Finally, it’s the billionaire simulator you and your friends have been waiting for! In the board game Billionaires & Guillotines by Max Haiven, players will take on the roles of rival plutocrats, competing to accumulate the wealth of the world before their actions trigger a revolution and they all lose… a lot more than their assets.
Will you play the media baron or the property speculator? The aristocrat or the tech overlord? Whoever you play, the aim is to acquire five extravagant assets prized by the super-rich (a mega yacht, a celebrity spouse, art masterpieces and more!) and prevent your opponents from achieving their dreams.
But watch out! As you gobble up ever more resources, crises cascade out of control: wildfires and floods, pandemics and doomsday cults… Will you collaborate to put down the rebellions, or escape into your luxury bunker?
Played in under 90-minutes, the game is fun for all sorts of players, even those who usually don’t like board games.
Dr. Max Haiven is a writer, game designer, and educator and the Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University, where he directs RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab. His board game Billionaires & Guillotines is published by Pluto Press and his next book, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st Century Fascism, will be published by MIT. He has written many books and articles and created podcasts on themes including art, finance, imagination, globalization, conspiracies, fascism, and grassroots activism. He is the editor of the VAGABONDS series of short, provocative books and, as part of Sense & Solidarity he offers workshops on strategy and communication for social movements.