The Junkie Game 1972

An educational board game made to illustrate the destructive nature of addiction. Its mechanics are described by the author as a reverse of games like Monopoly; instead of acquiring wealth, the players lose money, their job, and their possessions throughout the course of play.

From the author's own description:

"Up to [seven] players play at being heroin addicts... the last to lose all his assets is the winner... It was meant as a kind of teaching aid for people who worked for drug programs, or wanted to learn that sort of thing.

"Three to five [players] is ideal... You roll dice and advance to heavier habits ($10/day, $20/day, etc.) as you spiral inward. There are Hassle and Wisdom cards, when you land on red or green squares, kind of like Chance and Community Chest in Monopoly."

When the player loses his or her job due to varying circumstances, hustles help replace player income. These could be described as variable player powers, because in a sense, different hustles earn a player income in different ways.

As the game progresses, players are likely to acquire more expensive habits which require more money to maintain, as well as suffering the loss of their job, arrests by law enforcement, and negative conseqences of board spaces. The player who survives the longest is declared the winner, though the true goal of the game is to show that getting involved in the real-life junkie game is always a losing proposition.