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Prosperity Game Rules

You're the leader of a great nation that is currently expanding. Over the course of the seven decades covered by the game, you will have to invest in infrastructures and industries, provide your country with energy and finance the mercurial forces of research in order to remain competitive.

But prosperity has a price. You owe it to future generations to leave them a healthy world. Pollution lurks, but will you be able to limit it?

Players will score prosperity points on a regular basis throughout the game, and, at the end, the player with the most points will be the winner.


Components

  • 1 Research board
  • 4 individual boards (double sided),
  • 64 Pollution discs (black),
  • 20 cubes (of four colors: blue, red, green, and yellow),
  • 35 banknotes (10 of 50€, 20 of 100€, and 5 of 500€),
  • 60 Technology tiles.

Setup

  1. Place the Research board in the middle of the table.

  2. Sort the Technology tiles according to the decade on their back: 1970, 1980... Place the tiles with no dates face- up next to the Research board at the beginning of the game: the Research level of the tile will correspond to the board's Research level; if the tile's Research level is written on the left (in blue), place it to the left of the board (energy tiles); if the tile's level is written on the right (in green), place it to the right of the board (ecological tiles).

  3. Shuffle the tiles of each decade face-down. Then make a deck starting with the 2030 tiles at the bottom of the pile, followed by the 2020 tiles... and ending with the five 1970 tiles at the top of the deck.

  4. Each player chooses a color and takes an individual board. For a first game, place the board so that the silver country is visible. For the following games, all players (or only the more experienced ones at the table) can decide to play with the black country showing (more difficult).

  5. Each player takes 1 banknote with a value of 100€ as well as 5 cubes of their color. They place one cube on their score track, one cube on the lowest square of each of the two tracks of the Research board, and the remaining two cubes on the red square of the Energy and Ecology tracks of their individual boards (representing the energy and ecological totals of their country at the start of the game).

  6. Each player places 8 discs on the round spaces of their Pollution track, starting at the bottom. The discs and money left are placed next to the board, in reserve.

  7. A first player is chosen randomly; that player will start the game.


Game Elements

Symbols



Technology Tile Example



A Back of the tile and decade (here, 2030)

B Area and level of the tile (here, Ecology 6)

C Scoring symbol (white-bordered, here, Prosperity)

D Energy Impact (here, -2)

E Ecological Impact (here, -1)

Note: the background color of a tile indicates which type it is (in this case, infrastructure).


Individual Board



A Country (Silver: Normal - Black: Difficult)

B Tile spaces

C Energy track

D Ecology track

E Reminder of possible actions

F Reminder of the final scoring

G Pollution track

Notes : At any point during the game, the symbols visible on the individual board of a player correspond to the current development of their country. These will be important at the beginning of each player's turn for scoring.

The Energy track is used to indicate the total between the positive and negative energy symbols on an individ- ual board. The Ecology track is used to indicate the total between the positive and negative ecology symbols on an individual board.

Research Board



A Score track (one per player)

B Energy Research track

C Ecological Research track

D Research level

E Starting energy tiles

F Starting ecological tiles

G Reminder of tile prices



Game Play

The game takes place over a period of time spanning seven decades (1970, 1980... 2030). In total, there will be 36 turns. During a turn, the active player will draw a Technology tile, apply its effects and perform two actions. Then play will proceed to the next player.

On a turn:


1. Technology Tile

The active player draws the Technology tile at the top of the deck and announces the scoring symbol (white-bordered on the tile). Starting with the active player, going clockwise, all players tally the called-out symbol.

Energy: if their energy total is positive, the player gets 50€ for each positive level. If their total is negative, the player must pay 100€ or add a disc to their Pollution track for each negative level.

Ecology: if their ecological total is positive, the player removes one disc from their Pollution track for each positive level. If there are no more discs left on their track, they gain 50€ for each disc they still needed to remove. If their total is negative, the player adds a disc to their Pollution track for each negative level.

Note: when a player removes a pollution disc, the one removed is the one on the highest space of the track.

When a player adds pollution discs, they fill each space starting with the bottom. An unlimited number of discs can be stacked on the last space (triangle-shaped).

Capital: for each Capital symbol on their individual board, the player gets 100€.

Research: for each Research symbol on their individual board, the player moves their marker one square forward on one of the Research tracks. If they have multiple Research symbols, a player can freely decide to split their move between the two tracks.

Prosperity: the player moves one space on their score track for each Prosperity symbol visible on their individual board (including those visible on the Pollution track).

Important: as long as there is at least one disc on the last space of their Pollution track (triangle- shaped), the player has polluted too much: the player scores no Prosperity points.

The active player then places the drawn tile next to the Research board, depending on the type and level of the tile (as in step 2 of the setup).



Example: Blue is in the situation detailed above.

  • in case of an Energy tally, the player must pay 200€, or pay 100€ and add a pollution disc, or add two pollution discs,
  • in case of an Ecology tally, they'll remove 2 pollution discs,
  • in case of a Capital tally, they'll get no money (no visible symbols),
  • in case of a Research tally, the player will move forward five spaces in total on the Research tracks,
  • in case of a Prosperity tally, the player moves 3 points on the score track (two symbols on tiles, and one on Pollution track).

2. Actions

The active player performs 2 actions. A player can perform two different actions, or the same one twice. The possible actions are:

a. Revenues: the player takes 100€ from the bank.

b. Cleanup: the player removes the highest disc from their Pollution track.

c. Research: the player moves forward one square on one of the Research tracks.

d. Tile purchase: the price of a tile is calculated by comparing the position of the desired tile with that of the player's marker in the Research track linked to that tile:

  • if the tile is at the same Research level as the marker, the tile costs 100€,
  • if the tile is at a higher level than that of the marker, the tile costs a basic 100€, plus 100€ for each extra level,
  • if the tile is at a lower level than that of the marker, its price is 50€ (no matter what the level of the tile may be).


Example: on their turn, Yellow performs Research as their first action and thus reaches level 3 in Ecology. As their second action, they purchase the Hydrogen vehicles (level 4) and pay 200€ (100€ plus 1 extra Research level).

Once a player has paid for their tile, it is placed on their individual board, either on an empty space or on a space already occupied by another tile. The placement rules are as follows:

  • a Powerplant tile (pink background) must be placed on a pink square,
  • a Supply tile (yellow background) must be placed on a yellow square,
  • a Transport tile (green background) must be placed on a green square,
  • an Infrastructure tile (blue background) must be placed on a blue square,
  • the other tiles are Special tiles. A Special tile isn't placed on an individual board. It gets discarded after its effect is applied: gain 1 Prosperity point, gain 2 Prosperity points, or remove 3 Pollution discs.

Some blue spaces of an individual board can only be occupied if the transport has been previously built. Thus, green squares containing "Unusable space" symbols must be covered by a transport tile of some sort for Infrastructure tiles to be placed later.

After having placed their tile, the player adjusts the energy and ecology totals of their individual board according to the symbols of the new tile (and possibly of those of the covered tile, the effects of which are canceled).



Example: a player covers their Coal-Fired Power Station with an Oil Fired Power Station. That player increases their energy total by 2 (the Oil station produces 4 energy instead of 2), and reduces their ecology total by 1 (as the Oil station increases pollution by 2 instead of 1).



Example: a player covers their Green Belt with Toll roads. Their ecology total goes down by 2 (they lose the positive symbol of the Green belt and add a negative symbol). But now they'll be able to use the spaces leading from the Toll roads to build infrastructures.

Note: At any time, the players can recalculate their energy and ecology totals to check that they haven't made a mistake.

Once a player has performed both of their actions, play proceeds to the next player, going clockwise, and a new turn begins...


End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the turn of the player who has drawn the last Technology tile. A final scoring for each symbol, in the following order, is then made:

  • 2* Energy: the energy total is tallied twice, as described previously.

  • 2* Ecology: the ecology total is tallied twice, as described previously.

  • Capital : Capital gets tallied once, as described previously. The players then discard their money. For each full 300€ discarded, they gain one prosperity point. Any excess money is kept as a possible tie-breaker.

  • Research: each player moves a number of spaces in both Research tracks equal to the number of Research symbols visible on their individual board. For each track, the player with the highest marker scores 3 Prosperity points, the second player scores 1 point.

    In case of a tie for the first place, all leading players gain 2 points (and no points are awarded for second place). In case of a tie for second place, none of the tied players gain points.

  • Prosperity: the Prosperity symbols are tallied once, as described previously.



Once the final tally is made, the player with the most Prosperity points on the score track is the winner.

In case of a tie, the money still in the players' possession is used for breaking ties.


Note: a player isn't limited to 50 Prosperity points. If a player goes beyond that amount, their marker returns to the start with an added 50 points their score.


Some Tips


  • The tiles linked to energy research (on the left of the Research board) have a Capital and Energy focus. Tiles linked to ecological research (on the right of the Research board) have a Research and Ecology focus.

  • For each decade (1970, 1980..)., there are 5 tiles, and each symbol will be tallied exactly once. In 2030, there is a sixth tile (with a Prosperity tally).

    Depending on the tallies already made during a decade, you can deduce the tallies still to come and plan your actions accordingly.

  • Prosperity symbols are key to winning the game. Don't leave it too late to develop them.

    Controlling Pollution is an important part of this, to uncover additional Prosperity symbols there - and above all to avoid reaching the last space which voids all Prosperity scores.


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Prosperity

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