Welcome! We assume that you have a set of the Economics Society’s stunningly-beautiful, painstakingly-crafted limited-edition Endogenous Beavers cards. To have received this ultra-special gift, you must have helped our members tremendously in one way or another. If our committee members have not thanked you profusely already, thank you thank you thank you so much!
Let’s get started with the game!
Setup
- To start, remove all the Endogenous Beavers from the deck and set them aside.
- Remove all of the RCT Cards from the deck and deal 1 to each player.
- Insert the extra RCT Cards back in the deck.
- Shuffle the remaining deck and deal 4 cards face down to each player.
- Insert enough Endogenous Beavers back into the deck so that there is 1 fewer than the number of people playing. Remove any extra Endogenous Beavers from the game.
- Shuffle the deck, and put it face down in the middle of the table. This is your Draw Pile. Also, leave some space on the table for a Discard Pile.
- Pick a direction (clockwise or anticlockwise), and pick a player to go first.
Taking Your Turn
PASS
Play no cards.
OR
PLAY
Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile and following the instructions on the card.
After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you’d like.
2. End your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it’s not an Endogenous Beaver.
To sum it up, you have to “Pass-or-Play then Draw”.
Play then continues around the table.
The last player who hasn’t died from an Endogenous Beaver wins the game.
You won’t ever run out of cards in the Draw Pile because you inserted enough Endogenous Beavers to kill all but 1 player.
How does each card work?
Endogenous Beaver
Oh dear, your worst nightmares have come true! Kiss goodbye to your empirical strategy.
You must show this card immediately. Unless you have an RCT card, you’re dead, and you’ll have to discard all of your cards, including the Endogenous Beaver.
RCT
A Randomised Controlled Trial funded generously by the Economics Society Beaver Welfare Division. Allows you to survive one endogeneity attack.
If you drew an Endogenous Beaver you can play this card instead of dying.
Discard the RCT card. Take the Endogenous Beaver, and without reordering or viewing the other cards, secretly put it back in the Draw Pile anywhere you’d like.
If you’d like, hold the deck under the table so that no one else can see where you put it.
Check for Balance
Privately view the top 3 cards from the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order. Don’t show the cards to the other players.
New Data Set
Shuffle the Draw Pile without viewing the cards until told to stop. (Useful when you know there’s an Endogenous Beaver coming.)
Take a Sabbatical
You take a much-needed break, leaving your coauthor to agonise over the paper.
Do not draw any cards. Instead, immediately force a player of your choice to take one turn.
Play then continues from your victim, who takes a turn as per normal (pass-or-play then draw).
Take a “Sabbatical”
Your department firmly requests for you to take a break, leaving your coauthor to agonise over the paper.
Same as the Sabbatical card, except that your victim has to take 2 turns instead of just 1.
The effect of Sabbaticals and “Sabbaticals” can stack. If the victim of a Sabbatical card plays a Sabbatical card on any of their turns, the new target must take any remaining turns plus the number of attacks on the Sabbatical card just played (e.g. 2 turns, then 3, and so on).
Just Assume
Immediately end your turn without drawing a card. If you have to take many turns, it skips only one of those turns.
For example, playing a Just Assume card as a defence to a “Sabbatical” card only ends 1 of the 2 turns you are supposed to take. 2 Just Assume cards would end both turns.
Funding Cut
Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. However, that player chooses which card to give you.
Acknowledgements
The game is designed in 2020 by Sally Yang (BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics) and Grace Choo (BSc Economics), who share an undying love for economic research and got bored during quarantine. The Economics Society prints and distributes Endogenous Beavers cards with Sally’s and Grace’s permission.
Game mechanics, card layout and instructions are adapted from an amazing game called Exploding Kittens. The beaver artwork is original. The copyright for Endogenous Beavers belongs to Sally and Grace.
If you’re wondering why the beavers look like cats, a sliiight miscommunication between beaver-loving Grace and cat-loving Sally gave birth to the unique beaver-cat amalgamations.