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Bureaunauts box art
2017 Ranked #20,411

Bureaunauts

This space-corporate strategy game has players explore a grid, complete career goals, gain department influence, and become Galactic CEO. Finishing goals triggers a departmental vote, so influence across several departments matters more than merely completing them first.

Family Games Exploration Humor Modular Board Rock-Paper-Scissors

Players

2-6

Play time

45-60 min

Age

14+

Complexity

2/5

Rating

6.91

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 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

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?

Put on your best space suit and tie! Players will race to the top of the galactic corporate ladder.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Put on your best space suit and tie! Players will race to the top of the galactic corporate ladder. Each player uses their spaceship token to hyper jump around the section of space to make their mark in the most powerful corporation in the galaxy. The section of space is comprised of 80 cards setup in an 8 x 10 grid. When a player lands on an unexplored card, they flip it over to reveal what is there. Before the game begins, each player is given 5 Career Goal cards they must complete. The progression of game play is divided into Fiscal Periods and each fiscal period is done in steps: Step 1. Solar Jellies Move and Spawn Step 2. Players receive their budgets Step 3. Players spend 1 photon to File Paperwork to the corporation. Step 4. Players choose ** to do an action or enter a coordinate on their dual dials. Then, dials are revealed. Actions happen before movements. Step 5. Players repeat by Filing Paperwork and moving/doing actions (Step 3-4) until all players run out of Photons or choose not to File Paperwork. Players File Paperwork in order to complete Career Goals that allow them to influence five departments. When a player completes a goal, they flip that card over next to their Player Board and put in the appropriate amount of influence cards to the Department Heads Board. The players use what they find as they reveal the section of space (grid of cards) to fulfill career goal conditions: 1. Destroy 1 space pirate 2. Upgrade your spaceship to level 3 (if you have 2 of this goal, the second goal is completed by upgrading to a level 4) 3. Find 2 relics (to complete the goal subsequent times, you only need 1 relic for each Career Goal card) 4. Give 3 photons to the Accounting Department 5. Destroy 5 Space Jellies (to complete the goal subsequent times, you only need to destroy 2 more Space Jellies for each Career Goal card) When one player completes their fifth and final Career Goal, a vote is triggered. The player that completes their final Career Goal stops playing and all other players are allowed to spend their remaining Photons for that fiscal period (unless they also complete their final career goal, at which point they stop as well). Each of the five department piles of influence cards are shuffled separately. One card is drawn from each department pile. A player wins by having a majority (3 out of 5 departments) of their cards drawn. If no hard majority exists, the player who gets 2 soft majorities (2 out of 5 departments, twice) wins. The player with the most votes wins the job of Galactic CEO!

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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.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–6
Best with
2
Play time
45–60 min
Age
14+
Complexity
2.0/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

3
Brian Heasley Allison Markello Todd Markello

Artists

1
Brian Heasley

Publishers

1
Fox and Ox Creations

Linked items

No published linked games yet.