Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 was an amazing innovation when it was released in 2015, and it continues to be one of the newest foundational games in the co-op hobby. What made it so great? It’s not just that it broke new ground with its Legacy-campaign play, but also that it integrated that fully into its…
Category: Co-op Case Studies
Case Study: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Dead Men Tell No Tales by Kane Klenko Publisher: Minion Games (2015) Cooperative Style: True Co-Op Play Style: Action Point, Adventure Overview Dead Men Tell No Tales puts the players in the roles of pirates looting a ghost ship. Their goal is to recover sufficient treasures before the boat goes up in flames or the defending…
Case Study: Sprawlopolis
This week’s case study is about what may be the most minimalist co-op that I’ve met: 18 cards, and less than 15 minutes play. Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable and intriguing game. Sprawlopolis by Steven Aramini, Danny Devine, and Paul Kulka Publisher: Button Shy (2018) Cooperative Style: True Co-op Play Style: Card Management, Tile Laying Overview…
Case Study: Descent — Journeys in the Dark 1e
The overlord category of co-ops gets a decent amount of attention in Meeples Together, but we probably could have written a whole chapter on how overlords interact with the challenge machinery of a co-op game. Instead, we offer up this case study, our first to discuss an overlord game. It describes one of the foundational…
Case Study: Forbidden Sky
Forbidden Sky was the game that we really wanted to include in Meeples Together, but it came out too late in the year for it to meet our schedule. So, consider this a true addendum to Chapter 4, where we offered case studies of Pandemic, Forbidden Island, and Forbidden Desert. Forbidden Sky by Matt Leacock…
Case Study: Pandemic — Reign of Cthulhu
By this point, there have been a shocking number of Pandemic games. Some slightly vary the original formula, while others move increasingly far away. We expect to look at most of them over time, because variations to an an existing system are one of the most intriguing ways to examine the evolution of a game…
Case Study: Onirim
We analyzed co-op games small and large while working on Meeples Together. Onirim was one of the smallest: a 78-card game for just two players in a teeny little card box. But size can be deceiving … Onirim by Shadi Torbey Publisher: Z-Man Games (2010, 2014) Cooperative Style: True Co-op Play Style: Card Management, Set…
Case Study: The Captain is Dead — Lockdown
The Captain is Dead, which we studied two weeks ago, has a sequel, “Lockdown”, a standalone game that uses the same core system. However, whereas we thought the design of The Captain is Dead was wildly successfully (in large part due to its great theming), we found Lockdown lacking (in large part due to its…
Case Study: The Captain is Dead
One of the more notable traditional co-ops of recent years was The Captain is Dead, a bright and evocative science-fiction game that followed in traditional design patterns. It’s since been followed by Lockdown (2018), which will be the topic of the next case study. The Captain is Dead by Joe Price & JT Smith Publisher: AEG…
Case Study: Pathfinder ACG Core Set
One of the exciting new releases of 2019 is a pair of new supplements for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne. Together, they notably renovate the original game. Pathfinder ACG Core Set by Mike Selinker Publisher: Paizo Publishing (2019) Cooperative Style: True Co-Op…