Recruit Madness

Recruit Madness is a light voting game where the 4-6 players are putting forward candidates (CV cards) for various positions, debating the merits or otherwise of the shortlisted candidates and then voting on which candidate they think will be chosen by the player who is that round's Chairman. Players score if their vote matches the Chairman's choice; tho' they also score if no players match the Chairman's choice so there's a Prisoners' Dilemma element to the voting. Players all have their own hidden agenda cards that reward them when candidates are chosen who have particular characteristics (icons on their CV cards), so you'll want to use the discussion of the nominees to try to ascertain each other's hidden agendas...

Qatari publishers Majlis Shabab have put together an attractively presented package. The player boards and recommendation cards are sturdy and the game comes with a generous supply of individual CV, event and 'fact' cards that are all very well produced. In fact, Recruit Madness is actually quite a lavish reworking of their 2018 game Big Boss. It's described as a party game, and certainly Abdulrahman Al-Homaid's design and the Dixit-style scoring of the voting element encompasses the humour of a light party game. In our plays at Board's Eye View, tho', we've felt the need to add our own house-rule tweaks to get the most out of the game.

The 'fact cards' allow players to add qualifiers, limitations or embellishments to any of the shortlisted CVs. Several of these cards add an icon so can contribute towards meeting a player's hidden agenda if that CV is eventually chosen. The large majority of the fact cards tho' only add amusing flavour text; playing a 'has sun allergy' fact card on the Lifeguard may cause mirth but it doesn't materially affect whether or not that CV card will ultimately be chosen. With that in mind, we've played only using the fact cards that also carry icons (around 20% of the hefty 150-card stack). Alternatively, you might consider playing the fact cards like characteristics in the similarly themed but more raucous Funemployed (IronWall Games/Mattel), with players pitching their fact card qualifiers and scoring a bonus point for them if their storytelling elicits an appropriate chuckle from the other players.

Only three of the CVs put forward by players are shortlisted by the Chairman; the others are discarded. In a four-player game that's never an issue because everyone makes the shortlist but it can be mildly dispiriting in a five- or six-player game if you find the CV you've put forward is rejected. You still have a stake in the game through the discussion and voting but you don't feel quite as invested as if the CV you've submitted is still in the mix - especially if your discarded CV would potentially have contributed towards meeting your hidden objective. We've therefore preferred Recruit Madness as a four-player game.

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