Since COVID-19 has been recognized as a global pandemic, governments and the scientific community around the world have introduced several measures to change and restrict social and economic behavior of people to stop the spreading and doing so to flatten the epidemic peak.
During this pandemic it is fundamental that governments, scientific expert, mass media, educator, and health providers work together to raise awareness of the disease, and encourage protective behaviors such as social distancing and hand washing.
The success of these government decisions and protective measures rely largely on rapid changes in population behavior, which are dependent on individuals’ ability to perceive risks associated with the virus and adapt their life style accordingly. This can be achieved by public messages that reinforce the importance of adopting preventive measures and provide accurate and reliable information. In this scenario, communication plays a critical aspect in educating people how to protect themselves and our communities, and in conveying the information to a broader public and in a way that is easy accessible.
During this pandemic it is fundamental that governments, scientific expert, mass media, educator, and health providers work together to raise awareness of the disease, and encourage protective behaviors such as social distancing and hand washing.
The success of these government decisions and protective measures rely largely on rapid changes in population behavior, which are dependent on individuals’ ability to perceive risks associated with the virus and adapt their life style accordingly. This can be achieved by public messages that reinforce the importance of adopting preventive measures and provide accurate and reliable information. In this scenario, communication plays a critical aspect in educating people how to protect themselves and our communities, and in conveying the information to a broader public and in a way that is easy accessible.
Covid RPG is an educational multiplayer digital board game, that aims to communicate, in a fun way, the importance of the individual and collective actions in slowing the spreading of the virus.
Players must collaborate to eliminate the virus and win the game. Each of them represents key figures in the society, like governing authorities, essential workers, scientific and medical experts.
The setting of the game is an hypothetical country, which see new cases of infections. Players to fight against the spreading of Covid, can choose to put in place and promote in some area of the country safety guidelines. These range from social distance and use of face covering to extreme measures like contact tracing and quarantine.
On the other side the rate of infection can be increase by events that challenge safe social behaviors and underline how individual choices can affect the whole community.
The way the rate of infection can be reduced or increased during the game, was inspired by epidemiological models built with real world scientific data regarding the COVID-19 and developed at Georgia Tech.
Covid RPG game aims to show how simple things, like wearing a mask or washing hands, can make a great difference in fighting this pandemic and everybody must do their part for the common good.
Covid RPG features an easy to navigate interface with a 2D & 3D map and 3D tokens.
HOW TO PLAY
AIM OF THE GAME
Covid RPG is a cooperative digital board game.
The object of the Game Master, who controls the virus tokens, is to conquer all the squares of the board.
The players representing essential workers have to defeat the virus and block its spreading in a collaborative way. They achieve that eliminating all the virus tokens on the board.
Covid RPG is a cooperative digital board game.
The object of the Game Master, who controls the virus tokens, is to conquer all the squares of the board.
The players representing essential workers have to defeat the virus and block its spreading in a collaborative way. They achieve that eliminating all the virus tokens on the board.
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BASICS
One player is the Game Master (GM) and the host of the game. It controls the virus. A virus has 6 levels of infection strength. It always starts as a level-zero virus and can level up as a result of high risk events or events during which the guidelines for gathering are not followed. Examples of these events are:
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The other players can choose to act like one of the following essential workers (characters):
Each player can fight the virus using 4 critical safety guidelines:
Moreover each of them have a special preventive measure, related to their personal impact on the society:
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SETUP
Each player must sign up and create an account using a valid email address.
The Game Master invites the other players to join the game using their emails to connect to their accounts.
It assigns to each of them a social role and the specific character sheet.
At the beginning the Game Master arranges a certain number of level-zero viruses on the board, one for each characters +1, for instance if there are other 3 players, the game starts adding 4 virus tokens to the board (3+1).
The Game Master and the players role the initiative dice to decide the turn order. The GM keeps track of the turn and controls who can move.
Each player must sign up and create an account using a valid email address.
The Game Master invites the other players to join the game using their emails to connect to their accounts.
It assigns to each of them a social role and the specific character sheet.
At the beginning the Game Master arranges a certain number of level-zero viruses on the board, one for each characters +1, for instance if there are other 3 players, the game starts adding 4 virus tokens to the board (3+1).
The Game Master and the players role the initiative dice to decide the turn order. The GM keeps track of the turn and controls who can move.
TURNS
VIRUS TURN
Phase 1 - Positioning & Upgrading
Every turn the Game Master can choose between to:
High level viruses have a better chance to spread to contiguous squares (risk of infection) and to resist the characters' attacks (recovery difficulty).
Phase 2 - Attack
The GM has a number of attacks equal to the number of characters. (Example: 4 characters = 4 virus' attacks)
Only viruses level-1 and up can attack. The virus can spreads on free squares or on grid cells occupied by a character's token to neutralize its preventive effect.
To attack the GM rolls a dice depending on the level of the virus, chosen to infect with. The attack succeeds when the total of the dice throw is more or equal to the value of protection from infection of a selected square. On a fail nothing happens.
A free grid cell has a protection from infection equals to 10. The presence of a character's token increases the protection by a value in the range 1-5.
CHARACTER TURN
Phase 1 - Positioning
At the beginning of its turn, each character can add some tokens to the grid, which represent the preventive policies that can be put in place to stop the spreading of the virus.
Every policy has a different protection strength and cost a certain number of protection policy points, for instance a mask token costs 2 protection policy points and gives a protection from infection of 12.
Every turn a character has 5 protection policy points to spend.
Phase 2 - Attack
A character has one attack action per turn.
To attack a character rolls a dice depending on the recovery level of the token, chosen to block the infection. The attack succeeds and the virus is eliminated when the total of the dice throw is more or equal to the value of recovery difficult of the selected virus, On a fail nothing happens.
VIRUS TURN
Phase 1 - Positioning & Upgrading
Every turn the Game Master can choose between to:
- add new virus tokens on free squares next to a virus occupied cell
- upgrade the infection strength of the existing ones.
High level viruses have a better chance to spread to contiguous squares (risk of infection) and to resist the characters' attacks (recovery difficulty).
Phase 2 - Attack
The GM has a number of attacks equal to the number of characters. (Example: 4 characters = 4 virus' attacks)
Only viruses level-1 and up can attack. The virus can spreads on free squares or on grid cells occupied by a character's token to neutralize its preventive effect.
To attack the GM rolls a dice depending on the level of the virus, chosen to infect with. The attack succeeds when the total of the dice throw is more or equal to the value of protection from infection of a selected square. On a fail nothing happens.
A free grid cell has a protection from infection equals to 10. The presence of a character's token increases the protection by a value in the range 1-5.
CHARACTER TURN
Phase 1 - Positioning
At the beginning of its turn, each character can add some tokens to the grid, which represent the preventive policies that can be put in place to stop the spreading of the virus.
Every policy has a different protection strength and cost a certain number of protection policy points, for instance a mask token costs 2 protection policy points and gives a protection from infection of 12.
Every turn a character has 5 protection policy points to spend.
Phase 2 - Attack
A character has one attack action per turn.
To attack a character rolls a dice depending on the recovery level of the token, chosen to block the infection. The attack succeeds and the virus is eliminated when the total of the dice throw is more or equal to the value of recovery difficult of the selected virus, On a fail nothing happens.
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END OF THE GAME
The virus wins if it spread and infects all grid cells of 1 region of the country per character. The country includes:
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