2007.01.30
Cooperative gaming: Bad Things Happen
It seems like every cooperative board game I’ve tried has one thing in common. It’s in Runebound, to some extent. It’s definitely in Arkham Horror. And it seems like Lord of the Rings is little more than a wafer-thin shell around it at times.
Jason and I refer to it as Bad Things Happen.
Bad Things Happen is essentially a game mechanic where the effect of some action (like drawing a card or a tile) is likely to be a negative thing for the player. In cooperative games, since everyone is playing against the game instead of playing against each other, it tends to come up. A lot. In fact, Bad Things Happen is part of the phrasing Jason and I often use when describing the rules to a new player. For example, we might describe the Mythos phase in Arkham Horror as follows:
The lead player draws a mythos card, and Bad Things Happen.
As I mentioned, games like Lord of the Rings take this to an entirely different level. Pretty much at every point in the game, Bad Things Happen. It’s unavoidable. There are many points where the players are forced to choose between a myriad of options, all of which will cause Bad Things to Happen. The choice boils down to deciding which Bad Thing is least offensive.
So, next time you’re sitting down to play a cooperative game on a lazy Sunday afternoon, remember this: Bad Things Happen.
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