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The Big Idea box art
2000 Ranked #5,343

The Big Idea

This investment card game has players create companies, buy shares, and profit when an initial offering succeeds. A company’s name, card count, and issued shares all affect the uncertain payoff.

Party Games Card Game Party Game Player Judge Stock Holding

Players

3-6

Play time

Not listed

Age

10+

Complexity

1.32/5

Rating

6.28

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.1/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

The Big Idea is a quick and easy card game (Cheapass style) where the players represent venture capitalists creating companies (from a noun card and an adjective card - "Erotic Pants") to take through the process of an IPO.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

The Big Idea is a quick and easy card game (Cheapass style) where the players represent venture capitalists creating companies (from a noun card and an adjective card - "Erotic Pants") to take through the process of an IPO. You automatically gain a share in companies you create, and later you have opportunities to secretly invest in a company and publicly buy a share in a company. Finally, you roll a die to see which companies go public in a round: equal to or lessor than the shares issued in the company. And the pay out: based on the number of shares issued and the number of cards used in forming the company times the die roll. The game is fairly simplistic, but it's lots of fun to create names of products like "Mentholated Chicken", while agonizing over helping your opponent because their product will net you the biggest gain. Expanded by: The Big Idea: More Cards! (compatible only with Semi-Deluxe edition) Re-implemented by: The Big Idea

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
3–6
Best with
3
Play time
45 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.3/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
James Ernest

Artists

1
Damon S. Brown

Publishers

2
Arclight Games Cheapass Games

Linked items

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