THE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT GAME

CUT
CONFLICT

IN DEVELOPMENT · ALL ART IS PLACEHOLDER

If you can solve conflicts constructively, everything else in life gets easier. We think it’s success skill #1, so we’re turning it into a game.

Cool Down card back Breathe! Close your eyes and take three deep breaths Restart! Can we restart this conversation?

WHY A GAME ABOUT CONFLICT?

Conflict isn’t the problem.
How we handle it is.

Handled with curiosity, a conflict is just information about what two people need. Handled badly, it poisons families, teams and whole societies. We claim that curiosity, play and responsibility can solve most of our big problems, and constructive conflict is where all three meet.

STEP 1

Notice the heat

The game trains you to spot the temperature rising, in yourself first.

STEP 2

Play a card

Cool Down cards work anytime: breathe, restart the conversation, switch location.

STEP 3

Invest & repair

Spend energy ⚡ to level a card up: together, in sync, on the road to repair.

A PEEK AT THE DECK
Cool Down category card
The Cool Down suit: play anytime
Breathe! card, invest energy to do it together in sync
Breathe! Three deep breaths, invest ⚡ to sync up
Restart! card, restart the conversation
Restart! “Can we restart this conversation?”

The final art style is still being explored. Everything you see is placeholder. Shaping it is part of the fun of playtesting.

FREE TO USE, RIGHT NOW
A wheel of emotion words: six core feelings in the middle, finer words in rings around them

HANDOUT · PDF · ONE PAGE

Wheel of Emotions

Step 1 of the game is noticing the heat, which is hard when the only words to hand are “fine” and “angry”. Start at one of the six in the middle and work outwards until you hit the word that actually fits. Print it, stick it on the fridge, point at it mid‑argument.

Free to print and pass around. A classic emotion wheel, not our design — the sheet itself credits its source as unknown.

Help us shape CutConflict

Families, classrooms, teams: we’re looking for players. Playtesters get early print-and-play decks and a real say in how the game (and its art) turns out.

Sign up to playtest

Questions? chris@makerofgames.com