← All games

Rolling Stock

Designer: Björn Rabenstein

A card-based auction and trading game with the spirit of 18xx, with no map or tiles at all.

View on BoardGameGeek → View the rulebook → View on Ludoya →

Rolling Stock Contents

How it works

Setup

$30 per player; the foreign investor has $4
Company deck by colour: red on top, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple
At the bottom, the end card (learning, short or long game)
As many are turned face up as there are players: that's the offer
10 possible corporations, each with 10 shares

Turn: investment (phases 1-5) ×1 per turn

1. Each corporation may issue one share
2. Players may turn one of their companies into a corporation
3. In order: auction a company, buy one share, sell one, or pass
4. New order: whoever has the most cash goes first
5. The foreign investor buys companies from the offer at face value

Turn: operations (phases 6-10) ×1 per turn

6. Corporations buy companies from anyone (within the price range)
7. Companies may be closed
8. Income, synergies and cost of ownership
9. Dividends and new share price based on book value
10. Check for the end

↻ Repeats until the end

End

When no unowned companies remain, the end card is flipped; if it was already flipped, the game ends
Or when a corporation reaches $100
Highest book value wins: cash + face value of companies + share price of shares

Components

Players

Cash
Private companies
Corporation shares

Companies

45 cards with face value, income and synergies
Auctioned at face value or more
Later, a cost of ownership depending on the deck

Corporations

Born from a player's company
Buy companies and add up their synergies
Share price: a card, which moves when shares are bought, sold or issued

Bank

Unlimited money
Issued shares not held by any player

Foreign investor

Buys the companies nobody wants
Collects $5 per turn on top of income
Only sells at the maximum price

Where the money goes

Players Bank Auctions and share purchases
Bank Players Company income and share sales
Players Corporations On creating the corporation, the difference up to the share price
Bank Corporations Shares the bank takes on creation, issued shares, income
Corporations Players Dividends and buying companies from players
Corporations Foreign investor Buying companies from the investor, at maximum price

There's no map and no trains: a corporation is worth its companies plus its cash.
The share price is recalculated every turn from book value: paying out a lot can make it drop.

A round, step by step

Illustrative example built with the real cards and the learning booklet's procedures, 3 players with $30 each. We follow [P1] and the corporation they create, the Bear, through the first two turns.

Turn 1 · phase 3 Auctioning the [BPM]

[P1] auctions the [BPM] with a $7 bid, its face value. [P2] bids $8 and [P1] $9. [P2] drops out and [P1] pays $9 to the bank.

A new company is turned up, but it can't be auctioned until next turn.

[P1] cash

$21

Bear treasury

—

Bear share price

—

Bear companies

—
Turn 1 · phase 3 The [BSE], cheap

Later on they auction the [BSE] at $2 and nobody raises. Then everyone passes and the phase ends.

[P1] cash

$19

Bear treasury

—

Bear share price

—

Bear companies

—
Turn 1 · phases 4-5 Order and the foreign investor

The new order is set by cash: whoever has the most goes first. Then the foreign investor buys, at face value, whichever companies in the offer it can afford, starting with the cheapest.

[P1] cash

$19

Bear treasury

—

Bear share price

—

Bear companies

—
Turn 1 · phase 8 Income

The bank pays income: $2 from the [BPM] and $1 from the [BSE]. There's no cost of ownership yet.

Only corporations collect synergies, not players.

[P1] cash

$22

Bear treasury

—

Bear share price

—

Bear companies

—
Turn 2 · phase 2 Becoming a corporation

[P1] turns the [BPM] into a corporation, the Bear. Since it's red, they can pick a share price from $10 to $14: they pick $10. The president's share is worth $10 and the [BPM] $7, so they pay $3 into the treasury. The bank takes another share and puts in $10.

If the share were worth less than the company, you'd need to take more than one, and so would the bank.

[P1] cash

$19

Bear treasury

$13

Bear share price

$10

Bear companies

BPM
Turn 2 · phase 3 Buying raises the price

[P1] buys the Bear's other share from the bank. First the share price moves to the next card, $11, then they pay that price.

Selling works the other way round: the share price drops first and you collect the new price.

[P1] cash

$8

Bear treasury

$13

Bear share price

$11

Bear companies

BPM
Turn 2 · phase 6 The Bear buys the [BSE]

The [BSE] can be sold for $1 to $3. [P1], as a player, sells it to the Bear, which they preside over, for the maximum: $3.

A corporation can buy companies from players, from other corporations or from the foreign investor.

[P1] cash

$11

Bear treasury

$10

Bear share price

$11

Bear companies

BPM + BSE
Turn 2 · phase 8 Synergy

The Bear collects $2 from the [BPM] and $1 from the [BSE], plus $1 more because each company lists the other in its synergy box: $4.

[P1] cash

$11

Bear treasury

$14

Bear share price

$11

Bear companies

BPM + BSE
Turn 2 · phase 9 To pay out or not

The $11 card allows up to $3 per share. At $2 per share, [P1] would collect $4, but book value would be $7 + $2 + $10 = $19 and, with 2 shares, the share price would fall to $9.

[P1] cash

$11

Bear treasury

$14

Bear share price

$11

Bear companies

BPM + BSE
Turn 2 · phase 9 Withholding to rise

It pays nothing out. Book value is $7 + $2 + $14 = $23, and on the $11 card's table, with 2 shares, that gives $12.

If another corporation held the $12 card, the Bear would jump to the next free one in the direction of the arrow.

[P1] cash

$11

Bear treasury

$14

Bear share price

$12

Bear companies

BPM + BSE
Towards turn 3 What now?

In phase 1 of turn 3, the Bear can issue a share: it'll drop to the $11 card and the bank will pay it $11. With more cash it can buy pricier companies that have synergies with the [BPM] and [BSE].

[P1] cash

$11

Bear treasury

$14

Bear share price

$12

Bear companies

BPM + BSE

Rolling Stock — Summary

Capitalization type

Incremental capitalization, but with no classic IPO: a Corporation is founded by handing over an already-owned "Company" card as its first asset, and the founder receives shares in return.
The share price is never chosen: it's automatically recalculated from a table that cross-references the corporation's book value (cash + value of its Companies) against the number of shares issued.

Floats once 10% of shares are sold (a single share out of 10), for every corporation
No real cap: a player may hold up to 100% of a single corporation, for every corporation
Certificate limit per player: 99, the same regardless of player count — in practice this imposes no functional limit, since the game only has 10 corporations of 10 shares each (100 certificates total)

Starting cash by player count

2 to 5 players: $30 starting cash
6 players: $25 starting cash
The bank starts with $10,000; the Foreign Investor (an extra automated player) starts with $4 and gets an extra $5 every income phase

End game triggers

A share price reaches the top of the market ($100): immediate end
The Company deck runs out and the game-end card is exposed a second time: ends at the close of that turn
No trigger is tied to trains, because the game has none

Number of phases

There are no train phases like in 1830: every full turn runs through up to 9 (or 10, with the "Foreign Investor" step split out) fixed steps: Investment, Wrap-up/reordering, Acquisition, Closing Companies, Income, Dividends, End Card, Issue Shares and IPO.
The "Cost of Ownership" (the equivalent of rusting) rises in level as higher-level Companies are revealed from the deck, not through train phases.

Train list and prices

Not applicable: Rolling Stock has no board, hexes, tiles, or trains of any kind. Its conceptual equivalent is the "Cost of Ownership": each turn, the color of the top card of the Company deck determines how much is deducted from the income of every owned Company of that color — a universal depreciation that replaces train rusting.

List of private companies

45 "Company" cards across six levels/colors, each printed with a face value, a fixed income, and a list of "synergies" (other companies it forms a bonus pair with):
Level 1 (red, $1-$8): 6 companies, e.g. BME, BSE, KME, AKE, BPM, MHE
Level 2 (orange, $11-$19): 8 companies, e.g. WT, BD, BY, OL, HE, SX, MS, PR
Level 3 (yellow, $20-$29): 8 companies, e.g. DSB, NS, B, PKP, SNCF, KK, SBB, DR
Level 4 (green, $30-$43): 7 companies, e.g. SJ, SZD, RENFE, BR, FS, BSR, E
Level 5 (blue, $45-$60): 8 companies, e.g. MAD, HA, HH, HR, LHR, CDG, FRA, FR
Level 6 (purple, $70-$100): 8 companies, e.g. OPC, RCC, MM, VP, RU, AL, LE, TSI
Newly revealed Companies are auctioned among players; any left over are automatically bought at face value by the Foreign Investor

List of corporations

10 fixed corporations, all identical in rules (10 shares of 10%, floating at 10%, with no token or home on a map): Wheel, Android, Orion, Jupiter, Bear, Eagle, Saturn, Ship, Star, Horse
Founded by handing over an owned Company as the first asset; the founder becomes its president

Game-specific mechanics

Synergies: if a corporation owns two Companies that reference each other, it earns a fixed bonus every turn for that specific pair
Buying a share from the bank instantly bumps its price up one step; selling one is paid for out of the corporation's own treasury and drops the price one step — there's no shared pool like in 1830
Bankruptcy permanently erases every Company owned by that corporation; its ten shares are set aside in case someone founds a fresh corporation later
Optional "Short Game" variant with a reduced Company deck (5 levels instead of 6) and a more aggressive cost of ownership

Emergency sell

There's no train-purchase concept here at all, so no emergency sell mechanic exists — this isn't a route-network 18xx game in the usual sense. Corporations instead acquire named train-line companies through voluntary negotiation (bids, offers, and counter-offers), paid strictly out of corporate treasury cash, with no requirement to buy anything and no president personal-cash contribution. A cash-poor corporation can fall into receivership, but even then it simply can't afford what it can't afford — bankruptcy here is a distinct, separate end-state (the share price hitting the bottom of the market), not a consequence of failing to buy a train.

Comparison with 1830

1. No map, no track, no trains
The heart of 1830 is the physical map: laying tiles, building routes, and running trains between cities. Rolling Stock strips all of that out entirely: there's no board, no hexes, no tiles, no station tokens, no trains. "Companies" (the cards that serve as the game's basic asset) simply generate the income printed on the card, with no route required at all.

2. Companies replace both the privates and the whole "route" concept
In 1830 a company's revenue depends on its president finding the best route through the tile network with its trains. In Rolling Stock a "Corporation" earns money purely by owning "Company" cards; each Company simply states its own income right on the card.

3. Synergies replace connections between cities
1830 rewards a route that links valuable cities together. Rolling Stock replaces this with "Synergy": if a Corporation owns two Companies whose codes are printed on each other's card, it earns a fixed bonus every turn for holding that specific pair.

4. Any owned Company, not just special ones, can found a corporation
In 1830, founding a company is the privilege of the player who buys its president's certificate with cash. In Rolling Stock, any Company card you own can be spent to "Form a Corporation": you hand it over as that corporation's first asset, receive shares in return, and become its founding president.

5. Share price is purely formulaic, never chosen or negotiated
In 1830 the founder picks a par value from a published table. Rolling Stock has no such choice at all: after every income or dividend calculation, the share price is automatically recalculated by looking up a table that cross-references the corporation's book value against how many shares it has issued.

6. Buying or selling a single share instantly moves its price, and selling is funded by the corporation itself
In 1830 the market only reacts to sales during a stock round, and sold shares go into a shared bank pool that others can buy from later. In Rolling Stock, buying one share from the bank bumps its price up one step instantly, while selling a share is paid for out of the corporation's own treasury and moves its price down one step — there's no shared pool at all.

7. Bankruptcy erases every asset of that corporation forever, not just liquidates it
In 1830 bankruptcy typically forces a personal payment and, worst case, a liquidation that leaves the company diminished but intact. In Rolling Stock, a corporation that can't pay a negative income result goes bankrupt outright: every Company it owned is removed from the game for good.

8. Two independent end triggers, neither tied to trains
1830 ends when the bank runs dry or the last train of the last type is bought. Since Rolling Stock has no trains at all, the game instead ends when a corporation's share price hits the $100 ceiling, or when the entire Company deck runs out and the game-end card is exposed for a second time.

Related games

More games by Björn Rabenstein

Rolling Stock Stars

A term you do not recognise? They are all explained in the 18xx glossary. Glossary →