No, it’s not a game yet. Yet. We’ll see how much time I can find to work on it.
Independent card and board games have become a booming industry, as fledgling game designers take advantage of places like Kickstarter and BoardGameGeek to get around traditional distribution networks. These days, any decent game can get to market and get a player base. And, of course, many awful games do, too.
I may not be able to make a decent game, but I should be able to at least make an awful one that has fun cards. And thus: Foreign Asset.
Each player takes the role of a foreign power. North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Italy, etc. Some are allies, some are enemies, some shift sides. Everyone starts with one member of the President’s extended cabinet who is an agent for their side, and they attempt to recruit more cabinet members or expose and remove the agents of other players.
There are three ways for every player to win. Recruit a set number of members for your side, expose all of the opposition’s foreign agents, or reach a special victory condition dependent on the power you’re playing. (Russia wants the nation fractured; China wants economic dominance; North Korea wants enhanced standing; Italy wants economic growth, Canada wants the nation stabilized, etc…)
The factions would be a key play mechanism, where groups of two or more cabinet members can be joined to exert influence on others.
A “special investigator” card, once played, would greatly enhance players’ abilities to get rid of cabinet members… all players.
The cabinet members would be obvious and blatant parodies of actual people… Tex Drillerson, Timothy Gettinmore, Colon Power, Madeline Unbright, all the way back to James G. What and Zebigman Brxyzptlk.
“Patriot” cards would be placed under a set number of cabinet members, depending on the difficulty level of the game. Any cabinet member revealed to be a patriot could not be made into a foreign asset by any player.
And of course, there’s “The Trump Card”. That one, when played at the start of the game, changes some of the basic rules. The President now becomes an asset of all foreign powers simultaneously, counting toward the victory goal; and when a cabinet member is exposed as a foreign asset, instead of being immediately dismissed they are given 1-6 extra rounds in play while the President runs interference on them.
The real issue is this: if this comes to pass, I’m going to need playtesters….
