Pure Competition

To continue the tradition of Saturdays being the day where ideas are presented, I came up with a board game idea that is similar to Monopoly, but quite the opposite. Instead of driving the other players out of business, the goal is to have the most money by the end of the month, which lasts 30 turns.

To play Pure Competition, everyone must write what kind of business they want to run. All players must be competing from the same industry, and once you choose a certain industry, you have the limited options to decide. Before the game begins, you have to set up your business. You will not only get to decide what business you’ll run, but you’ll also have certain constraints and formulas to follow. This is how you’ll make or spend money.

Anything that can go wrong with a business, such as a failed health inspection, a robbery, or a ride crash, will not be taken into consideration, as the focus is on advertising and competition. Of course, stuff like that can turn away customers in reality, but they’re not everyday events.

Pre-Game:

Before the game begins, every player has to decide on their business. There are only 16 different industries to choose from. They are:

• American Restaurant
• Mexican Restaurant
• Italian Restaurant
• Chinese Restaurant
• Clothing Store
• Furniture Store
• Appliance Store
• Sports Store
• Grocery Store
• Mini-Golf
• Bowling Alley
• Go Karts
• Arcade
• Amusement Park
• Water Park
• Zoo

Once everyone has agreed upon an industry, the next step is for them to make a business. The names are fair game. The prices have a cap. But the options provided are limited. While you can name the options (such as rides), whatever they are is determined by the game. They have a checklist of what you can fill out. Checking more boxes would increase the number of customers, but it would also increase the expenses.

• If everyone is running a restaurant, the menus only have 16 items available. You need at least four items on your restaurant’s menu. Whatever’s available depends on the industry.
• If everyone is running a clothing store, you’ll have different brands to choose from, each specializing in certain clothes.
• If everyone is running a furniture store, an appliance store, or a sports store, you actually get to choose what items will be sold. The appliance store also includes electronics (like TVs and radios).
• If everyone is running a grocery store, all commodities will be present regardless. All you have to do is to determine the average prices and selection size.
• If everyone is running a mini-golf course, bowling alley, go karts facility, or arcade, you’ll have to determine the service fees and the number of structures you’ll have (like number of holes in the golf course or number of machines in the arcade). You’ll also get to decide if there will be snack bars or gift shops.
• The amusement park and water park have a ride selection or attraction to choose from, similar to the restaurants or most stores. You can only have one ride/attraction per type. Selection sizes are larger than the restaurant or stores, but you have to choose between 4 to 16.
• The zoo will provide the list of animals. You can also decide on if you want animal houses as well (like a reptile house or aquarium.

Once you have made your decisions and written the prices, you will be ready to go. Regarding the prices, like service fees and merchandise costs, this is similar to the demand curve. The number of customers you would bring in decreases as your prices go up. Basically, you’ll have to spend more and charge less to bring in more customers.

Main Game:

Once everyone is finished with the setup, the game begins. Everyone will have 30 turns for the game, and people have to take turns. Each turn represents one day.

All spaces on the board, which is a squared board with multiple paths, are numbered from 1 to 12. Whatever number you land on represents the outcome of what customers will do for your business. The outcome guide in the instructions must be open to match the industry. This is where people can see what items have been sold or how many customers went to your business.

In each turn, players will have to roll the die between two to six times. The first time is to move the pawn around on the board. Once they land on a number, they’ll have to roll again to determine what has been sold. For instance, let’s say that the industry of focus is Italian food. The five items customers ordered were spaghetti and meatballs, chicken fettuccini and alfredo, lasagna, calzone, and cannoli. If none of these items are on your menu, then you haven’t made any money. The more items there are on your menu, the more money you would make. This will determine how many times you roll the die. Say for instance, you have all five items. That means you’ll have to roll the die five times. The number the die lands on is the multiplier factor. This will multiply the number of base customers you’ll bring in based on the price. Say like the price range for the spaghetti and meatballs yields 15 customers. If you rolled a 6, then you’ll get 90 customers, which you can then multiply by the price by 90 to calculate the revenue for the spaghetti and meatballs alone. But if your price range yields 20 customers, and you rolled a 2, you’ll only get 40 customers to order the spaghetti and meatballs. After you went through all of the items on the outcome menu and your menu, you will get the total daily revenue. Subtract the revenue you generated on your turn by the daily expenses, and you’ll get the daily profit.

Of course, on the same day, each player may get different outcomes. Like the first player on their first turn may get Outcome #5, but the second player gets Outcome #3 on their first turn, the third player gets Outcome #12 on their first turn, and the fourth player gets Outcome #1 on their first turn.

Numbers will also appear in the colors of orange and purple. Most numbers will come in purple font. If you land on a number with orange font, you’ll also get to draw a chance card, which will determine your luck. It could double the number of customers you get for each item (or for the day), half the number of customers you get for each item (or for the day), bring in a bonus number of customers, lose some of the customers, or receive a donation or a fine. You must consider the chance card factor as you use your turn.

Post-Game:

Once everyone has used up their 30 turns, they will have to focus on the monthly profit. As you are expected to calculate the daily profit for each turn, you should have the daily profit in all of your entries. Add up the daily profits, you will calculate your monthly profit. Others will also have to calculate their monthly profits. Whoever has the highest monthly profit wins.

The winner’s business will be added to the records while the others will have to toss out their business. Future players can use the same record previous winners have gotten.