- The Rules
You'll find the rules for the game here.
An experimentation game where everything is set in stone would be silly, so we have a few rules we'd like you to split test and let us know which variant should win. It's not very scientific, but it should be fun. The rules you can test are marked in this page.
If you're playing this at The Conference known as Conversion Hotel and any of this is unclear, find Sani and ask him to explain it to you.
You can give us your feedback here.
If you're interesting in purchasing the game when/if we launch it, please use the launchlist to sign up.
Goal
The goal is to be the one with the most chips at the end of the game.
Game Assets
Players are dealt a set number of chips (8) and resources (8). Resources enable you to meet challenges and this will allow you to collect more chips.
Resources are your team members and they can be researchers, designers, developers, or analysts. You start the game with two of each.
Chips are... not made of potatoes.
You can split test this rule. Try starting with 12 (easy mode) or 16 (easier mode) chips instead of the default 8.
Mentor Cards
Players each draw a mentor card. Your mentor can get you out of any challenge (more on challenges below) in the mentor’s specialty.
The mentors for this edition of the game are:
- Els Aerts, research
- Erin Weigel, design
- Jonas Alves, development
- Lukas Vermeer, analysis
Resource Shopping
You can buy additional resources based on your strategy. Four chips gets you one extra resource.
You can spend all your chips on extra resources if you want, but you might need these extra chips to survive the challenges you can't pass. Keep reading the rules.
Good to know: Buy more resources and you're more likely to pass any given challenge, but also more likely to be eliminated if you fail to meet a challenge. You will need the chips to survive if you fail to meet any challenge or if you draw a doom challenge card.
Challenge Cards
A challenge card is drawn. Each challenges has a resource cost shown on the card. Challenges can be easy (4 resources needed to pass), medium (6 resources needed to pass), or hard (8 resources needed to pass).
You can split test this rule. Players can either all face the same challenge in a round, or each player can draw a different card and face a different challenge. The default option is that each player draws a different card.
Doom Challenges
Optionally, the challenge deck can contain doom cards. If a doom card is drawn, the player who drew it needs to pay four chips to survive the challenge.
If you don't have four chips, you are out of the game. Remember buying extra resources with chips at the start of the game? This is why you might want to consider saving some chips for the doom challenges. Or not, your call.
You can split test this rule. Try playing with no doom cards, two doom cards, or four doom cards in the challenge deck. The default options is two doom cards.
Meeting Challenges
Your challenge card will tell you which resources you need to pass the challenge.
Example: A difficult design challenge requires 4 design resources and 4 resources of any other type.
Players first check if they can meet the resource cost on their own. If you can do it, you pass the challenge. Good for you!
If you don't have the required resources, you can trade with other players. You can trade your resources or any chips you may have, the only thing you can't trade is your mentor card. You can trade with any other player, if they want to.
Optionally players may use their mentor card, but be careful as you can only use the mentor card once. If you survive the game without using your mentor card, you get 8 chips for it at the end of the game.
Dice Roll
If you pass the challenge, you roll two dice (one six-sided and one ten-sided). Otherwise you only roll one (six-sided).
Challenge Score
You roll the dice. Score over the challenge value to earn as many chips as you went over. Roll under, and you need to pay the difference with chips. If you don't have enough chips, you are out of the game.
Example: Challenge required EIGHT resources. You roll a 10 and a 6. That's 16. You get 8 chips. You're crushing it!
Example: Challenge required EIGHT resources. You roll a 3 and a 2. That's 5. You need to pay the difference of 3 chips. If you have 3 chips (check rule 4), you pay 3 and survive. If you don't have 3 chips, you are out of the game.
Most Chips or Last Person Standing Wins
Player left with the most chips wins! Remember, if you play the entire game without using your mentor card, you get 8 extra chips added to your total.
Keep drawing the challenge cards until you have used the entire deck or there is only one player left.
