I made a game. It's working title is "No Mask", and it plays with the statistics of the current COVID pandemic. I'm pretty sure it's gonna get people mad. Wanna playtest it? Ok, so here's what I've got so far.
NO MASK: a pandemic game for at least 2 players, though I don't know if I'd suggest more than 4. One player assumes the role of CC, Contagion Control. The other players are carriers of the virus.
Premise: The players have COVID-19. How you got it isn't important, it's just the starting point for the game. You are effectively (but not actually) Patient Zero, and absolutely no one you encounter is wearing a mask. From here, players can decide the severity of play.
COVID 1% Fatality Rate: Your Death Number (DN) is between 1 and 100, and is secretly determined by the Contagion Control (CC)
COVID 0.5% Fatality Rate: You have 5 DN's between 1 and 1000, determined by CC. They can be a grouping of five numbers (Ex. 752-756), five seperate numbers (Ex. 33, 108, 563, 663, 909), or really any combination in between (Ex. 77, 541-543, 800). These numbers are secretly determined by CC.
CC can decide different numbers for each player if they like. Just make sure to keep your DN's straight, there could quickly become a lot of them.
If playing 1% Fatality Rate: Players roll 2d10 for a percentile result between 1-100. (00 is 100)
If playing 0.5% Fatality Rate: Players roll 3d10 for a percentile result between 1-1000. (000 is 1000)
COVID has a 14 day period (approximately) before it starts showing symptoms, so for now the game takes place during these 14 days.
PLAYING THE GAME:
Step 1. Players roll the dice. (If the DN is rolled, the game is over. Player will die of COVID-19)
1a. If a DN is not rolled, roll a d10 for the number of people you have exposed to COVID-19
in the course of your day.
Step 2. Roll percentile for each of the people you exposed to COVID-19.
2a. If a DN is rolled, someone you know, (or at the very least, someone in your community)
has died of COVID-19.
Step 3. Repeat until 14 days have passed and players are openly showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Optional: Every 5 days, instead of rolling a d10, roll a d4. This represents days when you might not see as many people or have decided to mostly stay in to have a nice day of bad movies rather than face the world. Every 7 days, instead of rolling a d10, roll 4d10. This represents days when you had to go out to the stores to run errands, go food shopping, etc.
Q: Why am I rolling to survive every day? Didn't I beat the odds after Day One? Why am I still risking my own death every single day?
A: No one in the game is wearing a mask. You don't know who has the virus and who doesn't. The possibility of you being exposed is just as great as you exposing others. Also, have you ever had a cold that you mostly got over before it came back and just kicked you in the teeth and layed you out for a weekend? That same premise is being used here. Players in this game are exposed to COVID-19, either through themselves or other people they encounter on a daily basis.
This game assumes you to be in the middle of the pandemic. If you don't think that's realistic, you should probably not be rolling dice to determine life or death effects, because that's as close as it's gonna get without you actually contracting and spreading COVID-19...or I really truly hope that's as close as it gets. I'm also very glad you think being in the middle of a pandemic is unrealistic, that means you've been fortunate to not see the worst of it first hand.
Well folks, that's the game. It can of course be adjusted for different levels of severity, and maybe I'll come back and tweak it when more information is brought to my attention. Very likely not though, this came to me in a mental blitz a couple of nights ago. For now I wanna put it out there, so here it is.
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