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Raccoon Tycoon is a 2-5 player commodity trading game. It's published by Forbidden Games and is for 2-5 players. Players spend turns controlling the price of different commodities. They may then sell these to buy Railroads or Buildings, or use them to build Town cards. Either way, every card grants its own amount of victory points. The winner is the trader with the most victory points at the end of the game.
Set-up
Place the game board in the middle of the table with a supply of resources and money nearby. Place one commodity on each of their respective tracks in the lowest position. Shuffle the Price and Production cards and deal three cards to each player, as well as $10 from the bank.
Next, create the railroad deck by shuffling together the Big Bear, Top Dog and Fat Cat cards. Add the Sly Fox cards in a 3-5 player game, the Tycoon cards for 4-5 players, and the Skunkworks for five players only. Place this deck on the game board and add two cards from it into the 'Railroad' spots. Next, create the town deck by shuffling all the cards of each VP value together. Place these on top of each other in descending order.
- 5VP cards on the bottom.
- 4VP.
- 3VP.
- 2VP cards on the top.
Flip one card from the top into the 'Town' space. Draw four of the six basic commodity building tiles and place them on the spots on the board. Shuffle the advanced building tiles to create a draw pile to replenish tiles from.
Finally, select a first player and place the start player token in front of them. They receive one free commodity token. The second player selects two different commodity tokens, and so on around the table.
Raccoon Tycoon Gameplay
On a turn in Raccoon Tycoon, a player selects one of five actions to take. Production allows a player to play a Price & Production card from their hand. In the production section, cards have between three and five commodity symbols. The player selects three commodities from these and adds them to their supply. Players can store up to 10 commodities at once, plus an extra one for each building tile they own. Then, raise the price of each commodity in the 'Price' section of the card. After completing both sets of actions, discard the Price & Production card and draw a new one to replace it.
The Sell a Commodity action lets players sell any quantity of one commodity they own. Return each commodity token you wish to sell to the supply. Then, gain an amount of money equal to the commodity's current value for each one returned. For example, selling six Goods commodities at $8 each would net a $48 return. After selling, reduce the price of that commodity by as many spaces as the number of commodities sold.
The Purchase a Building Tile action allows a player to buy one of the four available building tiles. After paying its cost, the player places it in front of them. Replenish the offer with the top tile of the face-down building tiles. A player may also use this action to upgrade a commodity building tile they own to improve its effect. Each building tile allows you to hold one extra resource (or four in the case of the Warehouse). The owning player also gains any benefits that the tile grants for the rest of the game.
Purchase a Town lets a player spend their commodities to buy the current town card. Each town card has two costs. A player may pay either an amount of any commodities they own, or a lesser amount of one specific commodity. Return any commodities spent to the supply. The owning player places this card in front of them, and then replenishes the space with a new town card.
Finally, the Start a Railroad Auction opens up the bidding for a Railroad card. The auctioning player selects one of the two Railroad cards on offer and begins an auction. The minimum bid is on each card, though the first bidder may bid higher if they wish. In turn order, each other player may then either increase the bid or pass. A passed player may not re-enter the bidding at a later stage. The highest bidder wins the Railroad card, pays the bid and places the card in front of them. If the player who started an auction does not win the auction, they may perform any action. This may be to start another auction or take one of the previous four actions. Play passes as normal if the person starting the auction also wins the auction.
Game End
Raccoon Tycoon ends when a player claims either the last Town card or the last Railroad card. If so, the players finish the current round, then proceed to final scoring. Players score points for the following;
- Their Town cards.
- Their Railroad cards.
- Each building owned by a player is worth one VP.
- Every pair of Town and Railroad cards in any suit is worth two VP.
The winner of Raccoon Tycoon is the player with the most victory points. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most money is the winner. If you are playing with the 'Sudden Death Victory' rule, the first player to reaches $1000 wins.
Learn more about Raccoon Tycoon in Louise's review.
