› Hi, Bot Games
Server Farm AI lives in a building. Keep it powered, keep it cool, keep up.
AI isn't a cloud — it's racks of computers in a building. Run one for eight hours of growing demand: every rack needs power and makes heat, the sun sets at hour five, and the Event deck brings heatwaves and outages. Everyone shares the same dice, so the only difference is what you build. Racks, coolers, solar, batteries: keep up, or watch the jobs walk away.
1–5 players · ~10–14 + parents · ~30 min · screen-free
Print tonight
Farm Sheet on plain paper, one per player. Event cards on Avery 5388 at Actual Size / 100% (never Fit to page). You also need one six-sided die and a pencil for each player.
How to play
You run the data center an AI app lives in. For 8 hours, more and more people send it jobs. GPU racks do the work, but every rack needs power and makes heat. Spend the coins you earn on racks, coolers, solar panels and batteries. Score one point for every job you finish, minus one for every job that gives up waiting.
Quick start — read this, start playing
- Everyone starts with 1 GPU rack, 1 Cooler and 4 coins. The Host flips one Event card and rolls the die. Jobs this hour = the roll + the hour number (+ any Event extras).
- Power: the grid gives 3. Each solar panel adds 1 in daytime (hours 1-5), batteries add what they've stored. One power runs one rack.
- Heat: each Cooler keeps 2 racks at full speed (3 jobs). Any other running rack overheats and slows to 1 job.
- Finish jobs from your queue, earn 1 coin each. More than 6 still waiting? The extras give up: -1 each. Then build: GPU rack 5, Cooler 3, Solar panel 4, Battery 3.
- That's the whole game. Everything below is for when a question comes up.
Setup
- Each player takes a Farm Sheet and a pencil. Your farm has 8 machine slots. Start with 1 GPU rack, 1 Cooler, and 4 coins.
- Pick a Host. The Host shuffles the 8 Event cards face-down and holds the die. Everyone plays the same hour at the same time.
Each hour
- EVENT: the Host flips the top Event card and reads it out. It's for everyone this hour.
- JOBS: the Host rolls. Jobs arriving = the roll + the hour number, plus any extras from the Event. Add them to your queue.
- POWER: the grid gives 3 power. In hours 1-5 each solar panel gives 1 more. Use that first, then stored battery power. Each rack needs 1 power; racks without power are off. Each Battery stores up to 2 leftover power for later.
- HEAT: each Cooler keeps 2 running racks at full speed. Every other running rack overheats and slows down.
- WORK: full-speed racks finish 3 jobs each, slow racks 1. Take those jobs out of your queue and earn 1 coin per job.
- WAIT: if more than 6 jobs are still waiting, the extras give up and leave. Write them down as dropped.
- BUILD: spend coins on new machines (GPU rack 5, Cooler 3, Solar panel 4, Battery 3). Draw each new machine in an empty slot. You can't build after hour 8.
How to score
- Score = jobs finished minus jobs dropped. Coins left over don't count.
- Most points after the last hour wins. Ties share the win.
- Solo: beat 40 points, then beat your own best with the same shuffled deck.
Tips
- Racks without coolers run hot. In 500 practice games with the same dice, a farm that kept a Cooler for every 2 racks beat a racks-only farm every single time.
- The grid only runs 3 racks. Your 4th rack needs solar or a battery.
- Solar is free power by day and nothing at night (hours 6-8). Batteries save daytime leftovers for later.
- Saving every coin loses: jobs pile up and people leave.
What the farm teaches
- AI lives in buildings: every chatbot answer runs on real computers somewhere, in rooms full of racks.
- Power: those computers run on electricity, and a big data center can use as much as a whole town.
- Heat: computers turn electricity into heat. Cooling them takes more energy, and many data centers use water too.
- Bottlenecks: adding chips doesn't help if there's no power or cooling for them. Engineers balance all three.
- Demand: more people using AI means more machines. That's why companies keep building data centers.
Variants
- Small grid: the grid only gives 2 power all game. Solar and batteries matter a lot more. Can you still beat 40?
- Heat dome: shuffle in a second Heatwave instead of a Quiet hour.
- Teacher mode: the Host plays on the board for the whole class, and teams vote on each build.
Downloads
Instruction sheet
Plain paper · 1 page · 8.5 × 11
One 8.5 × 11 page for the table — quick start, setup, turns, and scoring.
Full rules
Plain paper · duplex · 2 pages
Same game, longer type — plus what the cards teach and the variants.
Farm Sheet
Plain paper · 1 page · landscape
Your machine slots, the price list, and an hour-by-hour log to fill in. One per player.
Event cards (Avery 5388)
Avery 5388 · 3 sheets
Eight Event cards, one flipped each hour: heatwaves, outages, viral apps, chip upgrades.
Rules preview
Same rules as above, laid out for the table. Keep a printed copy face-up while you score.
On a phone, open the PDF in a new tab — in-page previews are unreliable in mobile Safari.
Played Server Farm?
Playtest notes — round length, rule confusion, print quality, teach-back moments — help us tune the game.
Send playtest feedback →Want more than card games?
Want facilitator-ready printables the day they drop, plus the full Activities library for grades 6–12? Activities Pass — 14 days free, then $5/month or $39/year. Browser games like this one stay free either way.
Start 14-day free trial →Homeschooling? Print tips & FAQ · Want the screen-free activity library? Free printables · Start 14-day free trial