Stonks
Stonks Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 65 Market Cards — 5 Company suits with values from 1 to 13 each
- 5 Company Tiles
- 1 Trump Token
- 5 Company Tokens
- 5 Speculation Cards
Setup
(For 2 player rules, check the "In 2 Players" section below.)
-
Shuffle the Company Tiles and place them aligned, one next to the other in any order, with the 1-2-3-4-5 numbered side upwards.
IMPORTANT: in games with 3 players, randomly remove a Company Tile and place it in the game box with the 13 Market Cards and the corresponding Company Token, as they will not be used.
-
From left to right, place the Company Tokens on the respective Company Tiles, so that the first token is on level 1, the second is on level 2, the third is on level 3, the fourth is on level 4, and the fifth is on level 5. These are the initial values of each Company's stocks. In 3 players, the third tile is placed on level 4 and the fourth on level 5.
-
Place the Trump Token above the leftmost Company Tile.
-
Shuffle the Market Cards and, without revealing, deal:
- In 3 or 5 players: 9 cards for each player.
- In 4 players: 11 cards for each player.
The remaining Market Cards are gathered into a pile next to the Company Tiles.
-
Give 1 Speculation Card to each player.
-
Each player chooses two Market Cards from their hand and places them face down in front of them. After everyone has made their choice, players simultaneously reveal only one of the cards. These two cards start the player's Stock Portfolio. All stocks on cards that are in the Portfolio will be scored at the end of the game.
-
The player who has the least valuable card revealed in his Portfolio (the lowest Company card with the lowest quotation) will be the player who will start the first trick of the game.
Example: In a four-player setup, the leftmost player has chosen card 2 from Roter Apfel AG, the Company with the lowest quotation. Therefore he will start the first trick of this game.
Game Overview
Stonks is a trick taking game. In this game, a trick consists of each player, clockwise, playing 1 card face up on the table. If possible, players must follow the suit of the starting player, that is, they must play a card that has the same suit as the card played by the starting player of the trick. Players can only play a card with another suit if they don't have in their hands cards with the suit to be followed.
If the played card has the Market Fluctuation icon, the player must change the stock value of one of the Companies by moving its token up or down on the corresponding Company Tile.
After everyone has played a card, the winner of the trick is usually the one who played the highest card of the suit to be followed. However, if there are Trump Company cards in play, the highest trump card will be the winner.
The winner of the trick must take one of the cards played in the trick to place in their Stock Portfolio. Furthermore, the winner is the starting player for the next trick.
At the end of the game, each suit icon on the cards in the players' Portfolio represents a stock of the respective company. Each player receives Victory Points according to the total value of their stocks. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.
Objective
Players' goal in Stonks is to have the most Victory Points with the stocks in their Portfolio at the end of the game.
Playing a Trick
Below we explain how to play a standard trick in Stonks. (See the Market Fluctuation section for the market fluctuation rules and the Speculation Card section for the Speculation Card rules to understand how they affect the flow of the trick.)
1. Opening the Market
To start a trick, reveal the top card of the Market Deck by holding it face up on top of the deck.
This card does not affect the outcome of the trick. It's just an extra option for the winner of the trick.
2. Starting Player
The starting player opens the trick by playing a Market Card.
The starting player chooses a Market Card from their hand to play face up in the center of the table. The Company of the starting player's chosen card is defined as the Leading Company of the trick and must be followed by the other players.
Example: The starting player decides to open the trick with the Green Grass Inc. number 12 card.
There are five suits of cards, each representing a Company:
- the orange carrot from Carotte Orange SCA;
- the green grass from Green Grass Inc.;
- the yellow honey from Miele Giallo S.p.A.;
- the blue fish from Peixe Azul S.A.;
- and the red apple from Roter Apfel AG.
3. The Other Players
In clockwise order, each player must play a card. There are two possible situations: the player follows the Leading Company suit or does not follow.
Follow the company
If the player has Market Cards of the Leading Company, the player must play a Leading Company card. The card played may be of any value, higher or lower, but must belong to the same Company.
Example: The second player has three Green Grass Inc. cards, so the suit must be followed. To do so, the player chooses the number 6 card to be played.
Not Follow the company
If the player has no Market Cards of the Leading Company, the player must play a card from one of the other Companies.
Example: The third player has no Green Grass Inc. cards, so he chooses the Roter Apfel AG number 2 card to be played.
After all players have played a card, before determining who is the winner of the trick, if the starting player used the Speculation Card, the face-down card is revealed (see the Speculation Card section).
4. The Trick Winner
After all players have played a card, it is checked if a Trump Company card was played.
Trump Company is the company with the lowest stock value in the Company Tiles. In the event of a tie, the company furthest to the left will be Trump Company. The Trump Token must always be placed above the Trump Company's tile.
No Trump Company Cards played
If there are no Trump Company cards, the winner of the trick is the one who played the Market Card with the highest number.
Trump Company Cards played
If there are Trump Company cards, the winner of the trick is the one who played the trump card with the highest number.
5. Acquire Stocks
The winner must choose one of the cards from the trick, including the card revealed from the Market Deck. The chosen card is placed in the player's Stock Portfolio.
TIP: In your Stock Portfolio, separate the Market Cards by Companies and arrange them in columns or rows. This makes it easier to understand your performance and will make it easier to count points at the end of the game.
Cards not chosen are discarded and the trick is ended. If a Speculation Card has been played, it is placed next to the discard pile. The player who used it will get it back in the next round.
The trick winner is the starting player of the next trick.
IMPORTANT: Each suit icon in your Portfolio is a stock that guarantees points at the end of the game.
Market Fluctuation
The 5 lowest number cards of each Company have the Market Fluctuation icon. When playing one of these cards in a trick, the player must immediately change the stock value of any of the Companies.
To do so, the player must choose which Company he wants to change the stock value of and then move the corresponding Company token one level up, to increase the value of that Company's stocks, or one level down, to devalue them. If the card has two Market Fluctuation icons, both must be applied in the same direction to the same Company. If it is not possible to perform both movements, the player must choose another option to change.
When changing the stock value of a Company, the player must flip the black side of the token face up. A Company stock value cannot be modified if the Company Token black side is face-up. A black face-up token is flipped back to its colored side as soon as another Company's stock value changes. In other words, only the last Company that had its stock value modified must keep its black face facing up.
Example: The player decides to change Roter Apfel AG's stock value by devaluing it. On the next trick, another player changes Miele Giallo S.p.A.'s stock value by valuing it. The Roter Apfel AG token is turned over to its colored side.
If the stock value change causes the Trump Company to be redefined, the Trump Token must be placed on the new Trump Company tile.
Speculation Card
The Speculation Card can be played when opening a trick or following the Leading Company. However, only one Speculation Card can be played per trick. So, if a player opens the trick with a Speculation Card, the other players will not be able to follow the trick using a Speculation Card.
When Opening a Trick
Instead of playing a face-up Market Card, the starting player may play the Speculation Card and, along with it, play a face-down Market Card.
Then, the player must choose and advertise one of the five Companies. The announced Company is defined as the Leading Company and must be followed by the other players.
Example: The starting player plays the Speculation Card and a face-down Market Card, choosing Green Grass Inc. to be the Leading Company of the trick.
The face-down Market Card is revealed only after all other players have played their cards. Then, the Speculation Card used by the player is placed next to the discard pile. The revealed card will only be relevant if it is from the Leading Company or the Trump Company. Any Fluctuation Icons on the card are ignored.
If no player, including the starting player, has played a Leading Company card or a Trump Company card, no one wins the trick. All played cards are discarded and the starting player starts a new trick.
TIP: The Speculation Card is one-time use and allows players to strategically choose which Company the opponents should play without them knowing which card was chosen to open the trick.
When Following the Leading Company
When following, if the player has no Leading Company cards, he may play a card from any Company with the Speculation Card. The suit of the played card becomes the same suit as the Leading Company.
Example: The player has no cards from Miele Giallo S.p.A. He has a higher card from Roter Apfel AG and decides to play it with the Speculation Card, to make it the same suit as the Leading Company and thus have a chance of winning.
If one of the next players plays the Leading Company card with the same number as the card accompanying the Speculation Card, the Speculation Card is discarded and its effect is cancelled.
End of the Round and Scoring
The round ends when there is only one card left in the players' hands. This last card is discarded and players must add up the points in their Stock Portfolios.
Before scoring, players who still have the Speculation Card in their hands must place it in their Stock Portfolios along with the Company card(s) with the lowest stock value. The Speculation Card is scored as a stock of that Company.
Each suit icon in a market card represents one stock of that Company. To score a Company's stocks in the Portfolio, the player must count the stocks on the respective Company's Market Cards. Next, multiply the amount of stocks by their market value on the Company Cards. For example, if the player has 5 stocks of Peixe Azul S.A. and this Company Token is on the number 3, the player receives 15 Victory Points.
This procedure is repeated for each Company the player has cards in the Portfolio.
Each player's total points are registered. All Market Cards return to the deck and the deck is shuffled. Steps 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the setup are executed and a new round begins.
End of the Game
At the start of the game, players decide how many rounds to play. We suggest 3 rounds. But if you want a longer game, try 5 rounds.
At the end of the game, the scores from each round are added together. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.
In case of a tie, the player with the fewest cards in the Stock Portfolio in the last round wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the fewest shares in the last round wins. In the rare event that a tie is not resolved in this way, all tied players share the victory.
In 2 Players
2 player games use the same rules as a standard game, with the following changes: All 5 Companies are in play and the 1-1-2-2-3 side of the Company Tiles is used.
The game is divided into 2 rounds of tricks. In each round, players are dealt 11 cards. Market Cards remain in the players' Portfolio from one round to the next and the discard pile is not shuffled. In other words, the first round is played with one half of the deck and the second with the other.
At the start of the two rounds, players choose two Market Cards to place in their Portfolios, as in the standard game. However, the starting player for the second round will be the player with the fewest Market Cards in their Portfolio. In case of a tie, the winner of the last trick of the first round will be the starting player.
When altering a Company's stock value, the player must flip the token to its black side. Black face-up tokens cannot have their stock value altered. Only after flipping the fourth token, the player must return the other three tokens to the colored side, allowing their market value to be changed.
IMPORTANT: The Trump Company will always be the leftmost company with the lowest (or tied for the lowest) value. When using the 1-1-2-2-3 face of the Company Card, the level of the token is irrelevant, only the value matters. Market value defines the trump, not the level.
Moderate Variant
For a more friendly dispute in games with 3-5 players, players can use the 1-1-2-2-3 face of the Company Tiles and the Company Token flipping rules used in 2 player games.
Small Caps & Blue Chips Variant
In this asymmetric variant, some Companies are more profitable than others. In setup, place the first three company tiles with the 1-1-2-2-3 side facing up. Place them lined up next to each other, and the respective Company Tokens on levels 1, 2 and 3, as in a normal game set-up. The remaining Companies are lined up with the 1-2-3-4-5 side facing up, with their tokens on levels 4 and 5.
Remember that the Trunfo Company will always be the
(This sentence is incomplete in the official rulebook as published.)
Credits
Game Design: Robert Coelho & Luis Francisco Graphic Design: Luis Francisco Art: Diego Sá Rulebook Layout: André Teruya Playtesters: Aron Palo, Bruno Liguori, Dahtri Cardoso, Denilson da Silva, Edu Pomper, Gabriel Ramirez, Mauricio Nobrega, Sérgio Conceição, Yuri Morroni e Zinho.
© 2023 Grok Games. All rights reserved.