Solium Infernum, Vic Davis’ recent conquer=hell strategy game has a victory path in which players draw and complete secret objective cards to generating prestige (victory points). These secret objectives are goals known only to one player that gives a reward when achieved.
Solium Infernum raises the paranoia level with secret objectives.
Hidden objectives can add another layer to multiplayer games. Instead of each player knowing the goals of other players, players have to guess. This can lead to metagames and strategies such as bluffing, mimicking, and backstabbing. As such, hidden objectives tend to increase the tension and paranoia for players in the game.
Chess is a really boring game to me: I’m fairly bad at planning chess strategies that go beyond a few turns. I tend to get overwhelmed by the amount of possibilities and end up just picking moves. Chess with hidden objectives though sounds awesome. Each player draws a hidden objective cards at the start of the game. First player to achieve their goal wins. Some possible goals: kill enemy knights, don’t lose pawns, put king in check for 3 turns in a row, etc. When a player achieves one of their goals they reveal it and earn a point. Most points wins when the game ends. This is way more appealing to me, because the tension provided by the hidden objectives and the strategy elements of choosing which objectives to go after first captivates me.
Hidden objectives have some levers that can be modified to create a specific experience: their difficulties can be changed, their rewards can be modified, their number can be increased or decreased, and the conditions for their revealing can be changed.
Can you think of examples of games with hidden objectives?
And if anyone wants to do some play-by-email Solium Infernum, let me know!
