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…
Competitive Case Study: Oar Else!
When is a co-op not a co-op? When it subverts its own framing. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learned in this competitive game. Oar Else! by Jason Fleming, Bob Heubel & Julia Huff Publisher: Flatcar6 Studios (2013) Cooperative Style: Faux Cooperative Play Style: Card Management, Take That Overview Oar Else! is a competitive game…
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…
Case Study: Just One
The SdJ nominees for 2019 were announced last month and were full of entrants of interest to co-op fans. The traditional SdJ award, which runs pretty light nowadays, nominated Just One (a true co-op, sort of) and Werewords (a hidden traitor game). Then the heftier Kennerspiel award nominated Detective (another true co-op). It was a…
Team Study: Bang! The Dice Game
Two weeks ago, we discussed Bang!, one of the foundational teamplay games of the ’00s. Today we’re following up with a look at Bang! The Dice Game, which followed in its footsteps by offering a variant of Bang!’s teamplay with dramatically simplified game mechanics. Bang! The Dice Game by Michael Palm & Lukas Zach Publisher:…
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…
Team Study: Bang!
The 21st century has seen a number of pivotal cooperative games, such as Lord of the Rings (2000), Shadows over Camelot (2005), and Pandemic (2008). However, the adjacent teamplay space has seen several games that were just as foundational. One of the earliest was Bang! (2003), which brought the idea of hidden teams into the…
Case Study: Police Precinct
One of the interesting results of the success of Pandemic (2008) was that a subset of co-op games came out that used Pandemic’s design as a starting place. Some were very obviously influenced, such as Richard Launius’ Defenders of the Realm (2010), but others went further afield, but still maintained a similar foundation of modern…
Apocrypha I: Cues, Triggers, and Timers
The text for Meeples Together was finalized in July 2018, but we’ve continued to play new co-ops and team games since, including Abandon Planet (2017), AuZtralia (2018), Betrayal Legacy (2018), Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig (2018), Just One (2018), The Ninth World (2018), Pandemic: Iberia (2016), Pandemic: Rising Tide (2017), and Sprawlopolis (2018)….
Case Study: Room 25
Room 25 gets some attention in Meeples Together, but it may be a game that you’re not familiar with, so here’s a full case study on the game, which has been growing and expanding since 2012. Room 25 by François Rouzé Publisher: Matagot (2012) Cooperative Style: True Co-op or Traitor Play Style: Exploration, Simultaneous Selection…