Serious Privacy
- Board's Eye View
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
We're used to games that are spinoffs of movies and TV shows but Serious Privacy is the first game we've seen that's been spawned by a podcast. Designed by Ralph O'Brien, Serious Privacy: The Data Game is a cooperative boardgame for 2–6 players that's inspired by the Serious Privacy data protection themed podcasts which, in turn, are sponsored by the Dutch consultancy firm that's also called Serious Privacy.
The outer part of the game board represents four sectors: Business, Regulators, Civil Society and Government. Each has spaces for seven cards. The inner board includes tracks for Harm and Benefit tokens. Players take on the role of Politician, Consultant, Academic, Citizen, Influencer and/or Campaigner; all start the game in the centre of the board rather than on any of the four outer sectors. Each character has their own asymmetric power that can be used once per turn. In addition to the optional use of this individual ability, players must every turn make their choice of one Harm and one Benefit effect. The Harm action is either to draw a Harm card and follow its instructions, take a Fatigue token, add a Harm token to the central board or draw an Event card. The Benefit action can be to pick up Benefit cards, move your character standee to another sector, play a Benefit card to the sector you are in, remove a Fatigue token or, again, draw an Event card. It's always a gamble drawing an Event card because you don't know whether these will give the players an enhanced Benefit (eg: draw two Benefit cards) or increased Harm (eg: place Harm cards out in two sectors). And another Harm card is drawn at the start of every round...
Players need to collect Benefit cards so that they have them to place out in the various sectors. Sectors are resolved and re-set when their seven card slots are filled, at which point two Harm or Benefit tokens are placed out on the central board, depending on whether it's Harm or Benefit that was in the majority. You collectively win if you get 10 Benefit tokens on the central board; you lose if you accumulate 10 Harm tokens. Players all take a Fatigue token too when a sector goes down to Harm, and if a player ever has five Fatigue tokens, that also adds two more Harm tokens to the central board...
Serious Privacy is a firefighting game that involves coordinating actions and making the most effective use of the asymmetric powers. In our plays at Board's Eye View we've found some of the player character abilities more useful than others: the Politician can trade cards with another player, and we reckon that's an almost essential ability to have, the Consultant's ability to look at the top card of any deck is useful in making that player's card draws more likely to be beneficial but its use is limited by the fact that the rules require the card to be replaced back on top of the deck, so the Consultant can avoid taking an Event that delivers a Harm effect but the team will have to take that card either on another player's turn or at the start of the next round. It would obviously be a much more helpful ability if the card could be placed at the bottom of the deck. More useful is the Campaigner's ability to recall any or all characters to the central board; it can save a turn for players that have previously moved to a sector to play Benefit cards but who need to return to the central board to pick up more Benefit cards.
The game can be quite challenging because it generally takes a sequence of turns to be able to collect the requisite Benefit cards, move to a particular sector and play the cards. Players will need to make some push-your-luck gambles and you may well find that tactically it may better to write off a sector (ie: leave it to be lost to Harm) in favour of focusing on getting Benefit majorities in other sectors. And if you get to the point where you find you're winning most plays, the rules include options for stepping up the difficulty level.
Serious Privacy: The Data Game is all about ensuring Benefits outweigh Harm. The data protection theme doesn't come through strongly in the actual gameplay but there's relevant flavour text on all the cards that reinforce players' understand and appreciation of data protection issues. If only from reading the flavour text you're likely to leave the table knowing a lot more about privacy and data security issues. Many public authorities and private companies set up mandatory data protection courses for their staff; with an appropriate focus on the card texts, we can see this game additionally fulfilling a role as a training tool...
Serious Privacy is due to launch on Kickstarter in October. Click here to follow the campaign.
