURN 1, PHASE 7 – END CARD

Only once we approach the end of the game, will something happen in this phase. Ignore it for now.

TURN 1, PHASE 8 – ISSUE SHARES

We are nearly there, but at the moment, we still have no corporations in the game. So once again, nothing to see here.

TURN 1, PHASE 9 – IPO

Players that own companies can decide to go public with one or more of them, i.e. convert them into corporations. Only companies owned by players can be converted into corporations (but not companies owned by the foreign investor or by already existing corporations). In descending face value order, the owners of the eligible companies decide if they want to go public or not. If they go public, the whole procedure is completed for that company before the owner of the next company decides.

Example: Amy owns the MS (face value 17 coins) and the KME (5 coins). Brian owns the WT (11 coins) and the BPM (7 coins). Crystal owns the BSE (2 coins). The first company that may go public is the MS. Amy has to decide first, and cannot revise her decision later during the same phase. Once she has decided if the MS goes public (and if so, has performed the required procedure), Brian decides for the WT and then for the BPM. After that, Amy decides for the KME, and finally Crystal decides for the BSE.

The conversion procedure is the following:

1. Pick one of the charter cards that is currently not in use. Together with the pile of shares on top, place it a bit away from your personal assets (it's going to be a public company after all) but still within your reach. (In the unlikely case that there is no unused charter card available, your company cannot be converted. Sorry.) Note that each corporation has a varying amount of shares to issue (from four to seven) and a special ability overriding the normal rules. We'll cover the latter in text boxes next to the rules being overridden.
2. Place the company that is being converted below the charter card.
3. From the share price cards that are currently not in use, choose an eligible starting price for your corporation. The eligible share price cards are those that feature the color of the company being converted in their IPO box. Place the chosen share price card left of the charter card. (That will leave an empty spot in the row of share price cards. Leave it alone, don't move the other share price cards to close the gap.) The share price card determines the current value of each share of the corporation. In turn 2, all privately owned companies are red, so the allowed starting share prices are 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 coins. However, in later turns, players will own differently colored companies, too, which changes the range of eligible starting share prices for those companies. (It is even possible that all eligible share price cards are in use by other corporations. In that case, your company cannot be converted. Sorry.)
4. Now take the first share from the stack of shares (which is the share marked President's Share), turn it face-up, and place it in front of you. That's now your share, which you got in exchange for the company you went public with.
5. As the share you have received has a higher share price than the face value of the company you went public with, you have to pay the difference from your private money into the treasury of the corporation. Place the money to the right of the share price card. (If you don't have enough money to pay the difference, the whole procedure is void and has to be undone. If possible, you can choose a lower share price so that you have enough money to pay the difference between share price and face value of your company. But if not, you cannot convert your company. Sorry once more.)
6. The whole point of going public is to get public investors. So next, you take the second share from the stack, turn it face-up, and put it into the bank. In return, the bank pays the share price into the treasury of the corporation. (This step is mandatory. You cannot opt to not give a share to the bank.)

Example: You go public with the MHE (8 coins face value). You pick the "Prussian Railway" corporation (which has a special ability that is especially helpful for the early red companies, we'll get to that later). As starting share price, you choose 11 coins. You have to pay 3 coins into the treasury of your newly formed corporation. You receive the President's Share of the Prussian Railway in return. The bank receives the second Prussian Railway share and pays 11 coins into the treasury of the corporation. The Prussian Railway corporation consists of the 11-coin share price card, the Prussian Railway charter card with the three remaining shares in the central box, the company card of the MHE, and 14 coins cash in its treasury.

The Second Turn

Congratulations. You have finished your first turn. The second turn is going to become a bit more interesting. Some of the phases won't be ignored any longer, and others get more complex.

TURN 2, PHASE 1 – INVESTMENT

This phase works the same as in turn 1, but now we will add share trading to the mix. There are two more possible actions to choose from: buy one share and sell one share.

Only shares owned by the bank can be bought. (The pile of shares on top of the charter cards cannot be touched in this phase.) If you choose the buy one share action, perform the following steps:

1. Take the desired share from the bank and place it in front of you.
2. Return the share price card of the corresponding corporation to its place in the row of share price cards and replace it by the next higher available share price card. (Usually, that is the next higher card as marked next to the +star symbol in the upper right corner of the share price card. However, if that share price card is in use, you will skip it. It is even possible that many consecutive share price cards are used and the share price of the share you are currently buying jumps up a lot.)
3. Now pay the new share price to the bank. (If you don't have enough money to do so, the whole action is void. Undo everything, and try something else.)

Now re-read the last item in that list and think about the consequences. Like in real share trading, the displayed share price of a corporation is not the price you have to pay if you want to buy one of the shares. It is more like the "last known share price." By buying a share, you are already modifying the system, and you have to pay more than that "last known share price."

After you have bought a share of a corporation you are not the president of, check if you now own more shares of that corporation than the current president. If that is the case, you have managed something like a hostile takeover. You are now the president of that corporation. Exchange the share marked President's Share with any one of your shares of the same corporation. (Shares are basically all the same. The numbering on their back only matters as long as they are still on the stack on top of the charter card. The President's Share, however, is used as a marker for the current president. In all other regards, it's a perfectly normal share.)

Example: You go public with the MHE (8 coins face value). You pick the "Prussian Railway" corporation. Arrange all involved components: the corporation consists of the share price card, the charter card with remaining shares in the central box, subsidiaries lined up below, and the treasury to the right.

If you choose the sell one share action, perform the following steps:

1. Choose one of your shares to sell and place it into the bank. (Only choose the share marked President's Share if it is the last share you own of that corporation.)
2. Return the share price card of the corresponding corporation to its place in the row of share price cards and replace it by the next lower available share price card. (Usually, that is the next lower card as marked next to the –star symbol in the upper left corner of the share price card. However, as before, you will skip missing share price cards.)
3. Now the bank pays you the new share price.

Similar to the situation when buying a share, the displayed share price is not the price you get paid. Like buying, selling a share modifies the system, so you get less money for a share than its "last known value."

Another similarity is that a change of presidency might occur after the transaction: If you are the current president, and you have sold a share, you have to check if now another player (not the bank) owns more shares of that corporation than you. That player exchanges one of their shares of that corporation with the share marked President's Share (which might still be owned by you, or it is owned by the bank if you have just sold it as your last share of that corporation). In the case where more than one player is tied for the most shares, the player that is following you closer in player order becomes the president.

Example: The player order is Crystal: 1, Amy: 2, Brian: 3. Stars, Inc. has three shares issued. (That cannot be the case in turn 2, only in later turns, you'll see.) Amy is the president and owns the President's Share. Crystal and Brian each own one of the other two shares. It's Amy's turn to take one action. She decides to sell one "Stars, Inc." share, following the procedure above. After that, both, Crystal and Brian own more shares each than Amy. As they are tied, the player order decides who becomes the new president. Amy is followed by Brian, and Brian is followed by Crystal (remember, the player order is cyclic, the last player is followed by the first). So Brian is following Amy closer than Crystal and becomes the new president. He takes the President's Share from the bank and places his own share into the bank in exchange. Now Brian owns the President's Share, and Crystal and the bank own one share each. Amy no longer owns a Stars, Inc. share.

But what happens if you, as the president, sell your last share (the one marked President's Share), and no other player owns any shares of the corporation? Or in other words: What happens if the bank owns all issued shares of a corporation? In that special case, the corporation goes into receivership, which is covered in detail in the Receivership section.

TURN 2, PHASE 2 – WRAP-UP

This phase works exactly the same as in turn 1.

There might still be an ambiguous situation if more than one corporation wants to buy the same company from the foreign investor. In that case, the corporation with the higher share price card has priority. In practice, whenever a corporation wants to buy a company from the foreign investor, its president has to announce the intention. At that time, pause the game for a short while and ask each president of a corporation with a higher share price if they want to intervene and buy that company immediately itself. If more than one corporation wants to intervene, again the one with higher share price has priority. If no corporation intervenes, the announcing corporation must now buy the company (i.e. no fake announcements allowed).

The special ability of the Overseas Trading corporation affects the interaction with the foreign investor. Overseas Trading always has first priority (as if its share price is higher than any other), and Overseas Trading only pays face value rather than the maximum allowed price.

TURN 2, PHASE 3 – ACQUISITION

In this phase, corporations may buy companies. Only corporations may buy, but they may buy from players, the foreign investor, and even other corporations (but not from the offering of companies available for auctions – those are only available for players in phase 1, and for the foreign investor in phase 2). In phase 3, players and the foreign investor only sell companies, never buy.

This is the first time where the presidency of a corporation becomes relevant. The president of a corporation decides on behalf of the corporation. It might easily happen that both sides of a deal are actually controlled by the same player. If you (as a player) own a company and you are at the same time the president of a corporation, there is nothing wrong if you (as a player) agree with yourself (as the president of the corporation) that the corporation will buy your company for a price you agree on with yourself.

In every single transaction, exactly one company is bought. Buyer and seller have to agree on a price within the price span printed on the company card. This price span is inclusive, e.g. the allowed prices for the KME with 5-coin face value and price span of "(3-7)" are 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 coins. The buying corporation must be able to pay the price from its treasury. (You cannot pay with other means, or buy "bundles." It's always one company for an allowed amount of cash.)

Any number of transactions might happen during the phase, in any desired order, even concurrently. Think of a marketplace. Buyers and sellers find each other at will, by announcing their offers to whomever they want, negotiating in all directions. And once a buyer and a seller agree on a deal, they make it happen. The phase goes on until no transactions are happening any longer.

There are some restrictions, though:

• Every coin and every company may only be part of one single transaction in the whole phase. The money that has been paid is turned vertical, as well as the company that has been handed over, to mark those components as "in flight." They cannot be part of another transaction in the same phase. Once the phase is over, you can turn them all horizontal again. They have "arrived" by then and can be used normally. (If you use poker chips instead of the cardboard money provided with the game, you'll find it hard to recognize chips that have been "turned vertical." Instead, place the chips used in a transaction on top of the stack of unissued shares.)
• At any time, each corporation must own at least one subsidiary company. You can never completely "empty" a corporation. This one company might very well be a company turned vertical. For example, a corporation that owns only one subsidiary company in the beginning of the phase could first buy another company (which is thereby turned vertical) and then sell the company it originally owned. There is no hierarchy of subsidiary companies within a corporation. The company a corporation owned when it was formed has no special status within the corporation.

A special case is the foreign investor, as nobody controls it and its decisions. The foreign investor will happily sell any company it owns, but only for the maximum allowed price. The money it receives if it sells a company goes into its treasury and is available to be used in phase 2 of later turns.

Several corporations have special abilities that affect the income (see boxes). Take them into account when calculating their income.

The Prussian Railway corporation (not to be confused with the PR company) receives +1 coin for each company it owns.

The Doppler AG corporation doubles the printed income of its best company.

The Synergistic corporation receives +1 coin for every two synergy markers it owns (rounded down).

The bank pays the total income of a corporation (base income plus synergy bonuses plus any applicable bonus from special abilities) into its treasury. For large corporations, it makes sense to track the income on a sheet of paper so that you don't have to calculate the total income again each turn.

TURN 2, PHASE 4 – CLOSING

As in turn 1, it rarely makes sense to close companies so early in the game. Keep ignoring this phase.

TURN 2, PHASE 5 – INCOME

For players and the foreign investor, this phase works exactly the same as in turn 1. The new thing is that corporations, too, collect income.

Their base income is calculated in the same way as for players and the foreign investor. Just add up all the income of the individual subsidiary companies of a corporation. However, corporations (and only corporations!) have the ability to generate bonus income from synergies.

A pair of companies that are subsidiaries of the same corporation and have each other's abbreviation printed on their company card (within a circle on the one side of the pair and within a diamond on the other), generates the bonus income printed next to the circle or diamond. All pairs you can find within a corporation generate bonus income, but each pair generates the bonus only once. Use synergy markers to track the bonuses. For each pair, place a corresponding synergy marker on the circle only (but not on the diamond). To easily find all existing pairs, sort the companies in descending face value order from left to right. Then start with the leftmost company and check all the company abbreviations surrounded by circles. No need to check diamonds. Then repeat the procedure with the second leftmost company etc. You only ever have to look to the right. The companies left of the one you are checking have already been checked. So you have to look at fewer and fewer companies. The rightmost company will never receive a synergy token.

Example: The Synergistic corporation in the figure above consists of the DSB, the MS, the BPM, and the BSE. Its base income is 5 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 11 coins. The DSB pairs with the MS, yielding +2 coins. The MS pairs with both the BPM and the BSE for +1 coin each. Finally, the BPM pairs with the BSE for +1 coin. The synergies add up to +5 coins (note the synergy markers). Finally, the special ability grants another +2 coins income for four synergy markers. Thus, the total income is 11 + 5 + 2 = 18 coins.

You can see here how the synergies model a network: Both the BPM and the BSE historically started in Berlin. The MS is the state railroad of Mecklenburg, a German state north of and not far from Berlin. So it connects to the two Berliner railroad companies. The DSB, in turn, is the state railroad of Denmark, which is north of Germany, and relatively close to Mecklenburg. So MS and DSB can connect their networks for mutual benefit. The Synergistic corporation has developed into an international northern European railroad trust.

TURN 2, PHASE 6 – DIVIDENDS

Starting with the corporation with the highest share price card, and then continuing in descending share price order, each corporation pays a dividend (which is chosen by the president and can be as low as 0 coins) and then adjusts its share price.

For each corporation, the president performs the following steps:

1. The top card of the stack of shares on your charter card (or the charter card itself if all stacks have been issued) tells you how many shares you have issued. You will have to pay dividends to each of those shares. So keep that number in mind.
2. On your share price card, you see the maximum possible dividend per share. Obviously, the corporation's treasury must have enough money to pay the dividends. If you have three shares issued and 8 coins in the treasury, the maximum dividend per share is 2 coins, even if the share price card allows more. The minimum dividend is 0 coins (you can call that "not paying a dividend," it doesn't make a difference). Pick a dividend in this range, and pay it from the corporation's treasury to the owner of each share (which might be yourself — this time as a player, not a president — another player, or the bank).
3. Now count the "stars" of the corporation: Add the number of star symbols you see on each company card owned by the corporation. Every full 10 coins in cash adds another star. The latter is hinted at by star symbols on the money pieces: one star on the 10-coin piece and two stars on the 20-coin piece. However, also smaller cash counts stars as long as it adds up to 10 coins per star.
4. Take your share price card and look at the bottom half. Find the number of stars corresponding to the number of issued shares and compare it to the number of stars you have just counted to find your new share price card. If the two numbers are equal, nothing happens and you keep your old share price card. If you have counted one fewer star than printed on the share price card, your new share price card is "one down," i.e. it is the share price next to the –star symbol in the upper left corner of the share price card. Correspondingly, if you have counted one more star than printed on the share price card, your new share price card is "one up," i.e. it is the share price next to the +star symbol in the upper right corner of the share price card. If you have counted two or more stars fewer or more than printed on the share price card, your new share price is "double down" or "double up," respectively, i.e. it is the share price next to the –★★ or +★★ symbol in the upper left or right corner, respectively. Return your old share price card to its spot in the row of share price cards and take your new share price card from the row. If your new share price card is currently in use by another corporation, find the next available share price card in the direction of the price change (– means "to the left" and + means "to the right").
5. Turn your new share price card vertical (to mark that you have gone through this whole procedure). If you kept your old share price card, still turn it vertical.

Example: Imagine the same corporation as in the previous example. It has three shares issued, a current share price of 22 coins, and after paying dividends, it has 21 coins left in its treasury. Its "star count" is therefore 3 (for the DSB) + 2 (for the MS) + 1 (for the BPM) + 1 (for the BSE) + 2 (for 21 coins cash) = 9 stars. With three shares issued, the share price card asks for 7 stars. Since you have counted two more, the new share price is 27 coins, as marked in the upper right corner next to the double arrow. If the 27-coin share price card is not available, the next higher available share price card must be taken. Note that the location of the 24-coin share price card doesn't matter here. A "double up" doesn't mean to go up two available share price cards. Always find the target share price first, and then start to "leapfrog" up or down from there on. (If the corporation had only 2 coins less cash, its star count would be 8, and the new share price would be only 24 coins. If the corporations had less than 10 coins cash, its star count would be only 7, and the share price would stay the same.)

The Stars, Inc. corporation always adds two additional stars to its star count, as hinted at by the +★★ symbol on its charter card.

TURN 2, PHASE 7 – END CARD

We are still not close enough to the end of the game to see anything happening in this phase. Keep ignoring it.

TURN 2, PHASE 8 – ISSUE SHARES

Finally, corporations have the opportunity to issue new shares. After going public, this is the only phase where the stack of shares on the charter card is touched and more shares enter the market.

Again in decreasing share price order (starting with the corporation with the highest share price card), the president of each corporation decides if the corporation issues one share or no shares. (A corporation cannot issue more than one share in this phase.) In any case, the share price card is turned horizontal afterwards to mark that the corporation has had the opportunity to issue a share.

Issuing a share works very similarly to selling a share. Perform the following steps for the corporation that issues a share:

1. Take the top-most share from the pile of unissued shares on the corporation's charter card, turn it face-up, and put it into the bank. (If there are no shares left, i.e. all shares have already been issued, you cannot issue more shares. Sorry.)
2. Return the corporation's share price card to its place in the row of share price cards and replace it with the next lower available share price card. (Usually, that is the next lower card as marked next to the –star symbol in the upper left corner of the share price card. However, as before, you will skip missing share price cards.)
3. Now the bank pays the new share price into the corporation's treasury.

When the Stock Masters corporation issues a share, its share price does not change. It simply receives the current share price from the bank after placing a share into the bank pool.

TURN 2, PHASE 9 – IPO

In general, this phase works the same as in turn 1. However, with the more valuable companies that have entered the game by now, you will sooner or later go public with a company whose face value matches or even exceeds the initial share price. In case the share price matches the face value, you simply don't have to pay anything into the corporation's treasury. The share you get has precisely the value of the company you have given up, so you are all set. But what if the share price is lower than the face value of the company going public? Very simple: Take two shares rather than one. Start with the President's Share as usual, and then take and turn face-up one additional share. After that, pay the difference between the doubled share price and the face value of the company into the treasury of the corporation as usual. In this case, you also put two shares face-up into the bank. Of course, the bank now pays twice the share price into the corporation's treasury. You always end up with half of the issued shares in your possession and the other half in the bank.

Example 1: You go public with the BY (face value 12 coins). You choose a share price of 12 coins. You receive one share (the President's Share) and pay nothing. The bank gets another share and pays 12 coins into the treasury of the new corporation. The corporation ends up with two shares issued and 12 coins in its treasury.

Example 2: You go public with the BY (face value 12 coins). You choose a share price of 11 coins. You take the President's Share, but its value is not sufficient to match the face value of the BY. So you take another share. Now you have two shares with a total value of 22 coins. You pay 10 coins from your cash into the treasury of the new corporation. The bank gets two shares, too, and pays 22 coins into the treasury. The corporation ends up with four shares issued and 32 coins in its treasury.

Example 3: You go public with the CDG (face value 60 coins). You choose a share price of 30 coins (a share price that is only allowed for green and blue companies, but fortunately the CDG is a blue company). You take two shares. Their value matches the face value of the CDG, so you don't have to pay anything. The bank gets two shares, too, and pays 60 coins. The corporation ends up with four shares issued and 60 coins in its treasury.

The Remaining Turns

We are almost there. You only have to learn a few more things, which become relevant later in the game.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 1 – INVESTMENT

Nothing really changes here compared to previous turns. However, we have to deal with a few special cases:

• After selling a share, the new share price might be 0 coins. In that case, the corporation is declared bankrupt and removed from the game. Follow the instructions on the 0-coin share price card. Note that shares and charter cards are "recycled," i.e. they may later be used to form new corporations. However, the "recycled" shares have nothing to do with the old bankrupt corporation. The bankrupt corporation is gone for good, without compensation.
• After buying a share, the new share price might be 75 coins. In that case, the game ends after the buy action has been completed (i.e. you still have to pay the 75 coins for the share you have just bought, but after that, the game is over). Read on in section Game End and Scoring to learn how to determine the winner.
• Eventually, the deck of companies will run out. The last card in the deck is the game end card. It is never drawn and just stays where it is. If you cannot draw a company after an auction, just skip that step. The offering will contain one fewer company whenever that happens.
• Eventually, there will be no companies left in the offering. From that point on, the action start an auction cannot be chosen any longer.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 2 – WRAP-UP

This phase works the same as in previous turns throughout the game. However, as described in the previous section, the deck of companies will run out eventually. If you cannot draw a company after the foreign investor has bought one, just don't draw one, thereby reducing the number of companies in the offering by one. If there are no companies left in the offering either, you can stop tracking the money of the foreign investor. There is nothing left to buy anyway.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 3 – ACQUISITION

This phase works exactly the same as in turn 2 throughout the game.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 4 – CLOSING

As you will see in the next section, later in the game, a cost of ownership will apply to certain companies. You might find yourself (or your corporation) in a situation where you want to get rid of one or more companies. In this phase, you can remove any number of your privately owned companies from the game. Essentially, you can do the same for the companies owned by corporations you control. However, a corporation has to retain at least one subsidiary company at any time.

If your total income from your privately owned companies in the following phase 5 (see next section) will be negative and you don't have enough money to pay for it, you must close enough companies in this phase to be able to pay for your losses (or get rid of the losses altogether). In other words: As a player, you cannot drive yourself into bankruptcy. Corporations on the other hand may in fact be driven into bankruptcy, but it is uncommon.

As in phase 3, the players act in no particular order. They simply close companies as they see fit, and once nobody wishes to close a company any longer, the phase ends.

The foreign investor acts automatically in this phase: For each of its companies, check the income of the company including cost of ownership (see next section) and close the company if it has a negative income. (An income of 0 coins is fine.)

Whenever the Junkyard Scrappers corporation closes a company, it immediately receives twice the printed income of that company as a scrapping bonus.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 5 – INCOME

The income calculation works the same as before, but at some point in the game, you will have to deduct a cost of ownership. Refer to the back of the top-most card of the deck of (not yet drawn) companies. Starting with the green cards, it will show a central rectangle with a cost of ownership. Each company matching any of the colors in the rectangle suffers the cost of ownership printed on the card, i.e. its income is reduced, possibly becoming negative. Each player and each corporation first add up the income of all their companies, and only then they receive or pay the total income (if it is positive or negative, respectively). A player will always be able to pay their negative income (because they were required to close companies to make sure of that, see previous section). However, a corporation might not be able to pay its negative income. In that case, it goes bankrupt. Treat it the same as if it has just reached share price 0 coins.

The stars printed on the cost of ownership correlate to the colors and serve no game purpose except as an aid for color blind players.

Once all company cards have been drawn from the deck, the game end card is visible. With regard to cost of ownership, it is treated the same as the central rectangle on the company cards.

Example: Again we use the Synergistic corporation in the same state as in the previous example. We calculated an income of 18 coins. That was without cost of ownership yet. If the top face-down card of the deck is a green one, each red company has a cost of ownership of 2 coins. Synergistic would earn 2 coins less per red company it owns. So it would earn 4 coins less, its income would be 14 coins. Once the top-most company of the deck is a blue one, each red and orange company earns 4 coins less. Synergistic would only earn 18 – 3×4 = 6 coins. Its president might be tempted to close the two red companies. Let's do the math: After that, the Synergistic would only own the DSB and the MS. That's 5 + 3 coins base income, 2 coins for the synergy between the two, nothing anymore for Synergistic's special ability (only one marker doesn't yield a bonus), and finally a deduction of 4 coins cost of ownership for the orange MS. Again, we arrive at 6 coins total income. Since closing the red companies reduces the star count of Synergistic, it's usually a better deal to not close them yet.

Once all companies have been drawn, the front-side of the game ending card becomes visible. From now on, each yellow, orange, and red company has a cost of ownership of 7 coins. Our Synergistic corporation would earn 4×7 = 28 coins less than the unmodified income. In total, it now makes 10 coins in losses. Even if it closed all but the best company (DSB), it would still make 2 coins in losses per turn. In the last turn of the game (see the Phase 7 section below), the game end card may be flipped, and the cost of ownership will not only be much higher, it will even affect green companies. (Luckily, it will only last one turn.)

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 6 – DIVIDENDS

Once more, nothing really changes here compared to previous turns, but eventually, you might run into one of the following special cases:

• After adjusting the share price, the new share price might be 0 coins. In that case, the corporation goes bankrupt and the same procedure is triggered as described for phase 1 above. (Note that paying dividends happens first. It's perfectly legal to pay a dividend only to drop to 0 coins and go bankrupt right after the shareholders have safely received their dividends.)
• After adjusting the share price, the new share price might be 75 coins. In that case, the game does not end immediately. The phase continues, and only in the subsequent phase 7 the game will be declared over. Should it happen that other corporations reach 75 coins, too, those corporations don't take a new share price card. They only return their old one. The shares of a corporation without a share price card have a share price of 75 coins.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 7 – END CARD

Eventually, something will happen in this phase.

First you have to check if the 75-coin share price card is held by a company. If so, the game ends immediately. Read on in section Game End and Scoring to learn how to determine the winner.

If the 75-coin share price card is not in use, check if there are still companies available for auctions in the offering. If not, flip the game end card (which will increase the cost of ownership). Once you reach phase 7 the next time, the game ends. (In other words: If at the start of phase 7, the game end card is already flipped, the game ends in the same way as if the 75-coin share price card were in use.) Again, section Game End and Scoring below tells you how to determine the winner.

While the game end card is flipped (i.e. during the last turn of the game), the game might still end in phase 1 as described in the Phase 1 section above.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 8 – ISSUE SHARES

This phase works exactly the same as in previous turns throughout the game. But note that issuing a share is another way to lower the share price to 0 coins, which will trigger bankruptcy as described in the Phase 1 section above.

REMAINING TURNS, PHASE 9 – IPO

This phase works exactly the same as in previous turns throughout the game.

Game End and Scoring

As described above, there are three ways the game may end:

• If a corporation takes the 75-coin share price card during a buy one share action in phase 1, the game ends immediately after that action is completed.
• If the 75-coin share price card is in use during phase 7, the game ends.
• If phase 7 starts with the game end card already flipped, the game ends.

For the final ranking of players, add the value of everything each player owns:

• Their cash.
• The face value of each company they own.
• The current share price of each share they own.

Cash and companies owned by corporations are irrelevant for determining final scores.

If there is a tie, break it by player order (lower number in player order wins over higher number).

Receivership

For as long as all issued shares of a corporation are owned by the bank, that corporation is in receivership. Players should turn over the charter of a corporation in receivership to mark this. The back of the player aid lists the rules that now apply to the corporation. Essentially, the corporation is now run by a receiver (who does not always act very smart). The following are the rules in a bit more detail than on the receivership card:

Phase 1: The first player that buys a share of a corporation in receivership must pick the share marked President's Share and immediately becomes the new president, thereby ending receivership.

Phase 3: Corporations in receivership are very eager to buy from the foreign investor. However, in most cases, they don't have enough cash. In practical terms, you should check right at the beginning of phase 3 if any corporation in receivership is able to buy a company from the foreign investor at all. If that's the case, start with the most expensive eligible company and pretend that the receiver has just announced the intention to buy the company. Then follow the usual rules of intervention and priorities (including the special ability of the Overseas Trading corporation). Repeat with the less expensive companies until no companies are eligible anymore.

Phase 4: Similar to the foreign investor, the receiver tries to close companies that make losses. However, since synergies might be generated by corporations, even in receivership, only close red companies if the cost of ownership is at least 4 coins per company, and only close orange companies if the cost of ownership is at least 7 coins per company. Never close yellow, green, or blue companies. If, following these rules, the corporation needed to close all its companies, keep the one with the highest face value. (Note that these rules won't always do the "right" thing. Companies might be closed that are still profitable, and unprofitable companies might stay open. As said, the receiver is not very smart.)

Phase 5: A corporation in receivership may go bankrupt as normal if it cannot pay for its negative income.

Phase 6: The dividend of a corporation in receivership is always 0 coins.

Phase 8: A corporation in receivership will always issue a share if at all possible, even if it goes bankrupt by doing so.

Corporation Special Ability Summary

• Overseas Trading always has first priority trading with the foreign investor (as if its share price is higher than any other), and Overseas Trading only pays face value rather than the maximum allowed price.
• The Prussian Railway corporation receives +1 coin for each company it owns.
• The Doppler AG corporation doubles the printed income of its best company.
• Synergistic receives +1 coin for every two synergy markers it owns (rounded down).
• The Stars, Inc. corporation always adds two additional stars to its star count.
• When the Stock Masters corporation issues a share, its share price does not change.
• Whenever the Junkyard Scrappers corporation closes a company, it immediately receives twice the printed income of that company as a scrapping bonus.
• The Vintage Machinery corporation reduces its cost of ownership by up to 10 coins (but not below 0).

Easily Missed or Misunderstood Rules

The following list of things beginners often get wrong might prove helpful in your first couple of games. It is in approximate order of frequency, most common issues first.

Synergies are only possible within a corporation. Companies owned directly by a player or by the foreign investor never ever receive synergy bonuses. When counting synergies, count every pair only once. If A synergizes with B, then B will always synergize with A, too. You still get the bonus only once.

Pass and leaving an auction both happen during phase 1, but are entirely different things. Pass is an action you may take when it's your turn to perform one action. If you do that, you basically do nothing. If all players pass consecutively, phase 1 is over. But if any of the others take a non-pass action, you will have another turn, and when it's your turn again, you may (and must) choose a new action (which might be pass again, but any other legal action is eligible, too). In other words: Passing doesn't prevent you from taking another action later. In contrast, if you leave an auction, you have left the auction for good. You may not bid in the same auction ever again. Strictly speaking, leaving an auction is not an action at all. It happens as a sub-step during an auction, which is triggered by any player's start an auction action.

After an auction, keep in mind that the last player that performed an action is the player that started the auction (not the player that won the auction). So the next player performing an action will be the one next in player order to the player that has started the auction.

Keep all assets next to their respective owner (players, corporations, foreign investor, bank) and clearly separated from others.

It is very tempting to think of the share price cards you see on the table as the price you have to pay to buy a share (or the price the bank will pay you if you sell a share). However, you have to pay the next higher available share price (and for selling, you will be paid the next lower available share price). You can see the next regular share prices in the corners of the share price cards next to the –star and +star symbols, but remember that cards that are already in use are skipped, so the relevant price may be even higher (or lower, in case you sell).

Newly drawn companies are not available for auction in the same turn. They have to wait until next turn. (Even the foreign investor cannot buy them in phase 2 of the same turn.)

Never ever use any coin or any company twice in phase 3. Don't forget to turn vertical the companies and the money used. Execute each transaction separately. Things like "Vintage Machinery buys MHE for 8 coins from Junkyard Scrappers, and at the same time Junkyard Scrappers buys the BPM from Vintage Machinery for 8 coins, too, so we just swap companies and no money" don't work. First transfer one of the companies (let's say the MHE) and pay the money (and turn both vertical), then do the same with the other company (the BPM), pay the money (which must not be the money already turned vertical), and turn them both vertical.

Never transfer any assets (money, shares, companies) in a way not explicitly allowed by the rules. You can't sponsor your corporations, you can't "steal" from the treasury of your corporations, you can't give money or companies to other players, not even as a gift, etc.

The cost of ownership is defined solely by the back of the top-most card in the deck of unrevealed company cards (or, if the deck has run out, by the game end card left behind). Once a company card has been drawn, it will never be flipped back again and its back is irrelevant for the rest of the game.

Canonical Rules

These are the complete and canonical rules. However, they are meant as a reference and the ultimate "source of truth" and are written in an extremely condensed and formal way. They should not be used to learn the game.

Terms starting with capital letters are explained in the Glossary or in the Procedures section at the end of the rules.

Setup

Each Player receives 30 coins from the Bank, a turn summary, and a random player order card, thus determining the initial Player Order. In a 6-player game, each Player receives only 25 coins. Set aside the Shares in eight separate face-down stacks, one for each Corporation, sorted with the President's Share on top, followed by ascending numbers on the back of the Shares. Add the corresponding charter card to the bottom of each stack. Those stacks are available to form Corporations in phase 9. Lay out the share price cards in a Row, in ascending order from left to right. Place the foreign investor card on the table. The Foreign Investor receives 4 coins from the Bank. Build the Deck of Companies in the following way: Place the game end card at the bottom of the Deck with the 7-coin cost-of-ownership side up. Find the Company with the highest Face Value for each color. (The abbreviations of those Companies are printed red or yellow instead of black for easier identification.) Start one face-down stack per color with those Companies. Shuffle the remaining Companies separately by color and, without revealing them, add a number of Companies to each stack that corresponds to the number of Players, with the following exceptions: In a 4-player game, add 5 orange Companies; in a 5-player game, add 7 orange Companies; in a 6-player game, add all Companies of all colors. Remove all remaining Companies from the game (without revealing them). Shuffle each stack. Add the blue Companies to the Deck on top of the game end card. Then add the green Companies to the top of the Deck, then the yellow Companies, then the orange Companies, and finally the red Companies. Place the Deck in the middle of the table. Draw and reveal a number of Companies equal to the number of Players. The drawn Companies are available for future Auctions. Start the first turn of the game.

Game Sequence

The game is played in a series of turns. Each turn is divided into the following phases (in that order):

Phase 1: Investment. In Player Order, Players choose one of the following actions: Buy One Share, Sell One Share, Start An Auction, or pass. After a Player has passed, their player order card is turned vertical. After each non-pass action, it is turned horizontal. As soon as all player order cards are turned vertical, the phase ends.

Phase 2: Wrap-up. Determine the new Player Order by descending remaining Money. Ties are broken by the old Player Order. Turn all player order cards horizontal and redistribute them between Players to indicate the new Player Order. In ascending Face Value Order, the Foreign Investor buys as many of the remaining available Companies as possible, paying Face Value. For each Company bought in that way, draw and reveal a new one from the deck and mark it as unavailable by turning it vertical. Once the Foreign Investor cannot buy any more Companies, all unavailable Companies become available for future Auctions. Turn their cards horizontal.

Phase 3: Acquisition. In Any Order, Corporations buy Companies from other Corporations, Players, or the Foreign Investor. Each transaction is executed separately and involves exactly one Company, which is transferred from the selling Entity to the buying Corporation, and the Money paid, which is transferred from the buying Corporation to the selling Entity. A transaction only takes place if both Entities involved agree on a price within the allowed price span printed on the company card. The transferred Company and Money are turned vertical until the end of this phase and cannot be used for further transactions. (Turn them back horizontal after the phase has ended. A Company turned vertical may be the only Company a Corporation owns.) The Foreign Investor only sells at the maximum allowed price, and the intention to buy a specific company from the Foreign Investor must be announced before executing the transaction. Any Corporation with a higher Share Price and enough Money available may then immediately intervene and buy the desired Company itself. If more than one eligible Corporation wants to intervene, the one with the highest Share Price has priority. If there is no intervention, the announcing Corporation must buy the specified Company. Corporations in Receivership never sell Companies and only buy from the Foreign Investor, which is handled right in the beginning of the phase in the following way: The Corporation in Receivership with the highest Share Price tries to buy the most expensive Company it can afford. Corporations not in Receivership may intervene as usual. Repeat until the Corporation cannot afford to buy any more Companies from the Foreign Investor. Then repeat the whole procedure for the Corporation in Receivership that has the next highest Share Price until all Corporations in Receivership are taken care of. During the whole phase, the Overseas Trading Corporation is considered to have the highest Share Price and pays only Face Value for Companies bought from the Foreign Investor.

Phase 4: Closing. In Any Order, Players and Corporations may close Companies by removing them from the game. If Players will have a negative total income in phase 5, they must close a sufficient number of Companies with negative income to be able to pay for it. The Foreign Investor closes Companies whose Cost Of Ownership exceeds their Income. Corporations in Receivership close red Companies if the Cost Of Ownership is at least 4 coins and close orange Companies if the Cost Of Ownership is at least 7 coins but always keep the Company with the highest Face Value. The Junkyard Scrappers Corporation immediately receives twice the printed income for each Company it closes. Other Corporations receive nothing for closing a Company.

Phase 5: Income. Players, Corporations, and the Foreign Investor Collect Income.

Phase 6: Dividends. In Share Price Order, Corporations Pay Dividends, Adjust their Share Price, and turn their share price card vertical. Corporations in Receivership pay a dividend of 0 coins.

Phase 7: End card. If there are no unowned Companies left, flip the game end card. If it is already flipped, or if the 75-coin share price card is owned by a Corporation, the game ends.

Phase 8: Issue share. In Share Price Order, each Corporation may Issue One Share. Then it turns its share price card horizontal (whether it has issued a share or not). Corporations in Receivership Issue One Share if they have any left.

Phase 9: IPO. In descending Face Value Order, private Companies may Form Corporations.

Repeat the turn sequence until the game ends in phase 1 or phase 7. Then calculate each Player's total value by summing up the Face Value of each of their private Companies, the Share Price of each of their Shares, and their Money. Rank Players according to the calculated value (highest value wins), breaking ties by Player Order (lowest Player Order wins).

Glossary

Any Order. During a phase executed in any order, Players act (for themselves or as Presidents on behalf of Corporations) whenever and as often as they wish, even concurrently or alternating with other Players. They may wait for other Players' actions but when nobody has acted for a reasonable amount of time, the phase ends.

Bank. An Entity whose actions are entirely determined by the rules. Owns an unlimited amount of Money and all issued Shares that are not owned by Players.

Company. Represented by company cards. Companies start the game face-down in the Deck. Eventually, each company in the Deck is drawn and revealed. Newly drawn companies are unavailable at first but become available (for Auctions) as instructed by the rules. A company is unowned until Auctioned to a Player (in phase 1) or sold to the Foreign Investor (in phase 2), which turns it into a private company, owned by the Player or the Foreign Investor, respectively. It may later be bought by a Corporation (in phase 3) or used to Form a Corporation (in phase 9). In both cases, it becomes a subsidiary company. After that, it can be traded between Corporations (in a later phase 3) but can never become a private company again.

Corporation. A Corporation owns one or more Companies (never zero), zero or more coins, and a charter card with their logo, name, and a short description of their special ability. Stacked on top of that card are the unissued Shares of the corporation. A corporation usually owns a share price card defining its Share Price. Depending on the corporation, there are 4 to 7 shares assigned to each corporation. At most 8 corporations may exist simultaneously.

Cost of Ownership. Defined by the top card of the Deck. Deducted from the income of each Company matching any of the colors in the central rectangle of the top card. If the top card is the game end card, a match with any color displayed by the card triggers the cost.

Deck. Contains the cards of unrevealed Companies and (at the bottom) the game end card. The back of the top company card displays the current Cost of Ownership. Once all Companies have been drawn, the deck contains only the game end card for the rest of the game. The game end card is never drawn (but flipped eventually), and whichever face is up defines the Cost of Ownership.

Entity. Each Player, each Corporation, the Foreign Investor, and the Bank is an entity. Entities own the various assets (Money, Shares, Companies), which may only be transferred between entities according to the rules. Arrange the game components on the table in a way that clearly marks ownership. All assets are open for inspection by any Player at any time.

Face Value. A Company has a unique face value printed on its card.

Face Value Order. Defines the order of Companies. The Company with the highest Face Value is first in descending face value order, but last in ascending face value order.

Foreign Investor. An Entity whose actions are entirely determined by the rules. Owns zero or more coins and zero or more Companies.

Money. Measured in units of coins. Only integer coin amounts of money are possible.

Player. Owns zero or more coins, zero or more Companies and zero or more Shares. May become the President of any number of Corporations.

Player Order. Marked by player order cards, starting with card 1, followed by the other cards in ascending order. However, the player order is cyclic and infinite. The Player with the highest player order card is followed by the Player with card 1, and the player order starts over.

President. The president of a Corporation is the Player owning that Corporation's President's Share. That Player acts on behalf of the Corporation. A Change of Presidency may occur during share trading. If the Bank owns the President's Share, the Corporation is in Receivership.

Receivership. If all issued Shares of a Corporation are owned by the Bank, the Corporation is in receivership. Its actions are entirely determined by the rules until receivership ends, which happens if a Player buys a Share of the Corporation from the Bank. The bought Share must be the one marked President's Share, and the buying Player becomes the new President.

Row. The row of share price cards. For practical reasons, often laid out in multiple rows. Logically, it is still one long row of share price cards in ascending order, from left to right. When a share price card is taken by a Corporation, do not move other cards to fill the gap. Whenever a share price card is returned to the row, return it to its old spot.

Share. Represented by share cards featuring the logo of the Corporation they are assigned to. Issued shares are owned by either Players or the Bank. Unissued shares are placed on top of the charter card of the corresponding Corporation, facedown. Shares are numbered on their back. Numbers are only significant for unissued shares (as the number of issued shares needs to be tracked). If a share is removed from the stack of unissued shares, always take the top one. Each Corporation has one share marked President's Share, which is used to track who the President is.

Share Price. Current value of each of the Shares of a Corporation. Usually marked by a share price card placed next to the other assets of the Corporation. A Corporation without a share price card has a share price of 75 coins.

Share Price Order. Defines the order of Corporations. Always descending, i.e. highest share price first.

Synergy. A bonus income for Corporations (only). For each pair of Companies owned by the same Corporation that have each other's code printed as one of their synergies, add the marked coin amount. Add this amount only once per pair. To facilitate synergy calculation, place a matching synergy marker on the circle with the other company's code (but not on the diamond).

Procedures

Procedures are atomic. If any part of a procedure cannot be executed, the whole procedure cannot be executed.

Adjust Share Price. On the share price card of the acting Corporation, find the number of required stars corresponding to the number of issued Shares. Calculate the number of owned stars by summing up all stars printed on Companies owned by the Corporation and adding another star for every 10 coins owned by the Corporation. The Corporation Stars, Inc. adds two additional stars to the result. If the numbers of required and owned stars are equal, the Share Price does not change and the procedure is complete. If the number of owned stars is at least two lower, exactly one lower, exactly one higher, or at least two higher than the number of required stars, then the target Share Price can be found on the share price card next to the –★★, –★, +★, or +★★ symbols, respectively. Take the matching share price card. If it is not available, take the next available share price card further down (for a dropping Share Price) or up (for a rising Share Price). Return the old share price card to the Row. If you end up taking the 0-coin share price card, continue with Going Bankrupt. If you have to take the next higher available share price card but there is no higher share price card available, do not take any share price card.

Auction. A Player starting an auction chooses one of the available Companies and bids at least its Face Value. In Player Order (following the Player that started the auction), Players may raise the bid or leave the auction. Players that have left the auction are skipped for the remainder of that same auction. Bids are coin amounts and may not exceed the Money owned by the bidding Player. Once all but one Player have left the auction, the remaining Player pays their bid to the Bank and receives the Company. If the Deck contains at least one company card, draw and reveal the top card and turn it vertical. The newly drawn Company is unavailable for later auctions during the same phase. After the auction, the next regular action of phase 1 is taken by the next Player in Player Order following the Player that started the auction.

Buy One Share. Shares may be bought from the Bank. The acting Player takes one Share from the Bank. (If the corresponding corporation is in Receivership, the Share must be the one marked President's Share.) The corresponding Corporation returns its share price card to the Row and gains the next higher available share price card. The Player pays the new Share Price to the bank. Check for Change of Presidency. If the new Share Price is 75 coins, the game ends immediately after payment.

Change of Presidency. If at any time one or more Players own more Shares of any given Corporation than the current President of that Corporation, the next Player in Player Order (after the current President) that owns more Shares of that Corporation than the current President becomes the new President and exchanges one of their own Shares of that Corporation with the Share of that corporation that is marked President's Share.

Collect Income. Each company has an income printed on the company card. This income is reduced by the Cost of Ownership of that Company. Each Entity adds up the results for all Companies it owns. The Foreign Investor also adds 5 coins. A Corporation also adds the Synergy between its companies. Some Corporations benefit from additional income bonuses: Prussian Railway adds 1 coin per Company it owns; Doppler AG doubles the printed income of its Company with the highest Face Value; Synergistic adds 1 coin for every two of its synergy markers; Vintage Machinery reduces its total Cost of Ownership by up to 10 coins (the Cost of Ownership cannot become negative). If the final result is positive, the entity receives that amount from the Bank. If the result is negative, it pays that amount to the Bank. If a Corporation is not able to do so, it Goes Bankrupt.

Form Corporation. Separate the acting Company from the other assets of its owning Player (as it is about to become a subsidiary Company of a new Corporation). The Player selects an unused charter card and places it above the Company. Place the corresponding sorted stack of face-down share cards on top of the charter card. The Player selects an available share price card that features the color of the Company in the IPO rectangle and places it to the left of the charter card. The Player receives the Share marked President's Share from the top of the stack and turns it face up. The bank receives the 2nd Share from the stack, turned face-up. If the Face Value of the Company is greater than the selected Share Price, both the Player and the Bank receive and turn face-up one additional Share from the stack. Then, the Player pays the difference between the summed up Share Price of the Shares they have received and the Face Value of the Company to the newly formed Corporation (possibly zero). The Bank pays the total summed up Share Price of the Shares it has received to the newly formed Corporation.

Go Bankrupt. Remove all Companies of the acting Corporation from the game. Set all Shares of the Corporation aside, no matter which Entity currently owns them, in a face-down stack on top of the Corporation's charter card, sorted in the same way as during setup. The charter card with the Shares is available to Form a Corporation again later in the game. Return the Money of the Corporation to the Bank. Return its share price card to the row.

Issue One Share. Works in the same way as Selling One Share, with the following exceptions: Replace the acting Player by the acting Corporation, and take the Share given to the Bank from the stack of unissued Shares of the acting Corporation, turning it face-up in the process. If the acting Corporation is Stock Masters, the Share Price does not change. The Stock Masters Corporation simply receives the current Share Price for the Share it issues.

Pay Dividends. From the Money it owns, the acting Corporation pays dividends for each issued Share to the Entity owning the Share. The payout per Share must be integer, greater or equal 0 coins, and may not exceed the maximum amount as stated on the share price card of the corporation.

Sell One Share. The acting Player gives one owned Share to the Bank. That Share may only be the one marked President's Share if it is the Player's last share of the corresponding Corporation. The corresponding Corporation returns its share price card to the Row and gains the next lower available share price card. The Bank pays the new Share Price to the Player. If the new Share Price is 0 coins, the Corporation Goes Bankrupt. If the sold Share was the last Share of the same Corporation owned by any Player, the Corporation goes into Receivership. Otherwise, check for Change of Presidency. If the President's Share was sold, consider the acting Player the current President while checking for Change of Presidency.

Variants

Open Companies Variant

Some players dislike the unpredictability of the deck. To solve that, you can play with an open deck. Build the deck as usual, but then declare it open for inspection. To facilitate inspection, you can turn all company cards face-up. In that case, you should use one each of the unused green and blue company cards to mark the current cost of ownership. (Once the top-most card of the deck is green, place the unused green company card face-down next to the deck. Correspondingly, do the same once the top-most card is blue.)

Two-Player, Two-Handed Variant

To play a game with more variety with two players, set up the game as if you were playing with four players. Then, each player takes the position of two players in the four-player game simultaneously. Player A starts with their simulated "right hand" player in player order position 1. Player B starts with their simulated "left hand" player in position 2 and their simulated "right hand" player in position 3. Finally, player A starts with their simulated "left hand" player in position 4.

Play the game normally, as if it were a four-player game. To win, your lower ranked simulated player must be better than the lower ranked simulated player of your opponent.

Example: Amy's "right hand" player ends up first in the final ranking with a huge margin, and her "left hand" player ends up in a close last place. Brian's simulated players end up on rank 2 and 3, very close to Amy's "left hand" player. Brian wins the game because his lower ranked player is better than Amy's lower ranked player.

Credits

Rolling Stock Stars game rules and concept are copyright 2020 Björn Rabenstein.

Rolling Stock Stars game artwork is copyright 2020 All-Aboard Games.

Play Rolling Stock Stars online at rollingstock.net

These game rules and a Player's Guide that explains strategy concepts are available from all-aboardgames.com