Playboss (1969)

Overview

Playboss is an exciting board-game that simulates the many real-life business situations in which directors and managers make their decisions. Each player in this game is a businessman who has the opportunity of buying machines and raw materials, selling his products, paying taxes, raising loans or introducing rationalization schemes, and generally experiencing the ups and downs of everyday business life.

Before starting, players agree the duration of the game. The player with the greatest net assets at the end of the game is the winner.

The board comprises a circuit of 42 spaces of 5 different types: decision spaces on which the player can choose to buy raw material, purchase capital equipment, manufacture goods or sell goods, research & development spaces which allow investment for productivity improvement or risk reduction, risk spaces which require the drawing of a risk card, additional cost spaces, and depreciation spaces.

Each player has a factory card on which are placed machines, computers, raw materials and finished goods. At the start of the game, priced slots in the center of the board are filled with the goods: these slots are emptied and filled as goods are bought as raw material and sold as finished goods. The buying and selling price is determined by the next available filled or empty slots, though players can bid competitively for the purchase or sale.

The Economy Game uses the basic mechanism and many features.