Saturday, January 30, 2010

Pandemic Custom Card- Special Delivery!

It was very nice of the creators of Pandemic to include some blank cards with the game, encouraging players to create their own Special Events and Roles. Considering how bad we seem to be at saving the world from disease and pestilence we could really use all the help we can get. So we decided to make our own Special Event.



I thought that it was very important for the card to be balanced, none of us wanted anything that would just turn everything in our favor. As nice as it would be the have a card that automatically cures one of the viruses, it’s not really keeping with the spirit of the game. That spirit being to crush the players and leave them feeling useless. I mean, who doesn’t want that to continue? Katie, Mike, and I put our heads together and came up with a new card, Special Delivery! One of the problems that we have, especially when playing with a smaller number of players, is trading cards to one another to cure a disease. Special Delivery allows the current player to give any City card in their possession to any other player. Basically I imagine the player packing up a vital piece of information, or a disease sample, and boxing it up into a parcel and shipping it off at high speed. It certainly isn’t overpowered. Trading cards is a part of the game and a regular activity among players, this just makes it a bit easier at a key moment in the game.

Katie was tasked with creating the card and I have to say, she did a rather awesome job. For one, it looks just like the other Special Event cards which is cool. And the picture is great; a package being sent off in a hurry. I especially like how it looks like a stamp. All around win. Rather than printing onto the blank card she made a sticker of the right size and just adhered it onto the template. Brilliant.

Considering that we lost again last night, even with the Special Delivery contributing to the curing of the black virus, we may need to come up with some more Special Events or a new Role or two.

1 comment:

Clint said...

I really like this idea! I will be adding it to our game when I get the chance. I have come up with some other ones that go with the spirit of the game such as: Black Market, 2 players on the same city space may trade amongst themselves any cards they choose without expending turns. Very fun and challenging game!