Scope Creep: The Board Game

You and up to three colleagues walk an office floor, grabbing every project that goes past. Each one you finish is worth points. First to 14 wins. The catch is that the best projects are the ones you cannot finish alone.EVERY BIG PROJECT IS A DEAL WAITING TO HAPPENProject cards ask you to hold a certain set of cards. When you open one you cannot cover on your own, you do not throw it away — you turn to the table and offer someone a cut.

Your cards and theirs count together. The points split however the two of you agree, and you are the one who proposes the split. Ask for too much and they walk. Ask for too little and you have handed a rival the lead. This is the whole game, and it is why it plays like a board game rather than a puzzle.THE FLOOR DOES NOT STAY THE SAMEThe board is built fresh every game — sixty hex tiles, never the same shape twice.

And it shrinks. A project tile that gets finished is physically removed from the floor. Late in the game the office starts breaking into islands, and the route you were counting on is simply gone.…