How to play PerilDash

You run an insurance company. Three rivals run theirs. Ten rounds, one risk each round. The richest company at the end wins.

A round, step by step

  1. A risk lands on your desk. The headline names the risk the way an underwriter would — the line of business and the peril: Property — factory fire & explosion, Marine hull — LNG carrier, Liability — hotel guests. Beneath it, who wants cover and what they own (“a timber mill · Fremantle”, “a regional airline, 13 aircraft”), then what the policy would pay for. Sixty lines of business, from phone theft to a satellite launch; no two risks are the same.
  2. Premium in. EARN is what they pay you to take the risk. It is yours to keep, whatever happens next.
  3. Claims out. RISK is what you pay if the worst happens. The meters guess how likely that is — but only guess. How big claims tend to be is something you learn from experience.
  4. Name your price. Quote at the going rate, 10% under, or 10% over. Cheaper wins more of the business; dearer earns more on what you win. The rivals are quoting too, and the cheapest quote in the market is filled first.
  5. Take a line. You needn’t insure the whole thing. A line is a share of the risk: LINE puts about a tenth of your capital at stake, FULL LINE a quarter, WHOLE BOOK everything you are allowed. The figure under each button is what you could lose.
  6. Reinsure, if you like. Pay a little of the premium away and the biggest claims are somebody else’s problem. Cover is never free.
  7. Quote — or decline. Declining costs a little in overheads; declining again and again costs more. You have thirty seconds; at zero the risk is declined for you.
  8. The result. Premium earned, claims incurred, the net — then where you stand against the three rivals, and what every underwriter in the market did with that risk. Tap through at your own pace.

Winning, and losing

Capital below zero and the company is bust — the match ends there with a written report. Otherwise it runs ten rounds, and the report says how you did against the field.

The leaderboard ranks your best completed match. Sign in with Google to be ranked; play as a guest if you’d rather not. A match can be resigned, but it counts at the capital you leave with.

What the game is really about

Insurance is a bet on how often things go wrong and how badly. The premium is the price of that bet. Quote too high and the market takes the business from you; too low and the claims will. The skill is in reading a risk, pricing it a shade better than three rivals, and taking a line you can survive.

Play PerilDash

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