King Oil is a board game by Scott Patton, created in 1974 and now long out-of-print. The game requires players to drill for oil on a three-dimensional board, acquiring property and wealth. The board is "randomized" using three rotating discs, hidden inside the plastic frame of the game and containing varying hole locations; one playerturns at least one of the discs before play begins. There are 1,728 permutations of oil wells. The rotating discs determine the depth of the wells that players will drill, with four possibilities:
shallow depth
medium depth
deep depth
dry hole
At least two color schemes are used for the driller, using red, yellow, and blue, in either order. A player pays $2,000, $4,000, or $6,000 to drill each well, depending on depth. Before drilling, players must buy property. Pipelines can be bought once there are four producing oil wells on a property. The pipelines span into adjacent properties, enabling the pipeline owner to siphon royalties from the adjacent property owner every turn. This game mechanic accelerates bankruptcy of opposing players, keeping total playing time within reasonable limits. The goal of the game is to push all opponents into bankruptcy; the last remaining player is the winner. The game can also end if the bank runs out of money; in this case, the remaining players total up their assets and the player with the highest net worth is the winner. The game is played by two to four players. The game includes one playing surface, one oil well Rig "driller", 84 derricks, 128 well caps, 24 tool sheds, 36 pipelines,, 1 money pack, $1000, $5000, and $10,000 and 32 "King Oil"* turn cards.
Wildcat Cards
The 32 Wildcat Cards come in three types - Fire Damage, Oil Depletion, and Production. The distribution is as follows:
2 Fire Damage Cards: The player must cap some of their wells depending on the total number of wells owned.
5 Oil Depletion Cards: The player receives a $500 oil depletion allowance regardless of the number of wells owned. The player may drill one well and no property is available for purchase.
25 Production Cards: The card specifies three things: how much money is earned for each well owned – $500, $1000, $2000, $3000, or $4000; how many wells the player is allowed to drill - ranging from one to four; and finally, whether or not a property is available for purchase - 7 of the production cards have a property for sale.
The following table shows the distribution of production cards. The parenthesized number indicates how many of the production cards of a given type have a property available for sale.
Properties
The board has 18 properties ranging in price from $8000 to $12000. The price of a property is $1000 per drilling site.
