It's 2008 and the economy is crashing. You play as one of the largest nations in the world, and it is your job to save the economy by enacting QE (Quantitative Easing) measures and printing money to support collapsing companies. QE is an auction game where you bail out companies and special industries to collect the most points. And since you are the central bank, you own the money printer and you can bid whatever you want. The only limit is your imagination. Go nuts from one to thirty quadrillion. At the end of the game, total up all your winning bids by the amount of companies and special bonus points. Whoever has the most points wins. But be careful though - if you are the country who spends the most during the game, you’re out! It's a super interactive experience that turns auction gaming on its head. AN AUCTION BOARD GAME WITH UNLIMITED MONEY Quantitative Easing You'll complete 16 auctions over the course of the game. The role of the auctioneer passes to the left after each turn. After the last auction, eliminate the player who paid the most and then tally up your scores using your dry erase player score board. To win the game, you'll need to play the table. You thought your bid of 85 was going to win for sure, but it didn't. Should you go even higher? The auctioneer put out a face up of 20,000, is that an attempt to bait you into bidding too high, or have other people been making similar bids? There is tension because you don't want to overbid. But you can't play scared or you won't score any points. BID WHAT YOU WANT Hilarity Ensues Often times the game will have runaway inflation until the end. I saw a game where the final bid was for $10 quadrillion. But sometimes an inflationary run will start, and then the group will pull it back in because it looks like one player went too far. Other times the bids will dance around in range for the whole game as players can get a good read on how much people have spent and no one wants to risk bidding too high. It's all about the players ... and a little about the companies you are bidding on. QE can play like a classic euro-style auction game with players evaluating the value of each company. Or it can play like a social deduction game with big bluffs, stare downs, and unexpected twists where players hardly concern themselves with the assets they are bidding on. Normally it is somewhere between those extremes. How will it play in your group? Will it change over time?
