Startups
Startups Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- Company Cards (6 kinds): 45 cards
- There are as many cards of each company as written on the particular Company Card. (5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x and 10x)
- Anti-Monopoly Chips (6 kinds): one chip each
- Point Chips (3 kinds): 4 each ("+2", "+1", "-1")
- Capital Chips: 70 chips (Front: 1 point / Back: 3 points)
- Game manual (this manual)
1. The game
- "Startups" is about the competition to gain the majority share in form of Company Cards representing one of six companies. The player who collects the most Company Cards of one company gains profits from players who hold smaller shares of the same company's cards.
- In the end the wealthiest player wins the game.
The player who collected most cards of one company gets money from the other players.
2. Game Preparation
- Every player gets 10 Capital Chips (Front!). Remaining Capital Chips go back into the box.
- Important: Shuffle the Company Cards thoroughly and then take 5 cards out of the deck.
- Every player gets 3 Company Cards. The remaining cards are put in the middle of the table face-down.
! Don't turn the Capital Chips during the game. The backsides (3 points) will become important in the point evaluation in the end.
10 chips / 3 cards
3. Game setup
- The area around the card pile is called "the market".
- Every player can put cards down in the area in front of them.
- Never show your hand of cards to the other players.
- The youngest player goes first!
Pile of cards — The market — Area to put down cards
4. Gameplay
- The game takes course like shown in the chart.
Take a card: From the pile or from the market
↓
Put down a card: In front of you or from the market area
The game is played clockwise.
After the last card of the pile is taken, the point evaluation begins.
5. Take a card
- If there is no card in the market area, you have to draw a card from the pile.
- If there is a card in the market area, you can choose from options A or B.
A — Pay and draw a card from the pile
Put a Capital Chip on all cards in the market area and draw a card from the top of the pile.
* If you don't have enough capital, you can't draw a card from the card pile.
B — Take a card from the market area
Choose a card in the market area and take it. If there are Capital Chips on it, you can keep those.
! Important: If you choose B, you can't place a Company Card of the same company in the market area afterwards. You can keep it, you can set it down in front of you or you can play a Company Card from another company.
6. Set down a card
- After taking a card you can choose between A or B to get rid of a card.
A — Put the card down in front of you
Set down a card in the area in front of you to make it your share of the company.
B — Put down a card into the market area
Make the card available to everyone by putting it down into the market area.
- After putting down a card it's the next player's turn (clockwise rotation).
7. Anti-Monopoly Chips
- When a player puts down a particular Company Card in front of them first, they will get the matching Anti-Monopoly Chip. Players with these chips have to follow the following rules:
- Even if there is a Company Card of the particular company available in the market area, the player with the matching Anti-Monopoly Chip can not take this card.
- The player with the Anti-Monopoly Chip doesn't have to put a Capital Chip on the particular Company Card in the market area when they want to draw a card from the card pile.
! Important: The Anti-Monopoly Chip changes place according to who has the majority of Company Cards of one company. If two players have the same amount of one company's cards the Anti-Monopoly Chip stays with the first owner until the other player gets the majority of Company Cards.
8. Point evaluation
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Point evaluation starts after one player draws the last card from the card pile.
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Every player puts down their three cards face-up in front of them.
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Every company (5-10) will be evaluated one after the other. Players who have minor shares of a Company have to pay the majority player Capital Chips equal to the amount of minor shares they hold of a company.
Important: When paying, the backside of the Capital Chips is used so that the player with the majority of cards gets only 3-point Capital Chips.
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If two players have an even amount of Company Cards of a company, no payoff will be applied.
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After evaluating all companies every player counts their Capital Chips and the richest player wins. If two players have the same amount of Capital Chips, the one with more 3-points Capital Chips wins. If both have the same amount of 3-points Capital Chips the one who played last wins.
Example (2 cards / 1 card / no cards / 3 cards): A and B have to pay D 3-points Capital Chips equal to the amount of Company Cards they have of the particular company.
Example (2 cards / 2 cards / 1 card / 1 card): A and B both have two Company Cards. In this case no payoff will be applied.
* Company Cards or Capital Chips that are located in the market area in the end don't count.
* If you don't have enough Capital Chips to pay another player, calculate with plus and minus points. You can't pay with recently gained 3-points Capital Chips.
Optional: Game with rounds
- You can also play "Startups" as a game with four rounds.
- After the point evaluation...
- ...the 1st place player gets a "+2" Chip
- ...the 2nd place player gets a "+1" Chip
- ...the last place player gets a "-1" Chip
- Before shuffling after one round make sure to insert the five cards you took out in the start again. Also reset the Capital Chips of all players.
- Starting from round 2 the player who got the last place starts the new round.
- After four rounds the player with the most points wins the game.
- In case of a tie the player with more "+2" Chips wins. If they have the same amount the player with more "+1"-Chips wins. If they have the same amount again, the player who got the first place in the last round wins.
Warnings (Please Read)
- This product presents an accidental ingestion hazard. Not for children under 3 years of age.
- Do not leave in high-temperature, high-humidity environments. This may result in damage to the product.
- Keep away from flames. This can cause warping or fires.