#WhatDidYouPlayMondays John Company
@boardgames @geekygoodies
All other semi-cooperative #boardgames I know focus on a clearcut distinction between (semi-)good players and traitors, given by secret personal role/objective card(s). This game is innovative in that *everybody* is driven by personal gain, and the only reason players don't screw each other over all the time is that people still need the company to stay afloat.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/332686/john-company-second-edition
Photo by @bladerunner007 on BGG.
Is a traitor mechanic semi-coop? I thought that was just unknown teams. I thought semi-coop where games like Republic of Rome where the game makes everyone lose but if you actually win then there's a first winner. Or Fog of Love where both players, one player, or no players might win.
Anyway, I played Istanbul which is a classic for a reason.
Silver Eye was also excellent and a very worthy addition to the series.
@boardgames @ryedaft BGG's top games in the "Semi-coops" and "Traitor"
categories do have some titles in common (from the Nemesis and Battlestar
Galactica series) whose only mechanic that could possibly be seen as
semi-cooperation is indeed (a certain version) of the traitor mechanic.
The page on semi-coops indeed claims that there are several ways to implement
them, and that the Grand Winner format (e.g., Republic of Rome, John Company) is
but one of them. (1/2)
@ryedaft @boardgames BGG classifies Battlestar Galactica as semi-coop. Maybe they see switching invisible teams only later in the game as a sufficient condition. This is indeed enough to have the same player cooperate at times (and not just to disguise their true intentions) and compete at others. Although I am not sure this matches their own definition:
"[...] cooperating and competing with each other throughout the game, while
trying to complete a common objective."