‘Adulting.’ A word that many of us of the millennial generation have a severe love/hate relationship with. Yes it is a little bit cringe to infantilize yourself and turn every day things like chores and taxes into massive obstacles…but I mean c’mon this whole “life” thing is HARD. And while it might be a little silly to want to play a game that replicates the lows (and highs) of adult life rather than simply escape it, Adulthood from Brotherwise Games is a surprisingly sweet and simple tonic against the troubles of life. Designed by company co-founder Johnny O’Neal with art by cartoonist Tim Brierly, it’s a lighthearted and deeply relatable game that can also serve as a great entry point for friends not quite sold on the whole “board game” thing.
What’s In The Box?
- Scoring Board
- Market Board
- 4 Player Boards
- 8 wooden score markers
- 139 cards (16 for solo play)
- 33 Time Tokens
- 12 Grown-up, promoted, and married markers
- 1 Reference Tent card
- 32 Money Tokens
- 32 Energy Tokens
- 16 Negative Impact/Unhappiness Tokens
The art and design of Adulthood is fairly minimalist by Brotherwise’s normal standards. It communicates mostly through symbols and it uses Brierly’s cartoons to represent more vague concepts. Filled with a mix of relatable observance and pop culture references there’s nothing here that’s going to offend anyone. Its definitely got the sense of humor of the Sunday comics page, but it’s deeply charming. I think there’s a tendency among the age group this is aimed at to not just have some relatable chuckles with friends which is exactly what this game is going for. The Avocado Toast card is hilarious, though.
How’s It Play?
Adulthood is a game about managing your limited resources to make yourself happy and have a positive impact on the world around you. So you know…total fantasy. You use your Time as a resource, the only one you always have, placing your allotted time around your board to dictate what you spend that time on. You have a few ways to spend this time:
- Career – This starts out as a part-time and minimum wage job before it becomes a career. This space mostly turns your time into money. As you get promoted you can unlock more benefits in this area.
- Community – This is a space that helps you get your impact up with charity work, socializing, etc. This tends to turn your time and energy into impact (naturally represented here by a blue thumbs up) or even let you just make donations
- Leisure – The one thing we wish we had more of. Your Leisure is mostly where you turn your time into happiness. This space also dictates your relationship. You can go through multiple partners or simply get married, maybe even have children.
- Wellness – This is all about your health. You turn your time and other resources here into Energy. You can also meditate here to change your values.
You get a hand of cards then add to it by drafting from the market in the center. These cards will often be things you can replace your board spaces in with better benefits at the cost of resources. This is also where you can get permanent resources and traits, significant life events, and single-use experiences. Each have their own short and long-term benefits and it’s a constant competition for the best ones or at least the ones that fit your strategy. You also need to track where you are on your “Grown Up” track, since certain life events and effects are gated by where you are in life.
The game ends once a player’s Happiness and Impact tracks, which start at opposite ends of your board, cross over. This is where your Values come in which, as uncharacteristic as it is for millennials, are kept secret from the start. As with most games that give you hidden objectives at the jump, these values are only there to guide your strategy and help break close games. You have plenty of opportunity to change them or even ignore them depending on how things go.
The Verdict?
Adulthood is that rare game that’s able to be a fun time with friends without sacrificing a bit of strategy. The player count limits it as a true party game but for a small group its a fun way to have talks about life, death, and everything in between. It passes what I call “The Beer Test” as a game you and your friends can have a few drinks while playing and not get totally lost. Plus its basic loop of “place, gain resource, spend for better resources, repeat” is kind of the basic building block of a LOT of board games which makes Adulthood a really good gateway game for your more board game-phobic friends and partners.
The only drawback I could really strongly see was in the solo gameplay. While the achievements give you some variety, you’re mostly just battling against random card draw and your own ability to mange resources. There’s no “brain” on the other side working against that other games with better solo modes are able to simulate. But honestly, this isn’t really a game you play solo so it’s not a huge loss.
You can grab Adulthood from the Brotherwise Shop, Amazon, or your FLGS at an MSRP of $29.95.
Images and Review Copy via Brotherwise Games
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