A game about collectively managing a company to wring as much personal profit out of it as you can.
The Gateway Venture of the title was established to build sci-fi gateways, find new worlds to exploit or inhabit, and to explore the stars. To its member Corporations, represented by the players, it’s a vehicle to further their financial domination over each other.
The game takes the form of a chain of Corporate roles, which players occupy with their loyal Employees. Each turn, the various roles activate in order, and their controlling player can choose how to use the various powers and abilities that the roles offer, hopefully making a profit for themselves in the process (or embezzling their assigned funds to tank the whole Venture at a critical moment).
At the end of the game, the winner is the player who has amassed the most wealth in their own personal coffers.
Most of the actions that roles can take entail a certain amount of risk, represented by the player drawing cards from a Chance Deck to see if they succeed and earn any bonuses. This creates a strong push-your-luck feel to each action, with more cards being drawn granting greater rewards, but with an ever-increasing chance of a Disaster!
The Corporate hierarchy of the Venture is constantly shifting, with employees climbing the ranks, or being headhunted or fired due to disasters. The rules around promotion result in some excellent deal-making and bargaining between players so that their candidates emerge on top. At the top of this wobbly hierarchy is the CEO, who can earn the greatest rewards, at the risk of being brought down by one of their negligent or corrupt employees. Each role has its own levers for exerting power and gaining profit, but the game incentivises hubris, and the Venture’s success or failure often rests on the turn of a card.
Gateway Venture is currently available to be published.
3-6 players
Quasi-cooperative
Economic management & negotiation
Push-your-luck that incentivizes hubris
Gleefully adversarial play
Escalating Risk & Rewards
Full of emergent stories
Very low profile - cards & wooden pieces only.
If you're interested in learning more about the game, please get in touch.
