The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Get Out is a game about slackers moving out of their parent's basements and racing each other around a board to get a job, an apartment, and a life. If Kill Dr Lucky was the anti-Cluedo, Get Out is the anti-Monopoly.

Get Out comes with rules, two decks of cards (like Chance and Community Chest, here called Comic Page and Plot Twist) and a self-assembly board. As with all Cheapass Games they save you money by asking you to provide the peripherals yourself; you'll need dobbers, play money, 2d6 (preferably red and black) and about twenty tokens for each player. Money and dice are easy enough to get if you raid Monopoly or something similar, but finding enough tokens for a large game could be a hassle unless you have them lying around for Magic or Pantheon, or have a serious jellybean habit. Pieces of paper with the player's initials would be fine, if not for the tendency to get blown away.

The play should be easy for gamers to grasp, though a few of the assumptions might throw non-gamers. You roll dice, cruising around a board with three tracks. The outside track contains entry-level jobs, the middle track crummy apartments, and the inner track represents having a life. When you land on a job or a room you can leave an application, which allows you to stop there on your next pass and begin work or move in (unless somebody else has applied, forcing you to roll off for it). Each job or apartment you hold acts as a ramp in to the next track. Jobs slow you down, deducting from your movement, as well as giving you money which apartments take away in rent every time you pass Go -- I mean Pay Day. Make it around the central track four times and you've won.

Of course, it's not that easy. Some squares force you to do crazy stuff, you get hit up for money to buy comics, Gloom Con tickets, and funky little board games, and you can try to get your friends fired or kicked out of their apartments by hassling them in your copious free time. Plus, there are tactics. Once you pass a Pay Day square you get forced out one track, so by getting a job that leads straight in to your apartment (or close to) you'll be able to climb back quickly.

The secret is not to work too many jobs. You can have four jobs and be absolutely loaded, but not make it around the board fast enough to get a life. It's easy to slip into Monopoly-Scrooge mode and revel in the sudden amounts of cash (Get Out only starts you with $100 but is pretty generous afterwards), but there's a fine balance between being able to pay the rent and keeping your freedom.

Sometimes.

In other games you'll be struck down early and made completely povo, making you feel incredibly rich when you get your first job or two. There's a kind of balance, but Get Out is ultimately a game of chance, not in-depth strategy.

The rules are pretty clear, as per usual for James Ernest's games; although the rules don't go out of their way to explain that when you jump to a square you don't get pass Go/Pay Day like in Monopoly.

With a beer/pretzels kind of game like Get Out, the final judge is whether it's funny. A couple of my friends didn't get the joke of Give Me The Brain and both of them had worked in the kind of fast food hell it satirises. Maybe they were just offended by the suggestion brainless zombies could have done their jobs. As someone who has worked my share of crappy part time jobs, lived in a few chaotic share houses, been unemployed and moved out of home a grand total of three times before it stuck, Get Out is funny as hell. Especially cards like "Another late night drinking midori and watching Dr No makes getting up implausible. Lose a turn." It's funny 'cause it's true.

Get Out may not be as brilliantly funny as Give Me The Brain or as blindingly original as Kill Dr Lucky, but it's still laugh-worthy and fun to play, and like most Cheapass Games definitely worth the price.

Get Out
Get Out Playtest Review by Jody Macgregor on 05/07/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Monopoly for slackers. A vintage Cheapass Game for 2-8 players. Product: Get Out Author: James Ernest Category: Board/Tactical Game Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games Line: Cost: $10.55 AUS Page count: n/a Year published: 1996/9 ISBN: SKU: CAG006 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Jody Macgregor on 05/07/01 Genre tags: Modern day	Get Out is a game about slackers moving out of their parent's basements and racing each other around a board to get a job, an apartment, and a life. If Kill Dr Lucky was the anti-Cluedo, Get Out is the anti-Monopoly. Get Out comes with rules, two decks of cards (like Chance and Community Chest, here called Comic Page and Plot Twist) and a self-assembly board. As with all Cheapass Games they save you money by asking you to provide the peripherals yourself; you'll need dobbers, play money, 2d6 (preferably red and black) and about twenty tokens for each player. Money and dice are easy enough to get if you raid Monopoly or something similar, but finding enough tokens for a large game could be a hassle unless you have them lying around for Magic or Pantheon, or have a serious jellybean habit. Pieces of paper with the player's initials would be fine, if not for the tendency to get blown away. The play should be easy for gamers to grasp, though a few of the assumptions might throw non-gamers. You roll dice, cruising around a board with three tracks. The outside track contains entry-level jobs, the middle track crummy apartments, and the inner track represents having a life. When you land on a job or a room you can leave an application, which allows you to stop there on your next pass and begin work or move in (unless somebody else has applied, forcing you to roll off for it). Each job or apartment you hold acts as a ramp in to the next track. Jobs slow you down, deducting from your movement, as well as giving you money which apartments take away in rent every time you pass Go -- I mean Pay Day. Make it around the central track four times and you've won. Of course, it's not that easy. Some squares force you to do crazy stuff, you get hit up for money to buy comics, Gloom Con tickets, and funky little board games, and you can try to get your friends fired or kicked out of their apartments by hassling them in your copious free time. Plus, there are tactics. Once you pass a Pay Day square you get forced out one track, so by getting a job that leads straight in to your apartment (or close to) you'll be able to climb back quickly. The secret is not to work too many jobs. You can have four jobs and be absolutely loaded, but not make it around the board fast enough to get a life. It's easy to slip into Monopoly-Scrooge mode and revel in the sudden amounts of cash (Get Out only starts you with $100 but is pretty generous afterwards), but there's a fine balance between being able to pay the rent and keeping your freedom. Sometimes. In other games you'll be struck down early and made completely povo, making you feel incredibly rich when you get your first job or two. There's a kind of balance, but Get Out is ultimately a game of chance, not in-depth strategy. The rules are pretty clear, as per usual for James Ernest's games; although the rules don't go out of their way to explain that when you jump to a square you don't get pass Go/Pay Day like in Monopoly. With a beer/pretzels kind of game like Get Out, the final judge is whether it's funny. A couple of my friends didn't get the joke of Give Me The Brain and both of them had worked in the kind of fast food hell it satirises. Maybe they were just offended by the suggestion brainless zombies could have done their jobs. As someone who has worked my share of crappy part time jobs, lived in a few chaotic share houses, been unemployed and moved out of home a grand total of three times before it stuck, Get Out is funny as hell. Especially cards like "Another late night drinking midori and watching Dr No makes getting up implausible. Lose a turn." It's funny 'cause it's true. Get Out may not be as brilliantly funny as Give Me The Brain or as blindingly original as Kill Dr Lucky, but it's still laugh-worthy and fun to play, and like most Cheapass Games definitely worth the price.