The Rigged Game: Using Tabletop RPGs to Examine Workplace Dysfunction

How satirical games help us process the impossible position of middle management

The Beautiful Trap of Middle Management

You're given impossible targets by executives who've never done your job. You're blamed when your team can't deliver miracles with insufficient resources. You're told to "manage up" while "supporting your people," but those two directions often pull in opposite ways. You're middle management, and the game is rigged.

But here's the thing about rigged games: sometimes the best way to understand them is to play them deliberately.

When Work Becomes Performance Art

Traditional workplace training focuses on optimization—how to be more efficient, more productive, more aligned with company goals. But what if the system itself is fundamentally broken? What if the real problem isn't that we're playing poorly, but that we're playing a game designed to make everyone lose?

This is where satirical tabletop RPGs like "Horn & Fetlocks, Inc." and "Dungeons, Incorporated" come in. By wrapping workplace dysfunction in fantasy settings—magical beauty companies and corporate dungeons—these games create safe spaces to examine the absurdity of modern work culture without the immediate stress of Monday morning.

The Mechanics of Impossible Choices

In these games, players face the same structural problems that plague real workplaces, but with enough fictional distance to see them clearly. Consider a typical scenario: as a middle manager at Horn & Fetlocks' beauty empire, you receive this crisis:

"As the body-positive pegasus advocacy group, I want authentic representation of 'real unicorns' in all marketing materials, because we failed the intersectional inclusivity audit spectacularly."

Suddenly, you're caught between genuine social justice concerns and a corporate structure that wants to monetize authenticity. Do you advocate for real change and risk missing quarterly targets? Do you create the appearance of progress while maintaining profitable beauty standards? Do you try to find a middle path that satisfies no one?

These impossible choices mirror real workplace dilemmas: the product manager caught between user needs and business metrics, the HR director balancing employee welfare with cost reduction mandates, the team lead trying to protect their people while meeting executive demands.

The Burnout Mechanic as Truth-Telling

One of the most powerful elements in these satirical systems is the "Burnout" mechanic. Players can push themselves harder for better results, but it costs them capacity in future rounds and accumulates "Grim Points" that eventually lead to breakdown.

This isn't just game balance—it's social commentary. The mechanic forces players to experience how toxic productivity culture actually works: short-term gains that create long-term unsustainability. You can't optimize your way out of a broken system; you can only burn yourself out trying.

Collaborative Suffering and Shared Recognition

What makes these games particularly effective is their collaborative nature. When a crisis emerges—"The Dark Lord's AI assistant wants performance reviews conducted via lightsaber combat because we're implementing Sith Agility methodology Empire-wide"—everyone at the table recognizes the absurdity. We've all been in meetings where equally ridiculous demands were made with complete seriousness.

The laughter isn't cruel; it's cathartic. Players find themselves saying things like "Oh god, that's exactly like when my boss..." The fantasy framing gives permission to acknowledge workplace trauma that might be too raw to discuss directly.

The Authenticity of Absurdity

The procedural crisis generators in these games don't create random chaos—they create recognizable patterns. The stakeholders are familiar archetypes: the consultant who doesn't understand the business, the executive who prioritizes metrics over outcomes, the well-meaning advocate whose demands ignore practical constraints.

The demands sound absurd in fantasy contexts but translate directly to real workplace experiences: impossible timelines, contradictory requirements, scope creep disguised as "alignment," and the endless pressure to do more with less while maintaining quality and morale.

Games as Diagnostic Tools

Playing these scenarios reveals something crucial: individual competence isn't the problem. When every player at the table—regardless of their real-world management experience—struggles with the same systemic pressures, it becomes clear that the issue isn't personal failure. The system itself creates impossible conditions.

This recognition is liberating. Instead of internalizing workplace dysfunction as personal inadequacy, players can see it as structural dysfunction that affects everyone caught in the machine.

Processing Trauma Through Play

There's something powerful about naming workplace dysfunction through the safe distance of fantasy. When you're playing a manager in a magical beauty company dealing with "authentic inauthenticity initiatives," you can process your real experiences with corporate doublespeak without triggering work anxiety.

The games create space for emotions that workplaces typically suppress: frustration with impossible expectations, anger at being blamed for systemic failures, grief for idealistic career goals ground down by institutional dysfunction.

Beyond Catharsis: Toward Understanding

While the immediate benefit is emotional release, the deeper value lies in developing critical consciousness about work structures. By making the absurd visible, these games help players articulate problems they may have sensed but couldn't name.

After playing through scenarios where AI algorithms demand "authenticity metrics" or where performance reviews are conducted via trial by combat, the ridiculous aspects of real workplace culture become harder to ignore. Players develop immunity to corporate gaslighting because they've seen the patterns laid bare.

The Rigged Game Made Visible

Ultimately, these satirical games don't offer solutions—they offer recognition. They help us see that the frustration, exhaustion, and ethical compromises of middle management aren't personal failings but predictable outcomes of rigged systems.

And sometimes, the first step toward changing a rigged game is admitting that it's rigged.

The games mentioned are part of our ongoing exploration of workplace culture through satirical tabletop experiences. They're available as free/pay-what-you-want downloads, because good satire should be accessible to everyone who needs to laugh at their job to keep from crying.