Referred to by the publishers as a "role-playing party game", Johnsonville: Cutthroat Capitalism is a dice-rolling thematic game set in a small 1950s town. Players start with a small pool of money that may be depleted every turn, and the object of the game is to have completed the most "citizenly tasks" (objectives drawn at the start of the game) by the time all other players have lost money. Player interference to deplete the money of other players is encouraged. Actions in the game can be completed in two ways- through rolling against the Game Master, or "Johnson", or by drawing "Kit Cards", fictional cure-all products. Players interact by describing actions and rolling or drawing to attempt to complete them. The positive(or negative) effects of these attempts are described by the Johnson in a humorous fashion based on the numbers rolled or card drawn.