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Owner's Choice is a filler-length stock-market game by Yasutaka Ikeda, published by Z-Man Games.
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 30 minutes
The Components
 Owner's Choice comes in a small bookshelf box with:
Gameboard: A somewhat unique gameboard in five parts. The center is a two-panel board that shows stock prices on one side and has a "fund" of money on the other. The other four pieces are each "L"-shaped boards which fit around the edges of the center piece. These show the track around which pieces will move during the game. It's all printed on heavy cardboard with a low-gloss finish. Each "L" is double-sided, and they can be put down in any order, allowing for a lot of variations of the playing field.
The board has been uniquely done up with logos which initially reminded me of beer mats, and which we've since come to decide are actually variants of beer logos. I think they look very attractive in a sort of Vivctorian way--a style that runs across all the components. Some others found them overly busy.
Stocks: The stocks are also printed on heavy cardboard with the attractive stock logos. There are 60 stock pieces total, 15 each of four stocks.
Dice: There is one die for each stock, plus an event die and a "fund" die. Each of these is a colored plastic die to which you must affix stickers. I have some concerns that the stickers will eventually come off, since they're not protected by any indentations as I've seen with other affixed sticker dice. I've also heard complaints about the small print on the dice. That didn't really affect us since both of my games were played in very good light, but I could see problems if that weren't the case.
Money: Paper money in different colors for the different denominations. Unlike most paper money it's got a little heft to it, making it sturdier than the average.
Overall the components are good quality and attractive. I've given them a "4" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Owner's Choice is to make the most money through the clever purchase and sale of stock.
Setup: The gameboard is laid out. The price for the four stocks (creatively named blue, green, red, and yellow) is initially set at $100. Each player is given $690. In player order each player gets to purchase stocks.
President's Die. There is a president's die for each stock, which is used to change stock valuation and also notes who the current president is. It's initially given to the first person to purchase the stock in question, and thereafter is awarded to another player if they end up with more stock than the previous president, through purchases or sales.
Order of Play: On his turn a player may trade stocks, then move the action pawn or else move the action pawn, then trade stocks.
Trading Stocks: This simply refers to buying or selling stocks at their current price. There are just 15 shares of each stock, so sometimes what you can buy is limited. In addition you may never have more than 12 stocks at the end of your turn.
Moving the Pawn: You get to decide to move the action pawn from 1-3 spaces around the strip of spaces that border the board. The space you land on has a result.
Company Squares. These make up most of the squares on the board. There are squares for each of the four companies, plus multi-squares which allow you to pick any company. When you land on one of these spaces the Company President than gets to decide whether to roll the president's die or the fund die.
The president's die is always good for the company. It can increase the company's value or pay out dividends. The red company also has sides which increase the price of another company, while the blue die also has sides which decrease the value of another company. (Overall, each company die is different; I wish they were thus connected to real types of stocks, so you could better understand that yellow is an "Internet" stock while blue is a "media" company, or whatever.) However in order to roll the president's die, the president must pay $50 into the fund space.
The fund die is always bad for the company. It reduces its value by one or two steps unless "status quo" is rolled. However the president gets to take all the money sitting in the fund!
Event Squares. The event die is rolled, resulting in cash payouts, a stock exchange, or companies lowering in value.
President Squares. Each player gets $100 per president's die they own.
Dividend Squares. The most valuable stocks pay dividends.
Bankruptcy: Through stock value decreases brought about through the blue company, events, or the fund die, a stock can go bankrupt. Players turn in all their shares, earning nothing, and a new stock starts at $100 value.
Ending the Game: The last space on the board is the "Goal" space. The player landing there earns $100. Then each player sells off all his stocks for their value, and the player with the highest total wins.
Relationships to Other Games
Owner's Choice is a stock ownership game. There are numerous games in the genre, of which Reiner Knizia's Buy Low, Sell High is one of the better ones. There are slews of train games where stock ownership is one element, and also slews of raw stock ownership games that as often as not don't work very well. Not only does Owner's Choice buck the trend by offering some fun and interesting dynamics, but it's also one of the quickest games in the genre, running just 30-45 minutes, and thus coming in as a meaty filler.
The Game Design
That's really the biggest advantage to Owner's Choice's design: it plays very quickly without giving up its depth.
Besides that, it's got lots of good elements. There's fun tactics, determining when to get in and out of stocks. You have to measure your continued stock ownership against not only the value of the stocks, but also invested the other players are--offering a lot of player interaction. There's also some interesting brinkmanship, in determining not only how powerful your position is in an individual stock, but also when to roll the president's die and when to just take the fund payout.
I should underline the fact that the game is a filler. It's a quick play, and thus the depth is ultimately eliminated, but for that category of play it's surprisingly thoughtful, and I've thus given it a "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Owner's Choice is a fun stock game that easily fits into a filler time-frame. Between attractive gameplay, the rolling of dice, and the thoughtful purchase and sales of stock, it should appeal to casual gamers and more serious ones alike.
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