Goal
Make cooperation necessary by distributing information and actions.
Scenario and materials
Two dispatchers guide a repair team through a station. One sees the schedule of safe passages; the other knows the tool supply and door conditions. Design a shared goal and communication rules so that each person’s decisions affect the result.
Two players and route cards
Constraints
- Players have different information and available actions.
- One participant cannot directly perform the other’s actions.
- The first version needs no network: use two paper information sets.
Steps
- Divide information and actions between the roles.
- Describe permitted communication, winning and losing.
- Play a game and swap roles. Note moments when one player made every decision while the other merely carried them out.
Deliverable
Two card sets, shared rules and notes on each role’s independent decisions.
Check your work
- Each role makes at least one decision affecting the shared goal.
- Both players understand what they may communicate and do.
- Identify a reason to cooperate and check whether one participant dominates.
Reflect
Which information needs to stay separate to keep both roles involved?
Sources and further reading
Thematic inspiration: Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber. These scenarios, constraints and checks are independently written around broad game-design learning topics. This is not a translation or a sequential retelling of the book exercises.