Description

As an art agent in Bidding Room: Underground, you have been employed by powerful families to represent them in a secret underground bidding room for illegal artifacts. Your task is to spend their money wisely to get goods that are worth points. Additionally, you have secret tasks and privileges that will sway how you bid.

To set up, one player takes the role of auctioneer and deals each other player a face-down agent card that includes a breakdown of all 27 artifacts in the game, while listing that player's specific privileges, such as receiving extra money for winning certain types of auctions. The auctioneer records the starting funds for each player — $40-50M depending on the player count — and sets up the artifact deck by shuffling three gift cards with the 27 artifacts. Only 10-20 items will be sold during the game, with that number being determined by the player count.

For each auction, the auctioneer reveals the item, then conducts the auction specified by that item, such as an open auction in which players write bids on their personal boards and raise them, an auctioneer bid in which the auctioneer calls out amounts and players lower their hand to drop out, a sealed bid in which agents reveal their bids simultaneously, and a second price bid in which the winner pays only the amount of the second-highest bid. If the auctioneer reveals a gift card from the deck, this gift goes to the player who won the most recent bid.

The auctioneer tracks the funds that all players have available, and an agent must track their own holdings — and everyone else's — mentally. If they win a bid for more than they have, they must sell off previously acquired items at their listed opening bids to acquire funds.

Once the specified number of items have been sold, whoever has the most points wins.