Founders' Valley - The Rules of the Game

Welcome to Founders' Valley, where you play as a tech company Founder, leveraging the resources that form the life-blood of tech: capital, data, and likes, and racing other Founders to invest in market shaping products, and grow your business empire.

Designed for 2-3 players (combine sets for more) 

Contents: 6 Single Resource Cards, 27 Dual Resource Cards, 57 Founder Cards (15 Product Cards, 20 Product Investment Cards, 4 Dynamic Investment Cards, 13 Moment Cards, 5 Victory Moment Cards). 

Objective: the first Founder to achieve 12 total Product Value points, or to successfully play a victory moment card, wins.

Board Setup:

 

Game Setup: Shuffle the founder and resource cards into separate decks, and place them both face down. Decide who goes first. 

Draw founder cards until you reach the first Product Card. Give that to the player (“Founder”) starting first. Keep drawing founder cards until you reach the next Product Card, give that to the next player, and repeat until all players have a starting Product Card. Reshuffle the remaining founder cards into a single deck, and place it face down.

Each Founder’s turn has three phases: (1) Draw, (2) Main, (3) Discard.

1. Draw Phase: 

Draw a card from either the founder or resource draw deck, look at it and place it in your hand. Repeat this process until you reach 5 cards (5 is your starting “Founder Capacity”, cards that change your Founder Capacity change the total number of cards you can draw at the start of your turn). Tip: make sure to draw enough resource cards to play your investments!

If you run out of founder or resource cards to draw, shuffle that discard pile back into the deck for drawing.

2. Main Phase

After the draw phase, you can perform any of the following actions (in any order):

• play any Product Cards (for free);
• deploy as many resource cards as you want into your “deployed resource” pile;

• deploy Product Investments to your matching Products (pay their cost);
• deploy Dynamic Investments (pay their cost);
• use any deployed Product Investments (each deployed product investment can be used once a turn and may have a cost);
• play any Moment cards (pay their cost).

3. End Phase

End each turn by discarding any number of cards from your hand. Put discarded resource cards in the resource discard pile, and discarded founder cards in the founder discard pile. Tip: it’s usually better to deploy resources than keep them in your hand, and it’s better to discard cards you can’t use, so that you can draw new cards next turn!

Winning the Game

If at any time you reach 12 total Product Value, you win the game. Your total Product Value is the sum of each of your product’s Product Value. 

Tip: there are also special “Moment Victory” cards that can win you the game instantly, if you fulfill their conditions!

Just follow these rules and the rules texts of the card and enjoy competing in Founders’ Valley! 

Variants: 

You can change the starting “Founders Capacity” and the total amount of Product Value required to win to make games shorter or longer.

For three players, we recommend playing until a Founder achieves 10 Total Product Value.

While Founders’ Valley can be played with more than three players on a single deck, we recommend adding a second deck for larger multiplayer games.

Anatomy of a Card:

 

 

More Detail on the Different Card types:

Resource Cards: are drawn from the resource deck. Most are dual cards (like the one pictured), and can be played (“deployed”) as either of the resource types shown. There are three different resource types: 

Capital, Likes, and Data “”

Some resource cards are worth two or three of a single resource.

Resources can be used to pay associated costs. Once used, place them in the resource discard pile. Resource costs of founder cards can be paid either from your deployed resource or directly from your hand.

Tip: if the resource cards you want to use exceed the costs required, you do not get any resources back. Spend your resource cards wisely!

Product Cards: these founder cards can be played (“deployed”) without paying any resources. Extra Product Cards of the same type can be deployed on the same product type for one additional Product Value each.

Your Total Product Value is the sum of each of your products’ individual Product Value. 

If at any time you reach 12 total Product Value, you win the game. 

This set contains Finance, Media, Crowdsource, Commerce, and Hardware product types.

Product Investments: these founder cards can be played (“deployed”) on the associated Product Card by paying its resource cost. Choose which side to play up, only that side is active.

Each deployed Product Investment is worth one Product Value (of the deployed type).

Once a turn, you can use the ability of your Product Investment if you meet the conditions on the left side of the “->”.

Some abilities will deactivate Product Investments. Put your deactivated product investments in a separate pile. You cannot use the abilities of a deactivated Product Investment. 

If you pay the deployment cost of a deactivated investment you can deploy it again. Treat it like you are deploying it from your hand. 

Some Product Investment cards can be deployed on two different product types (choose which product when deployed). 

Some Product Investments (“MULTI”) can be deployed on any product type.

Dynamic Investments: these founder cards are deployed separately from any products by paying their cost. They do not increase your Product Value but will give you a constant static ability that makes you a better Founder.

Some Dynamic Investments have an ability that is triggered once when the dynamic investment first comes into play.

Dynamic Investments cannot be deactivated. 

Tip: Dynamic investments are some of the most powerful cards in the game, instead of making your products better, they make you a better founder. They can also help you catch up if you’re behind!

Moment Cards: these founder cards can be played at any time by paying their costs. 

Moment Cards are played instantly, and some, like “Lawyers” can prevent other cards from having an effect (i.e. to prevent the effect of a Product Investment, or of another Moment Card).

Once you have played a moment card, place it in the founder discard pile, face up.

Tip: Moment cards have a wide range of powerful effects that can change the flow of the game. It’s important to time their use wisely!

Victory Moment Cards: these founder cards are very rare, there is one for each of the different product types. They have no cost and can be played at any time, however they have a conditional effect. If you meet the stated Product Value requirements when you play the card, you win the game!

Tip: Don’t hold on to Victory Moment cards too long. If you aren’t close to winning, it’s better to get new cards!

 

 

FAQ:

1. Is there any downside to going first?

At the start of the game, the Founder going first draws 5 cards. The Founder drawing second can draw one extra resource card. All other Founders can draw one extra resource card or founder card. 

 

2. Is it better to draw founders cards, or resource cards? 

The quickest way to build your tech empire is to make product investments as early as possible. You should focus on drawing what you need to deploy product investments, not on accumulating resources.

 

3. What should I do when my product investment becomes deactivated?

During your turn, you can pay the deployment cost of a deactivated investment, and then deploy it again as if you were deploying it from your hand. You can choose which side to deploy it, choose a new product to deploy it to, and you can use it again. This can help you increase your product value on a different product!

 

4. What happens if a card requires me to dispose or give resources and I don’t have enough deployed resources?

You must use resources from your deployed resource pile, or directly from your hand. Keep using available resources until you have met the requirements or have no more of the resources deployed or resource cards left in your hand.

 

5. I’ve used a product investment, which was then deactivated. Can I use that product investment again this turn?

Yes. If you deploy that product investment again, you can use its abilities like any newly deployed investment.

 

6. What is the timing of Moment cards? If “Lawyers” or “Lobbyists” are used in response to a card or ability, does that card or ability still have an effect? 

No. Moment cards can be played in response to other cards. The last moment card played takes priority over the ones played before it (last in, first out). A moment card can negate the ability of a previous moment card or investment ability. Costs paid are not returned.