How To Play

Freedom Rings Game Box

What’s in the Box

Video instructions coming soon.

The Goal

A player wins by achieving a goal chosen from seven goal cards available. Victory can be had with much wealth, or little wealth,  depending upon the chosen card. Players claim property squares on the board with every turn until they’ve acquired what’s needed as stated on their chosen goal card. Final scoring is calculated with the value for each property square, less the player’s debt.  Otherwise, everything you need to know about each goal is on the goal cards.

Game Board

General Play

Before the game begins, divide the goal cards into separate 7-card decks containing one of each of the seven goal cards:

Agriculture / Culture / Industry / Virtual / Service / Diversification / Wealth 

Each player receives the 7 goal cards and choses a single goal card to secretly play. Set the remaining cards to the side. 

The game is played with the 3 playing pieces, one for each of the three property rings. 

Before each turn, the player must choose which ring to play. The first time a player plays a ring, if it’s with a die roll, the playing piece starts at the Pay Interest Street.  The playing pieces move clockwise around the board. 

Every turn, except for the first turn and power plays, requires a die roll. The die roll isn’t to determine what property you claim, but to keep players moving around the board and to see if rent is due to another player. 

When the game begins, all players have no money, no property, and no debt. Acquiring property is the way for a player to achieve their goal. The community is the bank, so players will volunteer to watch the flows of cash and debt as needed.

Turn by turn, players accumulate properties. Tactics to win can include the following: acquiring properties after a die roll, purchasing other property, consolidating properties, trading acquired property for vacant property, trading with other players.  Other tactics become available as the game’s economy grows and include earning the ability to change production point values, interest rates, and even your chosen goal. Only the wiliest will make the most of what is freely given in this game. 

To accumulate property in the quest to achieve your chosen goal, you’ll likely begin accumulating debt from the bank. But: 

Once each player has chosen a goal card, the die is rolled to see who goes first. Player turns are taken clockwise around the board, the same direction as the playing pieces move. 

On the very first turn only, each player claims an agricultural property anywhere on the Rural ring. A ring is placed there, and the moving piece set inside it. This will be each player’s starting point for their next play on the Rural ring. It is the only time players get to claim an agricultural property for free without landing on it with a die roll.

Beginning on their second turn, and every subsequent turn, players say aloud which ring they want to play on, and every turn now begins with a roll of the die (except when a player declares consolidation, a power play, or victory). A player must then move their playing piece clockwise around the ring the number of spaces indicated on the die. First plays on the inner rings begin from Pay Interest Street, unless the player first got there by consolidation or trade. Pay Interest Street is not counted when moving around the board. Park spaces are counted, but can’t be claimed.

NOTE:  If the ring to play is not announced, the player is then required to play the Rural ring. 

Claiming Properties

On each turn, players always have the choice to claim a  single vacant property on the same ring as the play. This can happen in one of 2 ways:

  1. A player lands on and wants a vacant property from a die roll.
  2. A player chooses a different vacant property on the same ring, even after paying rent.

The price for a vacant property  is its current production value. Purchasers can employ any combination of cash, debt or other claimed properties. (For example, to acquire a property worth 3, two properties worth 1 each, plus either 1 value of cash given to or 1 unit of debt taken from the bank.) 

Agricultural spaces in the Rural ring only are claimed for free if landed on via a die roll. 

Whenever a vacant property is acquired,  a claim ring is placed on the property and the player’s moving piece for that ring is placed on the property. But remember that play always moves clockwise.  This means that after the die roll, if a property is claimed that is behind the moving piece, the moving piece will be considered to have crossed Pay Interest Street making interest due for the player with 10 or more in debt.

Any time a player crosses Pay Interest Street, from any ring, interest is due on that player’s total debt, beginning when a player has accumulated 10 units. The interest rate is 1 unit of debt for every 10 units of debt (2 units due for debt of 20 or over, 3 units for 30 or over, etc.) held by a player. Players may pay interest to the bank from available cash or incur additional debt from the bank to make the payment.

Landing on a claimed property requires payment of rent to the claimant for the property’s current production value. The player can pay using anything of value: cash, incurring debt from the bank to raise cash, accepting debt from the claimant, or offering their own property to the claimant. The claimant is under no obligation to accept any offer, but rejecting even cash effectively ends the turn. The rolling player passes the die to the next player.

Instead of claiming a vacant property, a player can offer a trade with another player or they may simply end their turn. There is no limit to the number of properties that may be acquired each turn by trade. If a player attempts to trade, but is rejected, they can still choose to claim a vacant property before ending their turn.

The Virtual Industry is Different. Due to network effects, when a player has claimed 3 or more virtual properties, all their virtual property is enhanced by 4, meaning that a property on the board valued 12 now becomes 16. BUT, when an opponent lands on one of them, they get to roll the die again. If they call it, they do not owe rent that turn. For example, if your opponent calls 3, and rolls a 3, instead of paying you 16, they pay you nothing. When liquidating virtual properties, a single virtual property cannot be sold to the bank at the monopoly value. A single property will fetch single property value. Only at least 3 virtual properties sold together can receive monopoly valuation.

CONSOLIDATION is when two properties of the same industry on the same ring are exchanged for 1 property of the same industry on the next inward ring. Check current production values on the board. Players may be able to gain extra value by consolidating. Consolidation is done prior to rolling the die for that turn. The player piece for the ring with the newly acquired property is moved to the new property, and no interest payment will be triggered. The die is rolled and counted from there. It’s a regular die roll, but no further property claims are allowed. And the turn ends. 

Power Players

Power Players have the ability to alter the game.

Each player has 3 opportunities to become a Power Player; one for each ring of play. These are indicated on rooftops in the city center of the board:

‘I’ for interest / ‘P’ for productivity / ‘G’ for goal

A player may become a Power Player by controlling a required number of properties on a single ring.  For 4 players, becoming a power player requires 7 properties on the Rural ring, 6 properties on the Suburban ring, or 5 properties on the Urban ring. For 3 players, it’s 9,7, and 6 respectively. And for 2 players, the requirements are 10, 8 and 7.)

Power players can choose to: 

  1. Increase or decrease (but not below 1 on any property) overall productivity of the whole economy all at once, by 1 on the Rural ring, 2 on the Suburban ring, and 3 on the Urban ring
  2. Increase or decrease the interest rate for the economy by 1 (but not below 0), or…
  3. Select a new goal for themselves. The player must show their discarded goal to the other players and discretely select a new goal card from their hand.

Becoming a power player is the entirety of a player’s turn. No die roll or trades can be part of the turn. To claim a power, a player announces at the beginning of their turn that they are now a power player and then places a helicopter on the rooftop corresponding to power they want to use and the ring that earned it. State the chosen power clearly. The selected power remains in effect until another player earns power player status from another property ring and chooses to change it.

Once a power is claimed from a property ring, that same power is no longer available to that ring, but is attainable via another property ring. The helicopters will help track this.

When productivity is altered in the course of play, all claims and trades use the new values, including virtual properties. Consolidation benefits may thus be enhanced, or lost. 

Winning

The game ends when a player declares, at the beginning of their turn, that their goal has been met and shows all other players their goal card.  Players must have the points required from within your goal card industry, after subtracting for debt. Remember, property not needed for the goal can be sold back to the bank to decrease debt. A winner’s points must come from the goal card industry, except for ‘diversification’ and ‘wealth.’

A ‘wealth’ player can take victory from you if they show more net wealth than everyone else. Only ‘wealth’ players calculate their wealth by using the property value as they have been altered in the course of play.

Otherwise, even if productivity is altered in the course of play, the original property values, indicated on the board, are used to calculate point totals for a victory.

A Wealth issue… It is always possible that two or more players have chosen the Wealth goal. Since ‘wealth’ players can’t declare their victory until another player has declared theirs, there’s a seeming conundrum. So any player suspecting another of playing for Wealth can, when it’s their turn, call out that player. If the suspicion proves correct, the game will end as usual, with greater net wealth trumping any other achieved goals. But if the suspicion is incorrect, then the accusing player must, in public view of all other players (no secrets), change their own goal.

THAT’S IT.  HAVE FUN!

All quotations appearing in the game are from “A True Free Market” ©️ by Stephen Taft