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Coop Hacking Board Game Event Deck

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Stealthpike
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Joined: 12/30/2015

So, I've been working on a Cooperative Board game where players move their spiders through a computer, avoiding security and trying to break the firewalls around the main data center to get access and win. However, as time goes on, the system becomes more aware of the hacking attempt and sends counter-spiders through the system to sniff them out and the threat level can increase based on events that happen, and if it gets too high, the system shuts down and the players lose.

The problem I'm having is trying to design the event deck. I want events where the players have to do something like succeed at a die roll or be in a certain place at a certain time in order to succeed, but I'm not sure how to balance it. What I have in mind is that if a player's spider is "Caught" they lose that spider, but they can send a new one in, it just adds more to the threat level.

Where I'm stuck is how the event deck should work. I was originally thinking each event should be a one time thing, so you draw a card and it has something like "Roll your stealth ability. If you succeed, you get____ (Good thing) but if you fail, add 1 threat". But then I was considering a more quest-like system where players must accomplish a longer task such as "destroy 3 counter-spiders" or maybe even "Destroy your current spider to succeed at this event." My question is, how do I balance that and which sounds like something that you would be more interested in playing?

If there's already a forum on event deck ideas, sorry, I didn't find it earlier and I would appreciate it if someone could point me towards it. I'm still fairly new to navigating here :)

Zag24
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Joined: 03/02/2014
Both!

I like a mix of both. There are regular events and "Quest Events," are more involved and have greater rewards. However, this means that you need a place to present all ongoing quest events that includes some means of tracking their timing. (If they don't have a time limit, then they have no potential downside.)

You could do this with 3-2-1 slots on your board, and just assume that you have 3 rounds for every Quest Event. When one comes up, it is placed in the 3 slot. After a complete turn, all still-active Quests are pushed down one slot. Any quest being pushed off the 1 slot is a failed event and you take the penalty.

Note that for quests like, "Destroy 3 counter-spiders" you need to have a way of counting them as they are destroyed. If you don't already have tokens or something in the game, you don't want to add the extra expense of adding them just for these types of events. You can always make it "Destroy 3 counter-spiders in a single turn" which they can just keep count in their heads for the ones destroyed in a single turn.

JayProducer
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Joined: 01/31/2016
How about having some

How about having some campaign scenarios. I.e. you pick up a card and that determines your mission. One player's aim is to put boogy traps out on the board and the other players work together to break in. I'm not a fan of deck carding and prefer a game board with strategical thinking on how to play it and win the game.

Your game sounds similar to another touted on BGG. Be sure to check yours is different in the mechanics.

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