On January 1, I took a long airplane flight to Hawaii. In preparation for that flight, I got a copy of a Steam adaptation of one of my favorite co-op games, for play on my laptop during the trip. It was The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (DFCO). Now, this raises a question: when is…
Author: Shannon Appelcline
The Betrayal Legacy Chronicles, Part Two
When we started playing Betrayal Legacy last year, I decided to chronicle the entire adventure, to detail how the game has changed over time, and how its co-op and Legacy elements worked. The Betrayal Legacy Chronicles, Part One discussed the first four adventures, while this continues this series with Chapters Four through Six. And this…
Co-op Thoughts: Losing the Game
In Meeples Together, one of our prime assumptions is that you’re playing the game to win. Certainly, there can be any number of anti-cooperative incentives that encourage players to do things that are contrary to victory, but they still occur within the spectrum of winning and losing: players often angst about their anti-cooperative incentives because they…
Co-op Thoughts: Subverting Cooperation through Roleplaying
In Meeples Together we write quite a bit about subverting cooperation. For the most part, cooperation is easy, so a designer needs to figure out how to convince players not to work together — through limitations, restrictions, or anti-cooperative limitations. The more a design can convince players to spoil their own game … the better! This year,…
The Betrayal Legacy Chronicles, Part One
One of the joys of a Legacy game is seeing how it changes over time. I love that idea, which is why I’ve been so enthusiastic writing about the category’s Legacy Play, Legacy Venn, Legacy Mechanics, and Legacy Emotions in past articles. As I’ve seen my own groups’ games of Pandemic Legacy: Season Two and SeaFall…