Introduction: Designed in honor of the brilliance and success of the newly-released independent game Braid, a game about snap time reversal and the value — and danger — of being able to “undo” everything you just did. In this game, players compete to rid their hand of cards before the time runs out. However, unlucky plays will make time go in reverse and erase everything they fought to achieve.

Players: 4

Materials: Two identical decks of standard playing cards shuffled together.

Setting Up: Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player, setting the remainder into the center as a draw deck. Draw four cards from the top of the deck and lay them alongside it in a cardinal point arrangement (North-South-East-West, or a “plus” shape) — these are called corner cards, and the cards that will be played on them are referred to as stacks. Each player selects two cards from their hand and lays them on the table in front of them, face-down — these are their play cards. The youngest player present goes first; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: Each turn, players set cards into play in sequence, attempting to deposit them onto the corner card stacks. The active player first draws a card from the deck and adds it to their hand (with one exception, see below). They then reveal the forward play card (the card closest to the center of the table) and attempt to play it as follows:

• Cards are played on the top cards in the corner card stacks (or the corner card itself, if no stack yet exists).
• Cards may be played if they either match the suit of the top card or are one step higher or lower in numerical sequence. For example, a Ten of Hearts may be played on any Heart, or on any Nine or Jack.

If the player is unable to play the card, they pick it up and return it to their hand. After they have dealt with the forward play card, they slide the remaining play card into forward position and replace it with a new card from their hand. Thus, each player always has two play cards on the table.

Scrub Backwards: When a player draws a card, it is possible the card will initiate a time reversal — these are called scrubbing cards. When the game begins, the first scrubbing cards are Aces. If a player draws an Ace, they reveal it to all and set it aside instead of adding it to their hand. Until a new scrubbing card is drawn, play now functions in reverse. Instead of revealing and playing their forward play card, players pick up their rearward play card, move the forward play card into rear position, and select a card from one of the corner card stacks to place into their forward play card position. In this way, each turn players effectively undo one of their turns, depleting the cards in the corner card stacks one at a time. Players still draw cards at the beginning of their turn as normal.

Once a scrubbing card has been drawn, the next numerical rank of cards becomes the new set of scrubbing cards. For example, once a player draws an Ace and sets time in reverse, play continues backwards until another player draws a Two — the next card in sequence. When this occurs, they place the new scrubbing card over the current one and reverse time again — in this instance back to normal play. Now the new scrubbing cards are Threes, and play will continue in normal order until one is drawn. In this way, each new scrubbing card drawn toggles the flow of play between normal and reverse.

If, while play is reversed, players deplete the corner card stacks all the way down to the original corner cards, time is immediately returned to normal flow and play continues. The current scrubbing card does not change — when a new scrubbing card is drawn, time will reverse. Similarly, if players deplete the entire draw deck in the course of play, they continue without drawing until the flow of play changes — as soon as a new scrubbing card is drawn, play is paused while players discard their hands down to seven cards and shuffle the discards into a new draw deck.

Winning the Game: Play continues either until one player runs out of cards or until a King is drawn as a scrubbing card (i.e. the scrubbing card progression is exhausted). As soon as this occurs, the game is over and the player with the fewest cards in their hand is the winner. Ties are allowed.

Cooperative games, or games that don’t result in one player winning and all others losing, are fascinating. There are precious few of them in the board and card game world. Many competitive games feature elements of cooperation, or at least opportunities for mutual gain among players, but few really pit players on the same side from start to finish. I think of games like Shadows Over Camelot, which I reviewed on this blog some time ago, in which players strive to complete the game before the rules overwhelm them. The game itself functions as the adversary, not the other players. Pandemic is a similarly excellent example: a game that’s cooperative in a players-vs-game mode, that’s really difficult, and that’s tons of fun. It further appears that the tradition of “digital games inherit from board games” is reversed in this instance. Digital games have played cooperatively ever since Mario was joined by Luigi. Why so few cooperative board games, then? They are getting more common, don’t get me wrong. But I feel there are untold riches to find in cooperative game design.

For one, players are required to think in a much larger context. For many, attempting to read and predict the intentions of their opponents is a prohibitive challenge and easily frustrating. In a normal board game, players need only think about the resources in play, their share of those resources, and their opportunities to gather more. In a cooperative game, players think about these same equations and opportunities for all the players in the game, and think about them in terms of contributing to a larger balance — a balance that can and often does involve sacrifice by one or several players for the gain of the whole. The possibility space of moves and decisions is multiplied by the number of players playing — each player is, in a sense, playing for all the players. Each one must think and act from the perspective of everyone in the game.

Another major advantage is the ease and richness of diplomacy and interpersonal communication as part of the system. In a competitive game, players can reasonably assume that all their opponents are out to get them. In a cooperative game, particularly one with elements of competition or hidden motives, this becomes infinitely less certain. Conversation, be it debate, persuasion, collaboration, or simply information sharing, is now a critical mechanic. Many competitive games can virtually be played in silence — players’ intentions are obvious, and their actions within the rules are sufficient to communicate anything they might need to say. But in a cooperative game, lack of communication is like shooting yourself in the foot, and no involved player can afford to sit on the sidelines. Cooperative games therefore involve players to a much greater degree, and keep them involved longer. Consider how, in some competitive games, players can fall far enough behind that they have effectively lost before the game ends and, feeling disaffected and bored, tune out and cease to interact with their fellow players. In a cooperative game, that would never happen. Even if a player’s utility is diminished, it is never destroyed. As a member of the larger effort, they have an everpresent responsibility to contribute their analysis of the situation and suggestions for choices to make (remember above, where I said players are effectively all playing for each other?). Furthermore, even if their actions are limited, the opportunity remains for them to make a small but vital contribution at a crucial moment and, in so acting, save the common effort. Like a pawn sacrifice that leads to checkmate, even the smallest action can have universal importance. Thus, no player is ever “sidelined” in a cooperative game.

These are just some of the ways in which cooperative games offer an expanded, richer experience. I remember in vivid detail games of Shadows I have won and lost, while I tend to forget games of Chess or Go or Settlers or Ticket to Ride. The shared experience has a greater effect and leaves a greater impression, like how team sports are more emotional (by and large) than individual sports. People have a natural affinity for common effort, for coming together to triumph over an adversary no individual could defeat alone. I hope game makers catch on to this and produce many more cooperative games.

Just returned from my sojourn in northern New Hampshire and my working vacation from all things game-related to my university, SCAD, for one last quarter. When I enrolled as a MFA candidate, I was assigned three preliminary undergraduate courses to complete before I could commence graduate study — this because my undergrad experience featured precious little digital artwork. The addition of these courses offset my program of study by one term, so rather than graduate in the spring with most of my peers, I will complete my studies at the end of this fall. I look forward to it! In the meantime, I am happy to return to the world of game design and to resume regular updates on this blog. Apologies to everyone who saw the content rate droop over the summer — it was simply impossible to devote the time to it, so removed was I in my place in the White Mountains. Three weeks behind on game design and with scarce posts on general topics, I am ashamed I let it slide so far. No more — I am back in action again.

Introduction: The infamous “yard-a-night” creeper: kudzu flowers might be good luck in Japanese culture, but in the Western world they’re a devastatingly invasive species. In this game, players attempt to cultivate a rich and diverse garden and keep it safe from being overrun. Self-sacrifice will keep the kudzu down, and players must weigh their own loss against the community’s gain very carefully, for every kudzu vine that emerges threatens everyone.

Players: 2-4

Materials:

• Regular-sized bags of identically-shaped, multicolored candies (such as M&Ms or Skittles), at least two bags per player. Ensure that the colors include red.
• A bag or hat to hold the candies for random drawing.

Setting Up: Place all the candies into the bag. Each player draws ten from the bag and places them in front of them, setting aside all red candies into a central pile. The player who drew the most red candies goes first; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: Players tend their garden – the candies in play in front of them — by removing unwanted colors and acquiring desired colors. Their gardens may become littered with kudzu – red candies — as the game progresses. Also, the red candies in the center represent the common garden, and the candies there affect all players. Each turn, the active player calls out a color they wish to gain and draws a random candy from the bag. Based on their draw they taking the corresponding action:

• The player draws the color he or she named: Success! The player adds the candy to their garden and eats one of the red candies in their garden or the common garden.
• The player draws a different color that the one he or she named, but not red: Partial success. They add the candy to their garden and may choose whether or not to do the following: they may eat one of their own non-red candies to eat a red candy from their garden or the common garden.
• The player draws a red candy: Failure! The must add the kudzu to their garden and end their turn.

The Kudzu Grows: Play proceeds in rounds with each player taking one turn per round. At the end of the round, the kudzu in the common garden grows. Each player draws one candy at random from the bag. If they draw a red candy, they add it to the common garden. If they draw any other color, they return it to the bag.

Winning the Game: Play continues until all the candies have been drawn from the bag. Final gardens are scored like so: each color represents a different kind of plant, and the player with the most of a particular color in their garden is the top grower for that type. They score points equal to the difference between their garden’s abundance and the next highest player’s abundance. For example: At game end, Player 1 has ten yellow candies, Player 2 has six, and Player 3 has two. Player 1 is therefore the Top Yellow Grower and scores four points, or the difference between his ten yellow candies and Player 2′s six yellow candies. Ties are worth zero points.

After the gardens have been tallied, all the kudzu candies in the common garden are divided equally among the players (set aside remainders out of play). For every two red candies a player holds after this dispersal, the player loses one point.

Best combined point score wins!

Introduction: Find out just how “humane” your fellow humans really are. When disaster strikes and the situation forces the toughest ethical decisions, who will you cast overboard to save the group? Be warned, though: this game rewards the self-sacrificing as well as the covetous. Based on the treatise Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor by political philosopher Garret Hardin, this game will test your ruthlessness and drive to survive against your ethical principles and moral fiber.

Players: 3-5

Materials:

• Regular-sized bags of identically-shaped, multicolored candies (such as M&Ms or Skittles), at least two bags per player.
• Two bowls to hold the candies.

Setting Up: Ensure that the candies come in enough colors to provide one unique color to each player. Place all candies into one bowl and set it to the side — this is the ship. Set the other, empty bowl into the center of the table — this is the lifeboat. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left and turns are led in rotation: the position of first player rotates one seat to the left at the start of each round.

How to Play: Before play begins, the first player draws one candy of each color from the ship bowl and distributes one to each player, including themselves. If any are leftover, remove all candies of this color from the ship and set them aside out from play. This should be done secretly so that no player knows any other player’s color. Next, each player draws twenty candies at random from the ship and places them in the center of the table — into the open water. Finally, each player chooses five candies from those in open water and places them into the lifeboat bowl. These are the initial survivors, and those who must work to keep the lifeboat afloat.

Working the Lifeboat: Each turn, the “people” in the lifeboat have to work to keep it afloat — bailing water, stopping leaks, paddling, and so on. Beginning with the first player, each player draws one candy from the lifeboat and holds it in their hand. Drawing continues until each player holds three candies. Those remaining in the lifeboat are the loafers — unable or unwilling to assist the group, they cannot be allowed to remain. Before the round can proceed, each player must choose one of these to cast overboard, effected by eating the candy. Players may discuss and debate as much as they wish at this point about which should be eaten, but ultimately each player must eat one of the candies in the lifeboat. Once this is accomplished, players replace the candies in their hand into the lifeboat and the round continues to survivors.

Survivors: Each round, those in the lifeboat rescue a small number of survivors in open water and a small number are claimed by the sea and drown. The players collectively choose two candies per player to add to the lifeboat and one candy per player to be claimed by the sea and destroyed. Again, the players may debate and discuss as much as they choose, but ultimately some must go into the bowl and some must be eaten. If fewer than three candies per player remain in open water, ensure that two per player are saved before any are eaten. Once this is accomplished, the round concludes with fortune and misfortune.

Fortune and Misfortune: At the end of each round, all players close their eyes and draw one candy at random from the lifeboat to eat. This represents loss due to exposure, disease, injury, or ill luck. Once accomplished, the round is over and a new round begins with the next player in sequence as first player.

Winning the Game: Play continues until a round ends with no candies remaining in open water. At this event, each player eats one more candy of their choice from the lifeboat to represent further loss to misfortune. Finally, the players reveal their color and all candies in the lifeboat are removed and tallied. The player with the second-highest number of candies of their color on the table is the winner!

Have you ever heard of a game that involves forgiveness? I’ll explain:

The concept of total forgiveness for wrongdoing is exceedingly rare in out lives. It is human nature to want to retaliate against those who harm us, in an effort to prevent future harm whether through the inspiration of empathy or fear. To wholeheartedly forgive is to act as if the wrong never occurred — to genuinely feel, with mind and heart, that there was no wrong. This is very hard for us to do, even for the religious faithful that follow doctrines based on forgiveness. People naturally seek to punish, even it means nothing more than studiously ignoring or acting chilly towards the offender in conversation. Even the smallest retaliation is a retaliation, and indicates a lack of forgiveness.

In games, the rules are known at the outset. Indeed, a game exists only in the rules and in the strict adherence to them. The moment players divert from the rules, they are no longer playing the game but some mutated amalgam of the original and their own invention. Anything that occurs within the rules is acceptable. The opportunity for win or loss exists for all players equally, so any action taken in pursuit of victory, though it may necessarily mean harm (in game terms) to other, is not wrong and warrants no forgiveness. But rulebreaking — cheating — must be punished to ensure the integrity of the game. In other words, games fundamentally rely on the human instinct to punish wrong in order to even exist. If a game were written with no provision against cheating and played by players with no method or desire to punish cheating, the game would functionally not exist — cheating would be universally prevalent and the game would never be played according to the original rules. It is by tacit agreement not to cheat that gameplay is possible at all.

So, then, is it possible to reconcile the forgiveness or wrongdoing (cheating) and the existence of gameplay? Can a game be written that permits forgiveness? It seems like a philosophical paradox, or at least a semantic one. What do you think?

Introduction: In this speedy game of furtive point-grabbing, players attempt to rob as many points as they can from their opponents before the round ends and are they are forced to atone for their greed. Sin is a dangerous game when the reckoning could occur at any time!

Players: 2-4

Materials: One deck of standard playing cards.

Setting Up: Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player, placing the remainder in the center of the table as a reserve pile. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: Play proceeds in round during which players play their cards and attempt to make sets from the cards already on the table. However, at any point, a player may play the God card and force an end to the round and a reckoning for all the other players’ “sins,” or incomplete set-building attempts.

Beginning with the first player, the active player chooses a card from their hand and lays it on the table in front of them either face-up or face-down. Face-up cards are “innocent” cards and may be used by any player at any time. Face-down cards are “damned” cards and may only be used by the player who played them. A player may have as many innocent cards on the table as they wish, but only three damned cards at a time. Players must play one and only one card into their board per turn.

After they play their card, they may attempt to create a set, defined as one of these specific hands common to Poker: one pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, or four-card straight flush. Sets can be formed from any combination of cards from any player’s board, as long as the set includes at least one card from the active player’s board and at least one card from another player’s board. In other words, no set can be formed using only the player’s own cards or using only other players’ cards. The active player declares a set and collects the cards from the other players, setting them aside out of play into a private set deck. Sets are scored as soon as they are made (see Winning the Game, below). Players may use their own damned cards to form sets.

Players may form a maximum of one set per turn. Once a player has played their card and formed up to one set, their turn is concluded and the next player may begin. Play continues in this way until someone plays a God card or the round ends in total damnation (see below). If players are able to play six of their seven cards before a God card is played, the game is paused while the reserve pile is dealt out equally to all players (set aside any remainders out of play).

The God Card: The four Kings in the deck are God cards, and playing one face-up immediately stops play and initiates the reckoning (note that God cards played face-down do not initiate a reckoning). In the reckoning, each player’s board of cards is collected and tabulated as follows:

• If the player has formed no sets, each of their cards is worth its value in negative points. All face cards are worth -10. Tabulate the value and deduct it from the player’s score.
• If the player has formed at least one set, reveal all the cards in their set deck. If any of these match any of their board cards in value, the board card is worth twice its value in negative points.
• If the player has any damned cards on their board, these are worth double their value in negative points on their own, and quadruple if they also happen to match a card from the player’s set deck.
• If the player has a God card face-down on their board, they are forgiven and receive no negative points for the round.

Once a reckoning had occurred and penalties assessed, collect all the cards and deal a new round. The player who played the God card will go first in the new round.

Total Damnation: Since God cards can be played face-down, it is possible for a round to end with all players running out of cards before a God card appears face-up. This is called total damnation: if and when it occurs, every card a player holds either in their board or in their set deck is worth its value in negative points. Note that this means that any sets made during the round now count as individual penalty cards, despite whatever positive point value they had when they were formed into sets. Face-down God cards are worth twenty negative points. No double penalties for matching board-to-set cards or for damned cards occurs in total damnation — each card is worth its value only.

Winning the Game: Sets are scored as they are formed, as follows:

• One pair: six points.
• Two pair: fourteen points.
• Three-of-a-kind: twenty-two points.
• Four-of-a-kind: thirty points.
• Four-card straight flush: forty points.

The first player to reach two hundred points is the winner.

Introduction: It’s not the fish. This variation on the classic pen-and-paper game Dots has players seeking to wall up their opponents while keeping clear themselves, in a race against time as the board steadily fills up and closes in.

Players: 2 or 4

Materials:

• One sheet of standard letter-sized (A4) paper.
• At least one pen or pencil, any color.

Setting Up: The board is created by drawing a grid of evenly-spaced dots on the paper. The grid may be any size as long as it is square, but bear in mind that larger grids make for longer games. Designate a first player; if playing with four, divide the players into two teams and designate a play order. Beginning with the first player, each player chooses a space on the board (any area defined by four dots on each corner) and writes their initials in this space. This is their starting position.

How to Play: On their turn, players may either draw a wall on the board or write their initials on a new space. Similar to Dots, walls are drawn by connecting any two adjacent dots. No wall may be drawn that touches more than two dots — the start and end dots. All walls must be either horizontal or vertical.

Walls may be drawn anywhere in the manner described above (with one exception, see below), but new initials can only be written into spaces adjacent to those already initialed by the player — in this way the initialed spaces grow in a chain. Trapped spaces are considered dead (see below) and may not be used as an anchor for new initialing moves. Additionally, walls may not be drawn to bisect chains — the wall cannot divide two initialed spaces owned by the same player.

Anytime an initialed space is surrounded by walls on all four sides, it is trapped. This counts for solitary initialed spaces and for chains — if the entire chain is surrounded by walls, it is trapped and dead. However, if even one space remains adjacent to any part of the chain that is not blocked by a wall, the chain is alive and may continue to grow. Whenever a player’s space or spaces are trapped, the trapped player chooses a new space on the board and writes their initials there as the start of a new chain. This is a forced escape. Every time a player makes a forced escape, they lose a turn.

Winning the Game: Play continues until all spaces have been initialed. Once the board has been filled, the spaces and chains are tallied like so:

• Solitary trapped spaces are worth no points.
• Chains of two to five spaces are worth two points.
• Chains of six or more spaces are worth five points.

The player with the highest score is the winner.

Introduction: Reaping the souls of the newly dead may sound like an easy job, but as a newly-fledged reaper you’re about to discover differently. In this game, players compete to harvest souls and send them on to their eternal reward (or punishment). It’s on-the-job eldritch training, but if you succeed with the fewest mistakes you could find yourself promoted and that much closer to winning the coveted recognition of Reaper of the Month!

Players: 3-6

Materials:

• One deck of standard playing cards.
• Several quarters or other large coins, one per player.

Setting Up:  Shuffle the cards and place the deck in the center of the table. Distribute the coins to each player. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play:  Each turn, the card on the top of the deck dies — it represents a newly departed soul ready for reaping. Before the active player draws and reveals the top card, players guess whether it will be a good soul (red) or an evil soul (black). Each player indicates their choice by placing their coin on the table, covered by their hand, as follows: if they think the card will be good, they lay the coin heads-up, and if they believe it will be evil, they lay it tails-up. Once all players have placed and covered their coin, the active player draws and reveals the card. All players then reveal their choice, and if they are correct, they get do one of the following:

• Draw a card from the deck and hold it in their hand. If more than one wishes to draw a card, they do so in turn order. There is no limit to how many cards a player may hold at once.
• Place a card from their hand on top of the deck. Cards must be placed after all players who wish to draw have done so. If more than one player wishes to place a card, they place them in turn order.

Once a card has been revealed, it is placed beside the deck in a discard pile. Whenever the deck is depleted, shuffle and convert the discard pile into a new deck. If at any point both decks are depleted to a combined total of ten cards or less, all player must immediately turn in all the cards in their hands to be shuffled and formed into a new deck.

Promotion: If at any point a player collects ten cards in their hand, they are promoted. They immediately turn in all ten cards to the discard pile, and from now on the gain a bonus ability: whenever a card dies (is drawn and revealed), the player may request a second card to die as well. This is done after all other players reveal their coin but before the promoted player does so. If the promoted player’s coin is correct about either of the cards, they may draw or play as normal. If neither of the cards matches their coin, however, they must forfeit a card from their hand to pay for their mistake. If they have no cards in their hand, they are immediately demoted, and may no longer request bonus cards until they collect ten new cards.

Winning the Game: Play continues until a promoted player collects ten cards in their hand without being demoted — a double promotion. The first player to achieve this is the winner.