The Balanced Life in a Cruel, Cruel World

This is a roll-and-move game reminiscent of Careers, but focused on finding a perfect balance among eight Values: Affection; Respect; Skill; Enlightenment; Influence; Wealth; Well-being; and Responsibility. The rules include a Leader's Guide for using the game in classrooms.

The board consists of an outer loop of 32 spaces and eight inward loops of 7 spaces each, one loop for each of the Values. When landing or passing by the entry to a loop, a player may choose to enter that loop.

Inner and outer tracks both have blue "Enhancement" and red "Deprivation" spaces, with the outer ring half and half, and the inner loops all 5:2 positive. The outer loop also has spaces where players take either "Circumstance" cards or "Cruel, Cruel World" cards, as well as Transaction Post spaces where players can trade points with each other. Both sets of cards have good and bad outcomes, and most result in "universal" point gains or losses, where the player may choose which value to change.

Each player has a thick scoreboard with pegs that all start at zero for each Value. The pegs move +/-1 for blue and red spaces on the outer ring, and +/-2 in the loops. The winner is the first player to achieve a balanced life by having the pegs in all eight values on his board line up vertically on the plus side of the scoreboard (all at +1, all at +2 or all at +3).