18XX Variants' Rules

18XX / Rest Money

• At the end of a stock round, the players' turn order is sorted by greater rest money. Ties are resolved according to the previous turn order.

Comments

• Turns are sorted due to only the players' skill! - With the traditional turn order rules, turns were sorted due to a combination of luck for the initial turn order, luck for unpredictable strategic mistakes of opponents (like first forgetting to do something and then doing it when everybody else has finished their intended actions), and skill for increasing the likelihood of getting the priority deal.
• Until a PC moderator implements the full rule, an intermediate improvement can be used: The priority deal does to the player with the greatest rest money. For this, let every player pass until the priority deal player gets his first turn.
• The variant greatly improves every 18xx with the following exceptions: 1830 (both the traditional and the variant rules make the game equally interesting, but in a different way), 1830/Lummerland (see 1830, but strategies differ), 1844 (already uses the rule), Crisis (has no stock rounds but already dynamic player turns), Ur/1830BC (already uses a similar rule, which was the original cause for inventing the variant).

18XX / Conditional Initial Capitalization

• A player buying one certificate from a company's initial offering pays the share price to the company / the bank if he does / does not control it.
• A company X buying one certificate from a company Y's initial offering pays the share price to Y / the bank if the same player does / does not control both X and Y.

18XX / Peaceful Rules

• On his turn, a player may not sell more than one share.
• On his turn, a player may not buy more than one share, except a director certificate.
• On his turn, a player first sells then buys shares, each of which is optional.

1826 / Privates Auctions

• The privates are sold in auctions. Players take turns to choose one still unsold private to be sold in an auction. When all privates are sold, the first stock round starts with the player having the least cash, in case of a tie the player with an earlier occurrence in the initial order of turns. - During each auction the players take bid turns, which start with the player choosing the private, proceed clockwise, but otherwise are independent of turns. A bid turn can be a pass or - unless the player has passed earlier during the same auction - a bid. The minimal bid is $0, the minimal bid increment is $5, and the player offering the final bid, which he must be able to spend, pays for it to the bank.

Comments

• With the original rules the owner of the Belgian private can lose F15 if some opponent adopts a strategy of opening Belge during the first stock round. Some players also think that the Parisian and Alsatian privates might be too expensive.
• Freely bidding for the privates has considerably increased strategic variation of the game.

1835 / Clemens

• When buying a certificate from the Start Packet, there are no restrictions on the order in which certificates may be purchased; a player is free to choose any certificate remaining in the Start Packet. Each player in turn may choose any of the remaining certificates (some of which include an additional certificate, i.e., the Saxon director's share with the LD private) for purchase. (These combined certificates may not be separated when purchasing from the Start Packet.)
• The very first run of the first stock round is done backwards, all others take place normally. E.g., in a game with four players the first run is 4-3-2-1. Thereafter every run is 1-2-3-4. (Exactly once player 1 has two turns in succession.)
• The Pre-Prussian minor companies will not operate until the Bavarian (BY) floats. However, the private companies will pay out if the BY does not float.

1841 / Naive German Rules

• {2} Before the first stock round the concessions are offered in open auctions. Players take turns either to pass or to choose one still unsold concession to be sold in an auction. If all players have passed successively, then the remaining concessions are put into the bank pool and the first stock round starts with the player having the least cash, in case of a tie the player with an earlier occurrence in the initial order of turns. - During each auction the players take bid turns, which start with the player choosing the concession, proceed clockwise, but otherwise are independent of turns. A bid turn can be a pass or - unless the player has passed earlier during the same auction - a bid. The minimal bid is $20, the minimal bid increment is $5, and the player offering the final bid, which he must be able to spend, pays for it to the bank.
• {3.2} Shares or concessions may not be traded between players.
• {4.5.1} During an emergency money raising a director certificate may not go to the bank pool.
• {4.5.1} In case of a bankruptcy all companies that have been controlled by the bankrupt player are eliminated. All 100% shares in such a company, all trains, tokens, and money go to the bank. A concession in such a company is taken away from the game. The bankrupt player has the option to continue playing with additional debts of L500 issued by the bank.
• {4.5.1, 4.7.1} Foreign shares sold by a company do not drop the stock price.
• {4.6.9} Livornese (SFLi) operates in the OR in which it starts provided none of its predessors has operated in this OR.
• {5} If a game end is caused by the highest possible stock market price being reached or by all red connections being connected, then the current OR is still completed.

Comments

• {4.5.1, 4.7.1}, {5} The timing for the game end and the final stock prices are less arbitrary.
• In Lemmi's moderator {4.6.9} requires the correction mode for stock price corrections and usage of the middle mouse button on the income for paying a dividend. The rule improves the otherwise even weaker Livornese.
• Trades between players could unbalance a game extremely. E.g. two players could cooperate in buying virtually all concessions and earning money with only the Bayard until the game end.
• A director certificate in the bank pool could benefit an arbitrary player. Being allowed to get rid of under-endowed companies easily would decrease the train speed, which is the game's key excitement.
• Historical companies can only be floated once since they are historical.

1841 / German Rules 1.5.1

• {meta-rule} The contents of headlines qualifies interpretation of text below them. [The author of 1898 has said the opposite about the 1898 rules.]
• {2} Before the first stock round the concessions are offered in open auctions. Players take turns either to pass or to choose one still unsold concession to be sold in an auction. If all players have passed successively, then the remaining concessions are put into the bank pool and the first stock round starts with the player having the least cash, in case of a tie the player with an earlier occurrence in the initial order of turns. - During each auction the players take bid turns, which start with the player choosing the concession, proceed clockwise, but otherwise are independent of turns. A bid turn can be a pass or - unless the player has passed earlier during the same auction - a bid. The minimal bid is $20, the minimal bid increment is $5, and the player offering the final bid, which he must be able to spend, pays for it to the bank.
• {3.1, 3.2, 4.6.8, 4.6.9, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.7.4, 4.7.5} Unless in the cases of 4.6.8 or 4.6.9, players and Corporations may not voluntarily buy or sell stock or cause a merger if this would lead to a circular chain of ownership. They may buy the first 4-Train even if this would lead to such a chain. [So only involuntary selling (emergency money raising or to reduce holdings to less than 60%) can cause a circular chain. Here the priority of involuntary selling is higher than that of not causing a circular chain.]
• {3.2} Shares or concessions may not be traded between players. [If the players agree before the start of a game, then concessions may be traded between players. Strategically this allows Yellow Fever, i.e. cooperating players might want to buy most concessions and have income from only the Bayard concession until the game end.]
• {3.5.2, 4.7.1} If a player controls, directly or indirectly, more than 60% of stock in a Corporation (call it A) and is operating a Corporation (call it B) which directly owns stock in A, B must sell A shares to reduce his holding if he can (i.e. unless A has not operated), even if the sale leaves him still over limit. If B controls A shares indirectly (i.e. B controls Corporation C, which owns stock in A), B is not required to divest itself of C in order to reduce the player's holding in A.
• {4.1.1, 4.1.2} It is legal to upgrade a reachable city (provided that any new track doesn't run off the map or into a barrier), even if there is no new track or if the new track isn't reachable.
• {4.1.1, 4.1.2} In Phase Two, the route from a Corporation token to the new tile may not cross an active border, not even twice.
• {4.1.1, 4.1.2} The yellow Venice tile may be laid only in orientation S, with Venice itself next to the port and the other piece of track pointing towards Padova. The green and brown Venice tiles will then fit only in one orientation.
• {4.4, 4.7.4} It is illegal to reduce a Corporation to having tokens only in pass hexes.
• {4.5.1} During an emergency money raising a director certificate may not go to the bank pool.
• {4.5.1} During the Emergency Money-Raising Step, Corporations and players may (or possibly must) ignore the usual restrictions on selling stock. They may sell stock in Corporations which haven't operated yet, and they can cause the Bank Pool to own more than 50% of a Corporation. A Corporation may also sell from its own initial stock. They may choose to sell stock which they wouldn't normally be able to sell in preference to stock which could be sold normally.
• {4.5.1} When selling shares at half price, the total amount raised, if not integral, is rounded down; the rounding is not performed on each certificate sold. However, rounding for selling a Corporation Treasury's shares in foreign Corporations is done separately from rounding for selling a Corporation's Initial Shares.
• {4.5.1} If, after an Emergency Money-Raising Step, the Corporation still has funds, it may buy further Trains (usually from other Corporations, but conceivably from the Bank or Bank Pool) as its President wishes.
• {4.5.1} In case of a bankruptcy all companies that have been controlled by the bankrupt player are eliminated. All 100% shares in such a company, all trains, tokens, and money go to the bank. A concession in such a company is taken away from the game. The bankrupt player has the option to continue playing with additional debts of L500 issued by the bank.
• {4.5.1, 4.6.8, 4.6.9} If due to the Ferdinandea Secession or due to the Tuscanian Merger circular chains of control arise, the affected Corporations are considered frozen, except that they must, in their Financial steps, sell off all shares they own in their controller(s). These sales follow the rules for the Emergency Money-Raising Step {4.5.1}, except that the Corporation receives full value for the shares sold. [A circular chain cannot (?) be caused by an emergency money raising. Due to another modifying rule regular mergers do not cause circular chains.]
• {4.5.1, 4.7.1} Foreign shares sold by a company do not drop the stock price.
• {4.6.2} The actions occurring when the first 4-Train is sold must be carried out in the order given. This means that the elimination of the concessions, the Ferdinandea Secession, and the Tuscanian Merger occur in that order.
• {4.6.8} When swapping pairs of IRSFF shares, the first pair must be swapped for the President's share of either the SFV or the SFL, and the second pair must be swapped for the other. If there is no second pair, the unclaimed President's certificate will go to the Bank Pool. In this case some players or Corporations may not be able to exchange their IRSFF certificates for those of the fragments; such share-owners will be paid the current market value of the share from the bank without affecting the share price of either fragment. The unclaimed Corporation will be frozen.
• {4.6.8} When the Ferdinandea Secession occurs, the fragments (SFV and SFL) will run unless the IRSFF ran earlier that round. If the IRSFF buys the first 4-Train, the fragments will not run that OR and the Corporation will lose the remainder of its train-buying step and its financial step.
• {4.6.8} During the Ferdinandea Secession Treasury shares of equal value are distributed in stock price order.
• {4.6.8, 4.7.4, 4.7.6} A frozen Corporation will discard odd shares in the components of a merger between Major Corporations, receiving the usual compensation. If it has a pair of IRSFF shares, it will act as the Bank Pool does (i.e. exchange them for one SFV and one SFL share unless one of the Presidencies is still available). If it has a single IRSFF share, it will exchange it for an SFV share, if available. These exchanges will occur after the Bank Pool's exchanges, in operating order if there is more than one frozen Corporation. A frozen Corporation does not buy shares during a Minor Corporation Transformation. [In particular this means that the frozen company can become the director of SFV or SFL and that otherwise (with only 10% IRSFF) usually it gets one SFV certificate but that the director may go to the bank pool.]
• {4.6.9} If no player or Corporation has as much as 20% of the SFLi when it forms (because they all had too few shares of its precursors or chose not to acquire the Presidency) its President's certificate will go to the Bank Pool, and the Corporation will be frozen.
• {4.6.9} If Firenze and/or Pisa are occupied by tokens of the Corporations merging in the Tuscanian merge, they remain there. If Firenze and/or Pisa are not occupied by tokens of the Corporations merging in the Tuscanian merger, the SFLi will not have a token in the relevant city. If the SFLi is not able to maintain a token in at least one of Firenze or Pisa, it must keep a token in some other city occupied by a precursor Corporation. If the SFLi is frozen while being formed, it does not voluntarily keep tokens in other cities than Pisa or Firenze.
• {4.6.9} Livornese (SFLi) operates in the OR in which it starts provided none of its predecessors has operated in this OR.
• {4.7.2} A Corporation may not buy shares in a Corporation whose shares it sold at any time during the current Operating Round. This includes shares sold in an earlier Emergency Money-Raising Step.
• {4.7.4} When swapping shares after a merger between Major Corporations, shareholders with pairs of shares act before players with odd ones, as in the Ferdinandea Secession. If the President's share of the new Corporation hasn't yet been taken, a shareholder in turn with less than 40% of the old Corporations may exchange his entire holding for the President's share, paying the difference, rounded down, while a shareholder with 20% or 30% must take an ordinary share if he rejects the presidency. (A shareholder with 40% or more must take the presidency, of course.) If shares in the new Corporation run out, a player with a pair of shares receives full value from the bank. If the merger is voluntary (i.e. it is not the Tuscanian merge) it may not take place unless some shareholder takes the Presidency.
• {4.7.4, 4.7.5} A merger is forbidden if all routes from a railhead of the active Corporation to a token of the other cross an active border. This means that if the two Corporations are in different countries, they may not merge, and two Corporations in the same country may not merge if all routes between them cross into another country.
• {5} If a game end is caused by the highest possible stock market price being reached or by all red connections being connected, then the current OR is still completed.

1841 / Zugzwang III

• 1. Grundlage ist die Textfassung 1841 Version 1.00 Englisch (7.7.1996).
• 1a. Diese wird modifiziert durch die Deutschen Regeln 1.5.1 in Englisch.
• 2. [entfällt]
• 3. Die Spieleridentitäten sind während des Spiels geheim.
• 4. Deals, Händel, Gesellschaftshändel zwischen Spielern sind untersagt.
• 5. Das Medium der Zugabgabe ist Email, es sei denn im Falle eines Computercrashs oder aus dem Kurzurlaub.
• 6. Bei Urlaub ohne ZZ-Zugang wird das Spiel unterbrochen. Teilnahme mit beabsichtigter häufiger Unterbrechung ist untersagt.
• 7. ARs und ORs werden nicht unterbrochen. Strategisch einfache Runden werden zusammengefasst, d.h. fast nie.
• 8. Die Züge haben gewissenhaft zu sein und sollten im Schnitt nicht unter 30 Minuten erfordern.
• 9. Bei dennoch unvollständigen Zügen nimmt der GM geringste Aktivität an. Dabei gilt im Besonderen: Billigste Loks werden verschrottet, neue Loks werden notgekauft, S.F.V. wird bevorzugt, es wird nicht nachgekauft, Notverkäufe werden vorrangig ohne Direktorwechsel und nachrangig in Kursreihenfolge durchgeführt und Neugründungen finden nicht statt.
• 9a. Außerdem gilt im Besonderen: Es wird einbehalten.
• 10. Der GM wertet bei Mehrdeutigkeit in folgender abnehmender Priorität aus: logische Textsemantik, Teilausführung, trivialerweise eindeutige Absicht, Nicht-Ausführung. Logisch korrekte Zugnotation wird daher empfohlen. Nicht-Unterscheidung von Init und Pool, wenn beides erhältlich, bedeutet Nicht-Ausführung.

1856 / Selling Only After Having Operated

• Shares in companies not having operated yet may not be sold.
  

1860 / Berliner Rules / 2009-05-01

• This variant creates a severely different game in that selling shares or recycling bankrupt companies can be much more important.
• The initial auctions distribute the available items fairly and no player is forced to buy an unwanted item.
• Good certificates are scarce in the game. It is crucial which players have the first, second, third turns in a stock round. Therefore the turn order in every stock round is fairly determined.
• The "with valid route" criterion in the train buying rules increases strategic complexity since it creates two types of companies: with versus without a route.

• The game starts with the following procedure:
• The players get their initial money.
• An initial turn order is determined randomly for the players.
• The initial auctions take place.
• The turn order for the first stock round is determined.
• The frst stock round takes place.
• The initial auctions proceed as follows: The Brading, Yarmouth, Cowes, and Ryde privates and the CN and IOW director certificates are offered in open auctions. Players take turns either to pass or to choose one still unsold item to be sold in an auction. If all players have passed successively, then the remaining items are put into the bank pool, from where they may be bought from the second stock round at face value. - During each auction the players take bid turns, which start with the player choosing the item, proceed clockwise, but otherwise are independent of turns. A bid turn can be a pass or - unless the player has passed earlier during the same auction - a bid. The minimal bid is - in case of a private - its face value or - in case of a director certificate - $0. The minimal bid increment is $5. The player offering the final bid pays for it to the bank. In case of a director certificate, the player sets the initial share price, which is in the valid range, and also pays twice it to the bank. A bidding player must be able to spend his bid plus, in case of a director certificate, the initial share price.
• For the first stock round, a player with less cash gets an earlier place of the turn order. Ties are resolved in order of earlier turns in the initial turn order.

• At the end of a stock round, the turn order for the next stock round is determined afresh: A player with more cash gets an earlier place in the turn order. Ties are resolved in the order of the current stock round's turn order.
• The occurrence of a bankruptcy during an operating round does not cause any extra stock round nor any turn order or priority deal changes for the next stock round.

• Selling shares in a company without a train gives the FULL stock price if the company has not yet operated during the game or since its last bankruptcy. [Note: This rule doubles the average freqency of selling shares. This rule is also contained in the original rules as a variant. ]

• An insolvent company withholds HALF revenue (rounded up), but halts count FULL.
• A company in receivership always withholds FULL revenue, even if it is insolvent.

• One may not sell the only train of a company with a valid route unless the buying company doesn’t  have a train.
• A company with a valid route but without train must buy one. If it cannot afford one, then and only then it becomes insolvent.