Becoming The Boss: A Bruce Springsteen Board Game

I didn’t know the world needed a Springsteen-themed board game, but Søren Kitaj and Knud Jønsson did.

These two lifelong friends from Denmark envisioned, designed, developed, and published Becoming The Boss, an incredibly detailed–and free to all–board game experience sure to intrigue even casual Springsteen fans and absolutely delight hardcore ones.

In Becoming The Boss, players get to live (or relive) the early days of the Asbury Park music scene. To win the game, all you have to do is form a band, claw your way to the top, score a record deal, and make the covers of Time and Newsweek. You know: just like Bruce did.

But despite its name and inspiration, it would be a misrepresentation to classify the game purely as Bruce biography. In Becoming The Boss, Søren and Knud have crafted a loving tribute to the entire Jersey Shore music scene of the early 1970s. With its vivid cast of characters chasing their dreams across a romantic landscape of legendary locales, the mythology of the Jersey Shore translates perfectly to the gaming table.

All the major players are included…

…and the supporting players, too.

Even the obscure but notable local legends are present, rewarding actual or spiritual habitues of the early Asbury music scene.

Becoming The Boss is incredibly rich in detail, accessible to uninitiated but chock full of detail, arcana, in-jokes, and lore sure to please the hardcore Springsteen fan.

“It will never be the family board game of the year,” laughs co-creator Knud Jønsson.

But that’s by design.

Søren and Knud have been friends since high school. Their professional paths couldn’t have been more divergent–Søren works in corporate communications while Knud is a researcher of bird evolution at the University of Copenhagen–but their shared passion for Bruce’s music and their appreciation for its circumstances of origin has been a continual core of their friendship over the years.

They went to their first gig when the Reunion Tour came to Germany in 1999 (Knud was wearing his souvenir tee-shirt from that show when we spoke), and as with much of E Street Nation, that first taste of live Springsteen led to an everlasting addiction.

They attended more shows together, schooled themselves on Bruce’s life and music, and eventually–inevitably–they made the pilgrimage to Asbury Park. Making the most of their trip to the U.S. during the River Tour, Søren and Knud took a side trip to Asbury and Atlantic City (“and Flemington!” Søren adds), and the landscape of their imagination came to life.

They made a subsequent trip in 2018 to see Springsteen on Broadway, and they even managed every fan’s dream: they caught a surprise Bruce appearance at the Wonder Bar when Bruce showed up to dance with his mom one stormy April day.

Reminiscing on a late spring day about a year and half ago, Knud made an off-hand comment that Bruce’s escape from New Jersey might make for a great board game. Søren immediately latched on to the possibility and refused to let it go: “That is actually a very good idea.”

They envisioned the basic structure of the game that same evening: the proximity of Asbury Park’s famous locales to each other made for a natural, classic board game layout, and as far as gameplay went, Søren and Knud were inspired by the trailer parks, supermarket openings, and all the small venues the local artists played on their long upward climb. They planned an experience centered around earning a reputation via band battles and songwriting, and by the end of the evening what started as a lark had become a commitment.

They were also inspired by Bruce’s internal struggles, sensitively incorporating his depression and dark days into the gameplay as well. And they knew Bruce’s early sojourn in California and eventual arrival in New York City had to be included, too.

In short: they put the story first, and the gameplay second. They admit to having been asked, can’t you make the game generic? Becoming a Rock Star, maybe? “No we cannot,” says Knud. “That is not the game we are making.”

Still, as Søren notes, “It was important to us not to not give any advantage to those who know him better than others,” so while devoted fans will likely derive more enjoyment from the game, when it comes to gameplay, even the uninitiated have a fighting chance to win the game. There’s a fair bit of strategy required, but just like in Asbury Park at the time, “you need a bit of luck and magic to make it happen.”

The basic game came together quickly. Like Bruce’s classic albums, though, refining the gameplay took more than a year. “We very quickly had down what we needed,” said Knud, “and then the rest of it has just been playing the game over and over and finding out, oh man you win every time if you do this, we need to do something about it. All little changes and refining, what outtakes should be in, what non-E Street members should be in…” Søren concurs: “Ninety percent of it came quick, but the last ten percent took a lot of time.”

Some of the simplifications were painful, but the guys kept their focus on the balance between lore and gameplay. Says Knud: “The last six months were basically us asking: can we make it simpler? Easier? For example, the first battle of the bands was immensely complex. You had to flip coins like 25 times to find out who won.”

The game was released in January after a total of eighteen months in development, and it’s free to all, a gift to E Street Nation from Søren and Knud. You can play it simply by downloading and printing the materials and assembling a few household items.

Plan to spend as much time playing the game as you would at an E Street Band concert, though. Two players will take about three hours to make it through the game. Søren and Knud once played with four and didn’t quite finish even after five hours. But Bruce didn’t take the shortcut to success, so why should players?

When asked if they’d ever considered abbreviating the game for, say, one-hour gameplay, Knud flatly answered, “No. That is not the game we are trying to make. It’s not for people who think ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ is Springsteen’s best track. It’s for people who think it’s a lot of fun when you pull up that event card” and understand the reference.

Still, the guys admit to taking a few designers’ prerogatives, particularly with the subjective ratings assigned to the songs and characters. I told them I noticed that and had a bone to pick: how could they give “New York City Serenade” only three stars out of five?

“We’d like to give them all five stars, but we need a certain balance, that’s part of the game!” defended Søren. “If we gave it three stars, we of course didn’t think it was one of his best tracks, but it’s subjective, our opinion.”

Still, if players disagree with the gamemakers’ ratings, they have their blessing to change them. In fact, Søren expects and hopes for some debate about their ratings on the game’s Facebook page.

When I asked the guys if there will be a sequel, they demurred. “We’re not going to do a Bob Dylan one, or a Neil Young one.” So unlike their hero, Søren and Knud are happy being one-hit wonders.

My last question for the guys was perhaps the most important one: can Becoming the Boss be played virtually? Because if so, quarantine may have just become a little less tedious.

They glanced at each other and shrugged. “Why not? We haven’t considered that, to be honest.”

Which only leaves one lingering question in my mind: anyone up for a game?

Download the full game for free here.