Burnout🥵

One bag holds all the work and the stress, three minutes on the clock, and only one promotion up for grabs.

• 2–5 Players
• 3 Minutes
• Ages 12+
• Free PDF rules included

The Briefing

You're a team delivering a project under a brutal deadline. Compete for a promotion while keeping the team’s project grade at least a C, or nobody advances. The bag is full of Green tokens (high value), Yellow tokens (low value), and Red tokens (stress). Every draw is a gamble. Every turn is a choice.

Work hard and you might pull Green. Or you might pull Red. Stack enough Red and you're Stressed — losing access to the best tokens. Stack more and you Burn Out — losing your progress entirely.

You can Rest. You can Support a teammate by removing their stress. You can also Delegate your stress onto someone else and watch them collapse.

Only one person gets the Promotion, but the team needs a C Grade or nobody does. Every token you grab helps you and hurts the team, and the team has to pass for your promotion to count.

3 minutes. Get to work!

What You Need

• 1 small, opaque bag
• Coloured cubes or tokens (Green, Yellow, Red)
• A 3-minute timer (smartphone recommended)

That's it. The PDF includes different bag compositions and score thresholds for 2–5 players so it scales cleanly from pairs to small teams.

How it plays

On your turn you either Work (draw from the bag), Rest (clear your stress), Delegate (push stress to someone else), Support (remove stress from a teammate), or go Overtime (draw twice).

At 3–4 Red you’re Stressed and lose any Green you draw, and at 5+ Red you Burn Out and lose three scoring tokens from your work area.

Where to Find Components

Use anything: cubes, beads, or coins in three colours.

Coloured wooden cubes are widely available from online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, or craft supply stores. Search "coloured wooden cubes" or "math counting cubes." A bag of 100+ mixed cubes typically costs a few dollars. Any drawstring bag works — dice bags, gift bags, or even a sock.

Who It's For

Game nights that need a fast opener. Teams that want to see what happens under pressure. Anyone who's ever watched someone burn out while everyone else kept working.

Rules include a one-page FAQ that covers edge cases, so you can teach in a minute and play in three.

Download the rules, grab a bag of cubes, and find out who breaks first.

Tried it? 

Post your best (or worst) Burnout story in the comments.