Peak Millennial
A single-page RPG about generational differences.
Peak Millennial v1.0
A one-page RPG about boomers, doomers, zoomers, and bloomers.
You can find the print version here. Simply print it out, fold it in half length wise, then fold along the lines to make a rectangle with each side facing the appropriate player.
Requirements
- A deck of playing cards (including jokers)
- Four people
- Pen and paper for each person to tally.
Setup
- Shuffle the deck of cards.
- Pass the deck around.
- Each person draws until they get a unique suit and reveals their class. ♦ = boomer; ♠ = doomer; ♥ = zoomer; ♣ = bloomer.
- Then they draw and reveal three cards and announce/note their stats for FINances, TECHnology, and SOCial credit (ace = 1, faces = 10, joker = draw again).
- Then they draw one more card without showing anyone for their SANity level.
- Then they shuffle the deck.
Additional (de)buffs
- Boomers start with +1 FIN and +1 SAN.
- Doomers start with -2 SAN.
- Zoomers start with +1 TECH and +1 SAN.
- Bloomers start with +1 SOC and +1 SAN.
After applying, ensure the minimum for each stat is 1 and the maximum is 9
Play
- The boomer begins, because of course, then play goes clockwise.
- For each turn, the player draws a card and performs the specified action.
- Most actions are performed against other players; some are performed against specific players.
- If the current player gain a point in a stat, the other player loses a point in that stat and vice versa.
- Every time the current player performs an action against another player, they lose 1 SAN regardless.
- Jokers are an immediate loss of 1 SAN to the current player.
- SAN levels are kept secret, so either note those separately, or agree to read off the other three stats at the end of each round.
Boomer
| Result | |
|---|---|
| A | You go on a mediation retreat (+1 SAN) |
| 2 | You raise the rent on your rental property on someone (+1 FIN) |
| 3 | You learn how to text from someone (+1 TECH) |
| 4 | You post a Minions meme that gets shared to the doomer’s Facebook wall (+1 SOC) |
| 5 | You give someone a loan (-1 FIN, +1 SOC) |
| 6 | You buy a newfagled phone (-1 FIN, +1 TECH) |
| 7 | You talk to the manager who is the bloomer (-1 SOC, +1 FIN) |
| 8 | You spend two hours on the phone with tech support who is the zoomer (-1 SOC, +1 TECH) |
| 9 | You decide you can live without a computer (-1 TECH, +1 FIN) |
| 10 | You invest in a No Phone Zone cafe with someone (-1 TECH, +1 SOC) |
| J | Just an off day today (no effect) |
| Q | You missend an angry email to your boss (-1 to all stats) |
| K | You really enjoy your first free months of Amazon Prime (+1 to all stats) |
Doomer
| Result | |
|---|---|
| A | You finally seek out therapy (+1 SAN) |
| 2 | You get an essay published on The Guardian taking down someone (+1 FIN) |
| 3 | You figure out how to start a podcast about the problem with someone (+1 TECH) |
| 4 | One of your tweets starts a trending hashtag that takes over someone’s timeline (+1 SOC) |
| 5 | You subscribe to the bloomer’s patreon (-1 FIN, +1 SOC) |
| 6 | You have to change cable providers to someone (-1 FIN, +1 TECH) |
| 7 | You accept a loan from the well-off boomer (-1 SOC, +1 FIN) |
| 8 | You set up a go-fund-me for a new laptop and guilt a friend into helping (-1 SOC, +1 TECH) |
| 9 | You bin your old phone instead of recycling it (-1 TECH, +1 FIN) |
| 10 | You recycle your old phone instead of binning it (-1 TECH, +1 SOC) |
| J | Just an off day today (no effect) |
| Q | You sleep through work (-1 to all stats) |
| K | You sleep thirteen hours straight and still make work on time (+1 to all stats, except sanity) |
Zoomer
| Result | |
|---|---|
| A | You finally finish one of a dozen or so projects (+1 SAN) |
| 2 | You win a gaming competition against someone (+1 FIN) |
| 3 | Someone helps you learn how to make your own games (+1 TECH) |
| 4 | Your indie game takes off with someone (+1 SOC) |
| 5 | You buy the doomer a copy of Fortnite to try and get them to play with you (-1 FIN, +1 SOC) |
| 6 | You buy a new DSLR off someone (-1 FIN, +1 TECH) |
| 7 | The ads the boomer took out show up on your video essays on YouTube (-1 SOC, +1 FIN) |
| 8 | You get a sponsored gaming rig from someone (-1 SOC, +1 TECH) |
| 9 | You sell a sponsored gaming rig to someone (-1 TECH, +1 FIN) |
| 10 | You give away a copy of your indie game to someone (-1 TECH, +1 SOC) |
| J | Just an off day today (no effect) |
| Q | A transformer blows and takes out your power supply (-1 to all stats) |
| K | You get invited to a product beta (+1 to all stats) |
Bloomer
| Result | |
|---|---|
| A | You find the perfect desktop background (+1 SAN) |
| 2 | You gets a new Patreon subscriber (+1 FIN) |
| 3 | Someone tells you about a great distraction-free writing program (+1 TECH) |
| 4 | You help start a CSA with someone (+1 SOC) |
| 5 | You grab lunch for someone (-1 FIN, +1 SOC) |
| 6 | Hell yeah the zoomer sold you a new mechanical keyboard (-1 FIN, +1 TECH) |
| 7 | Your boomer parents let you have their old car (-1 SOC, +1 FIN) |
| 8 | Someone helps you land a job at [insert much-maligned tech company] (-1 SOC, +1 TECH) |
| 9 | You sell your desktop to someone, having decided you only need a laptop (-1 TECH, +1 FIN) |
| 10 | You swap phones with someone who needs a nicer one (-1 TECH, +1 SOC) |
| J | Just an off day today (no effect) |
| Q | A down-swing leads to a dry spell (-1 to all stats) |
| K | You make it big on TikTok (+1 to all stats) |
Win/lose conditions
- You win if you max out two stats to 10 or your sanity reaches zero. Maybe then you’ll actually be happy!
- The other players can keep playing to see who gets out last.
- If you would win on the first turn, you are instead knocked out of the game. Sorry, you were too lucky!
- You get knocked out of the game if any stat except SAN reaches zero. Hard to be happy that way.
- If you somehow manage to make it through the deck, the game ends in a draw.
About
Peak Millennial was created by Madison Scott-Clary and Judith Phoenix during a road trip. It’s released under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license. The current randomized play-test results are below.
Peak Millennial play test results
Settings
- Number of runs: 10000
- Subtract from others: True
Turns per game
| Min | Average | Max |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 10 | 50 |
Draws
Draws: 0
Wins
| Boomer | Doomer | Zoomer | Bloomer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.99% | 24.94% | 26.65% | 24.42% |
Wins by
| Sanity | Max stats |
|---|---|
| 73.08% | 26.92% |
Outs
| Boomer | Doomer | Zoomer | Bloomer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.55% | 21.58% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Average stats
| Stat | Boomer | Doomer | Zoomer | Bloomer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finances | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Technology | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Social credit | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Sanity | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 |