Build Your AI Lab
A board game for two to four players. Build a lab out of all six decks — hardware, models, tools, advisors and partners. Learnable in five minutes; the Starter Lab is the first-timer path.
The pitch
You and the other players are running labs. You build an AI lab by playing cards from every deck: you buy the hardware, you get the model, you write the code, you bring in the builders, you partner with the companies. The first player to finish a Flagship Run — getting a model to work end to end on their own lab — wins.
The five resources
Every card costs some of these. Pay from your bank.
| Resource | What it buys |
|---|---|
| Compute | Processor and graphics cycles — running things. |
| VRAM | Model memory — fitting things in. |
| Data | Training and fine-tuning fuel. |
| Talent | People time — setup, fixes, research. |
| Power | Electricity — the meter that never sleeps. |
Two modes
- Local Lab (the default). VRAM is scarce. Every model has a VRAM cost, so cards that shrink or manage memory matter. Compute comes from your hardware. Nothing costs money — it costs electricity and time.
- Cloud Lab. Power is unlimited, but every Compute and VRAM you spend also costs Credits. Closed models run only in the Cloud.
The rule that makes it a teaching game. Open-weights models can be played in both modes. Closed models can only be played in Cloud Lab. That single rule is the real-world choice the guide is about — and in the game it costs you something.
1. Setup
- Each player takes a Lab Board: a Foundation row, a Model slot, a Tool row, an Advisor row, and a bank.
- Starter Lab (first-timers). A small, fixed set of cards: some hardware, one model, a couple of tools, and one advisor. Everyone draws the same starter set.
- Full collection. Build a starting hand from every deck — a mix of hardware, models, tools, a company, a creator and a joker.
- Place the supply pile: all remaining cards, shuffled.
- The bank starts with a fixed number of each resource for each player.
- Choose a mode: Local (the default) or Cloud. In Cloud mode, each player also starts with a handful of Credits.
2. A turn (three steps)
- Draw. Draw two cards (three on your first turn).
- Do. Do one of these:
- Build — play any number of cards you can pay for. Order matters: hardware before models before tools.
- Work — spend one Talent to gain two of any resource. This is the quiet work: wiring, waiting, reading the docs.
- Run — attempt a Run (see step 5). If it works, it is a Flagship Run.
- Trade (with two or more players) — swap one card in your hand for one from another player. They may refuse; a refused trade costs one Power.
- Refill. If your hand is under five cards, draw up to five.
3. Building your lab (the card roles)
Each type of card has a job in the lab. The schema's card types map to these roles:
| Type | Role in the lab | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Foundation | Played first, in the Foundation row. A model can only be played if the Foundation can hold it. Foundation cards grant standing bonuses. |
| Concept | Engine and upgrades | You may have exactly one model card in play at a time. Concept and technique cards modify the model's costs and stats. |
| Command | Tools (operations) | Played to do things: move a model file, check your totals, stop a failing Run. Each command can be played once per game unless it says otherwise. |
| Code | Tools (code) | Played to fix or build: add a bonus to a Run attempt, ignore one failure, or pull a partner or technique from the supply. |
| Person | Advisors | Not played like ordinary cards. Put a creator in the Advisor row by paying their Talent cost once. Mythic advisors stay for the whole game. Jokers may instead be played as Tools, for their printed effect. |
| Company | Partners and archetypes | A company card is a standing partner: it grants its signature bonus while in play. Playing a closed company — or a closed model — in Local Lab is illegal. That is the whole point. |
Every card lists its own cost. Pay from your bank. In Cloud mode, every Compute and VRAM you spend also costs one Credit.
4. Advisors, origins and combos
- Origin (Mythic). The most powerful advisors change a rule for your whole lab, permanently. Read the origin line printed on the card; it is the law for that card, not a one-off.
- Rare advisors. The same advisor system, but they leave when you win. Their bonus is theirs for that run.
- Combos. A combo bonus applies only while both named cards are in play. The combo line is printed on the card.
5. Running a model (the win check)
To attempt a Run, your lab must pass three checks. Nothing is rolled — the checks are arithmetic, which keeps the game beginner-safe.
- Fits. The model's VRAM cost, after any reductions, is no larger than your Foundation row's total VRAM.
- Works. Your Foundation has the right part, and you have at least one code tool and one command tool in your Tool row.
- Runs. The total Compute of your Foundation and Tools is at least the model's speed cost.
Success is a Run. A Flagship Run — a success with a powerful
model — wins the game for you. Failure means the model crashes: you lose
one Power, and the failed card goes to the discard. A command tool such as
kill can be played to abort the failure without losing the
Power.
6. Jokers — the harmless chaos
Jokers are the playful creators: famous, loud, and on purpose weak. They are played once, as Tools, for their printed effect. The tone rule for every joker is simple: the joke is about the public role only — the hype, the rebrands, the announcements. Nothing personal, nothing cruel.
7. Winning
- A Flagship Run wins. The fastest lab with the cleanest run takes it.
- Cloud twist. In Cloud Lab, a Flagship Run with a closed model only wins if you can still afford the run once it is done. Open models win regardless. The real-world bill, made visible.
- If the supply pile empties before anyone wins, the strongest unfinished lab wins the tiebreak.
The Starter Lab
The Starter Lab is a small, fixed box for a first game. It holds just enough cards to build one working lab: a little hardware, a single model, two or three tools, and one advisor to choose from. Everyone starts from the same friendly pile, so the first game teaches the shape of the thing — hardware, then model, then tools — without the walls of a full collection.
Play one Starter Lab game in Local mode. The win should feel like a small, honest victory: a model that fits, tools that work, and a run that runs. Add the full collection afterwards, and the walls come with it — VRAM pressure, closed models, and the Cloud bill.
How new cards join the game
The game never hardcodes a card. It reads every card straight from the normalised data files and looks at its rarity, type and stats. Because of that, a new card is playable the moment it is added to a deck: no rule rewrites, no special cases. For the exact steps, see ADDING-CONTENT.md in the project root.
First-timer checklist
- Pick a mode: Local (tight memory, no money) or Cloud (unlimited power, it costs Credits).
- Build in order: hardware, then model, then tools.
- Put advisors face-up in the Advisor row.
- Run check: Fits, Works, Runs. All three, or it crashes.
- A Flagship Run wins the game. Enjoy it.
- The real lesson: open weights work in both labs. Closed weights need the cloud and the bill.