Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
A card game dedicated to all the bands who haven't made it (yet) Band Manager: The Boardgame is a love letter to the music industry: players feel the pressure of becoming more mainstream to survive, and must navigate the uneasy balance between companionship and headcount in a touring band. Starting with nothing but pure passion, players go on tours to win career opportunities and fans.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Deck / Bag Building
Add new pieces during play to improve the cards, tokens, or dice drawn later.
Open Drafting
Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Cooperative Game
Players coordinate their actions toward a shared objective and win or lose together.
Role Playing
Make decisions or communicate from the perspective of an assigned character.
Team-Based Game
Players compete in fixed teams and coordinate toward a shared team result.
Read the full game description
A card game dedicated to all the bands who haven't made it (yet) Band Manager: The Boardgame is a love letter to the music industry: players feel the pressure of becoming more mainstream to survive, and must navigate the uneasy balance between companionship and headcount in a touring band. Starting with nothing but pure passion, players go on tours to win career opportunities and fans. However, tours are expensive and risky. The risk may be mitigated by cooperating with others, but then players must split the spoils, so band members must earn their place or be left out. Early in players’ career, tours are niche; poorly promoted with obscure genres & unusual instruments (bagpipe reggae?). As the game progresses, players gain success by selling out to more mainstream music and learning how to do effective marketing. As their careers take off, the incentive to cooperate with other players fades away, leaving nothing but a desperate race for fans. Previously called: Battle of the Bands and Band Manager: Backstage Clash