Offworld Trading Company starts by cribbing off Game Designers’ Workshop

Soren Johnson has published the rules to Offworld Trading Company. The in-development strategy title from Mohawk Games pits players against one another on Mars, but instead of guns and troops, players use market forces and underhanded mercantile practices to put each other out of business. Trade stocks, hoard commodities, and corner the Martian markets! The rules, done in the style of a traditional board game, explains the cutthroat goal.

Once one company controls all the shares of a second company, the second company’s owner is removed from the game, and all the buildings, colonies, and patents belonging to that company are given to the first company. The game ends when only one company remains.

Along with influences like Settlers of Catan and Agricola, Johnson mentions that Belter, a Game Designers’ Workshop title from 1979, is a “starting point” for Offworld Trading Company.