Rat race.pdf

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Earth has been conquered by a bizarre alien
creature. It is completely unfamiliar and
unfathomable to human senses and concepts.
It views us as an extremely cool toy, and it’s
fascinated by all the objects and arts that
humanity produces.
You have been hired as a liasion to help the
alien in its performance review of human
occupations. The alien wants you to help
it understand all the nuances of workplace
behavior so it can know how best to modify
policy. It is looking to experiment, to see if
it can help its new toy -- us -- to produce as
much unique stuff as possible.
Rat Race
The alien trusts you, but only to a degree.
If you are too consistently supportive of the
humans under review, your own review is less
likely to go favorably.
Justifying job performance to
our curious alien overlord.
A roleplaying game for 4 players
Play materials:
• 10 tokens (anything will do)
• 1 sheet of paper
• a pen or pencil
• these instructions, plus the 3 decks of cards
(Job, Schema, and Fate)
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There are four roles in this game: the Liaison, the Alien, the Worker, and the Audience.
The Liaison
One player plays the Liaison for the entire
game. The Liaison’s job in play is to speak to
the Alien, defending human behavior in a way
that makes sense to the demonstrated alien
sensibility. The Liaison starts with a Security
rating of 3, and 7 tokens. During each step
(vignette) of each performance review, the
Liaison may spend a token to signify their
effective defense of the worker. (There are 3
steps in each review of 3 different Workers,
so 9 total. You only have 7 tokens, so spend
them on the worker(s) you want to support
most!) The more tokens the Liaison spends,
the lower their fi nal Security rating at the end
of the game. (see End of the Game)
for how that workplace should be changed.
These Suggestions will factor in to the fi nal
decisions made by the inscrutable alien uber-
brain at the end of the game.
The Worker
When it’s your turn to be the Worker, you
must pick a job that you have actually
held in real life 1 . You will then draw a card
from the Job pile, and use it as inspiration
to narrate a very short “vignette” scene
describing one thing you do (or did) in real life
at work. These events should be relatable,
commonplace human activities (don’t fear the
mundane). After each vignette, you must
wait until the Alien and Liaison are fi nished
interpreting your action before drawing
another Job prompt and beginning another
vignette. After 3 vignettes, you are done with
your turn as the Worker.
The Alien
The other three players take turns playing the
Alien. The Alien is extremely strange but you
don’t need to understand it entirely in order
to play it effectively. For each workplace
event you witness, you will draw a card giving
you a Schema through which to interpret
that event. You should initially judge each
event somewhat critically, but remain open
to the Liaison’s feedback. At the end of each
worker’s review, you will form a Suggestion
The Audience
For each Worker reviewed, the Audience
has 1 Token to give to either the Worker or
the Alien. You should use this token not as
a strategic element, but rather to reward a
specifi c moment of Alien interpretation or
Liaison defense that makes you laugh.
The players who are not the Liaison take turns cycling through the other 3 roles.
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Starting play
Cut out the 3 types of cards, shuffl e each pile
randomly and place them face down on the
table, labeling which pile is which.
Pick starting roles and begin the fi rst turn!
The Audience may opt to play their Token at
any point during steps 2 or 3, or not at all if
they wish.
End of the turn
After their 3 vignettes, the Worker will have
been given anywhere from 0 to 4 Tokens. Any
Tokens awarded by the Audience for Liaison
defense go to the Worker being defended.
What happens in a turn
Roles play as described previously. The action
order is:
1
The Worker draws a Job prompt and
narrates a short vignette.
The Liaison’s pool of Tokens doesn’t replenish.
2
The Alien draws* a Schema and
interprets the Worker’s action.
The Alien player secretly writes a Suggestion
for how this Worker’s work experience
should be changed. This Suggestion may be
specifi c to the Worker, may cover their whole
company, or may impact the entire relevant
industry.
3
The Liaison decides whether or not to
spend a Token and roleplays accordingly.
4
Repeat steps 1-3 two more times.
Liaison:
Note that failing to spend a Token can be
characterized in a number of ways: attacking
the Worker, being indifferent, or simply doing
a bad job of defending them. However, if you
do choose to spend a Token, do your best to
appeal to the Alien perspective that was just
played. (The Alien player need not actually be
convinced. Some other part of the uber-brain
may be what is swayed.)
Put the suggestion face-down on the table,
write the Worker’s name on the back, and set
that aside, along with that Worker’s Tokens,
until the End of the Game.
*Optional rule:
Instead of the Alien player randomly picking a
Schema, the Audience player chooses a Schema
from the deck, or makes one up, based on what
they’d most like to see at that moment.
End of the Game
Once all three Workers have been observed,
interpreted, and defended, the turns are
done. It’s now time for the executive portion
of the alien brain to decide what to do. It
factors in the local sub-brains’ suggestions,
the strength of the Liaison’s defenses, and a
higher logic unfathomed by man.
Discovering and Dodging Fates
The Liaison’s player randomly draws a card
from the Fate deck to assign to each worker
and then themself. Each card has a rating
on it: 3, 2, or 1. This rating is compared to
the human’s Security rating. If the card’s
number is higher, that human meets the fate
displayed on the card. If the two numbers are
tied, the human achieves Mild Benefi t. If the
security ratings is higher, the human achieves
Maximum Benefi t.
Final Security Ratings
For each Worker:
The number of tokens in that Worker’s
pile is their Security rating.
For the Liaison:
Interpreting Fates
For each Worker, the player who played
the Alien judging that Worker takes the
Suggestion that they wrote and combines
that with the Fate (from the card or Mild or
Maximum Benefi t -- see below) to inspire their
narration.
If you have 0-1 Tokens remaining,
your Security rating is 1.
If you have 2-4 Tokens remaining,
your Security rating is 2.
If you have 5-7 Tokens remaining,
your Security rating is 3.
All 3 other players narrate the fi nal fate of the
Liaison.
The more guarded you have been
in the defense of the Workers,
the more trusted you are and the
more Secure your job.
Mild Benefi t. The status quo appears to be
optimal, so here’s a token of appreciation.
Maximum Benefi t. Worker must be given
vast wealth, status, comforts, or property.
Fate Cards
Job Prompts
1
Moderate
disorientation
2
Maximum work
upheaval
(no injury)
Working as fast as
possible
What leads you to do this?
When you do this, how
good a job do you do?
Working as slowly as
possible
What leads you to do
this? Are you doing any-
thing else at the time?
Worker is made to
do, wear, or perceive
something off-putting.
Worker must work in
conditions that are
either distracting,
painful, disgusting, or
embarrassing.
Socializing
While working, at the
water cooler, on the
phone. Who, when,
where, about what?
Hiding not working
When getting away with
it takes some effort,
what do you do?
Fate applies to that
Worker, plus optionally
their employer, plus op-
tionally their industry.
Fate applies to that
Worker, plus optionally
their employer, plus op-
tionally their industry.
Entertaining yourself
Headphones, computer
games, doodling. What
do you do?
Breaking a rule
Or basic law. Do you
kiss co-workers? Steal?
Something besides mere
slacking.
2
Maximum life
upheaval
(no injury)
3
Maximum
destruction
and death
Worker must live in
conditions that are
either distracting,
painful, disgusting, or
embarrassing.
Worker must be either
killed, enslaved,
or extremely
transformed in an
unpleasant way.
Instructing inferiors
How do you explain
or assign tasks to
subordinates?
Reporting to superiors
How do you interact with
the person who can fi re
you?
Fate applies to that
Worker, plus optionally
their employer, plus op-
tionally their industry.
Fate applies to that
Worker, plus optionally
their employer, plus op-
tionally their industry.
Bathroom
How far away is it? How
long do you spend in
there? Do you wash
your hands?
Food
Snacks, breaks, lunch
time. When, where,
and what do you eat?
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