The Tycoon
Your great-grandmother was born into poverty. You were born into wealth. She had worked and built up a massive company, and passed control on to her children. You went to the best schools, where you excelled academically. Science, mathematics, economics — anything you studied you mastered. Mother and Father were quick to point out that it was the result of your great-grandmother’s hard work that gave you such opportunities. Your academic success, they implied, was clearly derived from your ancestor’s hard work.
Meanwhile, Father proved just as effective at running the company into the ground as his father had before him. He was less effective at piloting a starship, as both your parents were killed in a tragic accident when their ship jumped too near the sun. That’s how you found yourself, 21 years old, at the helm of a large, mostly bankrupt, corporation. You utilized your business skills and began to diversify into many new areas. Within two years you had the company out of the red.
Within five years, you had reversed all the damage caused by Father. Two years after that and it was as wealthy as it had been when your great-grandmother died. Just over ten years after you had taken control, it was five times more valuable. The business journals talked about the amazing turn-around of your great-grandmother’s company. They spoke of the restoration of a once tarnished family name to glory. They mentioned your great-grandmother’s name more than yours.
You kept expanding your company, but no matter what you did, you could never seem to escape the shadow of the company’s founder. And then the Emperor announced his trade competition to name a new Star Tsar. You went over the rules with the scrutiny only a business magnate could muster. You put all the assets of your company into play.
The rules said that there could only be one pilot and one ship for entry into the contest. Well, you weren’t going to let the rules hold you back; you’d just work around them. You commandeered the design department of your shipyard holdings. A few days later you walked out and handed plans to the ship builders. It’s registered as a single space super-yacht. It’s not a rules violation if it happens to split into two independent, fully functioning ships.
To tackle the issue of piloting, you preempted your robotics R&D division. Working with the engineers, you designed a special virtual reality chamber allowing you complete control of two robot pilots. You didn’t even bother consulting with the prototypers — you just handed them designs for the robots and told them to get to building. Since you can only control one at a time, it still meets the rules. Your telecommunications subsidiary was prioritized with custom algorithms you wrote. They allow you to reroute transmissions to give you instantaneous commands and real-time control of each part of your “ship.”
The Emperor may control the galaxy, but he’s not the genius that you are. You know how to analyze a contract, and you always read the fine print.
You are the Tycoon. Now is the time for the galaxy to learn your name.
Game Specifics:
- 2 ships
You know what it takes to get the job done!
You have two ships — add the black or white ship — but still only 5 actions per turn combined. Both ships start at your home world. Either or both may move or take other actions each turn, but actions that normally end your turn (e.g., a Random Jump) still end your turn.
Keep each ship’s cargos separate unless the two ships meet. (Use the 2 black or white Cargo markers to track your second ship’s cargo.)
You may choose which ship to move after rolling for a Random Jump. The Trader playing “Lost in Space” on you decides which ship is lost before you roll to see where it goes.
Tycoon