Life Gets in The Way

Designed by Roe Luli, Nate Seng and Jack DiLauro

Life is a gamble, make every roll count!

Your parents sold the house, bought a sailboat and took their retirement early traveling the world. You’re an adult now, and must learn to support yourself and live on your own. Time to get a job!

Enjoy a competitive card game where strategy, surprise, and a little teamwork shape your journey into adulthood! Designed for high schoolers, this fast-paced, hands-on adventure gives players a crash course in the chaos of real life, one year at a time.

Each turn throws new opportunities and curveballs your way. Will you chase a high-paying job, nurture friendships, develop new skills, or finally make time for yourself? You decide what matters most because in this game, your values shape your path. But beware: just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, life gets in the way.

Choose wisely. Adapt quickly. And remember… Success isn’t always about the perfect plan… it’s about how you play the hand you’re dealt.

Learning Objective: 

• Players will develop a foundational understanding of financial literacy, personal development, and life balance by simulating real world situations and decision making through gameplay. Players will analyze the impact of choices across four domains: Finances, Relationships, Hobbies, and Time. Simultaneously, players will practice risk assessment, long term planning, and adaptive problem solving skills in a dynamic, chance based environment.

Suggested Number of Players: 2-4

Duration: 25-30 minutes

Intended Audience: Students in High School and College and for anybody looking for an opportunity at new beginnings

Materials: 

1. Two six-sided dice
2. A standard deck of cards
3. Aspects of Life tablet
4. Four unique token types (Quarters, Dimes, Nickels, Pennys)
5. Occupation deck (12 cards from a 2nd poker deck, 2 through K-any suit)
6. Event Deck Key
7. Career Key for Occupation

Set-Up

1. Each player receives Aspects of Life tablet
2. Place tokens in the middle of the players, separated by color/type
3. Place two dice in the middle of the players
4. Shuffle the deck of cards
5. Start with 2 tokens for each category other than Finance`
6. Take cards from a 2nd poker deck (Occupation deck), only 2 through K-any suit

Rules:

1. Choose Your Path

• Each player chooses a card from the Occupation deck and reads the corresponding prompt.

2. Determine Starting Income

• Each player rolls two six-sided dice (2d6).
• Your roll determines your annual income:
  • If you roll 2-7 from Occupation Deck
    • Roll 2–7 → Collect 1 Finance tokens per turn
    • Roll 8–12 → Collect 2 Finance tokens per turn
  • If you roll 8-K from Occupation Deck
    • Roll 2–7 → Collect 2 Finance tokens per turn
    • Roll 8–12 → Collect 3 Finance tokens per turn
• Place your tokens in the Finance section of your player tablet.

3. Decide First Puller

• Roll dice to determine who draws from the Event Deck first.
• The highest roll goes first.
  • If there’s a tie, tied players re-roll until a winner is determined.
• Event Deck draws proceed clockwise from the first puller.

4. Game Rounds

• Each round represents one year of life.
• At the start of each round:
  • Every player collects their yearly Finance tokens based on their original income roll.
• Then:
  • The designated first puller draws the top card from the Event Deck and follows the instructions.
  • The rest of the players draw cards in turn, moving clockwise.
  • Prompts may impact Finances, Skills, Friendships, or Hobbies.
• If a player has no tokens in category but must lose token
  • Take from finance category

5. Keep pulled cards in front of each player as these will represent years until retirement

• The years a player works will be important in determining points at the ned of the game

6. Rotating First Puller

• At the end of each round, the player to the left of the previous first puller becomes the new first puller.

7. Roll the dice when prompted by card: 

• Each player rolls two six-sided dice (2d6).
• Your total roll determines the amount of tokens:
  • Roll 2–5 → Collect/lose 2 tokens
  • Roll 6–9 → Collect/lose 3 tokens
  • Roll 10-12 → Collect/lose 4 tokens
• Place your tokens in the corresponding section of your player tablet.

How to Win (Only one of the six paths needs to be achieved):

1. Gain 25 Finance tokens 
2. Gain 15 Relationship tokens
3. Gain 10 Hobbies tokens
4. Gain 10 Time tokens
5. Gain a pair of (any two) categories of at least 8 tokens each (min 15 finance tokens) 
6. Gain a combo of (at least) 5 tokens per each of 4 categories  (min 15 finance tokens) 

• Once a player meets the criteria to retire, this player gets to live out the rest of their days how they please (stop playing the game).
• The game continues for the remaining players until there is a winner between the last two. 
• All of the players who reached retirement are rewarded points.   

Points System: 

• Last player to retire is rewarded 25 points
• The player(s) who reaches maximum tokens gained in 1 category (1 through 4) is rewarded 50 points.
• The player(s) who reaches retirement by winning a pair of categories (5) is rewarded 75 points
• The player(s) who wins by combo (6) is rewarded 100 points

Multiply Years Worked

• At the end of the game, players multiply their points by how many years worked allowing players who gained less points but worked longer to catch up

Sample Events:

• Player picks up a 8 Hearts
  • Event: You launch a small online business
  • Effect: Gain 1 Finance token from another player or lose 1 Time token
• Player picks up a 4 Diamond
  • Event: You become unmotivated  this year after a death in the family
  • Effect: Gain 1 Time token, lose 1 Hobby token

Sample Career:

• Player picks up a K
  • Career: Doctor
    • Roll dice to determine income and prompt
      • Roll 8–12
        • Prompt: You are the most sought after plastic surgeon in the world who has rejuvenated countless celebrities
        • Income: Collect 3 Finance tokens per turn
      • Roll 2-7
        • Prompt: You found public healthcare to be your passion and traded a large salary for helping the underserved.
        • Income: Collect 2 Finance tokens per turn

Debrief Questions

• Were the rules of the game and how to win the game clear? 
• Did you enjoy the game? 
• Was the game balanced enough? Why or why not?
• What were your feelings like when you lost tokens?  When you gained?
• Did you find it harder to maintain your finances in order to build the other aspects of life?
• Who retired first in your group? What was the method of victory? Did the point system affect when you retired?
• Did you have a gameplan on how you wanted to retire? Did life get in the way and change your initial path at all?
• To students, did it make you think differently about life after school? 
• To post-graduates: were the events that occurred in the game an accurate representation of your actual life events?
• How did your experience feel overall? 

Stars and Wishes

♥♠♣♦

Notes after playthrough:

• Maybe incorporate role-playing
• Add top portion to tablet
• Give meaningful choices to more cards
• More bidding opportunities
• Give more options for losing/gaining
• Insert trigger warnings for the event card key
• Give option if player takes advice or does not
• Add in what happened
• MORE CONFLICT
• Add in rules when player has 0 tokens in a category
• Color coated tablet for each threshold 
• Differentiate between business
• Event should reflect token
• Check out game – The Quiet Year (find in Moodle)
• Think about what to do for players to retire
  • Retirement. Something else that 
• Make 20 Finance and 8 maybe. Think of balancing
• Keep track of years to multiply points at retirement
  • Missed opportunity for retirement if we don’t find a way for people to win. 
• Avoid combination of reward points and taking out choices