Executives
The Networks: Megacorp — the Executives module: setup and all 13 executives with their abilities, drawbacks and rulebook clarifications.
Short tag: [Execs]. Each player takes on an executive with one or more unique abilities and a drawback to live with all game (Megacorp rulebook pp. 5–16).
Executives setup
Leave the base-game player boards in the box. Deal each player 2 random executive boards; each keeps one and returns the other. Use any colour of cubes and either side of the board (only the art differs). Then do the extra setup of your executive:
| Executive | Extra setup |
|---|---|
| Beeb | A cube on the START circle in the middle of your rondel |
| Generic | A cube on the START space of your bonus track |
| Starryeye | Stack your 2 superstar tokens on your board |
| Procrastinator | Stack your 12 genre tokens on your board; take half your normal starting cash, rounded down |
| Continuum | A cube above the ∞ symbol of your time machine track |
| Cable | Take the 1st-player token and $20M instead of the normal cash |
Complexity ratings
Each board rates its executive 1 to 3: the higher, the more new or unusual rules to learn.
Beeb
Works within the system: unique bonus actions, but a rondel limits each turn.
- First turn of a round: move from START to any of the 5 spaces and take its action and/or bonus action, in either order. Later turns: move 1–2 spaces clockwise, then do the same. Both are optional — you may move and do nothing.
- Passing: only on the pass space (bottom right). If you cannot reach it, spend turns moving toward it. Passing sends your cube back to START.
- Drawback: you must move at least 1 space; each space beyond 2 costs $1M, up to 5 spaces (a full lap repeats your last action).
| Rondel action | Bonus action |
|---|---|
| Sign a star | Pay $1M to add a star from the deck to the display (even if none is left there) |
| Sign an ad | Discard an ad from your lineup or green room for cash equal to its income |
| Produce a show | — |
| Take a network card | Add a network card from the deck to the display, then discard one from the display (only if one is there) |
| Add or replace a star or ad | Take another Add or Replace action |
| Pass | Pass, return to START, take the pass bonus as normal |
Clarifications: an extra action from Talent Agency or a Continuum anomaly may be any normal action wherever you stand, without a bonus action; On-Set Accommodations and Page to Screen work on any space.
Butcher
Quantity over quality: pump out shows, but they lose viewers fast after their first season.
- Abilities: when producing a show you may pay $3M to treat all its slots as optional. At game end, score +2 viewers per rerun, starter shows included.
- Drawback: each show past its first season loses viewers when your lineup scores — season row 2: −2, row 3: −4, row 4: −6. A show with a timeslot penalty counts as starting in its third season.
- Clarifications: apply the penalty when Writeoff, Surpriser or Blockbuster Director count a show; a show worth less than 0 lowers your round, but a round never goes below 0.
Cable
Established and rich, but no bonus cash when passing.
- Abilities: start as 1st player with $20M (pass the token normally after round 1). After taking an action you may pass immediately, without spending an action on it.
- Drawback: passing gives viewers only, never cash; passing last gives nothing.
- Clarifications: Preempted Timeslot does nothing if you pass last. [Telly] start with $30M and get no cash from empty genre-grid squares.
Cheapo
Makes a little go a long way.
- Ability: when your lineup scores, +2 viewers per show card with no expenses and +1 per attached
star with no expenses (no
visible top right — upside-down stars count; a star whose
condition is met must go rightside up). - Drawback: at upkeep pay an extra $1M for each show and star in your lineup with at least $1M expenses.
- Clarifications: Writeoff, Surpriser and Blockbuster Director count your bonus; Penny Pincher and Voice of a Generation — see Moguls.
Flix
On the internet nobody cares what time it is — but viewers want variety.
- Abilities: produce any show in any timeslot without a timeslot penalty; ads with a timeslot condition always count as being in the right slot.
- Drawback: producing a show of the same genre as another show in your lineup costs an extra $3M or takes a timeslot penalty (cube on the X).
- Clarifications: “ANY”-timeslot shows ignore the drawback; Flexible Schedule may cancel it. [Telly] cover the weekend icon on your grid with the Flix token: your weekend slot works like the others and Kids shows may go anywhere.
Generic
A little good at everything: rewarded for sets of different genres, but no genre tracks.
- Abilities: when you produce a show whose genre is not yet covered on your board, cover it with a cube and move up 1 on your bonus track, taking any bonus you land on. When your marker reaches the top empty space, clear the genre cubes, leave that marker there and start a new one on START — the space below it is now the top. When your lineup scores, add the viewers beside each marker on your track.
- Drawback: you never advance on genre tracks and get no genre bonuses or genre end-game viewers.
- Generic bonuses:
/
draw 1 star and 1 ad, keep one;
draw 2 network cards, keep 1; mogul bonus — draw 3 moguls, keep 1 (without
Moguls, a wild bonus instead). - Clarifications: Market Research, Waterbug and Reboot-o-mancer cover a genre instead of advancing it. [Telly] put no cubes on your grid; when passing take a flat $5M instead of $1M per empty square; Kids, Chat and Quiz shows may cover any genre.
Procrastinator
Creative, but missed the budget meeting.
- Ability: when producing a show, before attaching anything, you may cover its genre with one of your 12 genre tokens to change it for good (even after it is canceled). Each token is used once.
- Drawback: start with half the normal cash for your position, rounded down.
- [Telly] you cannot change shows into Kids, Chat or Quiz, but may change those shows into genres you have tokens for.
Rich
Self-made — with family money.
- Ability: at the start of each round, before the 1st player’s turn and after seeing the display, draw 1 star, 1 ad and 1 network card; sign the star free, sign the ad for its bonus, or keep the network card; discard the others.
- Drawback: your Game End network cards score 0 (moguls score normally). You may still take them.
- Clarifications: Bollywood Star and Tech Pioneer still count Game End cards in your green room; with Gorilla in the game, Rich resolves first.
Specialist
The fixer — needs the Moguls module.
- Abilities: the first time you reach space 2 of any genre track, draw 2 moguls and keep 1 instead of that bonus; the first time you reach space 4, draw 4 moguls and keep 1. Both may come from the same track. Later space-2 and space-4 landings give the printed bonus.
- Drawback: treat a mogul token on space 3 as an empty space — no mogul and no network bonus — until another player removes it.
- [Telly] first completed line: first mogul (draw 2, keep 1); second line: nothing; third line: second mogul (draw 4, keep 1).
Starryeye
Glamour over eyeballs.
- Abilities: when attaching a star, you may put a superstar token on its top right, covering its expenses. A superstar may ignore anything that would turn it upside down and earns $2M income each round in your lineup. When a superstar is discarded, its token returns to your board.
- Drawback: any ad with a condition must be attached upside down, even if the condition is met.
- Clarifications: superstar income is not ad income (Big Game, Monday Night Foosball); Reinfeld counts superstars as having no expenses; Redemption Arc and Cross-Promoting Star may turn ads rightside up; a superstar returned to the green room by Spinoff or Rerun Guy keeps its token.
Underground
Nobody knows where you came from — stars love it.
- Abilities: one Sign a star action may sign any number of stars; if you take 2 or more, refill the display with new stars for all but one. Every star costs you $1M less ($1M stars are free).
- Drawback: −2 viewers per star in your green room when your lineup scores.
- Clarification: with Continuum’s anomalies, an action signs either 1 anomaly or any number of stars; anomalies in your green room count as stars for the drawback.
Gorilla
The 500-pound gorilla goes first — or gets paid to wait.
- Ability: each round, after the display is dealt, choose: Extra turn — take a full turn before the 1st player (two in a row if you are 1st player), or Extra cash — take $2M per opponent.
- Drawback: after an extra turn you get no pass-track bonus this round; after extra cash you skip your first turn.
- Clarifications: solo, extra cash is $2M in total; with Rich, Rich goes first. [Telly] an extra turn still lets you choose a pass bonus, but your genre grid gives no cash or viewers.
Continuum
Invented time travel to go back and make ’90s TV.
- Abilities: at the start of your turn your time machine marker moves 1 space cheaper (down to $1M). Any time on your turn, pay its cost and put an anomaly card on top of the star deck to take an extra action; then reset the machine to ∞.
- Drawback: anomalies act like free stars: anyone may sign one with an action, or keep one from a draw. They cannot be attached; discard one from your green room on your turn for an extra action. Discarded anomalies return to your supply.
- Clarifications: Underground — see above; Awards Show counts anomalies in the green room as stars; with no anomaly left you may still use the machine.