2009.05.09
Traitors
As part of my board game hobby I enjoy playing a variety of cooperative games, and roughly speaking, they fall into three categories:
- Pure cooperative games, where all the players are on the same team
Examples: Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror - Known-adversary cooperative games, where one player is “the bad guy” and the other players are cooperating against him
Examples: Scotland Yard, Fury of Dracula, Descent, Lord of the Rings w/ Sauron expansion - Cooperative games where all of the players appear to be on the same side, but one or more may secretly be working against the team as traitors
Examples: Werewolf, Shadows over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica
I find all three enjoyable, but I find the games that involve a traitor to be the most difficult for me to play. I recently purchased Battlestar Galactica, and both times I’ve played it, I’ve been the traitor. Depending on the group, the game can become intensely political, and while it’s not a friendship-ruiner like Diplomacy, it’s still tough to sit around the table with your friends, look them in the eye, and lie to them. It’s also difficult to walk the fine line of appearing to be helpful generally while trying to sabotage things where possible. Particular to Battlestar Galactica, there’s an additional agonizing decision of whether to reveal yourself as a traitor or try and hide the entire game. The “big reveal” can be devastating if timed correctly, and there’s always the temptation to do so before you’re caught.
Many years ago my favorite tactic in Risk was best described as “Let’s you and him fight” and it earned me the nickname of Bismarck. Maybe with practice I’ll regain those metagaming skills, although hopefully without pissing off all of my friends in the process.
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