Ulcers
BGG rank
BGG #29,108
BGG rating
5.4

Ulcers

1969

Rules assistance for Ulcers

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

  • 2–4 players
  • 90 min
  • 10+
  • Complexity 1.1/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Ulcers

What would you like to know?

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

Ulcers is a board game released in 1969 for 2–4 players, 90 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. Its main mechanics are Set Collection, Roll / Spin and Move, and Point to Point Movement.

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About the game

This game's theme is unique: you are trying to assemble a full staff of personnel (two secretaries, two salesmen, one sales manager, one vice-president and one president) to run your company. The problem is there aren't enough available in total for more than one company to achieve that goal. You win by assembling a full staff and making it safely around to a New Fiscal Year (the "Go" square, in other words). As you move about the (bilingual, two-sided) board, you'll have opportunities to hire or raid competing companies. You must decide how much to pay your people --not enough and they'll switch companies, too much and your company will go bankrupt. Managing your money is an important aspect of the game but it isn't the victory condition. Amusingly, the early editions had all-female secretaries and all-male higher personnel; later editions kept the illustrations but shuffled them throughout the positions. From Waddington ad: "Ulcers is the big business game that recognizes an important business fact: PEOPLE are among a company's most valuable assets. And people are why executives get ULCERS. Suppose you had to form a company and had to hire a staff of executives, managers,salesmen and secretaries. You probably think it would be easy but it isn't. ULCRES puts you in the owners chair. You form the company, hire the staff and you try to keep them."

Publishers

  • Parker Brothers
  • Waddingtons
  • Grow Jogos e Brinquedos
  • Jumbo
  • Waddington Sanders Ltd.
  • House of Games Corporation, Limited

Questions and answers

Ulcers supports 2–4 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.