ONEUPMANSHIP – "Monumentally better!"

"The components are better. The mechanics are better. The game is just monumentally better in every way." – KamSandwich

"Terribly unpredictable and full of shady deals."

Here's what blogger and gamer GeekDad has to say about ONEUPMANSHIP:

"When it comes to reviewing board games there are two primary things that I look for. The first thing is whether or not the game entertains those playing it, mainly myself and my teenage sons, eight-year-old daughter, and retired father. The second thing I look for when reviewing a game is whether or not the aforementioned group requests to play it again immediately after completing it. This past week we played the game ONEUPMANSHIP, a game wholly based in simple economics.

Turns out, my family is more into the buying and selling of stocks and greed than I previously thought. That’s a lie. I knew they were all greedy, self serving punks."

Read the rest of his charming review here.

What the new and improved ONEUPMANSHIP comes with:

• Refined 20" x 20" game board that folds to 10" x 10" 

• Updated stock market indicator board, with marker

• Classier ONEUPMANSHIP money: $1 - $10,000

• 8 "Star" trophies

• 4 real estate title deeds

• 16 glass-box building blocks

• Redesigned company stock cards, 1 - 500 shares

• 32 dangerous $ Cards, including a "TRUMP" card

• 24 Scarlett Letter "B" stickers

• 6 colorful "pawns"

• 2 black dice

• Expanded instruction booklet

• Black "faux cuir" textured box with golden lettering

• Handy inside cover "Cheat Sheet"

Designed, packaged, and shipped from the good ole U.S. of A.

What makes ONEUPMANSHIP great

Many years ago during the Occupy Wall Street protests our friend JP said we should make a "Monopoly game with an edge", which we thought was a pretty good idea. Around the same time we happened to watch a lecture by an Oxford University mathematician who was talking about the joy of numbers, obviously, and how studying arithmetic and game theory showed him the essential factors needed to make a good board game.

He said there were six, which we'll just touch on briefly:

1) The game shouldn't finish before it starts, i.e. a chess match between Magnus Carlson, and, well, any one of us.

2) The game shouldn't finish before it ends. What he means by this is that the endgame shouldn't be inevitable–there should be twists and risks at every stage of play that reward boldness and creativity and punish stupidity. 

3) There should be both chance and strategy/skill, risk and reward. Chutes and Ladders is 100% chance, i.e. the roll of the dice; chess is almost 100% pure skill (the only element of chance is choosing white/black). There's very little risk/reward, or even choice in Monopoly – if you land on a real estate that is owned by someone else, you pay the rent. If it isn't owned, you buy it.

4) The rules should be simple.

5) Outcomes should be anything but simple–the more complex, the better. The endgame in Monopoly is almost always inevitable – one player owns the most real estate with hotels and it's just a matter of time before the other players land on one of them and go bankrupt.

6. It should tell a good story–about who we are and how we play and why. In this spirit we created the all-original money game we call ONEUPMANSHIP.

The mechanics are pretty basic, as we've already discussed, but the $ Cards add a dimension that takes the game off the board and into the realm of "meta"– these are personal, physical and mental challenges that are really about proving what kind of person you are – sharp, lazy, vain, scared – in real life.

And some of them are meant to hurt.

And we say very clearly in the instructions: House rules rule, side bets welcome. So instead of betting $1,000 ONEUPMANSHIP money on the roll of the dice, why not make it $20 real money? Or a beer after the game at the local bar? How about betting all of your cash and trophies for a date with your best friend's sister?

Fix bayonets!

Seriously, we believe that capitalism, despite its numerous benefits isn't perfect, but is still the best system ever invented to unleash human potential and bring the greatest good to the greatest number. Don't just take our word for it—read a few pages of de Tocqueville, or listen to Bono* if you don't believe us. Any Cuban on any street corner in Havana will sadly agree, too.

Our goal with ONEUPMANSHIP is not to preach the joys of making money—because we know that free markets, unlike free love, music, art, or good intentions, really can change the world. For the better, of course. 

Think about it: when was the last time you invested in some quality, real-world fun time with frenemies, without cell phones or computers, while having a good old-fashioned laugh-out-loud blast, here, now? What other board games are there that "bring out the blood-sucking worst in everyone?"

 *Rock star lectures at Georgetown University: "Commerce (and) entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid."

Show us a good loser and we'll show you a real loser.

We'll leave you with the immortal words of  Gorgeous George: "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!"

*Rock star lectures at Georgetown University: "Commerce (and) entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid."

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