A new game hitting the table for me is Adulthood from Brotherwise Games. This one wasn’t on my radar for Gen Con until I saw Adulthood hit a few anticipated lists, and that drew my interest to the game. A game where you are being an adult, something that I do okay at times, but from Brotherwise Games that makes accessible games to learn and play, I was in. So is Adulthood mainly paperwork and meetings or is there a fun game?

How To Play Adulthood

Your goal in Adulthood is the score the most points you can through the happiness you get in your life and the impact that you have on the world. You spend time, energy and money to do things like get married, get promoted, and all sorts of other life events. I would go into this more, but Brotherwise Games put out a good video on how to play Adulthood, so check that out below.

What Doesn’t Work

Adulthood isn’t a perfect game for me. There are a bunch of things I like but I want to talk about the one thing that feels a bit off to me. The game has kind of a weird starting speed to it. Depending on the adulthood cards that are in play for drafting/purchase you might find that a lot of rounds early in the game are just resource gathering.

Once you get the up arrow you will find that yes, you resource gather, but not you can play a whole lot more things. But by that point in time you likely now have a ton of resources as well with money and energy. So you can’t spend them fast enough. It’s the speed that you get cards into your hand, you add one per round, but some of them might not be worth it for you or you won’t be able to play for a bit. And then at the end of the game, you have more than you need.

I wish there were a spot to draw more life events, just blindly, maybe by paying a buck. That feels like it would work well. Something that costs you a bit and gives you something random. But it’ll give you more to do with your resources at the end of the game.

What Works

The simplicity of the game works well. Your actions are simple and easy to follow. And as you gain more cards you find a few more actions, mainly you get another one from marriage but it never is overwhelming. So turns go fast and while this isn’t the fastest game in the world, it never feels like it drags. In fact, because you don’t do anything on an opponents turn, you can even start allocating your resources while they finish up a turn.

I like the life event cards, that bit of randomness to the game. That and the hidden values are your main points of randomness. And you can even prepare some and look at what your values are. So it’s light that way as well in randomness, but the little bit from the life events is fun. Sometimes the life events are hard though, so be aware that you might need to adjust plans based off of them for your next turn.

The components are great as well. They didn’t need to do wooden time pieces, but they are nice. And their cardboard pieces are really good as well. Plus the artwork on the game is very nice, silly, and fun.

I also like that the game gives you an experience. You play out events, traits, partner, jobs, and values. All of those things give your person a real arc from the start of their life to where they end up. And how things connect, like to join the PTA you need a family card already in play, that is a nice thematic touch.

Who Is Adulthood For?

So who is the game for? I think this is for people who like lighter games with a fun theme. This is not a heavy game. It is a game which offers interesting choices though. So for people who want that lighter gaming experience it is going to work well. And the theme is a nice addition to it as well. It is worth noting the game is longer than a filler.

Final Thoughts on Adulthood

I enjoy this game. I don’t know that it is a game that I love. Mainly because the flow is just a little bit off to me. I like the thematic nature of it being slow at the start. I graduated college in 2007 and let me tell you, not a great time to job hunt. So my adult life did start off slow. But for Adulthood, it’s more in the later game that it feels like it’s lacking. I want more to do on the later turns.

Sure I now have upgraded leisure, wellness, and community things that I can do, as well as my better job, but the core action loop is the same. I wish that you could add in maybe one or two more spaces as the game goes on. If you have an open relationship I guess you can with multiple partners, but even that isn’t that much. Maybe just a bit more with cards, getting them, playing them, and them impacting each other. But that’s a minor thing for a fun light game.

My Grade: C+
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: B+

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