CO-OP: the co-op game

"Oh No! The local CO-OP market is drowning in debt and the giant corporation MondoMart is threatening to take it over! The city has given the CO-OP just a few weeks to clean up its act. The CO-OP needs to raise money to pay back taxes and legal fees, or the city will sell the CO-OP and its assets to MondoMart to pay off the debts.

How can the CO-OP survive?

The CO-OP owners, all HIPPIES, have invited some like-minded business types to help them save the store. These folks, the so-called BIZZIES (BUSIness people: pronounced like biz-zees), will have to work together with the HIPPIES to save the CO-OP. Together, they will run it as a business (and keep it groovy), but they need to try a bunch of crazy things! However, the city's deadline is quicky approaching, so the group will have to try some pretty unorthodox methods to keep the CO-OP both profitable and groovy! They may even have to open the CO-OP to non-members!"

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CO-OP: the co-op game is a cooperative, variable player powers, hand management, marketplace card game for 1-5 players ages 12 and up (although kids ages 10 and up can play with their parent's help).

In CO-OP, all players assume the role of someone who works at the CO-OP (each with special powers). Each player also has a VIBE track, representing how they are feeling today. A global Money track represents how much money the CO-OP currently has. To win, the CO-OP needs at least $10, and each player must be Groovy or Awesome on their individual VIBE chart.

Since the CO-OP is a store, the usual way to make money is to sell goods to Customers. There is a Storefront where the CO-OP stocks goods to sell to Customers. When the Storefront runs out of goods, the CO-OP can move goods from the Warehouse to the Storefront a variety of ways. When the Warehouse runs out of goods, the CO-OP has to spend some money with Distributors to get more goods. CO-OP is all about balancing when to buy, move, and sell goods. But also staying groovy!

The game is broken up into days. Each day, three things occur: A Happening, Players Turn, Clean-up. A Happening at the start of the day sets-up today's challenge. Then, each player gets a turn, usually playing a card. These cards can be Customers (who buy goods from the CO-OP Storefront), Distributors (from whom we buy goods for the Warehouse), Instagroove cards (with instantaneous effect), or Continuous Groove cards (with lasting effects). After each player plays, then we clean-up (doing end of turn maintenance). And then start to the next day!

The game is over when the Happening card GAME OVER comes out. At that time, the players either win or lose (if they have enough money and VIBE).

Players usually play cards on their turn, but they can also Meditate (to draw more cards), Frolic (cheer up their VIBE), Share (give cards back and forth with other players), and finally COOPERATE (work with other players). A sample COOPERATE action is the Car Wash: you can't have a car wash with just one person! There are limited number of COOPERATE actions, so they must be used strategically!

Players can play in any order on their turn to augment another player's turn: this is called Player Selected Turn Order, but it just means you can play in the order that best helps the players!

CO-OP is a game where players work together to discover the best way to balance VIBE, Money, Goods, and cards (Customers and Distributors). We have to make enough money to save the CO-OP ($10), but we can't give in to the man ... everyone needs to be Groovy or Awesome!