Above My Pay Grade

Above My Pay Grade is a humorous workplace-themed card game about office politics, uneven effort, and trying to look like the right kind of employee. Players compete over Assignments using Tactic cards, collecting Dedication Points for doing the work and Brownie Points for looking good while doing it. The goal is not simply to score the most points, but to match the strange and specific expectations of your current Employee Profile. Each Review Cycle, every player receives a hidden Employee Profile that shows the Dedication and Brownie Point ranges they are trying to hit. Assignments are revealed one at a time, and players take turns playing Tactic cards to compete for them. The winner of each Assignment gains its listed points, which may help or hurt depending on what their Employee Profile actually wants. Players also have access to special corporate nonsense such as Plagiarize, Leverage cards, and one-time Power Moves. These can steal credit, override normal results, change who wins an Assignment, or alter the points a player receives. Because players are trying to manage two different point totals while guessing what others may need, winning too much can be just as dangerous as falling behind. At the end of each Review Cycle, players compare their Dedication and Brownie Points to their hidden Employee Profile. The employee who best meets their profile is promoted, with Expectation Gap used to determine the closest fit when needed. Depending on player count, the first player to promote 2 or 3 employees to their team wins the game. —description from the publisher