Playboss

About this board game

Playboss is a business simulation board game for 3–9 players, with a listed playing time of 180 minutes. Players take the roles of businessmen making decisions about production, investment, sales, financing, and the changing pressures of everyday business life.

Before play begins, the players agree on the game’s duration. Each player operates from a factory card, where machines, computers, raw materials, and finished goods are placed. The winner is the player with the greatest net assets when the game ends.

The board is a circuit of 42 spaces divided into five types. Decision spaces let players choose whether to buy raw materials, purchase capital equipment, manufacture goods, or sell goods. Research and development spaces support investment in productivity improvement or risk reduction, while risk spaces require a risk card to be drawn.

• Additional cost spaces and depreciation spaces affect the course of business.
• Central priced slots hold goods that are bought as raw materials and sold as finished products.
• Buying and selling prices depend on the next available filled or empty slot.
• Players may bid competitively when purchasing or selling goods.

Success in Playboss depends on managing the factory card, balancing purchases with production and sales, and responding to costs, risks, taxes, loans, and investment opportunities. Players can also introduce rationalization schemes as they experience the ups and downs of business life.

Released in 1969, the game offers an extended economic experience centered on practical business decisions. The Economy Game uses Playboss’s basic mechanism and many of its features.