Burnout
- Board's Eye View
- Jan 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 11
Designed by Jannis Lim and Suren Rastogi, and published by Laughing Sticks, Burnout is a tongue-in-cheek card game themed around office rivalry. The premise is that the 2-6 players are office workers vying to win a promotion. You'll be playing cards on yourself and other players to take on projects or enhance or screw with the projects already underway. Projects will usually but not always increase reputation but will usually also add stress, and stress can lead to Burnout...
Tho' the theme is satirical, gameplay is unashamedly 'take that'. You'll want to add to other player's stress, even if that means giving them the opportunity to boost their reputation. And you have a good idea of whether or not your office colleagues are planning to play nice because everyone gets to choose the mix of cards they draw from - including from a deck marked 'Backstabbing'!
'Scope' cards can be played on a project to modify it; so typically you will find players playing those on rival players' projects to reduce their reward value or increase their drain on mental health. 'Backstabbing' cards let you steal, swap or collapse projects, or can be played with the aim of overloading another player with an unmanageable project load. There's a defensive option tho' because 'Work Smart' cards offer a degree of protection from rival players' sniping cardplay.
The game is played over six rounds, representing six weeks of office life. Each 'week' there'll be a Company Announcement - an Event card written in crass management-speak that shakes up the rules for the round. As you might expect, the Company Announcements add to the chaos of an already joyfully chaotic game that's definitely at its best at higher player counts.
You win the promotion (ie: the game) by having the highest reputation at the end of the six weeks but in any week your declining mental health can take its toll and cause you to Burnout - setting back your reputation and forcing you to sit out the next week...
The management jargon in Burnout may give rise to some red faces among office managers who realise it comes remarkably close to language they've been using in their own internal memos. That aside tho', there's nothing here to unduly worry your HR Department - so Burnout isn't one of those NSFW (Not Safe For Work) games. One for the office party, perhaps...
Burnout is duevto launch on Kickstarter in March. Click here to check it out.
