Peak Oil Profiteer EN V1.2PnP
Peak Oil Profiteer EN V1.2PnP
This is basically a zoom into one of the Regions in Peak Oil 1, and simulates on a higher resolution
what happens there when you “Drill for Oil” or “Sell Oil” from one of these countries. As such, it is
not really meant to represent a real location, but rather the idea of all of them.
Note: you will be playing Corporations manipulating the three Factions to earn money. The
Factions, their Troops, and their Leaders belong to no player, but may be controlled by multiple
players.
Components
Download the files for the printable components under this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zginegwevgkr33/peak_oil-profiteer-pnp-200210.zip?dl=1
1. Print out and cut the cards. There are 4 pages of double-sided cards to print. There is an
additional 5th page, single-sided with the player aid cards and the leader chips. We advise
cutting out the Leader chips and sticking them to poker chips.
2. Print out the board. Either, if you have a really big printer, print it on a single page, or
divide it on three portrait A4/letter pages side-by-side.
3. Find: 1 six-sided die, 5 euro-cubes in each of 3 colours, we recommend red, blue and black.
1 Euro cube of any colour, does not matter, may even be one of the three above. Also find
3 pawns in each of the player Corporation colours. Probably 2 pawns per player is enough,
I have never seen anybody have 3 Drilling Rights at the same time.
4. You will also need lots of money, maybe use the one from monopoly, or any other game. Or
poker chips.
Board
The board shows the country, split in eleven Regions. Each Region has the numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5
along their borders, “pointing” to different neighbouring Regions.
Note that the Mapboard in the PnP is somewhat differently arranged to allow for easier fitting on
a single A3 sheet. It is functionally the same.
6 of the Regions have Oil Fields, marked with the tower symbol. Each of those is connected to one
or two of the 3 of the Regions along the coast (bottom left) that have oil ports, marked with the
anchor symbol. 3 Regions are starting Regions for Factions, marked with their logos.
At the bottom you see the Corruption track. Once it reaches 100 (marked X), the game ends.
Bottom right you see the three Faction tracks. On these you store the Troops of the three Factions
as long as they are not in use. Below the track, you can trace the current price for bribes,
weapons, drilling rights, and oil shipments.
Top right are the spaces for the Contingency deck and the current Contingency.
Cards
There are two kinds of Contingency cards; Consultants (right) and Events (center). Both kinds
have tie-breaker charts on their backsides (left) and are shuffled together to form the Contingency
deck.
Each player has 5 Action cards with their Corporation name on the back. Here shown the ones for
the Petrol Blue Inc. player.
Additionally there are 15 Blackmail cards that form the common blackmail draw deck and are
available to all players. Back is shown on the far left.
Leader Chips
There are 9 Leader chips. Each of the 3 Factions has 3 Leaders, a Political (left), a Military (center
left), and a Religious (center right) Leader. Shown are the Leaders from the red Faction.
The 10th chip is the Reporter chip (right) only needed for the Reporter Variant, see there.
Setup
1. Place the board on the table
2. Place the Corruption cube on the Corruption track, on the lowest spot, Corruption in our
fictitious country starts at 93 percent. For a shorter game, place the cube at 95 percent.
3. Place the five cubes of each Faction colour on the corresponding tracks bottom right.
These are “Troops” now. You may have an older PnP board with six spots per Faction.
Either use 6 cubes per Faction, or simply leave the leftmost space on each track empty.
4. Take the rightmost Troop from each track and place it on the Region with the
corresponding mark. So, for example, take the rightmost cube from the “Government”
track and place it on the port Region (“Capital”) in the bottom middle.
5. Give each player 5 Action cards, 1 HQ card, and 2 “Drilling rights” pawns of the same
Corporation.
6. Shuffle the blackmail cards and place them as a face-down draw deck next to the board.
7. Give each player a random Leader. Place the remaining Leaders next to the board, so that
all can be seen.
8. Prepare the Contingency deck:
a. Separate the Event cards from the Consultant cards.
b. Shuffle both types face down (with the coloured bars on the face-up side).
c. Separate each type in two halves, shuffle half the Event cards in each half of the
Consultants, then place the two decks on top of each other. Place them as the
Contingency deck on the board.
9. Place the money somewhere as the bank. Give each player 5 money.
Gameplay
The game is played in rounds.
Each round, first flip the topmost card from the Contingency deck and place it on the Contingency
card space. If it is an event, increase Corruption by one.
Then, all players at the same time decide which Action they want to take this round and place the
corresponding Action card from their hand face down on the table.
Then, the Actions are called in order, and if a player has chosen the Action called, they flip their
Action card and take the Action. If multiple players have picked the same Action, the tie breaker
chart on the back of the upcoming Contingency card decides who goes first.
After all players have taken their Actions, the round is over. If Corruption is at 100%, the game is
over and the player with the most money wins. Otherwise, play another round.
Round
If the flipped card is an Event card, increase Corruption by one. Do so by moving the marker on
the Corruption track to the right one space. The Event may additionally change the rules for the
current round. Read the text in brackets aloud. This effect will apply for the whole round, even if
the Event is removed from the discard during the round. (Also see Appendix card clarification,
below) The non-bracketed text is the Action available as Action 5 - Hire Consultants in this round.
If the flipped card is a Consultant card, no special rules apply for this round and Corruption is
not adjusted. This Consultant is available for hire by using Action 5 - Hire Consultants in this
round.
Pick Actions
Second, all players choose at the same time which Action they want to take this round.
Pick up your 5 Action cards and place the card with the Action you want to take face down in
front of you. The Action cards are not “used up” by this. Each round, you have access to all 5 of
your Action cards, but may only pick one.
Call Actions
Third, call out the Actions in order, i.e. start by saying “Who has picked Action 1 (Networking)?”. If
a player has picked that Action, they now flip their card and take that Action. There are 5 different
Actions, described roughly here and in more detail further below:
1. Networking - Gather blackmail material on the various Leaders and bribe one Leader to
get them under your control.
2. Sell Weapons - Earn money by selling weapons to one of the three Factions. A new Troop
of that Faction enters the board and moves around, possibly resulting in combat.
3. Buy Drilling Rights - Secure the Drilling Rights for one of the Oil Fields.
4. Sell Oil - Use up your Drilling Rights for one of the Oil Fields and sell the oil on the
international market, earning money, lots. Possibly some other player will steal some of
your oil and profits.
5. Contingency - Use the one-time Event Action or hire one of the useful Consultants. They
will help you for the rest of the game.
Any time multiple players have picked the same Action, they take their Actions in the current
tie-breaker order shown on the back of the card on top of the Contingency deck. The player higher
in that order (= on that card) goes earlier.
If a player is unable to take the Action they picked (this may for example happen due to other
players’ Actions), they still flip their card when their Action is called, but immediately replace it
with their Action card “5 - Contingency” and will take this Action instead when it is called. If a
player could take their Action, they may not decide to all the same take Action 5 instead, this only
happens if they are unable to take the Action.
Leaders
Each Faction has three Leaders. Each Leader at any time is either in the center of the table
(“uncontrolled”), or in front of a player. If a Leader is in front of you, you “control” that Leader.
Controlling any Leader of any given Faction is required to sell Weapons to or buy Drilling Rights
from that Faction. Additionally, each of the three Leaders has a special power:
● Controlling the Political Leader of a Faction grants you the Drilling Rights for free. (see
Political Leader )
● Controlling the Military Leader allows you to intercept other player’s Oil Deliveries at a
port and gain from their profits. (see Military Leader )
● The Religious Leader may be used to take over the office of any of the other two Leaders in
their Faction. See below in this section.
Blackmail
For each Political and Military Leader there are a number of blackmail cards (1 to 3, they have
varying degrees of corruptness), that may be used to force that Leader under your control. There
are no such cards for the Religious Leaders. The pure of mind never stray from the righteous path.
At the start of your turn, no matter which Action you are going to execute and before you start
executing your chosen Action, you may reveal and discard a single Blackmail card from your
hand to blackmail the corresponding Leader. Take exactly that Leader and place it in front of you.
You may blackmail uncontrolled and controlled Leaders alike.
If a player is currently controlling the blackmailed Leader, they may now reveal and discard a
Blackmail card for that same leader from their hand to block your attempt at blackmail. In that
case, both cards are discarded and the Leader stays where they are.
Religious Leader
At the start of your turn, no matter which Action you are going to execute and before you start
executing your chosen Action, instead of revealing a single Blackmail card, you may discard the
Religious Leader of any Faction to take control of any of the other two Leaders of that Faction.
Return your Religious Leader to the supply and place either the Political or the Military Leader of
the same Faction in front of you. It does not matter if that Leader was controlled currently. It is
not possible to block this with a Blackmail card or in any other way. The replaced Leader was
proven weak of faith and executed, so there is no use in blackmailing him. Thematically, it is
replaced by the former Religious Leader, and a former disciple takes over the office from the Political
Leader.
Example: You control the Religious Leader of the Government, and Karen controls the Political
Leader of the Government. You hold a blackmail card for the Political Leader of the Government.
You picked the Action “buy drilling rights”, and it is your turn to act. You might buy the drilling
rights at the regular price, but instead you decide to take control of the Political Leader of the
Government to get them for free. However, gambler that you are, you try blackmailing him instead
of persuading your good friend, the Religious Leader of the Government to have him executed and
take over his office. You discard a blackmail card for the Political Leader of the Government.
Unfortunately, Karen proves well-prepared and has collected incriminating material on her good
friend as well. She also holds a blackmail card for the Political Leader of the Government and
discards it, blocking your blackmail attempt. Grudgingly, you pay for the rights.
Note that you may only try to either Blackmail once or use a single Religious Leader at the start of
each of your turns.
In case you are unable to perform the Action you picked, you may, instead of switching it for
Action 5, try to take over a Leader through Blackmail or a Religious Leader of the same Faction. If
you now can perform the Action you picked, you may do so. However, if you stay unable to
perform that Action, you may not switch it for Action 5 all the same. Note that trying to make your
Action possible by Blackmail or the use of a Religious Leader is optional, even if you could, you
may simply skip it and switch your chosen Action for Action 5 .
Action 1 - Networking
Networking should be understood as a euphemism for “diggin up dirt and bribing”.
When taking this Action, first draw the topmost card from the Blackmail deck, and look at it. You
may hold up to 3 of these cards, and should keep them secret. If you ever hold more, discard down
to 3. If the Blackmail deck is empty, first shuffle the discards to form a new deck.
After that, you may bribe any one Leader, no matter if they are controlled or uncontrolled.
To bribe a Leader, first check the current bribe rate of their Faction, corresponding to the
rightmost Troop cube of that Faction on the Faction track. (In the picture further below, the current
bribe rate for a Government Leader is 3 money, for the NLF only 2 Money and for the URFMF it is
even free (0 money)!) Pay that sum to the bank. If the Leader is currently controlled by another
player, additionally pay that sum again to that player. Lastly, take the Leader and place it in front
of you, you now control them.
Other players may not defend against losing a Leader to bribery, in the way they might against
blackmail.
Note that once you have started executing this action by drawing a Blackmail card, you may not
use a Blackmail card or a Religious Leader. You may only do so at the start of your turn, before
executing the action.
Action 2 - Sell Weapons
Decide which of the three Factions you want to sell weapons to. You may only sell weapons to a
Faction that still has Troop cubes on their track. You may only sell Weapons to a Faction that you
control at least any one Leader of.
First, take money from the bank. The money you gain is equal to the number corresponding to
the rightmost Troop cube of that Faction on the Faction track.
In the picture below, the Government would pay you 2 money, the NLF 3 Money and the URFMF even
8 money!
Second, take that rightmost Troop cube from the Faction track and place it into any one Region
already controlled by that Faction.
If a Faction currently has no Troops in their own starting Region (either because they have no
Troops on the map at all, or because another Faction took over their starting Region), you may
instead place the Troop into the Faction’s starting Region, as marked. The Troop may not be
placed in a Region where all neighbouring Regions are already occupied by Troops of the same
Faction.
In the picture below, you could place a new Government Troop into either Northern Peaks, Central
Province, Capital, or Province District Zone. You could place a new URFMF Troop only in West
Region. A new NLF Troop, you could place into either Upper Mountain Department or Border
Territory, but not Eastern District, since all neighbouring Regions are already occupied by NLF
Troops.
Next, roll the die. The newly-placed Troop will move in that direction. If you roll a 6, you decide. If
there are already Troops of that same Faction on the target Region you rolled, treat it as if you
rolled a 6.
In the picture above, if you placed a new Government Troop in Province District Zone, if you roll 1,
the new Troop will move to South River Zone, if you roll 5, the Troop will move to Border Territory,
attacking the NLF, and if you roll 2, 3, 4, or 6, you get to decide if the Troop moves to South River
Zone or Border Territory. It will never move to Capital, as that is already under Government control.
If the Troop moves into an empty Region, their movement is over. If there is an opposing Troop in
the target Region, remove both Troops and return them to the leftmost empty spaces on their
respective Faction tracks. War is a dirty business and everybody loses. Unless war is actually your
business.
If, for example, in the pic above a new Government Troop would move from Province District Zone to
Border Territory, the Government and the NLF would fight there, leading to the destruction of both.
You would place your new Government Troop as well as the NLF Troop formerly occupying Border
Territory back on their respective Tracks.
Generally speaking, at the end of this Action, there will never be more than 1 Troop in each
Region.
Troops taking over or losing Regions does not change who owns the Drilling Rights for that Region
(see below). Basically, as long as nobody offers a better deal, the new rulers are happy to let you do
your thing and continue a good working relationship.
Thematically speaking, the Troop track represents how the more Troops any Faction has on the
board, the stronger they feel and act and the less money they pay for weapons, the more money they
want from you for Drilling Rights and bribes, and the less lucrative it is to use their ports.
In the map above, you could buy the Drilling Rights for Upper Mountain Department, Eastern
District, or Border Territory if you control a NLF Leader, or you may buy the Drilling Rights for
Northern Peaks or Central District if you control a Government Leader.
To do so, simply pay the cost corresponding to the rightmost Troop cube of that Faction on the
Faction track and place one of your pawns on the Region. There may only be one player’s pawn in
any Region at any time.
In the map above, if you buy the Drilling Rights for Border Territory from the NLF, you need to pay 8
money to the bank, and then place one of your pawns in the Border Territory region.
Your pawn stays in the Region (=you keep the Drilling Rights) even if the Region becomes
uncontrolled or comes under new management due to fights etc, see above “Sell Weapons”.
Buyout
If another player already owns the Drilling Rights for a Region (so their pawn is in that Region),
but they do not currently control any Leader of the controlling Faction, you may buy out these
Drilling Rights. To do so, buy the Rights for that Region as described above, remove the other
player’s pawn from the Region and return it to that player.
For example, Karen has the Drilling Rights for Northern Peaks, and her pawn stands there. She does
not control any Government Leader. You control the Government Religious Leader and want to buy
the drilling rights for Northern Peaks. You pay 10 Money to the bank (see map above), remove
Karen’s pawn from Northern Peaks and place yours there.
Political Leader
If you control the Political Leader of the Faction needed to buy a Drilling Right, you do not have to
pay for the Drilling Rights and may instead take them for free, because you are such good friends
with that guy and he knows a guy that is responsible.
However you may not combine the Political Leader special power with buying out the rights from
another player. It means a massive hustle and cost to forge all these documents, bribe police et al,
and even your best friend can’t do that for free.
Next, consult the Troops track to find your profit. The rightmost cube of the Faction controlling
your chosen Oil Port determines the price you get. However, in case either your Drilling Region,
or the Region with the Oil Port, or even both are uncontrolled, you will only get the rightmost
“default” price of $15. Take the according amount of Money from the bank. You have successfully
sold the Oil.
Note that you will only get the full price if both the Drilling Region and the Oil Port are currently
controlled by one of the three Factions. It does not matter if you control a Leader of the Factions
controlling these Regions when you sell Oil, as long as somebody controls the Region. You always
will get roughly the same price on the international market, however, the stronger a Faction
becomes, the more port fees they impose on you. Shipping from anarchistic, uncontrolled oil ports is
very cost-intensive, as is drilling in anarchistic, uncontrolled Regions. Surprisingly, workers drill
faster and cheaper if sufficiently protected and motivated by people with guns…
Military Leader
If you control the Military Leader of a Faction that controls a Port that another player uses to sell
Oil, you may ask that Military Leader to “repurpose” some of that Oil for you. If you do, the player
selling oil has to pay you 10 Money after selling the Oil.
You may even do so if the player selling Oil controls an other Leader of the same Faction.
Action 5 - Contingency
If the topmost card on the face-up Contingency discard is a Consultant, take it and place it in
front of you. The power it grants is now available to you until game end. You do not need to pay
anything for that. Most Consultants modify certain Actions with special rules that apply to you if
you take the corresponding Action. Also see Appendix card clarifications, below.
If the topmost card on the face-up Contingency discard is an Event, follow the instructions listed
on the card ( increase / decrease Corruption, gain / pay money etc.), then put the card face-down
back under the Contingency deck.
If there are no cards on the Contingency discard, use the instructions printed on the board
instead (take 5 money).
If multiple players take this Action (number 5) on the same turn, they take their Actions in the
order shown on the back of the card on top of the Contingency deck, as with all other Actions. It
might then happen that the first player takes the Consultant or returns under the draw pile the
Event card flipped face-up at the start of this round, the second player the one below (probably
flipped last round) and so on.
Game End
If, at the end of a round, Corruption has reached 100% (which may have happened due to players
taking Action 5 - Hire Consultant), the game ends now. All players count their Money. Whoever
has the most, wins. In case of a tie, consult the current Contingency deck tie breaker chart.
Appendix I - Variants
Use these at your own discretion.
During Setup, after giving Leaders to players, place the Reporter on a random uncontrolled
Leader.
When taking Action 1 - Networking, after drawing a Blackmail card, instead of bribing a Leader,
you may move the Reporter. Simply take them from the Leader they currently research and put
them on a different Leader. Note that you draw a blackmail card first irrespective if you then
bribe a Leader, redirect the Reporter, or do none of these. You may still bribe any one Leader, no
matter if they are controlled or uncontrolled, and/or under investigation by the Reporter.
The Leader with the Reporter can not be used for any of their benefits. It will neither buy your
Weapons, nor help you getting Drilling Rights in any way, will not steal Oil for you or have other
Leaders executed. It is behaving in a generally very presentable way, or, put it differently, bad for
business. You can still control them, but they are quite useless as long as the Reporter investigates
them.
When taking Action 5 - Hire Consultants, instead of using the topmost card on the Contingency
deck, you may buy out a Consultant from another player. You may not buy out a Consultant that
that other player just got this round. Pay that player $3, take the Consultant, and place it in front
of you. You may now use it for its benefit.
Try to read the board and anticipate what other players are probably going to do this round, and
get yourself into a position that profits from their Actions. If you are quite certain that some
player will sell Weapons to a Faction you control the Political Leader of, and the probability is
high the new Troops will secure an available Drilling Region, go for Drilling Rights. Should a
player be in a great position to sell Oil this round, or even be pressured to do so, secure the help of
the right Military Leader to steal their oil. If all other players haggle for Drilling Rights and
Military Leaders, secure the help of some low-key Leader and keep selling Weapons under the
radar. Act anti-cyclical wherever you see profit in that.
Do not underestimate Religious Leaders. They grant the same right to sell Weapons or buy
Drilling Rights as the other two Leaders of the same Faction, are immune to Blackmail, and often
less contested. It’s also never bad to know a guy that can massively annoy other players.
Sometimes, getting a Religious Leader now to take over the Leader you actually need just when
you need them is easier and leads to less trouble with those pesky other players.
A good way to secure your Leaders is by selling Weapons to them, even if it may not seem the
most lucrative option at the moment. The more Troops a Faction has got, the higher their Bribe
rates go and the less likely other players will bribe away your Leader of that Faction.
Coup
This round, call Action 5 first, then Action 4, etc. up to Action 1. Should a player be unable to take
their Action this round, they will not get to take Action 5 Contingency instead, but simply take no
Action at all.
Inside Contact
After all other players have chosen their Action card for this round, you select one of them, and
look under the card they have picked. Obviously, no player may change their mind after that any
more. Lastly, you also pick your Action for this round.
Insider
You may not decide to act after other players that have picked the same Action.
Lawyer / Veteran
The Region must still be controlled by one of the three Factions.
Local Contact
Instead of $10, you steal $15.
Negotiator
This happens at the very start of each round, before a Contingency card is flipped. At that point of
time, no other player may interact with your Leaders (blackmail, etc)
New Management
The player first in tie-breaker order collects all 15 blackmail cards from all players, the discard
and the draw stack, shuffles them together as during setup, and deals to each player the same
number of cards they had before. The remaining cards form the new draw deck.
NGO Intervention
This round, do not call Action 2 - Sell Weapons. Any player that picked that Action will instead
perform Action 5.
Oil Crisis
You obviously need Drilling Rights to be able to sell oil. If you do not have any, you may not use
this card.
People Starving
When you reveal this card, take the rightmost Troop cube from each of the three tracks and
remove it from the game. For the rest of the game, each Faction has one Troop less available.
Should a Faction have non Troops on their track when this card is revealed, do not remove a cube
for that Faction.
Presidential Election
This round, each player chooses 2 Action cards from their hand and places both face-down in
front of them. Therefore, obviously, each player must choose two different actions. Both actions
are executed following the usual rules, i.e. if an action you have picked is called, reveal your
Action card, and execute the action in tie breaker order.
Religion Expert
You may use the special ability of any one of your Religious Leaders at the start of other player’s
turns.
Religious Fanaticism
Take the rightmost cube from each of the three Faction tracks and place it in the starting Region of
that Faction. If that Region is occupied by another Faction, regular fighting occurs. If that Region is
occupied by a Troop of that same Faction, move the new Troop cube according to the regular
rules. During this special movement, if all neighbouring Regions are occupied by friendly Troops,
move to one of them randomly. Re-roll all sixes.
Sales Representative
Find the price you would regularly get at your port of choice and use the next higher one on the
chart. So, instead of $15 you get $20, instead of $20 you get $26, etc. You never get a better price
than $35.
Strategy Advisor
Do not roll the die, but simply decide where you want the Troops to move.
Technician
The same rules as for stealing oil at a port apply. You must control the Military Leader of the
Faction controlling the Drilling Region etc. You may not steal in the Drilling Region and the Oil
Port at the same time, however, you may steal in the Drilling Region even if another player steals
at the Oil Port. In that case, you steal first. This may mean that the player selling oil loses money
from that Action.