Experience 18th century capitalist deception, corruption, and privilege in a fun, low-stakes format.
Money & Morals is inspired by Marxist sociological theories about history, class and revolution. The game format helps create an educational and interactive experience out of expansive philosophies and ultimately aims to spark curiosity and critical thoughts about our society.
To survive in this capitalist society, we need more than just cash. Alongside the money that helps buy us things to keep us alive and fulfil materialistic needs, we also have an innate sense of morality that determines for us whether this society is worth living in or not.
Almost every game has a way to "win" and "lose". This game has two currencies: 1. money and 2. morals. Winning Money & Morals depends on the overall [aggregate] moral state of the "society". If morality is above a certain number, then all of society (all players) win as no one has given up hope yet. If morality drops below the number, the person with the most money wins the game and brings about the fall of society.
Inspired by the Classical Sociological Theories class I took at Brown University. I largely took Marxist and Durkheimian theories of social cohesion, class and conflict into consideration when planning out the larger game mechanics as well as the smaller details, such as the event cards.
So as to avoid personal bias, I decided to set the game in the past, during the period of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. As people of today have no immediate ties to a historical event that ended nearly two centuries ago, players are able to play more selfishly and in-character of their identity.
1. Pick your identity
There are 5 different types of identities to potentially start off with in this game. Each identity is associated with a social class and categorised into three social class categories. Though all social classes start off with the same amount of moral "bucks", starting money balance and salary varies from class to class. Here is an example of each type of identity:
Each identity card has a short description of the person's job
2. Pick up vote cards
Each player picks up a deck of "yes" and "no" cards that will be used to vote with later.
Money & Morals board game web-version hosted on playingcards.io (yes, this game was created during the pandemic). Access the game here.
3. Start your money and morals "bank" account
At the end of each round of the game, you calculate your new balance in both money and morals by inputting the values you . This will determine your new class position for the next round as well as your new (or unchanged) salary.
Access the calculator here. If you want to experience the functionality, make a copy of the file so you can edit it!
4. Announce your class
Before beginning, everyone must announce their starting class category; however, there's no need to be truthful about it if you feel self-conscious...
Once you announce, place your game piece on the corresponding class category.
1. Spin the spinner
Pick up the card from the deck that corresponds to whatever you land on. If you land on CLASS, you pick up the CLASS card corresponding to the class that you announce, not what you really are. So, if you lie in your class announcement, you may end up jeopardising your class. If you present as middle class and land on CLASS, you don't get any particular privileges or disenfranchisements, so go ahead and spin again.
2. Once everyone's taken their turns, balance your accounts
Given your salary and whatever deductions/additions you’ve been granted, calculate your new balance and class. Note your new salary and class for the next round.
3. Update and announce class
Proclaim your class again (fake or not) and move your game piece to reflect that.
4. Repeat for 20 rounds
Proclaim your class again (fake or not) and move your game piece to reflect that.
Additional notes
Some of my favourite 'event' cards from each category.