A country on a table
Eight people with very different lives share three public services and a single common purse. The game is about how much each of them is willing to put in.
What it's about
Each player is dealt a life: a CEO, a surgeon, a teacher, a delivery rider, a student… Each role has its own Income, Cost of Living and savings goals. Everyone wants to make ends meet, and everyone depends on the same three services: Health, Education and Social Shield.
Each round there is a secret vote on how much is paid and what it is spent on. Paying little leaves more money in your pocket, but the services sink, whoever can't make ends meet is excluded and tension rises. Paying a lot builds a better country for everyone, but someone has to put in most of it.
Nobody wins alone: the services give points to everyone, and if Social Tension reaches 10, nobody scores anything. But whoever saves the most also scores the most, and that's where the argument starts.
What it teaches
Each concept appears in the game as a decision, not as a definition.
Progressivity
The four tax options share the effort out differently between the classes. Voting means deciding who pays.
Public goods
A level of Health benefits everyone, whether they paid a lot or a little. That's why it is so hard to fund.
The free rider
Every player is better off if the others pay. If everyone thinks the same way, there are no services.
Social exclusion
Whoever can't pay for the basics is left out, loses points and raises the tension for the whole table.
Social mobility
At the Midlife Crossroads, good Education can move you up a class and poor Education can drag you down.
Trust and promises
In the debate you can make promises and lie. Since the votes go into a closed bag, nobody knows who kept their word.
The roles
Income and Cost of Living per round, and the three savings goals that score points at the end. The goals are calibrated so that every role has a similar chance of winning, whatever its class.
| Role | Class | Income | Cost of Living | Get By | Live Well | Thrive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multinational CEO | Upper | 18 | 6 | 50 | 57 | 63 |
| Specialist surgeon | Upper | 15 | 5 | 31 | 37 | 43 |
| Small business owner | Middle | 10 | 4 | 25 | 29 | 37 |
| Secondary school teacher | Middle | 7 | 2 | 14 | 18 | 25 |
| Office worker | Middle | 6 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 17 |
| Precarious freelancer | Working | 6 | 3 | 19 | 23 | 31 |
| Delivery rider | Working | 5 | 2 | 15 | 19 | 26 |
| Student | Working | 4 | 1 | 12 | 15 | 21 |
| Spare roles, one per class, for anyone who changes class at the Midlife Crossroads | ||||||
| Landlord | Upper | 16 | 5 | 26 | 40 | 52 |
| Nurse | Middle | 8 | 3 | 35 | 40 | 44 |
| Waiter | Working | 5 | 2 | 24 | 28 | 32 |
Falling short of Get By costs 4 points; Get By neither adds nor takes away; Live Well gives 8 and Thrive, 12. Each player's money is secret until the final count. With 7 players the Office worker is left out; with 6, the Precarious freelancer as well.
How to win
At the end of round 8, each player adds up two kinds of points. The country's points are the same for everyone: 2 for each service level and 5 more if the three add up to 12 or more. The points for their life are theirs alone: what their savings goals give them, minus 5 for each Exclusion token.
If Tension ends up high, everyone loses points. If it reaches 10 at any point, the game ends and nobody wins.
Whoever has the most points wins. But the question that matters at the end is a different one: how has the country turned out?
The final discussion
Ten or fifteen minutes after the final count. This is where the real learning happens.
- What did you vote for in each round, and why? Did you do what you said in the debate?
- Who paid the most tax in total? Who got the most from the services?
- Would you have voted the same way with a different role card?
- Which service saved you at the Midlife Crossroads? Which one did you miss?
- Who benefited from the inheritance? Is that fair?
- How does what happened at the table compare with the real debate about tax?