The mere mention of the word “bureaucracy” will make most people roll their eyes, because we’ve all been there at one (or more) points in our lives. A task that seems simple on the surface becomes a multi-day ordeal as you have to endure several layers of lines, paperwork, and painful phone calls. Thankfully, there is now a way to vent: BureauCRAZY, a TTRPG that transforms bureaucracy into comedy.
BureauCRAZY is a co-operative game for several players and one GM (dubbed the BM or Bureaucrat Maximum). Before the game starts, the players spend some time creating their characters. In BureauCRAZY, every character has personal details, such as a name and occupation. On top of this, each player has two stats: Bureau and Crazy (which players divide six points between) and a special trait that can be invoked for a bonus on certain rolls.
A Never Ending Mess Of TTRPG Bureaucracy
Once this process is complete, the BM sets the scene. In BureauCRAZY, TTRPG players find themselves in the process of navigating a never-ending bureaucracy. A bureaucracy made worse by the fact that this bureaucracy ignores all the rules of reality and also attracts a litany of strange supernatural creatures and situations.
Whenever the player wants to do something that they or the GM believes requires a roll, the player chooses which of their attributes is the most fitting. The Bureau stat covers all actions that could happen in a normal office environment (such as logging into a computer or chatting to an employee). The Crazy stat, on the other hand, is for any action that involves handling the weird or supernatural side of the BureauCRAZY world.
Once the player has chosen the appropriate stat, they roll a single six-sided die. If they roll equal to or less than the number they have in the stat, they perform their action successfully. However, if they roll above it, the action goes wrong in some way.
Naturally, it wouldn’t be a TTRPG bureaucracy simulator without stress, and in BureauCRAZY, stress is the game’s equivalent of health. Whenever a player fails a roll, every player gains one stress. However, when a player passes a check, they get to remove one of their stress. If any player ends up with six or more stress, they enter a state called T.I.L.T. (Terminal Individual Level of Tantrum).
When this happens, the player in T.I.L.T. takes control of the narrative and explains a series of improbable events that lead to the resolution of their current situation. However, once this situation is resolved, that character is removed from the game (though the player can return with a new character).
Simple Rules Make For Perfect Comedy
BureauCRAZY is a fantastic rules-lite TTRPG that is perfect for newcomers to the genre (especially ones who are nervous about complex math). Having the stats correspond to the type of situation your character is attempting to navigate (mundane or supernatural) is supremely intuitive and a great way to introduce TTRPG newcomers to the idea of defining your narrative action through stats.
The stress system is also very clever. Making failure boost every player’s stress gives the game a great sense of escalation. It also encourages players to take risks on their turn, as this is the only way to decrease their own stress. This means the game gently pushes players towards over-the-top, farcical storytelling, which perfectly complements the game’s theme.
This is further improved by the T.I.L.T system. Allowing the player to take control of the narrative and resolve the current roadblock means that every character gets to go out on a high note, and it prevents situations where the players spend half the session banging their heads against a single roadblock, meaning that the game keeps moving, no matter how odd the situation gets.
If you do play this game, I’m 100% recommend having players create new characters whenever their current one is eliminated, because BureauCRAZY is at its best when the players respond to ludicrous bureaucracy with even more ludicrous actions. So removing the fear of being out of the game for the rest of the session allows players to lean into this by approaching situations in the strangest and most unexpected ways possible.
Another nice touch is BureauCRAZY’s note to BMs. This note reminds BMs that they should try to be a nuisance, because this is the foundation of the game’s comedy. While this may seem obvious, it is good to remind BMs (especially those new to GM’ing) that comedy games often do require the GM to be slightly more adversarial than is usual in other TTRPGs. This is doubly true for BureauCRAZY, as to fully capture the game’s bureaucracy parody, the player characters need to feel frustrated and targeted by the system they are trying to overcome.
BureauCRAZY is an excellent TTRPG that everyone, even those who hate bureaucracy, will love. The game’s rules are simple to understand, but come together to be more than the sum of their parts during play, keeping the story moving while gently pushing the players into increasingly ludicrous scenarios, while still making players feel like they are the masters of their own destiny. Thus, BureauCRAZY is a must-have game for people who frequently play with TTRPG newcomers or those who often participate in impromptu game nights.
