Bureaunauts
BGG rank
BGG #26,125
BGG rating
6.7

Bureaunauts

2017

Rules assistance for Bureaunauts

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2–6 players
  • 45–60 min
  • 14+
  • Complexity 2.0/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Bureaunauts

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Bureaunauts is a board game released in 2017 for 2–6 players, 45–60 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Allison Markello, Todd Markello, and Brian Heasley and its main mechanics are Set Collection, Simultaneous Action Selection, and Modular Board.

Similar games

About the game

Put on your best space suit and tie! Players will race to the top of the galactic corporate ladder. Each player uses their spaceship token to hyper jump around the section of space to make their mark in the most powerful corporation in the galaxy. The section of space is comprised of 80 cards setup in an 8 x 10 grid. When a player lands on an unexplored card, they flip it over to reveal what is there. Before the game begins, each player is given 5 Career Goal cards they must complete. The progression of game play is divided into Fiscal Periods and each fiscal period is done in steps: Step 1. Solar Jellies Move and Spawn Step 2. Players receive their budgets Step 3. Players spend 1 photon to File Paperwork to the corporation. Step 4. Players choose ** to do an action or enter a coordinate on their dual dials. Then, dials are revealed. Actions happen before movements. Step 5. Players repeat by Filing Paperwork and moving/doing actions (Step 3-4) until all players run out of Photons or choose not to File Paperwork. Players File Paperwork in order to complete Career Goals that allow them to influence five departments. When a player completes a goal, they flip that card over next to their Player Board and put in the appropriate amount of influence cards to the Department Heads Board. The players use what they find as they reveal the section of space (grid of cards) to fulfill career goal conditions: 1. Destroy 1 space pirate 2. Upgrade your spaceship to level 3 (if you have 2 of this goal, the second goal is completed by upgrading to a level 4) 3. Find 2 relics (to complete the goal subsequent times, you only need 1 relic for each Career Goal card) 4. Give 3 photons to the Accounting Department 5. Destroy 5 Space Jellies (to complete the goal subsequent times, you only need to destroy 2 more Space Jellies for each Career Goal card) When one player completes their fifth and final Career Goal, a vote is triggered. The player that completes their final Career Goal stops playing and all other players are allowed to spend their remaining Photons for that fiscal period (unless they also complete their final career goal, at which point they stop as well). Each of the five department piles of influence cards are shuffled separately. One card is drawn from each department pile. A player wins by having a majority (3 out of 5 departments) of their cards drawn. If no hard majority exists, the player who gets 2 soft majorities (2 out of 5 departments, twice) wins. The player with the most votes wins the job of Galactic CEO!

Questions and answers

Bureaunauts supports 2–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.