Today we updated the effect of Surveillance Camera and I thought it could be a good designer diary to explain the process we have gone through over the last 6 months or so to improve it in 4th Edition.
In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Edition of Good Cop Bad Cop, this was the text for Surveillance Camera:
Use immediately after a player is investigated. That player must turn the Integrity card that was viewed face-up.
Releasing a 4th Edition was an opportunity to improve our set of Equipment to make them even better. We decided three of them were not good/fun enough: Flashbang, Truth Serum, and Surveillance Camera. I’ll mainly just be discussing Surveillance Camera right now.
Although Surveillance Camera was fairly straightforward, which we like, players were disappointed when they would get it. In most cases, using it meant that ALL players get information rather than just the player using it. This prevents it from being strategically good, plus it’s just not that much fun to use. Finally, in 4th Edition, we changed Truth Serum so that the player playing it chooses a card to be revealed rather than the player it targets, which then makes it strictly better than Surveillance Camera – another situation we make every effort to avoid with our Equipment.
The only case where it was STRATEGICALLY any good is when you happen to investigate the opposing leader card early in the game and you use Surveillance Camera to make that public information, allowing your team to converge on them. The only time it is FUN to use is that there is this “got ya” moment where someone investigates a card, has a reaction that makes you think that card is important, and then you use Surveillance Camera to reveal it. So although there are some rare cases where it is fun or useful, these weren’t enough to justify keeping it as-is in 4th Edition, so we decided it needs to change.
One variation we tried to improve it was this one, which you may have seen on Board Game Arena a while back:
Choose a player. Each time one of their Integrity cards is investigated, they must reveal it.
This way, it affects more than just a single card so it is better than the new Truth Serum in some cases, but it still makes all of this information public, so it doesn’t necessarily help the person who played it. We noticed that no one used it when they had it, so it clearly wasn't quite right.
The next one we tried, which was on Board Game Arena until today, was the following:
Choose a player. Each time one of their Integrity cards is investigated, you may investigate it too.
This gives the player playing Surveillance Camera extra information that no one else has and makes the card more generally useful. We did it! Wait no… it took many physical and BGA playtests before we realized that it came with some unintended side effects:
For the rest of the game, investigate anyone who investigates you.
It’s as simple as the original version, it makes thematic sense, it gives you extra information, it’s easy to track the single target, and the primary side effect it has is to discourage others from investigating you, which is another benefit to the person who played it. You have to play it on yourself, so if you have it in your hand, there's really no reason to not just immediately play it on yourself to enjoy its benefits.
It’s funny how much Clayton and I (over-)analyze every one of these Equipment cards on our quest to perfect the set that’s in the game. Feel free to comment if you have questions or want to join in the overanalysis.
Thanks for listening and playing the game!
Brian Henk
Good Cop Bad Cop Co-Designer
Pull the Pin Games
In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Edition of Good Cop Bad Cop, this was the text for Surveillance Camera:
Use immediately after a player is investigated. That player must turn the Integrity card that was viewed face-up.
Releasing a 4th Edition was an opportunity to improve our set of Equipment to make them even better. We decided three of them were not good/fun enough: Flashbang, Truth Serum, and Surveillance Camera. I’ll mainly just be discussing Surveillance Camera right now.
Although Surveillance Camera was fairly straightforward, which we like, players were disappointed when they would get it. In most cases, using it meant that ALL players get information rather than just the player using it. This prevents it from being strategically good, plus it’s just not that much fun to use. Finally, in 4th Edition, we changed Truth Serum so that the player playing it chooses a card to be revealed rather than the player it targets, which then makes it strictly better than Surveillance Camera – another situation we make every effort to avoid with our Equipment.
The only case where it was STRATEGICALLY any good is when you happen to investigate the opposing leader card early in the game and you use Surveillance Camera to make that public information, allowing your team to converge on them. The only time it is FUN to use is that there is this “got ya” moment where someone investigates a card, has a reaction that makes you think that card is important, and then you use Surveillance Camera to reveal it. So although there are some rare cases where it is fun or useful, these weren’t enough to justify keeping it as-is in 4th Edition, so we decided it needs to change.
One variation we tried to improve it was this one, which you may have seen on Board Game Arena a while back:
Choose a player. Each time one of their Integrity cards is investigated, they must reveal it.
This way, it affects more than just a single card so it is better than the new Truth Serum in some cases, but it still makes all of this information public, so it doesn’t necessarily help the person who played it. We noticed that no one used it when they had it, so it clearly wasn't quite right.
The next one we tried, which was on Board Game Arena until today, was the following:
Choose a player. Each time one of their Integrity cards is investigated, you may investigate it too.
This gives the player playing Surveillance Camera extra information that no one else has and makes the card more generally useful. We did it! Wait no… it took many physical and BGA playtests before we realized that it came with some unintended side effects:
- It’s important to know who played the card AND who it targets, which is hard to keep track of when the card can only go in front of one player.
- No one investigates the player it targets because they don’t want to give the person who played it a free investigate, so it ends up working just like Disguise.
- It’s still not that much fun or useful.
For the rest of the game, investigate anyone who investigates you.
It’s as simple as the original version, it makes thematic sense, it gives you extra information, it’s easy to track the single target, and the primary side effect it has is to discourage others from investigating you, which is another benefit to the person who played it. You have to play it on yourself, so if you have it in your hand, there's really no reason to not just immediately play it on yourself to enjoy its benefits.
It’s funny how much Clayton and I (over-)analyze every one of these Equipment cards on our quest to perfect the set that’s in the game. Feel free to comment if you have questions or want to join in the overanalysis.
Thanks for listening and playing the game!
Brian Henk
Good Cop Bad Cop Co-Designer
Pull the Pin Games