I’m the Boss is about wheeling and dealing…
..and being the boss.
Rarely is a game stripped down to its bare essence as cleanly as I’m the Boss! is. Up to fifteen deals can be made over the course of the game, and a player who is part of a successful deal will receive a certain amount of money.
In this game, you have two character cards who represent your team and you use them to make deals.
Each of these characters has a family name starting with a different letter and you also have a hand of cards with ‘relatives’ of these main guys. You roll and move around a board and land on a deal. You then decide if you want to take part in that deal and if you do, you are ‘The Boss’.
If you don’t, you can draw 3 cards and pass the dice on.
These deals ask for certain names to be used in the deal. So, for example, they might say “A member of the G family and one from the S family or the T family. (They do have proper names but the letter and colour of those families are all that matters, especially for this review ;))
Each deal gives you a number of ‘Parts’ depending on how many deals you have done in the game. So early on a deal of 4 parts may only be worth 8 million (4 each of 2 million) but later on, it might be worth 32 million (4 each of 8 million). Each player then offers Family members from in play or in their hand in exchange for a share of that deal.
And this is where the fun begins.
Taking the example from earlier, you may have a G in play but no access to an S or T. So you can get other players to offer you someone from those families to help you complete the deal in exchange for a percentage of the final sum of money.
Players will deal and negotiate and try to one-up one another.
But it doesn’t end there.
The cards in your hand are not just family members. If player 2 offers me an ‘S’ member to help complete my deal, player 3 can play a card to send them on holiday, ruling them out!
Or if they have 3 contract cards then can play them to steal a character from you!
If they have an ‘I’m the Boss’ card they take over your turn! Not only do they now control the deal, they also become the current player in turn order.
Of course, you can use a Stop card to counter any of these.
This goes on until 10-15 deals have been completed. The player with the most money at the end wins.
I’m the Boss Summary
This is a very fun game that I hope to play with more than 3 players one day. It’s the game Munchkin wishes it was.
Jesta Tha Rogue